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Georg von Peuerbach's Theoricae novae planetarum is one of the fundamental contributions of pre-Copernican astronomy. Written in 1454, it was published by Regiomontanus in 1472 and was to have a broad diffusion up to the middle of the 17th century. In order to understand the scientific reasons which enabled this work to impose itself all around Europe for such a long period of time, and to check if its contents could have had a role in the reflections leading to the conception of the new universe proposed by Copernicus, a critical edition and commentary of von Peuerbach's Theoricae novae planetarum is necessary. It is a task to which the author of this paper has devoted herself for several years and which will be published in 2013. A preliminary study of the manuscripts through which this work has been transmitted reveals the existence of some unknown copies which shed new light on the early and more genuine diffusion of the Theoricae novae planetarum. This paper presents manuscripts which can be traced back directly to von Peuerbach and which were realized thanks to his own efforts.