In the annals of science and civilization, nobody has advanced our understanding of the universe further than Nicolaus Copernicus. Born in Poland in 1473, and educated to be a canon in the Catholic Church and a "healing physician" to his bishop, his private passion became studying the heavens. By 1514, the reclusive cleric had circulated an initial outline of his heliocentric theory-in which he defied common sense and received wisdom to place the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of our universe, and set the Earth spinning among the other planets. Over the next two decades, Copernicus expanded his theory through hundreds of calculations and observations-all with his naked eye—while compiling a book-length manuscript that tantalized mathematicians and scientists throughout Europe. For fear of ridicule, he refused to publish it.

In 1539, a young German mathematician, Georg Joachim Rheticus, drawn by rumors of a celestial revolution to rival the religious upheaval of Martin Luther's Reformation, traveled to Poland to seek out Copernicus. Despite prohibitions against his presence in Copernicus's Catholic diocese, the Protestant youth spent two years collaborating with his mentor, then carried the finished work to a printer in Nuremberg for publication. This book—De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres)—forever changed humankind's place in the universe.

In her elegant, compelling style, Dava Sobel chronicles the conflicting personalities and extraordinary discoveries that shaped the Copernican Revolution. Ar the center of the book, her play, And the Sun Stood Srill, imagines Rheticus's struggle to convince Copernicus to let his manuscript see the light of day. As she achieved with her bestsellers Longitude and Galilee's Daughter, Sobel expands the bounds of narration, giving us an unforgettable portrait of scientific achievement against a background of intense religious and social turmoil.

From the dust jacket