Who First Conceived the Idea of the Cosmological Principle?

[yazanhomsi]

Good day all,

A question that I haven't really found the answer for yet: "Whom did first come up with the idea of the cosmological principle?"
I almost looked everywhere for the answer but still cannot find it. Was it Friedmann or Lemaitre? Or was it some other great physicist? But there should be someone who first came up with the notion that the distribution of all matter in the universe is homogeneous and isotropic.

Thank you!

 

[rootone]

The actual phrase 'cosmological principle' appears to have been first used by the astrophysicist Edward A. Milne.
Conceptually it can be traced to Newton's Principia Mathematica.

 

[yazanhomsi]

The actual phrase 'cosmological principle' appears to have been first used by the astrophysicist Edward A. Milne.
Conceptually it can be traced to Newton's Principia Mathematica.

What about Einstein and the cup of tea analogy of the universe? I read it in multiple of books. Isn't he the first one to come up with it?

 

[Chronos]

In an indirect way, I credit Copernicus as founder of the cosmological principal.