The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus
by Owen Gingerich
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Book Summary Information
Author: Owen GingerichEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-03-01
ISBN: 0802714153
Number of pages: 306
Publisher: Walker & Company
Book Reviews of The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus
Book Review: A Book You Should Read
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book. It is a historical who-dun-it centered on the marginal notes made in the copies of De Revolutionibus On the Revolutions: Nicholas Copernicus Complete Works (Foundations of Natural History), the book by Nicholas Copernicus that started the Age of Science. In loose connection with the 500 year anniversary of Copernicus' birth in 1973, Dr. Gingerich set out on the "boring" task of compiling a list of all known copies of the first and second editions of the book. This task took almost 30 years, and in the process, Dr. Gingerich used the marginalia to reconstruct a lively history of the early participants (and opponents) in the Copernican revolution which spanned the lives of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei.
For me it was a slow read -- not because of technical detail but because it is such a fascinating story that I didn't want to go at my normal pace. I can hardly think of higher praise than this. I relish stories of people who worked at the true frontiers of science, as these men did.
Just one small carp. The footnote on p. 191 is a bit misleading. Commenting on a fresco "observing the eclipse at Christ's passion" he states "There couldn't have been an eclipse at that time. Jesus was crucified the day after Passover..." This is wrong on two counts. True, there was no solar eclipse (as the fresco indicates according to a communication with the author), but there was a lunar eclipse at the crucifixion (which Peter refers to in Acts 2:20). Second, the crucifixion was on the "day of preparation" for the Passover -- just preceding the Passover feast. See the Wikipedia article on the Crucifixion of Jesus citing the 1983 article by Humphreys and Waddington, and the dvd The Star of Bethlehem which also mentions the eclipse. The crucifixion was on Friday, April 3, 33 AD.
I recommend this book as bedside reading for anyone interested in a great who-dun-it.
HMSChallenger
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