1543 work by astronomer Copernicus on show in Poland's Wrocław

A copy of the first edition of "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium," an epoch-making 1543 treatise by the famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, is the centrepiece of an exhibition at the University of Wrocław Library in southwestern Poland.

Nicolaus Copernicus' ground-breaking 1543 treatise "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) marked a turning point in human understanding of our place in the universe.

Image: Nicolaus Copernicus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The display marks 550 years since Copernicus was born in what is now the north-central Polish city of Toruń on February 19, 1473.

The undeniable symbol of #Toruń is Nicolaus Copernicus, 🇵🇱 astronomer who revolutionised our understanding of the universe.

The statue of the one "who stopped the ☀️ and moved the 🌍”, placed in the Old Town Square, is a major tourist attraction of the city.#DiscoverPoland🇵🇱 pic.twitter.com/WvSb3DxIFo

— Poland.pl (@Poland) September 21, 2022

Alongside his treatise, the exhibition features Ptolemy’s Cosmographia dating from 1492 as well as works by Galileo, Johannes Kepler and Johannes Hevelius.

Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) marked a turning point in human understanding of our place in the universe.

Więcej zdjęć „O obrotach sfer niebieskich” i innych starodruków związanych z Mikołajem Kopernikiem zobaczycie na naszym fb! #uniwroc pic.twitter.com/BRxTyMWf9H

— UNIWROC (@uniwroc) February 10, 2023

Published in 1543 in Nuremberg, it proposed the solar system with the sun at its centre and the planets orbiting around it.

There are 13 copies of the work’s first edition in Polish collections.

(mk/gs)