Customer Reviews

Nicholas Copernicus: And the Founding of Modern Astronomy (Renaissance Scientists)

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This is a surprisingly well-written and informative biography of Copernicus considering that it is ostensibly aimed at the middle school market (ages 9-12). I suspect it's put in this category only because it is short (144 pages) and cites only a few, secondary sources.

I found this little book to be such a gem. It's enhanced with nice illustrations and portraits from the Renaissance period, many in color, as well as many relevant information sidebars, and a handy biographical timeline on Copernicus in the back. Nice teaching tools.

Having been a collector of books on Copernicus for over three decades, I found Goble's biography to be concise yet reliable. Unlike what is too often found in biographies offered for young readers, I did not find this author varnishing fact or compromising accuracy for brevity or hero worship. Based on a few but judicious selection of references, the author displays a sure hand with the facts of this visionary but timid canon's life.

We're sometimes also treated to a level of information in this brief biography usually found only in much longer ones. For example, about how money was probably a determining factor in Copernicus switching universities. In the middle of what turned out to be more than a decade studying at four universities, Copernicus spent three years attending the University of Bologna which was considered the best place in Europe for studying canon (church) law, and then he moved on to the University of Padua to study medicine. After a couple of years, when Copernicus came back for a few months to complete the examination for his degree in canon law, he did so at the smaller University of Ferrara in Italy -- probably, as is persuasively explained, because it was much cheaper. Not having all his friends from Bologna around, it was also quieter. Nice detail.

So many of us feel we have less time to read these days. I think the biggest benefit of this short read will be to allow more people to become acquainted with Copernicus -- the man whose scientific work he did quietly in his spare time and which he published only at the end of his life. His sole book ended up overturning more than medieval astronomy, it initiated the Scientific Revolution and ultimately changed our view of our place in the universe.

For a more thorough, insightful, and satisfyingly less sanitized study of Copernicus (as well as Kepler and Galileo), I'd recommend Arthur Koestler's THE SLEEPWALKERS. For mastery of the technical details and historical issues, the classic treatment is still Thomas Kuhn's THE COPERNICAN REVOLUTION.