The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 10, March 7, 2004, Article 18

THE BOOK NOBODY READ

  [The following item is non-numismatic, but it is about using
  literature to learn about history.  It comes from a Wall Street
  Journal book review. -Editor]

  "In "The Sleepwalkers" (1959) -- a history of early astronomy
  -- Arthur Koestler claimed that for a long time very few people
  followed the arguments in Nicolaus Copernicus's "On the
  Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres," the 1543 treatise that
  put the sun at the center of planetary motion. Koestler
  believed that it was Johannes Kepler, a generation later, who
  popularized the heliocentric theory.

  But was Koestler right? While researching another book, Owen
  Gingerich, a professor of astronomy and the history of science
  at Harvard, noticed that early printed copies of Copernicus's
  book appeared to be heavily used. "The Book Nobody Read"
  (Walker, 306 pages, $25) is Mr. Gingerich's attempt to
  investigate this mystery and to explore the ways in which ideas
  -- including earth-shaking ones -- get out into the world and
  into the minds of men.

  Mr. Gingerich's earlier research had led him to track down
  every known extant copy of the first (1543) and second
  (1566) editions of this seminal astronomical work. He
  traveled to libraries, museums, book dealers and auction
  houses around the world, confirming his belief that "On the
  Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" was widely noticed
  among an intellectual elite. By tracing the history of each
  copy's ownership and reading the hand-written notes in the
  margins, Mr. Gingerich discerns an "invisible college" of
  astronomers and scholars (including Galileo) who spread
  the heliocentric hypothesis."

  [So, dear readers ... are there any  numismatic works you
  would put in this same category?  A book which had far
  more influence on the hobby than people generally think?
  What book nearly ALWAYS appears in beat-up, dog-
  eared condition?  And what book almost NEVER seems
  to have been actually opened and read?  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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