Our annotated first edition of Copernicus’ groundbreaking text On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (Nuremberg: 1543) is currently on display at a fascinating exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford. The Renaissance in Astronomy celebrates books, globes and instruments of the 16th century, and marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of the cartographer and polymath Gerard Mercator (1512-1594). Mercator originally owned our copy of De Revolutionibus and he sprinkled its margins liberally with his manuscript notes – not suprisingly, our book takes pride of place in the exhibition, but if you can’t make it to Oxford, you can read all about the book in our website article about it.
Marginal annotation by Mercator in our copy of De Revolutionibus (Sp Coll Hunterian Cz.1.13)
A little closer to home, I recently swapped over the two books from William Hunter’s library that are on display as part of the Hunterian Museum’s permanent exhibition William Hunter: man, medic and collector. The two books currently on show are a manuscript of medical writings dating from the 10th century, and a plate from Robert Adam’s acclaimed work on the Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia (the View of the Peristylium of the Palace). You can see them over in the Hunterian Museum until August 2012.
Categories: Library, Special Collections
Tags: Copernicus, exhibition, medical manuscripts, Museum of the History of Science, oxford, rare books, Renaissance astronomy, Robert Adam, Special Collections, william hunter, William Hunter: man medic and collector
Blogathon: “Biblio-archaelogy”: Digging through Special Collections 
Glasgow Incunabula Project update (9/5/13) 
