A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos by Dava Sobel

Mar 27, 2013 Clif Hostetler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This is the story of Nicolaus Copernicus and how his book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) revolutionized astronomy. There are two facts about Copernicus that I found astounding. First, astronomy was his hobby not his occupation. Second, his book was almost NOT published.

His job as church canon meant that he worked full time with responsibilities that included tasks such as administering church farm rental lands, negotiating peace terms with the...more This is the story of Nicolaus Copernicus and how his book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) revolutionized astronomy. There are two facts about Copernicus that I found astounding. First, astronomy was his hobby not his occupation. Second, his book was almost NOT published.

His job as church canon meant that he worked full time with responsibilities that included tasks such as administering church farm rental lands, negotiating peace terms with the Teutonic Knights and responding to unreasonable demands from his Bishop while acting in the role of physician. Somehow he found time to observe and record locations of the stars, planets, moon and sun. (He apparently didn't need much sleep.) He also combed through early Greek and Roman astronomical records and compared them with observations of his day. Then he applied his math skills to discover that they followed patterns that coordinated with a hypothetical model of the planets, including the earth, orbiting the sun while the earth rotated on a tilted axis and the moon rotated around the earth.

He apparently experienced his epiphany regarding heliocentrism in about 1510 and shared his idea with others by way of letters and distributing a sketchy outline. Over the next three decades he continued to collect astronomical observations and perfected his calculations, but refused of publish his theory in a book.

This biography of Copernicus seems to suggest the reason for his reticence to publish was his fear of objections from the church and critical scrutiny from other astronomers. I personally picked up an impression of an alternative reason; that he was simply busy with other responsibilities and procrastinated on writing his book.

Then, in 1539, a young enigmatic mathematician and aspiring astrologer hamed Rheticus showed up at Copernicus’s door and begged him to publish a book about his heliocentric theory. Apparently Rheticus refused to take no for an answer. For the next couple years Rheticus somehow cajoled Copernicus to collect together his astronomical data and calculations and write his book about the movements of the "Celestial Spheres." In 1542 Rheticus delivered the manuscript to a printer of scientific books.

Copernicus suffered a stroke soon after finishing the manuscript and was in a partial coma for a number of months. Copernicus died on the same day that the first printed copy of the book was delivered and placed in his hands. One can't help but wonder if he had any idea what a significant contribution he had made to the advancement of science.

I found it interesting how the author, Dava Sobel, managed to turn the available information about Copernicus into a book length story. The problem is that most of the surviving documentation regarding Copernicus’ life are business and accounting types of documents which frankly aren’t very interesting and have nothing to do with astronomy. He left no diary describing the details of his epiphany when he first thought of the heliocentric model. And there is no detailed descriptions of how Rheticus managed to talk Copernicus into writing his book.

Dava Sobel’s clever solution was to imagine a fictional rendering of the Copernicus/Rheticus encounter and inserted it as Part Two into this book. Her dramatization was written in play/drama format which makes it quite distinctive from the prose of the nonfiction narrative contained in parts one and three of the book. This approach helps the reader to distinguish the fictional part from the nonfiction. I think this approach was well done and managed to convey emotion and setting more clearly than if the book had been all nonfiction narrative.

Part One of the book describes Copernicus’ life. Part Three describes the reactions to his book, includes a description of Rheticus’ life, and tells of the later actions of Galileo and Kepler to advance and improve on the details of the heliocentric model.

There were contemporaries of Copernicus who agreed that the heliocentric model correctly described the movement of planets and earth. But only Copernicus could published a book that carried convincing credibility because he was the only one who had combined his lifetime of astronomical observations with mathematical calculations to develop tables and formulas that could be used to predict future movements based on the heliocentric model.(less)

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Feb 25, 2012 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rating: 4* of five

The Book Report: Heliocentrism. I doubt that stirs much passion in anyone reading this review. It means "sun centeredness." *yawn* The solar system is heliocentric. Hawaiian culture is heliocentric. Big whoop.

