Brown University

Hebrew

Material of the Week: Sphaera Mundi

A detailed 16th-century woodcut diagram from Sphaera Mundi showing a geocentric model of the celestial sphere.

Published: 1546, Basel, Switzerland Published just three years after Copernicus proposed his heliocentric (Sun-centered) cosmic model, Sphaera Mundi, written by Rabbi Abraham Hispanus, subscribes to the still widely accepted geocentric (Earth-centered) model of the universe. In Hebrew and Latin, the text elucidates the design of the universe with dozens of illustrations, and various leaves include Material of the Week: Sphaera Mundi