The terrestrial sphere in the Elizabethan cosmos: an approach to the early spread of Copernicanism in England

This article provides a reading of the main cosmology treaties published in England during the second half of the 16th century, based on the concept of a terraqueous globe. Considering discussions around the proportional relationship between earth and water, it is proposed that the first authors to mention Copernicus adopted the geometrical test expounded in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543) in debates around the proportional relationship between earth and water, although they did not directly cite this work. While Robert Recorde broadly outlines the argument that it contains, Thomas Hill textually reproduces the explanation offered by Caspar Peucer in his Elementa doctrinae de circulis coelestibus, et primo motu (1551). Mentions of themathematical test in favor of the terraqueous globe tend to disappear as the decuple proportion theory loses relevance towards the end of the 16th century.