Influence of Copernicanism

The expanding influence of Copernicanism through the seventeenth century transformed not only the natural philosophical leanings of astronomers but also the store of conceptual material accessible to writers of fiction. | Descriptions of these planetary bodies as terrestrial in-kind demonstrate the seventeenth-century intellectual shift from the Aristotelian to the Copernican framework. | Scientists and writers alike constructed fantastical tales in which fictional characters journey to the moon, sun, and planets. | In so doing, they discover that these once remote worlds are themselves earth-like in character. | During this period of a scientific revolution, a new literary genre arose, namely that of the scientific cosmic voyage.