In the Sixteenth Century, this sh*t was hot news, and really really controversial. Think gay-marriage-level passions inflamed. Heliocentrism meant that the SUN and not God's Perfect Creation The Earth was the center of the Universe. Panic! Riots! Thunderings from dimwitted...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Randolph Carter rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, science-mathematics, history

This is strictly a historical book. There is precious little science in it. It was a good overview of the Copernican revolution and particularly the role of Rheticus in convincing Copernicus to publish his work: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. The book also briefly deals with the repercussions of this publication.

Ultimately I could only give this book three stars. The book is well written in a lively manner. However, I think it is a flawed book by centering on a rather fanciful drama...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Emily Lakdawalla rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: planetary

As with her previous two books Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel draws heavily on primary sources for her latest book, A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos. With lengthy quotes from personal letters and contemporary records, Sobel paints a picture in words of the life and times of a man whose work literally produced a revolution, changing the static, immovable Earth to one that spun and revolved around the Sun at the center of the cosmos.

Sobel's work is cha...more As with her previous two books Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel draws heavily on primary sources for her latest book, A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos. With lengthy quotes from personal letters and contemporary records, Sobel paints a picture in words of the life and times of a man whose work literally produced a revolution, changing the static, immovable Earth to one that spun and revolved around the Sun at the center of the cosmos.

Sobel's work is challenging, because the very few extant letters that are known to have been written by Copernicus (only 17 of them) do not provide quite enough for her to establish much empathy between the reader and the central characters. The letters that do exist are mostly very formal. By providing a lot of historical context, Sobel shows how important a role the political and religious upheavals of Copernicus' time played in to his decision to delay publishing his work until close to the end of his life. Copernicus was a contemporary of Luther, so his life played out against the backdrop of religious revolution. Georg Rheticus, who assisted the Catholic Copernicus in preparing On the Revolutions for eventual publication, was a young Lutheran, yet the book was eventually dedicated to the Pope. It's a fascinating story but also drier and less emotional, with more Machiavellian princes in various important roles, than Sobel's previous books.

The book's formal and occasionally dry story is interrupted at the moment that Rheticus appears on Copernicus' doorstep. In between Part One, in which we see how Copernicus came to his new understanding of the cosmos, and Part Three, in which we see how his work was finally published just before his death, there is a two-act play dramatizing the crucial few months in which Rheticus and Copernicus collaborated. It's an unusual device that I must admit I viewed rather skeptically as I approached the book, but I found that the play succeeded. Although Sobel based the play on some established facts, it's clearly a work of historical fiction, with wholly invented dialogue and character voices. The device provides her with a way to speculate about what sorts of characters these men and women were, driven by what sorts of emotions. At the same time, the play is clearly, structurally separate from the more formally correct history that bookends it. And I must say that, having encountered the play, I found myself much more empathetic to the history's characters in Part Three than I had been in Part One.

I should note that I didn't actually read this book; I listened to it in its audiobook format while driving to and from Goldstone. I don't customarily listen to audiobooks so I can't compare it to other productions but I did think this one was very good. The narrator's enunciation was crisp and clear across all of the Latinate words and eastern European surnames and place names. More importantly, when it came time for the play, they cast the six characters with six different actors with distinctive voices, with stage direction read by the book's narrator, making the action very easy to follow. I did find the narration too slow, but speeding it up by a factor of 1.5 solved that problem neatly.

A More Perfect Heaven places Copernicus' life into a historical context that I hadn't appreciated before. To whom would I recommend it? I'm sure people interested in the history of science would enjoy it, but beyond that, I think people interested in European history at the beginning of the Reformation would find in this story a new and illuminating angle. It is, however, not as accessible as either Galileo's Daughter or Longitude. And my editor has asked me to warn parents that there are some adult themes discussed in the book, never very explicit but most prominent in the action of the play. She said it should probably have a PG-13 rating. I wouldn't give it to a kid under 13 anyway; but thinking back to myself as a high school senior science nerd taking modern European history, it would certainly have added dimension to my study of a subject that I found tedious. To me, history was all about various rich princes squabbling like children, and I had a hard time understanding why I should care. Copernicus' story, set against the backdrop of the machinations in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century, would have given me reason to pay attention!(less)

