Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was the first astronomer to formulate a scientifically based heliocentric cosmology that displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the Scientific Revolution.

Nicolaus Copernicus - Polish Astronomer

Although Greek, Indian and Muslim savants had published heliocentric hypotheses centuries before Copernicus, his publication of a scientific theory of heliocentrism, demonstrating that the motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting the Earth at rest in the center of the universe, stimulated further scientific investigations, and became a landmark in the history of modern science that is known as the Copernican Revolution.

Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classical scholar, translator, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. Amid his extensive responsibilities, astronomy figured as little more than an avocation — yet it was in that field that he made his mark upon the world.

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473, in a house on St. Anne's Street (now Copernicus Street) in the city of Toruń (Thorn). Toruń was situated on the Vistula River in the Royal Prussia region of the Kingdom of Poland. Nicolaus was named after his father, who about 1458 had moved from Kraków to Toruń. The father was a wealthy copper trader who had become a respected citizen of Toruń. Nicolaus's mother, Barbara Watzenrode (died after 1495), had been born into a wealthy merchant family that was part of the patrician class in Toruń.

Nicolaus's father died between 1483 and 1485. After that, his maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger (1447–1512), a church canon who would later become Prince-Bishop governor of the Archbishopric of Warmia, took young Nicolaus under his protection and saw to his education and future career.

Nicolaus was the youngest of four children. His brother Andreas (Andrzej) became an Augustinian canon at Frombork. His sister Barbara (named after her mother) became a Benedictine nun. His sister Katharina (Katarzyna) married Barthel Gertner, a businessman and city councilor.

Numerous variants of Copernicus's name are documented. Until the mid-1530s, he mostly signed himself Coppernic. Afterward, he followed the academic custom of his time and adopted a Latinized version of his name. Thus, on the title page of his epochal book, Nicolai Copernici Torinensis De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium Libri VI, the astronomer's name appears as Nicolaus Copernicus.

In 1776, Johann Gottfried Herder introduced the spelling Nikolaus Kopernikus, which replaced each c with k and changed pp to p. This spelling became popular in German writings, although scholars argued for Coppernicus. The Polish rendering is Mikolaj Kopernik; the surname means "one who works with copper".

Education

In 1491 Copernicus enrolled at the Kraków Academy (now Jagiellonian University), where he probably first encountered astronomy with Professor Albert Brudzewski. Astronomy soon fascinated him, and he began collecting a large library on the subject. Copernicus's library would later be carried off as war booty by the Swedes during "the Deluge" and is now at the Uppsala University Library.

After four years in Kraków, followed by a brief stay back home in Toruń, Copernicus went to study law and medicine at the universities of Bologna and Padua. Copernicus's uncle, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger, financed his education and hoped that Copernicus too would become a bishop. Copernicus, however, while studying canon and civil law at Bologna, met the famous astronomer, Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara. Copernicus attended Novara's lectures and became his disciple and assistant. The first observations that Copernicus made in 1497, together with Novara, are recorded in Copernicus's epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.

In 1497 Copernicus's uncle was ordained Bishop of Warmia, and Copernicus was named a canon at Frombork Cathedral. But Copernicus remained in Italy, where he attended the great Jubilee of 1500. He also went to Rome, where he observed a lunar eclipse and gave some lectures in astronomy and mathematics.

In 1501 Copernicus returned to Frombork. As soon as he arrived, he obtained permission to complete his studies in Padua, where he studied medicine (with Guarico and Fracastoro), and at Ferrara, where in 1503 he received his doctorate in canon law. It has been surmised that it was in Padua that he encountered passages from Cicero and Plato about opinions of the ancients on the movement of the Earth, and formed the first intuition of his own future theory. In 1504 Copernicus began collecting observations and ideas pertinent to his theory.

Work

{mosimage}In 1505 Copernicus moved to Frombork (Frauenburg), a town in the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia north and downstream of Toruń on the Vistula Lagoon. The Bishopric of Warmia, within Royal Prussia, though subject to the Polish crown, enjoyed substantial autonomy, with its own Diet, army, monetary unit and treasury. Some time before his return to Warmia, he received a position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław (Breslau), Silesia, Bohemia, which he held for many years and only resigned for health reasons shortly before his death. Copernicus remained for the rest of his life a burgher of Warmia (Bishopric of Warmia). During the Protestant Reformation he remained a loyal subject of the Catholic Prince-Bishops and the Catholic Polish King. Throughout his life he performed astronomical observations and calculations, but only as time permitted, and never in a professional capacity.

Copernicus oversaw the defense of the castle of Olsztyn (Allenstein) at the head of Royal Polish forces when the town was besieged by the Teutonic Knights during the Polish-Teutonic War (1519–1521). He also participated in the peace negotiations.

