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This is the first edition of Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the revolutions of heavenly spheres), a seminal work that advanced a heliocentric theory of the universe.
(Continued from title page): Habes in hoc opere iam recens nato, & aedito, studiose lector, motus stellarum, tam fixarum, quàm erraticarum, cum ex ueteribus, tum etiam ex recentibus obseruationibus restitutos: & nouis insuper ac admirabilibus hypothesibus ornatos. Habes etiam tabulas expeditissimas, ex quibus eosdem ad quoduis tempus quàm facilli me calculare poteris. Igitur eme, lege, fruere.
Contains a duplicate title with list of errata on the verso. This leaf is sometimes bound-in before the main title page in other copies.
Includes index.
Notes (date):
anno MDXLIII [1543]
Notes (citation):
Adams, C2602
BM STC German, 1455-1600, p. 221
Sabin, 16662
Stillwell, M.B. Science, 1450-1550, astronomy, no. 47
Zinner, E. Astronomischen Literatur in Deutschland, 1819
Notes (object):
Signatures: pi⁶ chi1 a-z⁴ A-2C⁴.
The first gathering, presumably of six, is unlabeled, with leaves two through four signed in lower-case Roman numerals.
Illustrated with 147 woodcut diagrams.
Woodcut initials.
Boston Public Library (Rare Books Department) copy bound in modern, maroon morocco double-panelled in blind. Both the embossed and perforation stamps of the Library are present on the title page, as is the ink stamp the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata in Florence (the initials D.S.A. in front of three lilies on a single stem). On the foot of the title page is an early inscription reading, "Ex bibliotheca m. Michaelis." The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze holds a copy of ISTC no. ia00488000 with the same marks of provenance. They attribute the inscription to Michele Poccianti of Florence (1535-1576). In this copy, the additional title page leaf, with errata on the verso, is bound-in before the first page of book I (leaf a1).
IIIF Manifest