Copernican Cosmography in the First Mexican Physics Treatise

Abstract

Copernican Cosmography was used to discover the path linking Cebu islands and Acapulco via Kuro-Shivo Stream, as registered in Physica Speculatio, first physics book written in New Spain. Teaching and practice of Copernican theory were an outcome of both Spanish expansion into the Pacific Ocean and native elite instruction devised by Augustinian friars. Copernican cosmography was explained in Physica Speculatio's first edition in addition to the reference given by Alonso de la Veracruz about the use of Copernican theory to detect Pacific Islands in Physica Speculatio's Fourth edition. Also, Veracroce standpoint about the differences between physics and mathematics is discussed in terms of its relation to the rejection of the Copernican Theory as a Natural Theory.