...it simply was not typical in this era to give much credit to predecessors. Thus for example, Galileo falsely presented the telescope as his own invention, and Newton went to great lengths to erase traces of his debt to Descartes. But the more important reason Copernicus has been presented as the lone genius who revolutionised science is that it suited the ideological agenda of those who were (and remain) determined to impose notions of an "Enlightenment" and a "Renaissance" on Western history.
For the Glory of God, p140
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