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Apr 18, 2013 Helen Mccarthy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is about Copernicus, a 15th century mathematician and astronomer. His work turned notions of the structure of the universe inside out. Instead of the earth being the center of the solar system - and universe - he proposed that the sun was at the center of the solar system, i.e. a heliocentric system. This was basically heresy in the view of the church, but he basically escaped scrutiny because he lived in Poland, far from the powers in Rome. His work was disseminated however, and he in...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Perry Clark rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dava Sobel showed in her previous works that the science and technology are compounds in the crucible in which humans find themselves. The challenges of scientific thought are no more important than the challenges of human interaction. The gist of things, then, is that should read Sobel more for the historical drama than for the science. Oh, one does learn a bit of science in making one's way through her writings, but the more important, exciting, and memorable bits that emanate from Sobel's pen...more Dava Sobel showed in her previous works that the science and technology are compounds in the crucible in which humans find themselves. The challenges of scientific thought are no more important than the challenges of human interaction. The gist of things, then, is that should read Sobel more for the historical drama than for the science. Oh, one does learn a bit of science in making one's way through her writings, but the more important, exciting, and memorable bits that emanate from Sobel's pen (or find their way to her page) are generally more about the human than the science. The same is true here. This is not meant as criticism as much as reminder of her aims.

In this work, we learn much of Copernicus the man from her biography of a church official who made his mark in the heavens by setting the Earth in motion and ensconcing the Sun in the center of the planetary system. (You don't really think they called it a 'solar system' 'til later, do you?) most mentions of Copernicus fail miserably where Sobel is most successful--in giving us a picture of the man, however flat and two-dimensional that portrait is. We have few visual images of the man, and commensurately little in the way of the sort of personal knowledge that separates Copernicus from the crowd. Sobel seeks to rectify this, and partially succeeds. Her failure to do more stems, I think, largely from limitations in amount and type of material with which to work. There are many questions a reader retains, unresolved, after reading the book. One knows more, but not enough. There is the sense that Copernicus was a genuinely kind, generally good man, but it's a vague sense, not supported by many specifics. He also seems to have been reluctant to take on the authorities directly, but succumbed to the urge to publish through the efforts of his young student/assistant, Georg Joachim Rheticus. Who he really is, though, remains shrouded by time and culture. A good read, and recommended for those with an urge to know more than the merest superficialities about Copernicus and his times.(less)

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Aug 25, 2012 Eduardo Santiago rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not as enjoyable as Longitude or Galileo's Daughter. The play-within-a-~~play~~-biography gimmick didn't really work well for me. Still, four stars because I really did develop a strong feeling for that time period. It can't be easy: we live in a world where heliocentrism is a fundamental tenet, known and understood since we're old enough to say “mama.” We can't really imagine what it was like when this wasn't understood. Sobel does a great job conveying the zeitgeist.

(Side rant: Why oh why do I rea...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Kristi Thielen rated it 4 of 5 stars

A devout canon of the Catholic Church and a "physician," - as much as one was in the early 16th century - Copernicus is better remembered as the first astronomer who outlined the theory that the Earth moves about the sun and not the reverse. It is less well remembered that although he wrote a book-length manuscript about the theory, he did not publish it, fearing ridicule - or worse - from the Catholic Church.

Then along came a young German mathematician, and a Lutheran to boot, who found his wa...more

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May 22, 2012 Wayne marked it as to-read

Dava Sobel spoke at the Sydney Writers' Festival last week
about her latest wonderful book.
She and the interviewer also performed two excerpts from her play
of the conversation between Copernicus the Polish Catholic Astronomer cleric
and Rheticus the German Lutheran Mathematician who had visited to urge
Copernicus to publish and be damned.
Dava played Rheticus who as a believer of astrology got some hefty
trouncing from his Scientific Better.It was a wonderful, witty, informative
dialogue which held...more

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May 20, 2012 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars

A fine read about Copernicus.

