Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Thorn, Poland on February 19, He was the son of a wealthy merchant. After his father's death, he was raised by his mother's brother, a bishop in the Catholic Church.
Copernicus studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Krakow. Through his uncle's influence Copernicus was appointed a canon church official of the Catholic Church. He used the income from the position to help pay for additional studies. Copernicus studied law and medicine at the universities of Bologna, Padua, and Ferrara in Italy. While he was studying at the University of Bologna, his interest in astronomy was stimulated.
The city, on the Vistula River, had been an important inland port in the Hanseatic League. However, fighting between the Order of the Teutonic Knights and the Prussian Union in alliance with the Kingdom of Poland ended in , and West Prussia, which included Torun, was ceded to Poland, and Torun was declared a free city of the Polish kingdom. Thus the child of a German family was a subject of the Polish crown.
In Copernicus enrolled in the University of Cracow. He assumed the post two years later, and his financial situation was secure for life. While at Bologna he lived with the astronomy professor Domenico Maria Novara and made his first astronomical observations. Humanism began to infiltrate the Italian universities in the fifteenth century.
Copernicus may have studied with him, for Copernicus translated into Latin the letters of the seventh-century Byzantine author Theophylactus Simocatta MW 27—71 from the edition of a collection of Greek letters produced by the Venetian humanist printer Aldus Manutius. Aldus had dedicated his edition to Urceo.
Copernicus had his translation printed in , his only publication prior to the On the Revolutions De revolutionibus. Copernicus left Bologna for Frombork in without having obtained his degree. The chapter then approved another leave of absence for Copernicus to study medicine at the University of Padua. The medical curriculum did not just include medicine, anatomy, and the like when Copernicus studied it. The actual uses of astrology in medical diagnosis and treatment by learned physicians were many and various.
It is true that astrology required that medical students acquire some grounding in astronomy; nevertheless, it is likely that Copernicus studied astrology while at the University of Padua. Copernicus did not receive his medical degree from Padua; the degree would have taken three years, and Copernicus had only been granted a two-year leave of absence by his chapter.
Instead he matriculated in the University of Ferrara, from which he obtained a doctorate in canon law. But he did not return to his chapter in Frombork; rather he went to live with his uncle in the episcopal palace in Lidzbark-Warminski Heilsberg in German.
Although he made some astronomical observations, he was immersed in church politics, and after his elderly uncle became ill in , Copernicus was his attending physician. Rosen , —35 reasonably conjectured that the bishop may have hoped that his nephew would be his successor, but Copernicus left his uncle because his duties in Lidzbark-Warminski interfered with his continuing pursuit of his studies in astronomy.
He took up residence in his chapter of Frombork in and stayed there the rest of his life. Not that leaving his uncle and moving to Frombork exempted Copernicus from continued involvement in administrative and political duties.
He was responsible for the administration of various holdings, which involved heading the provisioning fund, adjudicating disputes, attending meetings, and keeping accounts and records. In response to the problem he found with the local currency, he drafted an essay on coinage MW — in which he deplored the debasement of the currency and made recommendations for reform.
His manuscripts were consulted by the leaders of both Prussia and Poland in their attempts to stabilize the currency. He was a leader for West Prussia in the war against the Teutonic Knights, which lasted from — He was physician for the bishop his uncle had died in and members of the chapter, and he was consulting physician for notables in East and West Prussia. Nevertheless, Copernicus began to work on astronomy on his own.
Sometime between and he wrote an essay that has come to be known as the Commentariolus MW 75— that introduced his new cosmological idea, the heliocentric universe, and he sent copies to various astronomers. He continued making astronomical observations whenever he could, hampered by the poor position for observations in Frombork and his many pressing responsibilities as canon.
Nevertheless, he kept working on his manuscript of On the Revolutions. In a young mathematician named Georg Joachim Rheticus — from the University of Wittenberg came to study with Copernicus.
Rheticus brought Copernicus books in mathematics, in part to show Copernicus the quality of printing that was available in the German-speaking cities. Most importantly, he convinced Copernicus to publish On the Revolutions. Rheticus oversaw most of the printing of the book, and on 24 May Copernicus held a copy of the finished work on his deathbed.
Classical astronomy followed principles established by Aristotle. