De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, meaning On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, is the book in which Nicolaus Copernicus set out a model of the universe with the Sun at the centre and the Earth and other planets orbiting it. Copernicus had developed his ideas over several decades and was persuaded by the mathematician Georg Joachim Rheticus to publish. The work was printed in Nuremberg, and tradition holds that Copernicus received a copy just before his death. A preface added by the theologian Andreas Osiander presented the theory as a mathematical device rather than a true description. The book started what is now called the Copernican revolution, and influenced Galileo and Kepler. The Catholic Church placed it on its Index of prohibited books in 1616.
Before and after
- 14 February 1542Founding of Guadalajara
- 15 October 1542Birth of Akbar
- 8 December 1542Birth of Mary, Queen of Scots
- from 1543 to 1687Scientific Revolution
- 1543De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
- 1543Copernicus publishes On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
- 1543Vesalius publishes De humani corporis fabrica
- 24 May 1543Death of Nicolaus Copernicus
- from 1545 to 1648Counter-Reformation
More in Science & technology
- 27 December 1571Birth of Johannes Kepler
- 1637Descartes publishes La Geometrie: algebra meets geometry
- 21 June 1646Birth of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- 15 April 1707Birth of Leonhard Euler
- 20 March 1727Death of Isaac Newton
- 28 August 1749Birth of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 16th century.