Uncentering The Earth

In 1543, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus lay on his deathbed, his just-published masterpiece On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in his hands. At that time, religious doctrine and common sense dictated that the earth ruled the universe, with the sun, moon, planets, and stars all rotating around it. By putting the sun at the center of that cosmology, his book fomented another kind of revolution-a scientific one-that would lead to a completely new view of the universe, and humanity's place in it.

Softcover. English. Phoenix. 2007. ISBN: 9780753822357. 295 pp with black & white plates, frontispiece sketch of Sidambe, daughter of Lobengula. Good, light foxing inside. Book No: 53679