1-153-089 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Ptolemaic (geocentric/Earth-centred) system of the Universe, 1708. Illustration showing the position of the Sun, Moon and planets and the band of the ecliptic. Proposed by Claudius Ptolemy in the second century AD, this model for the arrangement of the Universe was accepted scientific wisdom until Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) proposed his alternative heliocentric (Sun-centred) model in 1543. From Harmonia Macrocosmicaby Andreas Cellarius. (Amsterdam, 1708).