Early Modern England Encyclopedia: The Early Modern Universe

The Early Modern Universe

Overview

Para1Ideas about the universe’s appearance, especially the arrangement of our solar system, were in a complicated transition in early modern England. The Ptolemaic System of the cosmos, with the earth in the center, dominated scientific and cosmological belief all through the Medieval period. In the mid 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus published the theory that challenged and eventually replaced it, now known as the Copernican System. His 1543 book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (“On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres”) explained the new model, but it took years to spread and even longer to be completely accepted.

Para2The intellectual climate of early modern England was not committed to a geocentric model, one with the earth in the center of the solar system. Beyond just a transition from the Ptolemaic to the Copernican System, the early modern period was a time for general questioning of what the universe looked like. As early as the 10th and 11th centuries, Islamic scholars were finding flaws in the Ptolemaic System. By the 16th century, Elizabethan scholars also found inconsistencies in the accepted world view.

Origins of the Geocentric Model

Para3Ptolemy (100–170 CE) was a Greek-Egyptian astronomer and geographer. His model of the universe, eventually known as the Ptolemaic System, summarized and combined eight centuries of Greek thought about the nature of the cosmos, including the idea of a division of the cosmos proposed by Aristotle. Hoping to solve some of the inconsistencies caused by a geocentric (Earth-centered) model of the universe, Ptolemy also created an elaborate model to explain the movements of the sun and planets. He combined all this into his Almagest (the English name comes the Arabic word for “greatest”, a name given to the book by Arabic readers in the Medieval period).

The Ptolemaic Universe: Earth at the Centre

Para4The Ptolemaic System held the Earth at the centre of the universe, around which everything else circled. Moving out from the Earth was a series of concentric rings, in which the moon, sun, planets, and the rest of the stars each had their own ring, called a sphere. People believed that these transparent spheres were physical things that orbited the Earth. Each moved at different speeds and in different directions, with each sphere’s celestial body moving with it like a stone embedded in a ring. The spheres came in this order, starting in the centre and moving outward:

The Sphere of the Earth

The Spheres of the Rest of the Elements (Water, then Air, then Fire)

The Sphere of the Moon

The Spheres of the Planets (Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; the Sun was not seen as a star and Neptune and Uranus had not been discovered)

The Firmament (fixed stars, including the zodiac constellations)

The Crystalline and Outer Spheres (the cause of the equinoxes)

The Primum Mobile (“prime mover”, the sphere that caused the others to rotate)

The Empyreum (Heaven, where God, the angels, and saved souls reside)

Para5The spheres orbited in this determined order with small differences depending on the author or text, but the Earth was invariably at the centre, unmoving. The elements and the lunar sphere followed. The Ptolemaic System, partially based on Aristotle’s Physics, held that everything below the moon was subject to change, while everything above was celestial and holy, their rotations set and immutable.

Para6Ptolemy had to account for numerous celestial irregularities in his system, which he did by proposing epicycles, an idea created by Apollonius of Perga (262?–190? BCE). This looping set of interlocking movements accounted for the retrograde motions of the planets, which is when a planet appears to move backwards in the sky because of its elliptical orbit around the sun.

Christian Concepts

Para7The Roman Catholic church adopted the Ptolemaic model of the universe because it supported the Christian belief that humanity is one of God’s most important creations. It also complemented the Christian idea of Earth as a corrupted place. Christianity held the tenet that since the Fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, the sub-lunary portion of the universe was tainted with sin and therefore was separated from the rest of the celestial cosmos.

The Copernican Universe: Sun at the Centre

Para8Much of what the people of early modern England thought about the universe was molded by medieval Christian ideas, but that began in to change in the 16th century as scientific investigation occurred. Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer, as well as a Roman Catholic canon. His book presenting his new system for the universe, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, was published just before his death in 1543. Copernicus finished developing his model of a heliocentric universe around 1512, although it only circulated in private and intellectual circles for fear of repercussions from the Roman Catholic Church.

Para9The heliocentric Copernican System holds that the sun is the stationary center around which the planets revolve. This affected everything about Copernicus’ idea of the universe. It meant that the Earth rotated around the sun and was no longer stationary. A non-stationary Earth meant that the stars no longer moved around the Earth but were stationary while the Earth rotated around the sun. Copernicus also proposed that the Earth had three kinds of movement: a daily rotation around its own axis, an annual rotation around the sun, and a third motion responsible for the precession of the equinoxes.

Para10Other tenets of Copernicus’ theory include:

The universe has no fixed central point, but the sun is close to the center.

The stars are much farther away than commonly thought, so much so that the distance from the Earth to the stars makes the distance to the Sun look tiny.

The annual movement of the Sun is caused by the Earth’s movement around it.

The apparent retrograde motion of the planets is caused by the Earth’s movement, from which the movement of the planets are observed.

This last point was especially attractive to Copernicus and other astronomers because it removed the need for the complex geometry of epicycles that Ptolemy needed to explain retrograde movement.

Repercussions

Para11Copernicus’ ideas went against the belief of a division between the holy and earthly spheres of the cosmos. It also contradicted several biblical verses suggesting the Earth was stationary. Because of this, Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus, was not published until 1543, just before his death. Most astronomers of the 1500s used Copernicus’ superior method of calculating celestial positions that came with his model, but didn’t believe in a heliocentric universe, at least publicly.

