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The cover of The Book Nobody Read

The Book Nobody Read

Owen Gingerich

Did nobody read Copernicus's great book, as one writer claimed, and what do the notes in surviving copies show?

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At a glance

Author: Owen Gingerich

Why read it

You will see how a confident claim about the past can be checked by going to look
You will learn how handwritten notes in the margins reveal who read a book and how closely
You will understand how a historian chases evidence across libraries and countries, and what patience that takes

Who it is for

A reader who enjoys detective stories about how historians find facts
Someone interested in how scientific ideas spread through printed books
A book collector curious how old copies carry traces of their readers

Contents

PREFACE
CHAPTER 1. A DAY IN COURT
CHAPTER 2. THE CHASE BEGINS
CHAPTER 3. IN THE STEPS OF COPERNICUS
CHAPTER 4. THE LENTEN PRETZEL AND THE EPICYCLES MYTH
CHAPTER 5. "EMBELLISHED BY A DISTINGUISHED MAN"
CHAPTER 6. THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
CHAPTER 7. THE WITTICH CONNECTION
CHAPTER 8. BIGGER BOOKS LINGER LONGER
CHAPTER 9. FORBIDDEN GAMES
CHAPTER 10. THE HUB OF THE UNIVERSE
CHAPTER 11. THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE
CHAPTER 12. PLANETARY INFLUENCES
CHAPTER 13. SOPHISTICATED LADIES
CHAPTER 14. THE IRON CURTAIN: BEFORE AND AFTER
CHAPTER 15. PUTTING THE CENSUS TO BED
APPENDIX 1. FROM EQUANT TO EPICYCLET
APPENDIX 2. LOCATIONS OF DE REVOLUTIONIBUS
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTES

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