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Books of Influence

De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium

Nicolaus Copernicus

1566


On the Revolutions of Celestial Spheres by Copernicus (1473-1543) was first printed in 1543 in Basel, Switzerland by the Basileae Ex Officina. It presented Copernicus’ extraordinary discovery of a heliocentric solar system in which the planets rotate around the sun.

This radical theory contradicted the Catholic Church’s belief that the Earth, God’s creation, was at the centre of the universe. The Inquisition placed the book on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1616, and a Papal decree in 1620 demanded alterations to the text in ten specific places.

The State Library of Victoria’s copy of the second edition shows the passages scored out as required by the Inquisition.