Nicolaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Amsterdam, 1617), 3d edition
In De revolutionibus, Copernicus placed the Sun in the center of the universe and set the Earth in annual motion around the Sun. This is the 3d edition, printed in 1617, the year after the Inquisition placed it on the Index of Prohibited Books and thereby unwittingly stimulated fresh interest in the work. The OU History of Science Collections holds all three editions published from the time of Copernicus through the generation of Galileo.
The Collections holds the De lateribus (1542) of Copernicus, as well as the first three editions of his major work, De revolutionibus (1543, 1566, and 1617). The first edition was on display in Bizzell Memorial Library and the second is on display at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. Few libraries in the world hold all four of these volumes. Each volume increases the utility of the others, allowing scholars to compare the different editions side by side.
