Giordano Bruno motion of the stars to be an illusion caused by the rotation of the Earth on its axis; he also preserved the notion of an immobile center, but it was the Sun rather than the Earth. Copernicus also argued the Earth was a planet orbiting the Sun once every year. However he maintained the Ptolemaic hypothesis that the orbits of the planets were composed of perfect circles—deferents and epicycles—and that the stars were fixed on a stationary outer sphere. Despite the widespread publication of Copernicus' work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium", during Bruno's time most educated Catholics subscribed to the Aristotelian
Canticle of the Sun Kõrvits (1969) composed a 12-part "A cappella" piece for mixed choir (SSAATTBB) "The Canticle of the Sun" for Southern Chorale choir in 2014. Pope Francis published his second encyclical Laudato si' on June 18, 2015. The Canticle inspired the encyclical's title, "Praise be to you," and was quoted in the first paragraph, "Praise be to you, Our Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruits, with colored flowers and herbs." The Irish composer Vincent Kennedy was commissioned by the Irish Franciscans to set the Canticle of the Sun for Soprano, Harp and