The First Copernican: Georg Joachim Rheticus and the Rise of the Copernican Revolution

By Dennis Danielson

Book Overview

In May, 1539, a young, German mathematician named Georg Joachim Rheticus traveled hundreds of miles across Europe in the hopes of meeting and spending a few days with the legendary astronomer, Nicolas... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802715303
• ISBN13: 9780802715302
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Walker Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.1" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

A rewarding read

Rheticus's indispensible role in helping Nicolaus Copernicus get his great book finished and published at the end of his life is well known in the history of science. "No Rheticus, No Copernicus." Building on German sources and scholarship, what author Dennis Danielson provides here is the fuller story of the young German mathematician's career and legacy to the Copernican Revolution. He illuminates Rheticus's contributions both before and after the publication of Copernicus's seminal book. Prof. Danielson explains for the first time what spurred Rheticus to do what he did and what became of him after his teacher died with Rheticus not yet thirty, and to some extent even how "his subsequent trigonometric research connected with his heroic mission as the first Copernican." One of the interesting suggestions in the book for me was that Rheticus's geometrical emphasis toward astronomy was the substantive connection between Copernicus and Kepler, that it ignited the development of the celestial mechanics to which Kepler devoted his life. Rheticus's posthumously published trig tables were extensive and accurate enough to be used for astronomical computation into the early twentieth century. "Rheticus thus played a critical role not only in launching but also in extending the Scientific Revolution." This book is not a fast read, but it's a rewarding read. I found myself underlining and reflecting a lot. Its 264 pages includes interesting appendices, endnotes, and index. A nice contribution to the history of the Scientific Revolution. Along with Thomas Kuhn's masterful The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought and Owen Gingerich's facetiously titled The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus, anyone seriously interested in the context surrounding how Copernicus launched modern astronomy would do well to have this book by Danielson in their library.

A good read

This book is delightful and fun to read and anyone interested in the history of scientific discovery will enjoy it. Danielson manages to bring to vivid life the story of Copernicus's great insight, how it survived the political, religious, and academic obstacles of its time to reach the hands of other scholars, and how the Copernicus manuscript might never have come down to us at all but for Rheticus, who himself was the founder of modern trigonometry. While this is a very well-researched and scholarly book, I liked how Danielson brings the story alive, complete with the intrigue of the university politics and the national politics of the day. The author places you in the time. You feel the influence of Luther and Erasmus, patrons of the sciences, clerics of different stripes, dukes and mayors, and large scientific figures. And, for me what was interesting, the role of various competing academic institutions in the emerging nation-states of the Renaissance. That, and the story of all the tenuous links that must be secured before a great scientific idea comes to be accepted. Danielson makes the personalities real: their intellectual struggles, what drives them, and their foibles. In particular, I found myself outraged at the academic treachery of Osiander, who sullied the first publication of the Copernican manuscript. And readers will find a soap opera element in the charges faced by Rheticus for allegedly molesting a male student. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to know the story of how the Copernican revolution began.