Copernicus' momentous claim that the sun, not the Earth, is at the centre of the solar system was a choice, not a discovery, made after studying Hermetic/Platonic philosophy at an Italian university. On the first page of On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs, published in 1543, Copernicus quotes the words of Thrice-Great Hermes — 'The Sun is the Visible God'