First and foremost, it paints a clear portrayal of the forces Copernicus faced in the Europe of his time: the tensions between Catholic and Protestant forces, small and large powers; the nature of scientific inquiry in the day; the blurred line between astrology and astronomy; and above all, Copernicus's hesitancy to publish, given fears over the public reaction.

Copernicus did his best to avoid controversy, but there was no pretty much no chance he could both publish...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Linconter rated it 4 of 5 stars

What a difference 400 or 500 years can make - to most people! The story of how science developed through the benighted centuries when the Church tried to control all thinking and then went batty as people started using their God-given gifts and the powers of observation is nothing short of miraculous. It must have been as frustrating for science-minded people to live THEN as it is now, as legislatures in places like Tennessee (just in today's news) give students the statutory right to challenge...more

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Oct 29, 2011 Walt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Is this book stellar? Cosmic? Heavenly? Is that too cliché of a characterization?

Well, yes and no, I guess. It depends on how literally you take it. At least in my mind, this work probably deserves something like a 3.5 or a 4 rating. I definitely found it a better read than 3.0 or below.

I am certainly no historian, scientist, or astrologer, and those who are, or who pretend to be, seem to have given their ample, comprehensive, and fairly convincing reviews so far relative to this work based upon...more Is this book stellar? Cosmic? Heavenly? Is that too cliché of a characterization?

Well, yes and no, I guess. It depends on how literally you take it. At least in my mind, this work probably deserves something like a 3.5 or a 4 rating. I definitely found it a better read than 3.0 or below.

I am certainly no historian, scientist, or astrologer, and those who are, or who pretend to be, seem to have given their ample, comprehensive, and fairly convincing reviews so far relative to this work based upon perspectives and expertise. I defer to them on such matters. I also submit to them relative to their recounting the structure of the book and summaries of its contents. I can do no better than they have.

So now I will just throw in my two cents as a common reader, certainly underqualified as anything more, who picked this book up because I enjoy the interplay of the roles of the church (or theology), the government, and the discovery of knowledge, both in the past and in the present. Most people generally realize that Copernicus played a significant part pertaining to the historical tensions between theology and the church, government, and accepted knowledge as his discoveries rolled forth and spilled the glass of wine. His discoveries changed perceptions and minds. But it did so only after it caused great pain and hardship and grief. Probably much soul-searching. This book, of course catalogs some of those problems that had to be endured or worked around --- celibacy, the deference to interpretations of others regarding history and scripture, legitimate applications gazing at the heavens could have --- that eventually led to changes in apprehension. It does so with historical documentation and narrative, but also with insightful nuance through fiction. No matter how complete a historical record is, we are never able to fully comprehend the past, even our own lived ones. One of Ursula Le Guin's fictional characters described truth as a matter of the imagination. As it pertains to comprehension, truth is a matter of the imagination. You cannot divorce yourself from its effect. I think probably Sobel realizes as much, and I personally delighted in the play that was inserted between the dense, although very interesting, prose sections.

Religion has played a role throughout my life and in my society, especially in the locality where I lived most of my life (Utah). It continues to do so. No less so have my church, my government, and the increasing knowledge in my environment had significant impacts upon me. I suppose that's probably true, to some degree or another, of everyone. The tension between discoveries of knowledge, science, and mind over against the sway of theology, religion, and worship --- the mystical, if you will --- intrigues me. Faith versus knowledge. Obedience versus discovery. I read Sobel's previous works, LONGITUDE, and GALILEO, and, from reading the latter, was fairly certain A MORE PERFECT HEAVEN about Copernicus would be insightful. And I was not disappointed.

