Copernicus argued that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe. This volume is a second edition, published in basel, switzerland in 1566. On the revolutions of the celestial spheres world digital. The book, first printed in 1543 in nuremberg, holy roman empire, offered an alternative model of the universe to ptolemy s geocentric system, which. Galileo galileis support of this model resulted in his famous trial before the inquisition in 1633. This is surely the most famous book in the history of astronomy, opened at its most famous page, where in a woodcut print copernicus boldly places sol, the sun, at the centre of the cosmos. In this survey the provenance, annotations, marginal notes and condition of all known surviving copies were detailed. On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of the astronomer nicolaus copernicus 14731543 of the polish renaissance. Information from its description page there is shown below. Today marks the 543rd birthday of nicolaus copernicus, who was born february 19, 1473 at 4. Nicolaus copernicus thorunensis the history of the editions.
The book, first printed in 1543 in nuremberg, holy roman empire of the german nation, offered an alternative model of the universe to ptolemy s geocentric system, which had been widely accepted since ancient times. Nicolaus copernicus 14731543 is now recognised as one of the fathers of modern science. An early sketch of his heliocentric theory, the commentariolus, had circulated in manuscript in the small astronomical community. Nicolaus copernicus thorunensis the history of the. Web to pdf convert any web pages to high quality pdf files while retaining page layout images text and hyperlinks and then save share print or archive them view pdf as html view the contents of pdf files faster and eliminate browser problems by instantly converting any web based pdf to a browser friendly html web page.
The distance from alexandria to syene is about 500 miles. The book was the most important astronomy treatise written since ptolemy. Image by kind permission of the master and fellows of trinity college cambridge. Online books on planetary and lunar science and exploration. Ex officina henricpetrina, 1566 item held in the henley parish collection, university of reading library special collections. The book, first printed in 1543 in nuremberg, holy roman empire of the german nation, offered proof that the earth went round the sun, and not vice versa, as had been thought. On the summer solstice the sun is directly overhead at noon in syene.
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