Of all the accomplishments achieved during the Renaissance, none were as universal as Nicolaus Copernicus’s heliocentric theory of the solar system, literally. 1500 years after Ptolemy’s theory that Earth was the center of the universe, Copernicus spun astronomy on its head with his famous De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres),

In addition to changing astronomy, Copernicus’s empirical methods are often considered one of the important forerunners of the scientific revolution, and the use of data and proof to test hypotheses. Fearful of crossing the Church’s accepted teachings, Copernicus shared his findings with a select few before his work was published shortly before his death in 1543.

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres consisted of 6 Books discussing the movements of the Sun and planets in the solar system. The most famous, of course, was Book One, in which Copernicus demonstrated his findings and proved that the Earth moved, thus refuting the geocentric model of the universe that had been accepted before it. This edition of On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres: Book One is specially formatted with a Table of Contents and pictures of Copernicus, his life and work, including pages and illustrations from the original manuscript.

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