Wellesley College acquires Copernicus's masterpiece
WELLESLEY - It is several degrees below room temperature, and the humidity is set at 55, the perfect setting for this book that changed the way we think about the universe.
As seven fresh-faced students listened to Wellesley astronomy professor Richard French talk about elliptical orbits, their eyes were drawn to his fingers, delicately caressing the slightly yellow pages of the 442-year-old masterpiece by Nicolaus Copernicus. The title of the book translates from Latin to English as "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres."
The book, a second printing published in 1566, represents one of three "threshold works" in science that this college for women has acquired in recent years, said special collections librarian Ruth R. Rogers.
The other two books, both first printings, are Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" and Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathematica."
"It's kind of cool to just look at this book because I did my 10th-grade scientific report on it," said Katie Judd, 18, a sophomore and one of several students enrolled in a scientific study of the Cassini satellite that is orbiting Saturn.
The Copernicus book, which joins about 40,000 other works lining the cherry wood cabinets of the Special Collections Room inside the school's Margaret Clapp Library, appears to have weathered the years well. The pages, which contain rag material, are not brittle and bend with ease. The library, with the help of the astronomy department and alumni donor Nan Walsh Schow, bought the book in February for more than $100,000.
In the book, Copernicus said that the sun, and not the earth, was the center of the universe. He drew diagrams showing how the planets rotated and orbited.
Copernicus's flaw was circular orbits, that the astronomer didn't use more oval shapes in his studies and assertions, French said.
"It is a teaching moment that I use. We can look back at Copernicus to see what his flaws were. I'm sure the things we are doing today will be looked at in the same way hundreds of years from now."
French said the book, in coming out of a private collection and into a library, will better serve those pursuing a career in astronomy and students pursuing a wide range of disciplines.
Rogers said yesterday that she had pursued the book for about a decade. "Ever since I started working with Richard [French], we identified sources that would be helpful in his curriculum," she said. "I suggested Copernicus, and he laughed; he figured it was out of reach."
Rogers originally set her sights on a first edition, but the cost of such a book, beyond $1 million, was too high. Then, last November, a rare book dealer based in New York heard that Rogers was looking to buy the Copernicus book, and he told her about a second edition that was available at roughly one-tenth the cost. The book had recently been owned by an Austrian lawyer. "That made the dream a reality," Rogers said.
The book was probably printed in Switzerland, where people who compiled works counter to common beliefs or religion were not subject to arrest or worse, as was the case in France or Italy. Its acquisition places the school on uncommon ground for a small liberal arts institution, she said. There are only 28 copies of the book housed in US academic libraries.
"This book changed everything," French said. "It went against what was being taught, that Earth was the center of the universe." 