Examines how De revolutionibus, the technical sixteenth-century treatise by Nicolaus Copernicus, helped launch a revolution more profound than the Reformation and how the six hundred surviving copies have evolved into million-dollar cultural icons. Reprint.

The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus

Gingerich, Owen

History

Penguin??Books

Born in Poland in 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus launched a quiet revolution. No scientist so radically transformed our understanding of our place in the universe as this curious bishop's doctor and church official. In his quest to discover a beautiful and coherent system to describe the motions of the planets, Copernicus placed the sun in the center of the system and made the earth a planet traveling around the sun. Today it is hard to imagine our solar system any other way, but for his time Copernicus's idea was earthshaking. In 1616 the church banned his book Revolutions because it contradicted the accepted notion that God placed Earth in the center of the universe. Even though those who knew of his work considered his idea dangerous, Revolutions remained of interest only to other scientists for many years. It took almost two hundred years for his concept of a sun-centered system to reach the general public. None the less, what Copernicus set out in his remarkable text truly revolutionized science. For this, Copernicus, a quiet doctor who made a tremendous leap of imagination, is considered the father of the Scientific Revolution. Oxford Portraits in Science is an on-going series of scientific biographies for young adults. Written by top scholars and writers, each biography examines the personality of its subject as well as the thought process leading to his or her discoveries. These illustrated biographies combine accessible technical information with compelling personal stories to portray the scientists whose work has shaped our understanding of the natural world.

Nicolaus Copernicus: Making the Earth a Planet

Children's Books

MacLachlan, James

Biographies

Oxford University Press

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) is a pivotal figure in the birth of modern science, the astronomer who "stopped the sun and set the earth in motion." Born in Poland, educated at Cracow and then in Italy, he served all of his adult life as a church administrator. His vision of a sun-centered universe, shocking to many and unbelievable to most, turned out to be the essential blueprint for a physical understanding of celestial motions, thereby triggering what is commonly called "the Copernican revolution." A first edition of his world-changing treatise, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, has most recently been auctioned for more than $2 million. In this book, leading historian of science Owen Gingerich sets Copernicus in the context of a rapidly changing world, where the recent invention of printing with moveable type not only made sources more readily available to him, but also fueled Martin's Luther's transformation of the religious landscape. In an era of geographical exploration and discovery, new ideas were replacing time-honored concepts about the extent of inhabited continents. Gingerich reveals Copernicus' heliocentric revolution as an aesthetic achievement not dictated by observational "proofs," but another new way of looking at the ancient cosmos. Deftly combining astronomy and history, this Very Short Introduction offers a fascinating portray of the man who launched the modern vision of the universe. Out of Gingerich's engaging biography emerges the image of a scientist, intellectual, patriot, and reformer, who lived in an era when political as well as religious beliefs were shifting.

Copernicus: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Star Struck: One Thousand Years of the Art and Science of Astronomy

The night sky has always fascinated artists and scientists, awed by its beauty and perplexed by its meaning. Star Struck illustrates some of the rarest and most beautiful books in the history of astronomy, drawn from the Huntington Library's collections and supplemented with Hubble Telescope deep field images supplied by NASA and with illuminated manuscripts from the J. Paul Getty Museum. 
The history of astronomy is marked with observations that failed to conform to philosophical beliefs and with the social, political, and spiritual collisions these inconsistencies brought. The ancient Greeks knew the Earth must dominate the universe, but their observations of irregular planetary movements did not easily confirm their conviction. Nicholas Copernicus, an official of the Catholic Church in Poland, articulated a theory of a heliocentric universe--but he did so cautiously, publishing his work in the year he died in 1543. More than a half-century later, Galileo looked at the Moon through one of the earliest telescopes and used this new perspective to defend the Copernican model, for which he spent the last decade of his life in prison. The copy of Copernicus's De Revolutionibus now in the Huntington's collections was once owned by Edwin Hubble, who made extraordinary discoveries 75 years ago while perusing the night skies from California's Mount Wilson Observatory.

Arts & Photography

Lewis, Daniel

Brashear, Ronald

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Univ of Washington Pr

These 150-plus illustrations would be perfectly fascinating on their own, but the accompanying text is also excellent. Authors Brashear, rare books curator at the Smithsonian's Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, and Lewis, curator of American historical manuscripts at the Huntington Library, are joined by Owen Gingerich, senior astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and professor of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University. Together they document the evolution of humanity's understanding of the cosmos, drawing on some of the most rare and beautiful books in the history of astronomy. Sources of the illustrations include the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Huntington Library, and the Hubble Space Telescope. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

First edition. Gingerich spent three decades in a quest to discover all copies of the first and second editions of this landmark book. xii, ii , 306 pages. cloth, dust jacket. 8vo..

