On the trail of Revolutions.

When it first appeared in print over 500 years ago, Nicolaus Copericus' magnum opus De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri sex (On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres) revolutionized the budding science of astronomy. Its publication in 1543 was the death knell for the thousand-year old notions of Ptolemy's Earth centered universe, heralding the dawn of a new, empirical method of doing science. Or did it?

Challenged by a historian's claim that no one read the watershed book when it was first published, Harvard astronomer and historian Owen Gingerich went to epic lengths to track the impact De revolutionibus had on scientists of the sixteenth century. To do so, he undertakes the task of locating and examining as many first and second editions of the work all over the world. Conducting a book census sounds about as interesting as watching a bookworm chew through a dusty tome, but in The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus, Gingerich finds that a seemingly straightforward task can lead into unknown corners of historical record and the modern book trade.

Gingerich discovers richly annotated copies of De revolutionibus that quickly settle the question of whether the book was read when it was first published, but raise other issues. What impact did the Catholic church's censorship of De revolutionibus have on the book's readership? Who bought the expensive book and why? How did scientists spread across Europe communicate with each other over the ideas in the book? The questions are not limited to issues of the fifteenth century: Gingerich finds himself testifying in court over a missing De revolutionibus, puzzling over rebound and fake copies, and navigating hostile Soviet bureacracy to reach copies behind the Iron Curtain.

Weaving astronomical history in with the pursuit of rare copies, Gingerich's volume is as likely to appeal to bibliophiles as to astronomy buffs. For those not entirely familiar with such history, parts of Gingerich might be hard to follow--many names sound similar and some are almost entirely obscure. Perhaps a brief collection of biographical sections at the end of the book would make it more approachable, but as it is, Gingerich simply includes notes and an abbreviated version of his final census. For the casual reader, perhaps something like Timothy Ferris' Coming of Age in the Milky Way would offer a better introduction to astronomy history. In terms of sheer persistence and bibliographic sleuthing, Gingerich's chase of Copericus' revolutionary book is a worthy example.