Re: Copernicus sun-theory book stolen (Daily Telegraph)

[Owen Gingerich <ginger@cfa.harvard.edu>]

> Copernicus sun-theory book stolen (Daily Telegraph)
> 
> 
> A RARE book by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published
> in 1543 has been stolen from a library in Ukraine.
> Alexei Onishenko, director of the National Vernadsky Library in Kiev,
> said there were only eight or 10 known copies of On the Revolutions of
> the Heavenly Spheres.
> Copernicus defied Christian doctrine in the book by proposing that 
> the sun, rather than the earth, was the centre of the universe. Mr
> Onishenko said: "A reader took the book out to read on Wednesday, said
> he was going out for a smoke and just disappeared with it."

	This is a very tempting title to steal because copies go for at 
least $200,000 these days.  It is also a very dangerous title to steal 
because I have detailed descriptions of 260 copies of the first edition 
and 300 copies of the second.  Two copies of the second edition that have 
recently come on the market turned out to be stolen (from Brno, Czech 
Republic, and St. Petersburg, Russia) and are in the process of being 
returned.     OWEN GINGERICH