Nicolaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the revolutions of celestial spheres), Basil, Ex officina Henricpetrina, 1566, Rare Books collection

This radical work by Copernicus (first published in 1543) presented his discovery of the heliocentric solar system, wherein the planets rotate around the sun, contradicting the Church’s belief that God created Earth as the centre of the universe. The Church at first banned the book and then demanded ten alterations to the text, intended to make Copernicus’ theory appear hypothetical.