De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, 1543

Rare book, 11 x 14.5 in.

Courtesy of Caltech Archives and Special Collections

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance-era polymath whose posthumously published De revolutionibus broke from the geocentric (Earth-centered) universe of Ptolemy and religious doctrine, establishing the heliocentric (sun-centered) system from observational evidence. His discovery and information-gathering process is credited with beginning the Scientific Revolution and an era of extricating ontological truth from the grip of mythological fiction.