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“Therefore, we are not ashamed to state that … the center of the Earth, too, passes through a great orbital circle among the other wandering stars, in an annual revolution around the Sun; and that the center of the world is around it; the permanent, immobile Sun” (cap.X, f.9, in translation).
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543
细节
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543
COPERNICUS, Nicolaus (1473-1543). De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, libri V. Nuremberg: Johann Petreius, 1543.
First edition of the work which places the Sun at the center of the cosmos and the Earth both in its daily rotation and its annual revolution. The most important scientific publication of the 16th century. In order even to entertain the idea of heliocentrism Copernicus had to break with virtually all current thinking on the subject: astronomical, metaphysical, theological and, most basically, sensory perception. The geocentric system of Ptolemy had held sway for over a millennium; Aristotelianism dictated that there was a fundamental difference between heavenly and terrestrial bodies; and theological dogma considered geocentrism as the very foundation of the special relationship between God and man. Aware of the radical nature of his theory, Copernicus composed an introduction in which he attempted to trace historical antecedents for his basic tenets. He cites antecedents for the mobility of the earth in Pythagoras and Heraclides and for the Earth's revolution around the sun in Aristarchus. While these antecedents provided a handy defense for Copernicus, it is unlikely that they played any significant role in developing his theory (cf. O. Gingerich, Eye of Heaven, 1993). The Copernican system would take about 100 years to become generally accepted by scientists, and, interestingly, about 100 years after that, this copy was owned by a Lutheran theologian. The Church in fact never officially condemned Copernicus' work as heretical, in part because its observations were essential for reforming the calendar and thus for determining the precise date of Easter.
Copernicus first circulated his ideas on heliocentrism in manuscript form, catching the attention of a young mathematician and astronomer, Georg Joachim Rheticus, who became the chief advocate of his new theory. Rheticus persuaded Copernicus to let him announce a summary of heliocentrism in print in 1540 (the Narratio prima), and eventually to permit publication of his work, De revolutionibus, in full. Already familiar with the scientific publishing of Johann Petreius at Nuremberg, Rheticus delivered Copernicus's manuscript (which survives at the Jagiellonian Library, Cracow University) to Petreius in 1542 and acted as editor and proof-reader. When Rheticus left Nuremberg to take up a professorship at Leipzig, Andreas Osiander took over responsibility for proof-reading. Apparently fearful of a violent reaction against the work by the Church, Osiander wrote a prefatory address to the reader in which he attempted to placate in advance critics of Copernicus's theory. In it he stated that the work presents merely hypotheses which "need not be true or even probable; if they provide a calculus consistent with the observations, that alone is sufficient." Since a finished copy of the De revolutionibus reached Copernicus only on the eve of his death, his reaction to Osiander's address is unknown. Rheticus and other Copernican disciples found it reprehensible. Several copies survive in which the address (and the last words of the title "orbium coelestium," probably also a late addition by Osiander) is crossed through by Rheticus; Kepler denounced the address as the work of Osiander in 1609 in the introduction to his Astronomia nova (cf. Gingerich, Eye of Heaven).
According to the records of RBH, this is the first copy to come to auction in a contemporary binding since the Richard Green copy in 2008 and there have been only four others in the past 100 years. The Pasachoff copy is particularly fresh and handsomely bound, with ornate decorative tooling to the covers and the paper edges also tooled and stained blue. Adams C-2602; Dibner 3; Gingerich An Annotated Census of Copernicus' 'De revolutionibus' (Nuremberg, 1543 and Basel, 1566) (this copy no. I.251); Horblit 18b; PMM 70; Stillwell Science 47. Exhibited: "The Heavens Revealed," Chapin Library, Williams College, 2003.
Folio (258 x 187mm). 202 leaves, without the errata printed on verso of an additional title which is present in about 20% of copies. 148 woodcut diagrams, including 6 repeats (Gingerich count), tables of calculations, ornamental woodcut initials in part attributed to Hans Sebald Beham, some Greek type (pale toning, rectangular inkstamp erasures from title-page, f.44 and f.101, a little soiling to f.60v top margin, some intermittent very narrow edge-staining, small marginal wormholes to first and last several pages, wormhole near gutter affecting text on final 8 leaves, one letter lost on 2B3 and four lost by 2C4, the final leaf). Contemporary blindstamped pigskin over boards, manuscript title on spine, edges dyed blue and gauffered (touch of bowing, top corner of upper cover chipped and other corners showing, a little worming to covers and endpapers). Custom quarter morocco clamshell box. Provenance: brief Latin marginalia on f.28v, f.29, and f.101, occasional neat underlining – Melchior Gottlieb Minor, Lutheran theologian, 1693-1748 (ownership signature “M.G. Minor” dated 4 June 1736 on title) – removed bookplate – removed inkstamp from title and two other places – “GH” (pencil initials to title and a few other places) – Dörling, Hamburg auction, 1 June 1983, lot 43 – Konrad Liebmann, 1927-2019, art collector and benefactor, sold in 1984 to Jay Pasachoff (identified in Gingerich census).
Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543
COPERNICUS, Nicolaus (1473-1543). De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, libri V. Nuremberg: Johann Petreius, 1543.
First edition of the work which places the Sun at the center of the cosmos and the Earth both in its daily rotation and its annual revolution. The most important scientific publication of the 16th century. In order even to entertain the idea of heliocentrism Copernicus had to break with virtually all current thinking on the subject: astronomical, metaphysical, theological and, most basically, sensory perception. The geocentric system of Ptolemy had held sway for over a millennium; Aristotelianism dictated that there was a fundamental difference between heavenly and terrestrial bodies; and theological dogma considered geocentrism as the very foundation of the special relationship between God and man. Aware of the radical nature of his theory, Copernicus composed an introduction in which he attempted to trace historical antecedents for his basic tenets. He cites antecedents for the mobility of the earth in Pythagoras and Heraclides and for the Earth's revolution around the sun in Aristarchus. While these antecedents provided a handy defense for Copernicus, it is unlikely that they played any significant role in developing his theory (cf. O. Gingerich, Eye of Heaven, 1993). The Copernican system would take about 100 years to become generally accepted by scientists, and, interestingly, about 100 years after that, this copy was owned by a Lutheran theologian. The Church in fact never officially condemned Copernicus' work as heretical, in part because its observations were essential for reforming the calendar and thus for determining the precise date of Easter.
Copernicus first circulated his ideas on heliocentrism in manuscript form, catching the attention of a young mathematician and astronomer, Georg Joachim Rheticus, who became the chief advocate of his new theory. Rheticus persuaded Copernicus to let him announce a summary of heliocentrism in print in 1540 (the Narratio prima), and eventually to permit publication of his work, De revolutionibus, in full. Already familiar with the scientific publishing of Johann Petreius at Nuremberg, Rheticus delivered Copernicus's manuscript (which survives at the Jagiellonian Library, Cracow University) to Petreius in 1542 and acted as editor and proof-reader. When Rheticus left Nuremberg to take up a professorship at Leipzig, Andreas Osiander took over responsibility for proof-reading. Apparently fearful of a violent reaction against the work by the Church, Osiander wrote a prefatory address to the reader in which he attempted to placate in advance critics of Copernicus's theory. In it he stated that the work presents merely hypotheses which "need not be true or even probable; if they provide a calculus consistent with the observations, that alone is sufficient." Since a finished copy of the De revolutionibus reached Copernicus only on the eve of his death, his reaction to Osiander's address is unknown. Rheticus and other Copernican disciples found it reprehensible. Several copies survive in which the address (and the last words of the title "orbium coelestium," probably also a late addition by Osiander) is crossed through by Rheticus; Kepler denounced the address as the work of Osiander in 1609 in the introduction to his Astronomia nova (cf. Gingerich, Eye of Heaven).
According to the records of RBH, this is the first copy to come to auction in a contemporary binding since the Richard Green copy in 2008 and there have been only four others in the past 100 years. The Pasachoff copy is particularly fresh and handsomely bound, with ornate decorative tooling to the covers and the paper edges also tooled and stained blue. Adams C-2602; Dibner 3; Gingerich An Annotated Census of Copernicus' 'De revolutionibus' (Nuremberg, 1543 and Basel, 1566) (this copy no. I.251); Horblit 18b; PMM 70; Stillwell Science 47. Exhibited: "The Heavens Revealed," Chapin Library, Williams College, 2003.
Folio (258 x 187mm). 202 leaves, without the errata printed on verso of an additional title which is present in about 20% of copies. 148 woodcut diagrams, including 6 repeats (Gingerich count), tables of calculations, ornamental woodcut initials in part attributed to Hans Sebald Beham, some Greek type (pale toning, rectangular inkstamp erasures from title-page, f.44 and f.101, a little soiling to f.60v top margin, some intermittent very narrow edge-staining, small marginal wormholes to first and last several pages, wormhole near gutter affecting text on final 8 leaves, one letter lost on 2B3 and four lost by 2C4, the final leaf). Contemporary blindstamped pigskin over boards, manuscript title on spine, edges dyed blue and gauffered (touch of bowing, top corner of upper cover chipped and other corners showing, a little worming to covers and endpapers). Custom quarter morocco clamshell box. Provenance: brief Latin marginalia on f.28v, f.29, and f.101, occasional neat underlining – Melchior Gottlieb Minor, Lutheran theologian, 1693-1748 (ownership signature “M.G. Minor” dated 4 June 1736 on title) – removed bookplate – removed inkstamp from title and two other places – “GH” (pencil initials to title and a few other places) – Dörling, Hamburg auction, 1 June 1983, lot 43 – Konrad Liebmann, 1927-2019, art collector and benefactor, sold in 1984 to Jay Pasachoff (identified in Gingerich census).
荣誉呈献
Christina Geiger
Head of Department