E X T E N S I O N PROGRESS, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE RENAISSANCE Faustus s scepticism1, unlimited thirst for knowledge, passion for the classics, interest in sorcery and magic and strong desire to understand the mysteries of the universe, made him a true man of the Renaissance, which, in England, culminated in Queen Elizabeth s (1558-1603) Golden Age. Knowledge was considered as a key to power and therefore led scholars to rebel against the rules of society and the traditional views of the cosmic order based on the concept of the Primum Mobile. In the Ptolemaic2 system, this was believed to be the most external moving sphere which turned around the Earth carrying with it the spheres of the other celestial bodies (the planets, the Sun, and the Moon). In the Renaissance, this order was completely revolutionised by the Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus, who proposed a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at its centre. The publication of this model in his book De Revelutionibus Orbium Coelestium in 1543 was a major event and gave birth to the Copernican Revolution. 1. scepticism: disbelief, uncertainty, doubt. 2. Ptolemaic: of Claudius Ptolemaus, Greco- Egyptian 2nd-century AD geographer, astronomer, and astrologer. 21