If you are intrigued by the interplay of church, government, and knowledge, as I am, you surely will benefit in reading this book.(less)

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Oct 25, 2011 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

Revolutions often come from unexpected places, and often begin when no one is looking for one to start. So it was with the Copernican revolution, beginning in the early 16th century. He was an unknown church administrator, in an out of the way, not particularly wealthy or known for learning. What is now northern Poland was just a worn torn area, with lots of local strife, that drained much of the best talent. Perhaps precisely because Copernicus was left on his own for so long, and that he was a...more Revolutions often come from unexpected places, and often begin when no one is looking for one to start. So it was with the Copernican revolution, beginning in the early 16th century. He was an unknown church administrator, in an out of the way, not particularly wealthy or known for learning. What is now northern Poland was just a worn torn area, with lots of local strife, that drained much of the best talent. Perhaps precisely because Copernicus was left on his own for so long, and that he was able to take his natural curiosity about the working of the cosmos, without any real interference, like he would have faced in notable university community; he was able to work out his theories.

Dava Sobel carries on her work of highlighting the ground breaking work of solitary individuals who solved or deciphered unique problems about how the world works. Like books such as Longitude or Galileo's daughter, Sobel attempts to show how single individuals meet unexpected training with ground breaking work, very often to the derision from those in the contemporary intelligentsia who did not come up with the ground breaking work fist.

With this book, this reader came away asking questions such as: would Copernicus have come to his conclusions without the type of questioning climate at the dawn of the Reformation? What made Copernicus unique in how he worked out his theories regarding the revolution of spheres, particularly before Newton? I believe Sobel answers these satisfactorily, and shows how Copernicus was a man of his time, able to think through problems in new ways.

Her literary device in this book of inserting a two act dramatization in the middle, about how the young Lutheran professor Rheticus convinced the older Copernicus to publish his long put away manuscript does help the reader flesh out this time period and why it was so difficult for Copernicus to reveal his findings to the world, particularly in a time when there really wasn't a line between astrology and astronomy. For the general reader, this is a fine introduction to the biography of Copernicus and why his ideas changed the way we view the world. Also, the general reader should come away with some serious reflection on how ideas changed and the difficulty in getting a new consensus to the broader world.

Sobel is attempting to do three things, in really a few amount of pages: a historical biography, an intellectual history and showing the effects of a ground breaking theory. Her strongest point is the historical biography of Copernicus. The two act play in the middle is her attempt to shed light on the importance of Copernicus' intellectual achievement. This is really the weakest part of the book, and explains perhaps why she resorted to this literary device. The effects of his theories, after his death, particularly in the work carried on by Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo is the most tightly written and best part of this book.
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Sep 02, 2011 Jason Golomb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, non-fiction, science

Dava Sobels' "A More Perfect Heaven" is a biography of Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicholas Copernicus, a history of the development of his theory of a sun-centric solar system, and an engaging look into a Europe on the cusp of transitioning from a dark and paranoid medieval society to an enlightened and brighter renaissance future.

While the focus of Sobels' work is her history of Copernicus the man, his science and mathematics, Sobels' biggest victory is her fictionalized drama of how...more

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May 09, 2012 Rachel Pollock rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

I read this book because i liked the premise--scientific history bookending a play written about a portion of the life of Copernicus. I was interested in the topic, but also in the hybrid form in which the information and artistry was being conveyed. And yet, i feel like i have two reviews of this book--thatof the whole, and that of the interior play.

Much of it is a fascinating blend of biographical information, cultural observation of the 16th century church/state, and analysis of surviving let...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Kyle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Bullet Point Time!

- I always appreciate the look at the real life of great people. I loved Vaclav Havel's insights into the monotony of everyday existence when he incorporated memos such as "We need a longer hose for watering" into his memoir To the Castle and Back. And so I loved how Sobel inserted Copernicus' notes about the administration of land into her description of his life.

- I thought the play in the middle of the book was an enjoyable fictionalized account of Rheticus trying to convin...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars

Dava Sobel, author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, has taken on another important figure from the Scientific Revolution, Nicholas Copernicus. Sobel's book is unique in that the most dramatic part of Copernicus' life, the writing and publishing of his work "On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres" which laid out his heliocentric theory of the solar system, is presented as a drama. It is a daring choice and it is one that works well.

Copernicus was born in Poland, educated in Italy, and work...more Dava Sobel, author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, has taken on another important figure from the Scientific Revolution, Nicholas Copernicus. Sobel's book is unique in that the most dramatic part of Copernicus' life, the writing and publishing of his work "On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres" which laid out his heliocentric theory of the solar system, is presented as a drama. It is a daring choice and it is one that works well.

