The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus
by Owen Gingerich
Book Summary Information
Author: Owen GingerichEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); 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: Myths exposed in this history of science detective story.
Summary: 4 Stars
Gingerich, astronomer and science historian, is perhaps the world's leading Copernicus scholar. This is the account of his extensive 35-year efforts to locate, examine, sometimes appraise, and ultimately catalogue all extant volumes of the first and second editions (1543 and 1566) of one of history's most important science texts, Nicholas Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres.
Most notably, Gingerich dispatches a few myths about Copernicus' book, and myth number one has to do with the title of the present volume. It was widely expected that De revolutionibus was indeed "the book nobody read." That is, it seemed apparent that its potential readership would have been rather small (16th century mathematicians, astronomers, and perhaps a few additional polymaths/scholars). A few dozen--at most-- were projected as having been potential readers. Gingerich extrapolates from the scant evidence that each of the first 2 editions numbered 400-500 copies. This would mean that the famous book was largely unread, so went the pervasive thinking. But Gingerich's work revealed something rather different. A related myth instructed that religious opposition managed to quash De revolutionibus for at least a century. This turns out to be mostly untrue. The book had been read and circulated/exchanged/discussed by scientists, both amateur and professional, both Catholic and Protestant, throughout Europe for several decades before making Rome's `Index of Prohibited Books' ("until corrected") in 1616. Rome's censure: crossing out a few sentences and annotating that certain ideas were `hypothetical.' Many Catholic scholars were enthusiastic about the Copernican insights, and the volumes that were "corrected" in the prescribed manner were rather few, exceedingly few outside of Italy. Even in the libraries of Catholic monasteries few volumes were altered as Rome had prescribed. As to putative Protestant (Lutheran) opposition to the book and its astronomical theories, this is essentially `urban legend', a myth developed in Andrew Dickson White's 1894 book (Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom), but without any substantive evidence.
Portions of Gingerich's book read like a `who done it' mystery/adventure. Legends are critically examined, and often found wanting. Connections are revealed, history is exposed, questions remain. This is certainly a book that the student of science history must read.
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