De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI. (title page)
Nicolaus Copernicus1566
The Polish Museum in Rapperswil
Rapperswil, Switzerland
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), a work by Nicolaus Copernicus which contains a treatise on the heliocentric and heliostatic structure of the universe. The book was a major breakthrough in science and perception of the world at that time. It consists of six volumes.
The book was printed by Heinrich Petri (1508-1579), a Swiss printer, son of Adam Petri (1454-1527) and Anna Selber. Since 1530, after his father's death, Heinrich Petri, the stepson of Sebastian Münster, ran the printing house he inherited from his father in Basel, where he printed the materials prepared by Münster.
Second edition: Basel 1566.
Title page
Cover: unstiffened parchment: 16th/17th century. (after conservation).
- Title: De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI. (title page)
- Creator: Nicolaus Copernicus
- Date Created: 1566
- Location Created: Basel
- Provenance: Biblioteca Comunale in Palermo? - signature, Biago Nicosia (Catania), A gift of Roman Umiastowski to the Polish Museum in Rapperswil
- Type: Book
- About the author: Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), a distinguished Polish astronomer, mathematician, physician, lawyer, translator of Italian poetry and economist. He came from a family descending from Krakow bourgeoisie. Born in Toruń, he studied in Krakow (1491-95), Bologne, Padua, and Ferrara where in 1503 he earned his doctoral degree in canon law. Upon his return to Poland, he settled in Lidzbark Warmiński as a physician and secretary to his uncle, Łukasz Watzenrode, Bishop of Warmia.
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