Copernicus was born in Poland, educated in Italy, and worked nearly all of his life in a part of Poland that would become a part of Prussia. Officially, he was a church canon, an administrative official for a Catholic diocese. However, Copernicus was skilled in many fields. Besides astronomy, Copernicus wrote on economics, medicine, and poetry. But, astronomy was what made him famous. Even if he never knew he was going to be famous because of it.

Copernicus formulated his heliocentric fairly early in his life, but he was afraid to publish his findings. Part of this was that the idea was considered so revolutionary, that he would be subjected to ridicule. However, he spent countless nights over decades making meticulous observations. He crunched numbers. There was no doubt. The earth was moving. The sun wasn't. Nothing else made sense.

When Copernicus was in his sixties, a young German mathematician named Rheticus paid him a visit. Somehow, Rheticus was able to persuade Copernicus to publish his life work. (A bishop in a neighboring diocese had encouraged Copernicus to do the same also.)

Just how did Rheticus persuade Copernicus? We don't know for sure, but Sobel speculates in the books "interplay." For about 40 pages, Sobel inserts a brief two act play involving Copernicus, Rheticus, two local bishops, Copernicus' housekeeper (and mistress), and a bishop's young assistant (who has a homosexual dalliance with Rheticus).

While the play may seem somewhat hokey, it actually works well. The historical figures seem more alive. Sobel may create dialog, but she is not creating ideas. Copernicus indeed did have an affair with his housekeeper. Rheticus would later be run out of teaching job for improper conduct toward a young male student. Copernicus had to be talked into publishing his ideas. Rheticus had the youthful energy (and publishing connections) to publish Copernicus' work.

Copernicus suffered a debilitating stroke shortly after Rheticus left him. Legend has it that a paralyzed Copernicus received a copy of the book shortly before he died. In the end, the world benefited from the bold ideas of Copernicus and the persuasion of a young German mathematician named Rheticus.

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Jan 28, 2012 Brett rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reading-list, math, mathematics, history, non-fiction, nonfiction, physics, science, religion, people

An excellent telling of the story of Nicholas Copernicus, the development of his heliocentric theory, and how it almost didn't see the light of day. Along the way, Dava Sobel provides context of the age, specifically the political and religious conflict between the Roman Church and the "heretical" Lutherans. I was already familiar with Copernicus and his story, but learned quite a bit new.

I have read several of her other books, so I had high expectations that I would enjoy this one. (And it is...more

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Dec 09, 2011 Zohar - ManOfLaBook.com rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos by Dava Sobel is part fiction part non-fiction book. The book includes a play in two acts in the middle.

It is 1514 and Polish monk Nicolaus Copernicus has the initial outline for his heliocentric theory in which he defies the norms of society and church by placing the sun in the center of the universe. Copernicus’ book is long and detailed, yet unpublished.

A young German mathematician named Georg Joachim...more A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos by Dava Sobel is part fiction part non-fiction book. The book includes a play in two acts in the middle.

It is 1514 and Polish monk Nicolaus Copernicus has the initial outline for his heliocentric theory in which he defies the norms of society and church by placing the sun in the center of the universe. Copernicus’ book is long and detailed, yet unpublished.

A young German mathematician named Georg Joachim Rheticus comes to study under Copernicus hearing about his genius. Several years later the young man leaves his mentor and tries to arrange the manuscript to be published.

A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos by Dava Sobel is a very readable book about reclusive cleric Nicolaus Copernicus. The historical narrative and introduction (for me) to the Poland Copernicus lived in were very interesting.

I am fascinated by writings about these super-geniuses which have changed the world we live in, stood up to norms and the effects of their discoveries still affect our daily lives. Part of me knows that I will never understand their actual writings, most of it looks like Greek to me and, of course, some of it is in actual Greek.