Copernicus worked for years with the Royal Prussian Diet, and with Duke Albert of Prussia, and advised Poland's King Sigismund I the Old on monetary reform. Holding the office of canon, he traveled extensively on government business and as a diplomat on behalf of the Prince-Bishop of Warmia. He participated in the discussions in the East Prussian Diet about coin reform in the Prussian countries. One issue of concern to participants of the Diet was who had the right to mint coins. The task required much diplomacy, but proved to be a success. Some of the difficulties came about because of the political upheavals occurring in Prussia at the time, such as the establishment of the Duchy of Prussia as a Protestant state in 1525. Copernicus translated the coin reform treatise into Latin for external use. In 1530 an agreement with Duke Albert was negotiated at Elbląg (Elbing).

In 1526 Copernicus wrote a study on the value of money, Monetae Cudendae Ratio. In it, Copernicus formulated an early iteration of the theory, now called "Gresham's Law," that "bad" (debased) coinage drives "good" (un-debased) coinage out of circulation, 70 years before Gresham. He also formulated a version of quantity theory of money.

As governor of Warmia, he administered taxes and dealt out justice.

Two years before Copernicus's death, Duke Albert urgently summoned him to Königsberg to treat one of his counsellors, who was dangerously ill. The patient recovered within a month or so, and Copernicus then returned to Frombork.

In 1551, under Duke Albert's patronage, Erasmus Reinhold published the Prutenic Tables, a set of astronomical tables based on Copernicus's work, which astronomers and astrologers quickly adopted in place of those which they had superseded.

{mosimage}In 1514 Copernicus made available to friends his Commentariolus (Little Commentary), a short hand-written text describing his ideas about the heliocentric hypothesis. Thereafter he continued gathering data for a more detailed work.

In 1533, Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter delivered in Rome a series of lectures outlining Copernicus's theory. The lectures were heard with interest by Pope Clement VII and several Catholic cardinals.

On 1 November 1536, Archbishop of Capua Nicholas Schönberg wrote a letter to Copernicus from Rome:

Some years ago word reached me concerning your proficiency, of which everybody constantly spoke. At that time I began to have a very high regard for you... For I had learned that you had not merely mastered the discoveries of the ancient astronomers uncommonly well but had also formulated a new cosmology. In it you maintain that the earth moves; that the sun occupies the lowest, and thus the central, place in the universe... Therefore with the utmost earnestness I entreat you, most learned sir, unless I inconvenience you, to communicate this discovery of yours to scholars, and at the earliest possible moment to send me your writings on the sphere of the universe together with the tables and whatever else you have that is relevant to this subject ...

By then Copernicus's work was nearing its definitive form, and rumors about his theory had reached educated people all over Europe. Despite urgings from many quarters, Copernicus delayed with the publication of his book, perhaps from fear of criticism — a fear delicately expressed in the subsequent Dedication of his masterpiece to Pope Paul III. Scholars disagree on whether Copernicus's concern was limited to physical and philosophical objections from other natural philosophers, or whether he was also concerned about religious objections from theologians.

The Book

{mosimage}Copernicus was still working on De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (even if not convinced that he wanted to publish it) when in 1539 Georg Joachim Rheticus, a Wittenberg mathematician, arrived in Frombork. Philipp Melanchthon had arranged for Rheticus to visit several astronomers and study with them.

Rheticus became Copernicus's pupil, staying with him for two years and writing a book, Narratio prima (First Account), outlining the essence of Copernicus's theory. In 1542 Rheticus published a treatise on trigonometry by Copernicus (later included in the second book of De revolutionibus).

Under strong pressure from Rheticus, and having seen the favorable first general reception of his work, Copernicus finally agreed to give De revolutionibus to his close friend, Tiedemann Giese, bishop of Chełmno (Kulm), to be delivered to Rheticus for printing by Johannes Petreius at Nuremberg (Nürnberg).

Death

Copernicus died on May 24, 1543, in Frombork. Legend has it that the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was placed in Copernicus's hands on the very day he died, allowing him to take farewell of his opus vitae (life's work). He is reputed to have woken from a stroke-induced coma, looked at his book, and died peacefully.

Copernicus was reportedly buried in the Cathedral of Frauenburg where archeologists had long searched in vain for his remains. In August 2005, a team of archeologists led by Jerzy Gąssowski, head of an archaeology and anthropology institute in Pułtusk, discovered what they believe to be Copernicus's grave and remains, after scanning beneath the floor of the Cathedral. The find came after a year of searching, and the discovery was announced only after further research, on November 3. Gąssowski said he was "almost 100 percent sure it is Copernicus". Forensic expert Capt. Dariusz Zajdel of the Central Forensic Laboratory of the Polish Police used the skull to reconstruct a face that closely resembled the features — including a broken nose and a scar above the left eye — on a Copernicus self-portrait. The expert also determined that the skull had belonged to a man who had died about age 70 — Copernicus's age at the time of his death. The grave was in poor condition, and not all the remains were found. The archeologists hoped to find deceased relatives of Copernicus in order to attempt DNA identification