Para12The Copernican System, despite its faults in some areas, set the stage for other thinkers, including Galileo, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton, to expand upon a heliocentric universe. Copernicus kept the idea of the planets orbiting in perfect circles, but Johannes Kepler discovered their elliptical orbits in the early 1600s. Giordano Bruno, an Italian astronomer, attacked the common Ptolemaic idea of a finite universe, calling it the equivalent of having one’s brains […] imprisoned […] within Venetian glass ornaments. His assertions spread widely in Europe, including at the English Court.

Para13The Catholic Church was not fond of Copernicus’ ideas. Its officers burned Giordano Bruno at the stake in 1600 and placed Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus on a list of prohibited books in 1616. Publicly, the Church’s stance was that the idea of a heliocentric universe was absurd. Galileo Galilei, another Copernican supporter whose discoveries supported the theory, recanted his beliefs in 1633, possibly remembering Bruno’s fate and seeking to avoid it.

Para14It is estimated that between 1543, when Copernicus’ ideas were first published, and 1600 no more than 10 thinkers believed in the main tenets of Copernican thought. Despite this, by 1700, the Copernican System was widely accepted among scientists. Thinkers like Galileo and Johannes Kepler gathered evidence that both proved Copernicus right and Ptolemy wrong. It is possible that this transition was influenced by Francis Bacon’s discussion of of the Scientific Method in 1620, which emphasized data as the definitive way to prove a theory, rather than relying on the senses and speculation.

The Cosmos in Shakespeare

Para15Shakespeare has many references to the starry spheres.

Para16In Hamlet, Claudius speaks of his devotion to Gertrude by comparing her to his heavenly sphere:

She is so conjunctive to my life and soul

That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,

I could not but by her.
(4.7.14–16)

In the First Part of Henry the Fourth, Prince Hal predicts his victory over Hotspur using a reference to how two Ptolemaic planets cannot be in the same sphere as each other:

Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,

Nor can one England brook a double reign
(1 Henry IV 5.4.64–66)

And Romeo calls Juliet’s eyes bright enough to replace stars in their spheres:

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,

Having some business, do entreat her eyes

To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
(Romeo and Juliet 2.2.13–17)

Para17Given that the importance of Copernican thought was not widely recognized when Shakespeare composed these references to the starry spheres, the familiar Ptolemaic model dominates his imagery.

Para18Shakespeare never references Copernicus or his ideas in his works. However, some scholars, including Anna Cetera-Włodarczyk, Jonathan Hope, and Jarosław Włodarczyk, have pointed out how often Shakespeare uses references to this system failing in some way:

the skies were sorry,

And little stars shot from their fixed places,
(Lucrece 1524–25)

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres

To hear the sea-maid’s music
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2.1.153–54)

Para19Shakespeare and many other educated early modern English thinkers would not have been completely cut off from information about astronomical debates happening separately from the start of the Copernican revolution. Indeed, astronomical almanacs and other works challenging the Ptolemaic model were available. Astronomy was a field in flux throughout the early modern era, and Shakespeare’s consistent breakdown of the Ptolemaic model can be interpreted as awareness of these debates.

Key Print Sources

Crowther, Kathleen M., and Peter Barker. Training the Intelligent Eye: Understanding Illustrations in Early Modern Astronomy Texts. Isis vol. 104, no. 3, 2013), pp. 429–470.

Flynn, George J. De Revolutionibus. Salem Press Encyclopedia Research Starters. Salem Press, 2022.

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Ptolemy. BBC Sky at Night. Immediate Media Company London Limited, Feb. 2024 ed. 72.

Sheposh, Richard. Geocentric model (Ptolemaic System). Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science Research Starters. Salem Press, 2023.

Key Online Sources

Best, Michael. A Comfortable Universe? Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, 4 Jan. 2011. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/the%20universe/comfortable.html.

Best, Michael. The Outer Spheres. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, 4 Jan. 2011. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/the%20universe/outerspheres.html.

Best, Michael. The Sublunary Spheres: The Elements. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, 4 Jan. 2011. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/the%20universe/sublunary.html.

Best, Michael. A Universe with Earth in the Centre. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, 4 Jan. 2011. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/the%20universe/spheres.html.

Cetera-Włodarczyk, Anna et al. Unsphered, Disorbed, Decentred: Shakespeare’s Astronomical Imagination. Shakespeare vol. 17, no. 4, 17 Sep. 2021, pp. 400–427. Taylor & Francis Online. DOI 10.1080/17450918.2021.1968478.

Feerick, Jean. Matter, Nature, Cosmos: The Scientific Art of the Early Modern English Stage. Faculty Bibliography, 2023. Carroll Collected. John Carroll University, https://collected.jcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=fac_bib_2023.

Nicolaus Copernicus. New Mexico Museum of Space History. https://nmspacemuseum.org/inductee/nicolaus-copernicus/. Accessed 13 Aug. 2024.

Image Sources

Diagram from Aristotle’s Libri de Caelo. 1 Jan. 1519. Wikimedia. https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/File:Aristotelian_Universe.jpg#filelinks.

Wikimedia user MLWatts. Epicycle and Deferent. 27 Jun. 2013. Wikimedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Epicycle_and_deferent.svg.

Prosopography

Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

University of Victoria (UVIC1)

https://www.uvic.ca/

Metadata

Authority title	The Early Modern Universe
Type of text	Critical
Publisher	University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series	Early Modern England Encyclopedia
Source	By Leah Hamby, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions
Editorial declaration	This document uses Canadian English spelling
Edition	Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a
Sponsor(s)	Early Modern England Encyclopedia Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.
Encoding description	Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status	published, peer-reviewed
Funder(s)	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globablink Research Internship
License/availability	Intellectual copyright in this entry is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and /or data; (2) this availability statement must remain in the file; (3) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (4) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO. Neither the content nor the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.