"[T]he counter-revolution that sprang up in immediate reaction to Copernicus's ideas also continues to make waves. State and local governments still claim the right to control what can be taught of scientific theories in classrooms and textbooks. A so-called museum in the south-eastern United States compresses the Earth's geological record from 4.5 billion to a biblical few thousand years, and pretends that dinosaurs coexisted with human beings".

The author was also having fun with this book, smack in the middle is a two-act play called And the Sun Stood Still which captures the interaction between Copernicus and hi student, the mathematician Johann Joachim Rheticus. Before the play the author writes about Copernicus’ life before meeting Rheticus; after the play the author writes about the decline on Copernicus after Rheticus has left.

When I started reading the play I thought of skipping it – I’m not much for plays – but Sobel’s writing managed to pull it off. The interaction between Copernicus and Rheticus, along with the historical background provided, actually added to the book even though the author said she wanted to publish the play alone. I think the author’s editor made a wise choice by including the historical background.

You won’t learn much about the science and mathematics of astrology in this book. However you will get a terrific image of the man we know as Copernicus, his struggle to develop his theory, his internal struggles with publishing his ideas against the norms and the church

For more reviews and bookish thoughts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com (less)

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Sep 28, 2012 Tuck rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, europa, natural-history

dava sobel has established herself as an innovative and exciting reporter of the history of science and western thought in recent history, with like, figuring out how to figure out longitude Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time and now profiles koppernik and his break out of heliocentric universes. this book has a good balance of church, political, social, and science history and stories, and a quirky but good play right in the middle...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's amazing to read about a time when it was heretical to think the Earth moved around the sun! Every 5th grader today understands the basics of our heliocentric system, but during Copernicus's time, it was believed (from strong Biblical proof)that the Earth was constant. Copernicus was a Polish Catholic genius, and his lifelong work was developing the theory through study and observation in addition to his full time work as priest and physician. If a young German (gasp!) Lutheran Joachim Rheti...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Ray rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was surprised at how many documents and letters Dava Sobel seemed to discover researching this book. Most people know something of Copernicus, but Sobel rounds out those facts by providing background on his scientific research. Like Darwin, who waited many years before publishing his Origin of Species, perhaps partly to avoid the inevitable criticism for going against theological teachings, Sobel points out how Copernicus was similarly reluctant to release his papers for many years. Another in...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

The problem that Copernicus was trying to solve was one that plagued the Catholic Church - how to fix the calendar to accurately determine the date of Easter. By 1514, he had found that a heliocentric theory, although it violated Biblical tenets held inviolable by the Church, was the best solution. Copernicus was not only a brilliant mathematician, but also a fairly savvy politician and what really intrigued me about this book was its portrayal of him in that role. About halfway through, however...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Deb rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nicolas Copernicus reimagined the universe. And he did it far away from the enlightened universities and dinner tables of Renaissance Italy. In Sobel's latest history of science, she sets the stage for her real life hero by examining the world into which Copernicus was born, with all of its religious assumptions and early scientific theories. Of course, this also meant he was growing to maturity away from the disapproving eyes of the Inquisition! A generation later, Gallileo will get in life thr...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Jeni Enjaian rated it 3 of 5 stars

I admire Dava Sobel as an author so it pained me to have to rate this book as low as I did. However, a good two-thirds of a book does not deserve 5 or even 4 stars.
I enjoyed learning more about Copernicus. However, the play (which inspired the book) inserted in the middle of the book disrupts the narrative flow and adds extraneous uncorroborated sometimes disconcerting information. The play is well written but not appropriate for a book that purports to be a history or biography however mainstr...more

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Nov 17, 2011 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: librarybooks

‘The motions of the planets captured Copernicus’s interest from the start of his university studies.’

Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543), a Polish mathematician and astronomer, was the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric astronomical model of our solar system. In this book, Ms Sobel provides a biography of Copernicus together with a history of the development of his heliocentric astronomical model. Copernicus was working during a period of change in Europe: th...more ‘The motions of the planets captured Copernicus’s interest from the start of his university studies.’

Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543), a Polish mathematician and astronomer, was the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric astronomical model of our solar system. In this book, Ms Sobel provides a biography of Copernicus together with a history of the development of his heliocentric astronomical model. Copernicus was working during a period of change in Europe: the relatively gradual move from the medieval period to the renaissance was accompanied by the more dramatic (and bloody) events of the Protestant Reformation and the Peasant Rebellion, as well as warfare with the Teutonic Knights and the Ottoman Turks.

There are three parts to this book: in Part One Ms Sobel presents how Copernicus came to his view of the cosmos; Part Two is a two act play dramatizing the few months of collaboration between Copernicus and his student Georg Joachim von Lauchen (16 February 1514 – 4 December 1574) (known as Rheticus); and Part Three presents the publication of Copernicus’s work just before his death.

‘With his book virtually complete by 1535, Copernicus lost courage. He worried that his laboured calculations and tables would not yield the perfect match with planetary positions that he had aimed to achieve.’

Understanding the times in which Copernicus lived goes a long way towards explaining why he hesitated to publish his work. Copernicus occupied a privileged but relatively precarious position as a canon at Frauenberg cathedral: privileged because of the income it afforded him but precarious because of marauding Teutonic knights and the rapidly spreading Lutheran ‘heresy’. Ms Sobel brings aspects of this hesitation to life, in the form of a play - an imagined dialogue between Copernicus and Rheticus, who met Copernicus just four years before Copernicus died.

‘No one knows what the brilliant, fervent young Rheticus said when he accosted the elderly, beleaguered Copernicus in Frauenberg. It is safe to assume he did not laugh at the idea of the earth in motion.’

Ms Sobel’s play builds on the history and background established in the earlier chapters of the work and breathes life into Copernicus and Rheticus by allowing both Copernicus and Rheticus to express their views and concerns directly. I admit that I did not expect this technique to be as effective as it was. While reading the play isn’t essential to appreciate Copernicus’s life and work, it’s interesting to speculate on the content of the conversations between the two men.
Those who want more detailed information about Copernicus’s scientific work will not find it here. Readers primarily interested in Copernicus’s life, and the period in which he lived, should find this book interesting reading. Ms Sobel includes some quotes from Copernicus’s writings which share his thoughts directly with us. We know that Copernicus documented his work extensively; I wonder how much of this documentation still exists, and where?

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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May 12, 2012 Callie Leuck rated it 2 of 5 stars

I should preface this review by saying that I read this book for a class and am probably not the intended audience; I probably would not have picked it up on my own.

I admire Dava Sobel for taking a risk and trying something new here. This is a nonfiction biography surrounding a fictional play. The play is Dava Sobel's imagining of a key moment in Copernicus' life: when someone convinces him to write and publish his heliocentric-universe idea.

I greatly enjoyed the play and would love to see it p...more

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Jan 06, 2012 tukanman rated it 5 of 5 stars

A very good book, I have read almost all of Sobel's books and I am always please to read them. This book is no exception. Very informative, easy to read, difficult to put down.
I love that in this book Sobel writes this book using a prose and also writes it as a play in two parts, I found it very creative and entertaining, sometimes biographies get a little boring, but this is not the case.
It is a good historical book and even though the author is not an cognoscente of astronomy, she does a g...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Joe Adelizzi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Having read and enjoyed two previous books by Dava Sobel I had high expectations for her latest work “A More Perfect Heaven.” Admittedly my enthusiasm revolved more around the author than any pre-existing interest in Nicolaus Copernicus, the two previous works obvious evidence that my high expectations would be well founded. Sometimes you can't trust the evidence.

I found it odd and annoying that the book consists of both a biography and a play. I will concede it is a clever device which mirrors...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Although I sure it was not meant to bring forth laughter, every time I read about those evil Lutherans, I couldn't help but think of Praire Home Companion. Other than that, I found this a very interesting read about the life of Copernicus and was amazed at how the man had a demanding day job and was still able to reorder the heavens.

NTS:

P136:Copernicus. Begging your Reverency's pardon. It's just that I ... I have had Joshua rasied against me so many times that I begin to feel myself like one o...more

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A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos

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