A More Perfect Heaven and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime free trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn more
Buy Used
Used - Good See details
Price: £6.43

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
or
Get a £0.25 Amazon.co.uk Gift Card
A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos
 
 
Start reading A More Perfect Heaven on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos [Hardcover]

Dava Sobel
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.99
Price: £9.74 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £5.25 (35%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.
Only 10 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want guaranteed delivery by Friday, June 1? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £9.25  
Hardcover £9.74  
Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.

Special Offers and Product Promotions


Frequently Bought Together

A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos + The Planets + Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Price For All Three: £20.22

Show availability and delivery details

Buy the selected items together


Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (5 Sep 2011)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1408818000
  • ISBN-13: 978-1408818008
  • Product Dimensions: 22 x 14 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 165,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Product Description

Product Description

During the 1530s, rumours of a potentially revolutionary theory of how the heavens worked emanating from a small city in Poland began to spread throughout Europe. The architect of this theory was a Polish cleric named Nicolaus Copernicus. In around 1514 Copernicus had written and hand-copied an initial outline of his heliocentric theory, in which he placed the Sun, not the Earth, at the centre of our universe, with the planets, including the Earth, revolving about it. Titled his Commentariolus, it circulated among a very few astronomers. Over the next two decades Copernicus expanded his theory through hundreds of sightings, leading to a secretive manuscript whose existence tantalised mathematicians and scientists all over the world. In 1539 a young German mathematician, Georg Joachim Rheticus, travelled to Frombork to meet Copernicus; months later he departed with the manuscript for the book that would change the way we understand our place in the universe. Rheticus arranged for the publication of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) - legend has it Copernicus received a copy on his deathbed. This book would forever change the way we thought about our place in the universe. In her compelling style, Dava Sobel chronicles the history of the Copernican Revolution, relating the story of astronomy from Aristotle to the Middle Ages. And as she achieved with her international bestsellers Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, in A More Perfect Heaven, Sobel expands the bounds of popular science writing, giving us an unforgettable portrait of a major step forward in the human knowledge of our universe.

About the Author

Dava Sobel is the acclaimed author of the bestselling titles Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, The Illustrated Longitude, and The Planets. She lives in East Hampton, New York.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Didn't enthuse me 29 Nov 2011
Format:Hardcover
As an amateur astronomer I love reading anything relating to the history of astronomy. Copernicus quite literally turned our understanding of our place in the solar system on its head. What could be perhaps the most amazing story, is again not really told in an interesting way. I do appreciate what the author has tried to do here, especially with the play, but her attempt at describing what might have happened to convince Copernicus to share his ideas and risk the consequences and ridicule that could have followed, fell short for me. I wanted more about the reaction to his theory, about how he described to people why his theory was clearly more likely than the Ptolemy model that had been held for more than a thousand years. Instead the book was heavy on the local politics of Poland at the time and about what may or may not have been said word for word minute for minute between Copernicus and this young mathematician who is said to have been an influence on his decision to publish his new solar system model. I didn't really enjoy this book which is a shame because everyone loves Longitude.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A bit of a muddle 10 Sep 2011
Format:Hardcover
I am really interested in Copernicus and I loved Longitude so I was very much looking forward to reading this book. Sadly I found it disappointing; the book just didn't hang together and as a result I found myself alternating between being lost in spurious historical asides or bored by the shallow characterisation of the main protagonists. The embedded play just didn't work for me. Big shame.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Uneven treatment 1 Oct 2011
Format:Hardcover
The merits and limitations of the book are described concisely and aptly in the ensuing passage excerpted from 'The Economist's' review (September 24th - 30th 2011) which I readily acknowledge cannot improve:

' 'A More Perfect Heaven' does a good job of giving the flavour of life in Reformation-era Europe, at least among its intellectual elite. But there is strangely little discussion of the intellectual underpinnings of Copernicus's system of the world, and of the meticulous observations that eventually convinced him that Ptolemy was wrong. It was a giant leap suddenly to argue that the earth orbits the sun, rather than the other way around, particularly without telescopes. Imagine to deduce this with the naked eye, a sextant and little else. Then imagine the difficulties of defending it against the obvious criticisms in an era before mathematically rigorous physics.'
Was this review helpful to you?

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback


Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges