I do not doubt that clever and learned men will agree with me if they are willing fully to comprehend and to consider the proofs which I advance in the book before us.

In order, however, that both the learned and the unlearned may see that I fear no man's judgment, I wanted to dedicate these, my night labors, to your holiness, rather than to any one else, because you, even in this remote corner of the earth where I live, are held to be the greatest in dignity of station and in love for all sciences and for mathematics, so that you, through your position and judgment, can easily suppress the bites of slanderers, although the proverb says that there is no remedy against the bite of calumny." In chapter X.of book I., "On the Order of the Spheres," occurs a more detailed presentation of the system, as follows: "That which Martianus Capella, and a few other Latins, very well knew, appears to me extremely noteworthy.

He believed that Venus and Mercury revolve about the sun as their centre and that they cannot go farther away from it than the circles of their orbits permit, since they do not revolve about the earth like the other planets.

According to this theory, then, Mercury's orbit would be included within that of Venus, which is more than twice as great, and would find room enough within it for its revolution.
"If, acting upon this supposition, we connect Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars with the same centre, keeping in mind the greater extent of their orbits, which include the earth's sphere besides those of Mercury and Venus, we cannot fail to see the explanation of the regular order of their motions.

He is certain that Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars are always nearest the earth when they rise in the evening--that is, when they appear over against the sun, or the earth stands between them and the sun--but that they are farthest from the earth when they set in the evening--that is, when we have the sun between them and the earth.