1-152-250 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Aristarchos of Samos (fl260 BC), Alexandrian astronomer, 1493. Aristarchos was the first recorded astronomer to maintain that the Earth orbits the Sun (heliocentric universe). His theory was rejected by his contemporaries and did not gain acceptance until the time of Copernicus almost 2000 years later. From Liber chronicarum mundi (Nuremberg Chronicle) by Hartmann Schedel. (Nuremberg, 1493).