(Pictured left is a stock image of the diagram in Copernicus’ book on his ground-breaking theory of a sun-centered universe.  “This was arguably the main target of our field trip,” explains Jamie Bourland.)

On Thursday, October 6, Mr. Jamie Bourland’s Astronomy class viewed and handled rare books at UVA’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.  The Small family has made it possible for the University to move a large number of rare books to a separate, top-notch facility with proper climate (temperature, light, oxygen) controls. Interestingly, much of the building is underground, but large skylights above ground allow filtered sunlight to fill the reading room.

Mr. George Riser is the librarian/curator who, as in years past, worked with the Blue Ridge students.  “Mr. Riser’s wife was a teacher at BRS some time ago, and he is happy to preserve the connection with us and our boys,” explains Jamie.

He first thought of this field trip about seven years ago after reading Owen Gingerich’s The Book Nobody Read concerning Nicolaus Copernicus’ ground-breaking theory of a sun-centered universe.  UVA owns a second edition printed in the year 1566, one of the 325 copies known to still exist.  The BRS group was also shown books by the eminent astronomers Tycho Brahe and Galileo.   Apart from the science books, students had the opportunity to leaf through manuscripts of history and religion from a time before printing presses existed.  The oldest items they could see and touch were fragments of Babylonian clay tablets that are approximately 4,400 years old.  The newest book was from 1710.  “Our students came away with a better understanding of how printing and less-expensive books changed the world as much as the ideas the books contain,” says Jamie.

“Almost as a side bar, as we departed the special meeting room that had been made available to us, we stopped to look at the University’s two ‘first edition’ copies of the Declaration of Independence, one of which belonged to George Washington,” adds Jamie.  “After that, we took in a special exhibition of a Shakespeare First Folio that the University has on loan.  We ended the day by eating fried donuts with ice cream at the not-famous-enough White Spot on the Corner just down from Thomas Jefferson’s Rotunda.”