Narratio prima or First Account of the Books On the Revolution by Nicolaus Copernicus
Narratio prima or First Account of the Books On the Revolution by Nicolaus Copernicus

Author(s): Georg Joachim Rheticus
Contributor(s): Jarosław Włodarczyk (Editor)
Subject(s): Geography, Regional studies, Human Geography, Historical Geography
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: history of astronomy; Copernicus; heliocentric system; Sun; permanent stars; Rheticus
Summary/Abstract: The first Polish critical edition of Georg Joachim Rheticus’ Narratio Prima (First Account), the treatise on heliocentric astronomy, written in Frauenburg (Frombork), where Rheticus spent two years with Copernicus, and published in Danzig (Gdańsk), in 1540. Georg Joachim Rheticus is known in the history of science as the only disciple of Copernicus and the man, who played a vital part in publishing Copernicus’ revolutionary work De revolutionibus, which was to become the foundation for modern science. In 1540 the world first heard about the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus. Paradoxically enough, this revolution in astronomy was announced not by Copernicus himself but by Georg Joachim Rheticus, a young Lutheran mathematician of Wittenberg, who published the First Account of the Books “On the Revolutions” by Nicolaus Copernicus. His book preceded the publication of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus by three years and became one of the most fascinating texts documenting the life and work of the great Polish astronomer. Rheticus wrote the Narratio prima in Lubawa where he stayed with Copernicus.

• Details
• Contents