On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
by Nicolaus Copernicus · De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
Assigned by 3 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1543
- Era
- Renaissance
- Language
- Latin
- Length
- Long · 550 pp300 to 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Formidable5 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendOn the Revolutions, translated by Edward RosenJohns Hopkins University Press, 1992The standard English translation with Rosen's commentary; Book I alone is what most programs assign.
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Published in the year Copernicus died, this is a complete technical astronomy built on the claim that the earth is a planet. Book I argues that the universe is spherical, that the earth turns daily on its axis and travels yearly around a central sun, and that this ordering explains the retrograde motions of the planets and fixes their order and distances. The remaining five books do the work: spherical trigonometry and star positions, the motions of the earth and the precession of the equinoxes, the moon, and the longitudes and latitudes of the five planets, with tables that let the system be used for prediction.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
