Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos

3.6/5 ( ratings)

By 1514, the reclusive cleric Nicolaus Copernicus had written and hand-copied an initial outline of his heliocentric theory-in which he defied common sense and received wisdom to place the sun, not the earth, at the center of our universe, and set the earth spinning among the other planets. Over the next two decades, Copernicus expanded his theory through hundreds of observations, while compiling in secret a book-length manuscript that tantalized mathematicians and scientists throughout Europe. For fear of ridicule, he refused to publish.

In 1539, a young German mathematician, Georg Joachim Rheticus, drawn by rumors of a revolution to rival the religious upheaval of Martin Luther's Reformation, traveled to Poland to seek out Copernicus. Two years later, the Protestant youth took leave of his aging Catholic mentor and arranged to have Copernicus's manuscript published, in 1543, as De revolutionibus orbium coelestium -the book that forever changed humankind's place in the universe.

In her elegant, compelling style, Dava Sobel chronicles, as nobody has, the conflicting personalities and extraordinary discoveries that shaped the Copernican Revolution. At the heart of the book is her play And the Sun Stood Still, imagining Rheticus's struggle to convince Copernicus to let his manuscript see the light of day. As she achieved with her bestsellers Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, Sobel expands the bounds of narration, giving us an unforgettable portrait of scientific achievement, and of the ever-present tensions between science and faith.

Language: English

Pages: 273

Format: Kindle Edition

Publisher: Walker & Company

Release: October 04, 2011

A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos

3.6/5 ( ratings)

By 1514, the reclusive cleric Nicolaus Copernicus had written and hand-copied an initial outline of his heliocentric theory-in which he defied common sense and received wisdom to place the sun, not the earth, at the center of our universe, and set the earth spinning among the other planets. Over the next two decades, Copernicus expanded his theory through hundreds of observations, while compiling in secret a book-length manuscript that tantalized mathematicians and scientists throughout Europe. For fear of ridicule, he refused to publish.

In 1539, a young German mathematician, Georg Joachim Rheticus, drawn by rumors of a revolution to rival the religious upheaval of Martin Luther's Reformation, traveled to Poland to seek out Copernicus. Two years later, the Protestant youth took leave of his aging Catholic mentor and arranged to have Copernicus's manuscript published, in 1543, as De revolutionibus orbium coelestium -the book that forever changed humankind's place in the universe.

In her elegant, compelling style, Dava Sobel chronicles, as nobody has, the conflicting personalities and extraordinary discoveries that shaped the Copernican Revolution. At the heart of the book is her play And the Sun Stood Still, imagining Rheticus's struggle to convince Copernicus to let his manuscript see the light of day. As she achieved with her bestsellers Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, Sobel expands the bounds of narration, giving us an unforgettable portrait of scientific achievement, and of the ever-present tensions between science and faith.

Language: English

Pages: 273

Format: Kindle Edition

Publisher: Walker & Company

Release: October 04, 2011

More books from Dava Sobel

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The Planets

3.6/5 ( ratings)

On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks

3.6/5 ( ratings)

The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America

The Planets

3.4/5 ( ratings)

The Best American Science Writing 2004

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Arthritis: What Exercises Work: Breakthrough Relief For The Rest Of Your Life, Even After Drugs & Surgery Have Failed

3.2/5 ( ratings)

Backache: What Exercises Work

3.7/5 ( ratings)

And the Sun Stood Still

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Popular Astronomy

Czy jest tam kto? Nauka w poszukiwaniu cywilizacji pozaziemskich

Längengrad

Guinea Pigs 2006 Calendar

Cosmic Odyssey: How Intrepid Astronomers at Palomar Observatory Changed our View of the Universe

Стеклянный небосвод: Как женщины Гарвардской обсерватории измерили звезды (The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars) (Russian Edition)

The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science

Cosmos

Portsmouth (Streetmaster Street Maps)

Rate this book!

Write a review?