The Book Nobody Read : In Pursuit of the Revolutions of Nicholas Copernicus

Science & Math

History & Philosophy

Walker Co

The Great Copernicus Chase is an anthology of 36 incidents drawn from the history of astronomy. The chapters range from Stonehenge and ancient Egypt, to the Great Comet of 1965, and to Albert Einstein. In this series of articles, arranged roughly chronologically, Professor Gingerich covers all the important periods and developments in astronomy. The book is generously illustrated throughout, and opportunity has been taken to add illustrations to articles that originally had none. The curious reader will learn of the origin of the zodiac, Islamic astronomy, fake astrolabes, the foundation of modern astronomy in the USA, and the discovery of the spiral arms of our Galaxy. Although Professor Gingerich prepared this material primarily for readers interested in the historical background to astronomy, there are many original research discoveries and insights. This is popularization and intellectual history combined. The Copernicus Chase refers to Owen Gingerich's attempt to make a census of all extant copies of De Revolutionibus. Some of the many adventures that have befallen him in this quest feature in the book. The majority of the chapters originally appeared in Sky and Telescope, the monthly astronomy magazine published by Sky Publishing Corporation of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History

Astronomy & Space Science

Cambridge University Press

General History of Astronomy: Volume 4, Astrophysics and Twentieth-Century Astronomy

We live in a universe with a very long history, a vast cosmos where things are being worked out over unimaginably long ages. Stars and galaxies have formed, and elements come forth from great stellar cauldrons. The necessary elements are present, the environment is fit for life, and slowly life forms have populated the earth. Are the creative forces purposeful, and in fact divine? 
Owen Gingerich believes in a universe of intention and purpose. We can at least conjecture that we are part of that purpose and have just enough freedom that conscience and responsibility may be part of the mix. They may even be the reason that pain and suffering are present in the world. The universe might actually be comprehensible.
Taking Johannes Kepler as his guide, Gingerich argues that an individual can be both a creative scientist and a believer in divine design--that indeed the very motivation for scientific research can derive from a desire to trace God's handiwork. The scientist with theistic metaphysics will approach laboratory problems much the same as does his atheistic colleague across the hall. Both are likely to view the astonishing adaptations in nature with a sense of surprise, wonder, and mystery. 
In God's Universe Gingerich carves out "a theistic space" from which it is possible to contemplate a universe where God plays an interactive role, unnoticed yet not excluded by science.

God’s Universe

Religion & Spirituality

Religious Studies

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press

With exoplanets being discovered daily, Earth is still the only planet we know of that is home to creatures who seek a coherent explanation for the structure, origins, and fate of the universe, and of humanity’s place within it. Today, science and religion are the two major cultural entities on our planet that share this goal of coherent understanding, though their interpretation of evidence differs dramatically. Many scientists look at the known universe and conclude we are here by chance. The renowned astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich looks at the same evidence―along with the fact that the universe is comprehensible to our minds―and sees it as proof for the planning and intentions of a Creator-God. He believes that the idea of a universe without God is an oxymoron, a self-contradiction. God’s Planet exposes the fallacy in thinking that science and religion can be kept apart.
Gingerich frames his argument around three questions: Was Copernicus right, in dethroning Earth from its place at the center of the universe? Was Darwin right, in placing humans securely in an evolving animal kingdom? And was Hoyle right, in identifying physical constants in nature that seem singularly tuned to allow the existence of intelligent life on planet Earth? Using these episodes from the history of science, Gingerich demonstrates that cultural attitudes, including religious or antireligious beliefs, play a significant role in what passes as scientific understanding. The more rigorous science becomes over time, the more clearly God’s handiwork can be comprehended.

God’s Planet

Harvard University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gingerich, Owen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gingerich, Owen

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gingerich, Owen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus: Making the Earth a Planet

Copernicus: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Star Struck: One Thousand Years of the Art and Science of Astronomy

Star Struck: One Thousand Years of the Art and Science of Astronomy

The Book Nobody Read : In Pursuit of the Revolutions of Nicholas Copernicus

The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History

General History of Astronomy: Volume 4, Astrophysics and Twentieth-Century Astronomy

God’s Universe

God’s Planet