The University of Santo Tomas and Nicolaus Copernicus University/Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika(NCU/UMK) in Toruń, Poland, will be collaborating on the restoration of the rare first edition copy of Copernicus’ book on heliocentrism housed in the UST Archives. Three professional restorers and conservators from NCU visited UST in Manila to assess the original print to prepare for the continuing partnership in restoring the book, which is a Polish cultural treasure.
The visit and partnership commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, which was on February 19, 2023.
Embassy of Poland Chargé d’affaires Mr. Jarosław Szczepankiewicz (seated, second from left)and NCU Professor Dr. hab. Mirosław Wachowiak (seated, rightmost), with UST Prefect of Libraries Rev. Fr. Ángel Aparicio, O.P. (seated, leftmost), UST OIRP Director Prof. Lilian Sison, Ph.D., (seated third from left), and lecture participants at the UST Rector’s Hall
Copernicus’ historic work, “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium” (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), was originally printed in 1543 in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire. Its central thesis heliocentrism or the astronomical model that positioned the Sun at the center of the Universe, with Earth and the other planets orbiting around it in circular paths. The Copernican model, as it would later be named, displaced the geocentric model of Ptolemy that had prevailed for centuries, which had placed Earth at the center of the Universe.
The said collaboration was borne out of the previous visit to UST of Mr. Jarosław Szczepankiewicz, Chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of Poland in Manila to the university on May 13, 2022, where he was first shown one of the remaining 11 original copies. The UST Miguel de Benavides Library, the UST Research Center for Natural and Applied Sciences (RCNAS), the UST Office of International Relations and Programs (OIRP), and the UST College of Science will work with NCU for this endeavor.