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COPERNICUS, Nicolaus (1473-1543). De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1566.
2 works in one volume, 4° (270 x 177mm). Woodcut diagrams, printer's device on title, a different device on final verso, woodcut historiated initials. (Tiny marginal wormtrack in final two gatherings, the final two leaves with wormholes filled, short marginal tear to d3, a few other tiny marginal tears, variable browning, spotting and staining throughout, Gingerich states that this copy has been 'washed from f. 169 on; f. 193 to end added from another copy to replace the censored Narratio prima'.) Contemporary limp vellum (new endpapers, original vertical spine lettering faded, relettered horizontally at the top, rubbed, short splits at spine, lacking ties); modern half vellum box. Provenance: censor's ink annotation to text on c1r and c2r — Lange and Springer (sold in Antiquariats-Katalog 10, 1978) — Tenner (Heidelberg auction 5 May 1982, lot 564).
SECOND EDITION OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY AND A 'LANDMARK OF HUMAN THOUGHT' (PMM). De revolutionibus was the first work to propose a comprehensive heliostatic theory of the cosmos, according to which the sun stood still and the earth revolved around it. It thereby inaugurated one of the greatest ever paradigm shifts in the history of human thought. This edition is the first to contain Rheticus's Narratio prima, first published in an exceptionally rare edition at Gdansk in 1540 (see lot 87). The Narratio summarises and champions the Copernican heliocentric hypothesis, and records Rheticus's indefatigable efforts to persuade Copernicus to publish. The text De revolutionibus follows the 1543 first edition, including Andreas Osiander's controversial unsigned preface, where he attempted to placate potential critics of the work by emphasizing its purely theoretical aspect. Petri added a prefatory recommendation by the noted astronomer Erasmus Reinhold (printed at the end of the index), stating that 'all posterity will gratefully remember the name of Copernicus, by whose labor and study the doctrine of celestial motions was again restored from near collapse' (Owen Gingerich's translation, Eye of Heaven, p.221). In his census of the 1543 and 1566 editions, Owen Gingerich located 317 copies of the second edition, making it only slightly less rare than the first; this is copy II.133. Adams C-2603; Cinti 48; Gingerich, An annotated Census of Copernicus' 'De revolutionibus' pp.136-8; Houzeau & Lancaster 2503; Taylor, Mathematical Practitioners, pp.184, 199 and 138; cf. PMM 70 for the first edition.
2 works in one volume, 4° (270 x 177mm). Woodcut diagrams, printer's device on title, a different device on final verso, woodcut historiated initials. (Tiny marginal wormtrack in final two gatherings, the final two leaves with wormholes filled, short marginal tear to d3, a few other tiny marginal tears, variable browning, spotting and staining throughout, Gingerich states that this copy has been 'washed from f. 169 on; f. 193 to end added from another copy to replace the censored Narratio prima'.) Contemporary limp vellum (new endpapers, original vertical spine lettering faded, relettered horizontally at the top, rubbed, short splits at spine, lacking ties); modern half vellum box. Provenance: censor's ink annotation to text on c1r and c2r — Lange and Springer (sold in Antiquariats-Katalog 10, 1978) — Tenner (Heidelberg auction 5 May 1982, lot 564).
SECOND EDITION OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY AND A 'LANDMARK OF HUMAN THOUGHT' (PMM). De revolutionibus was the first work to propose a comprehensive heliostatic theory of the cosmos, according to which the sun stood still and the earth revolved around it. It thereby inaugurated one of the greatest ever paradigm shifts in the history of human thought. This edition is the first to contain Rheticus's Narratio prima, first published in an exceptionally rare edition at Gdansk in 1540 (see lot 87). The Narratio summarises and champions the Copernican heliocentric hypothesis, and records Rheticus's indefatigable efforts to persuade Copernicus to publish. The text De revolutionibus follows the 1543 first edition, including Andreas Osiander's controversial unsigned preface, where he attempted to placate potential critics of the work by emphasizing its purely theoretical aspect. Petri added a prefatory recommendation by the noted astronomer Erasmus Reinhold (printed at the end of the index), stating that 'all posterity will gratefully remember the name of Copernicus, by whose labor and study the doctrine of celestial motions was again restored from near collapse' (Owen Gingerich's translation, Eye of Heaven, p.221). In his census of the 1543 and 1566 editions, Owen Gingerich located 317 copies of the second edition, making it only slightly less rare than the first; this is copy II.133. Adams C-2603; Cinti 48; Gingerich, An annotated Census of Copernicus' 'De revolutionibus' pp.136-8; Houzeau & Lancaster 2503; Taylor, Mathematical Practitioners, pp.184, 199 and 138; cf. PMM 70 for the first edition.
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