WELLESLEY, Mass. (AP) – Wellesely College has purchased a 442-year-old book that’s considered the scientific masterpiece of 16th century astronomer Nicolas Copernicus.

The private school paid an undisclosed price for a second edition of a book that made the then-heretical claim that the sun was at the center of the universe, rather than the Earth.

The book published in 1566 is kept in Wellesley’s Special Collections Room.

It was recently owned by an Austrian lawyer until Wellesley bought it from a rare books dealer based in New York. U.S. academic libraries are believed to have 28 copies of the book.

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Information from: MetroWest Daily News, http://www.metrowestdailynews.com

AP-ES-06-16-08 0755EDT