This exhibition shows how humans learned about our place in the universe: the development of Astronomy from ~300 BCE to the 1700s. Visiting the exhibit, one can see how scientific knowledge had developed, spread, and changed.
Arranged chronologically, it displays some of the Library’s valuable and rare books by Aristarchus, Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Newton.
Special Collection Items
- Aristarchus of Samos (circa 310–230 BC)
De magnitudinibus, et distantiis solis, et lunae, liber (1572)
Special Collections QB41 .A76 1572
- Claudius Ptolemy (circa 90-168)
Almagestum seu Magnae constructionis mathematicae opus plane diuinum (1528)
Special Collections QB41 .P956 1528
- Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
De revolutionibus orbium cælestium (1617)
Special Collections QB41 .C76 1617
- Isaac Newton (1642–1727)
Philosophiæ naturalis principia mathematica (1726)
Special Collections QA803 .A2 1726
Isaaci Newtoni opera quæ exstant Omnia (1779)
Special Collections QC3 .N5 1779