USED LIKE NEW hardcover

A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos Sobel, Dava

By 1514, the reclusive cleric Nicolaus Copernicus had written and handcopied an initial outline of his heliocentric theoryin 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 booklength manuscript that tantalized mathematicians and scientists throughout Europe For fear of ridicule, he refused to publishIn 1539, a young German mathematician, Georg Joachim Rheticus, drawn by rumors of a revolution to rival the religious upheaval of Martin Luthers 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 Copernicuss manuscript published, in 1543, as De revolutionibus orbium coelestium On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheresthe book that forever changed humankinds place in the universeIn 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 Rheticuss struggle to convince Copernicus to let his manuscript see the light of day As she achieved with her bestsellers Longitude and Galileos Daughter, Sobel expands the bounds of narration, giving us an unforgettable portrait of scientific achievement, and of the everpresent tensions between science and faith