Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2014
Abstract
The little treatise by Copernicus, commonly known as Commentariolus, is mentioned for the first time in 1514. Handwritten anonymous copies were distributed to a few trusted friends of the author with the aim to earn their opinion about the proposed heliocentric planetary system.
The original changed owners as gift and passed through the hands of Joachim Rheticus, Thaddaeus Hagecius, and Tycho Brahe. It was lost but three later copies survived in Vienna, Stockholm, and Aberdeen.
The rich fates, content, and significance of this lost and forgotten treatise, the first exemplar of which was found in modern times in 1878, are briefly summarized.