Tells the story of Owen Gingerich¿s quest to visit every surviving copy of one of the world¿s great books. 1543 saw the pub. of one of the most significant scientific works ever written: ¿De revolutionibus (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), in which Nicolaus Copernicus presented a radically different structure of the cosmos by placing the sun, and not the earth, at the center of the universe. But did anyone take notice? Gingerich was intrigued by Arthur Koestler¿s claim that 16th-century Europe paid little attention to the groundbreaking masterpiece. He embarked on a 30-year odyssey to examine every extant copy to prove Koestler wrong. Gingerich uncovered a treasure trove of material on the life of a book and the evolution of an idea. Illus.