Book Nobody Read: In Pursuit of the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus

Tells the story of Owen Gingerich s quest to visit every surviving copy of one of the world s great books. 1543 saw the pub. of one of the most significant scientific works ever written: De revolutionibus (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), in which Nicolaus Copernicus presented a radically different structure of the cosmos by placing the sun, & not the earth, at the center of the universe. But did anyone take notice? Gingerich was intrigued by Arthur Koestler s claim that 16th-century Europe paid little attention to the groundbreaking masterpiece. He embarked on a 30-year odyssey to examine every extant copy to prove Koestler wrong. Gingerich uncovered a treasure trove of material on the life of a book and the evolution of an idea. Illus.