Classics and Landmarks
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Tycho Brahe's De Nova Stella was originally published in Copenhagen in 1573. In the book Tycho Brahe described his observations of a new star that had appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia in 1572. Only a small number of copies of the book were printed, and it quickly became unobtainable, even, in his own time. In 1632 an English printer, chose to issue an English translation of De Nova Stella, calling it, Learned Tico Brahae, His Astronomicall Coniectur. |
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On November 30, 1609, Galileo Galilei first turned his telescope toward the moon. He noted the irregularities of the crescent face, and made a drawings to record his discoveries. Over the next eighteen days, he made more drawings and from these chose four for his revolutionary Starry Messenger. With the publication of the first edition of this book, an astonished public learned that the moon was a cratered chunk of elements and not a globe of quintessential perfection. |
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In Canon Chronicus Aegyptiacus, Ebraicus, Graecus & Disqvisitiones, John Marsham presents his chronology of events described in the Bible along with other, historical events. The Library owns two copies of this esoteric book, one of which was owned by Isaac Newton, showing his habit of folding pages to point out topics of significance. The other copy was not folded and can be used as a reference for comparison. |
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Nicholas Copernicus's landmark work, De Revolutionibus or Narratio Prima, might never have been published had it not been for Georg Joachim Rhäticus. In the sixteenth century, Nicholas Copernicus proposed the theory that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe. Although he had begun a manuscript to explain his theory, he had not completed it. Rhäticus, a mathematics teacher at Wittenberg who wanted to learn more about this new theory, traveled to Poland to visit Copernicus. During his stay with Copernicus, Rhäticus wrote and published this preliminary announcement of Copernicus's theory. |