Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center. The publication of Copernicus's model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, just before his death in 1543, was a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican Revolution and making a pioneering contribution to the Scientific Revolution. Though a similar heliocentric model had been developed eighteen centuries earlier by Aristarchus of Samos, an ancient Greek astronomer, Copernicus likely arrived at his model independently.

Excerpts

Psychologically There Is a Great Difference

In fact most of Copernicus’ book runs closely parallel with Ptolemy’s exposition, only the minimum changes being made to adjust the treatment of the Sun-centered theory; and most of the numerical constants are simply Ptolemy’s figures transformed.

Not unnaturally, Copernicus had not rid himself completely of the old Earth-centered terminology, and the centre of the universe for him is still the centre of Earth’s orbit.

In fact, a modern geometer might observe that as a matter of pure mathematics it makes no difference to the relation between them whether A revolves around B or B around A, as long as they are both regarded as points –
but psychologically there is a great difference.

A.M. Duncan (translator introduction)
Nicolaus Copernicus
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres