Copernicus, Digges and Benedetti called themselves mathematicians; Bruno and Gilbert called themselves philosophers. Copernicus and Digges wrote books on astronomy; Benedetti on physica (natural science); Gilbert on physiologia (the study of nature). None of them was a scientist, because science, as we understand the term, did not yet exist. Newton, however, was a scientist – who can doubt it? Sometime between the 1600s and the 1680s, science was invented.
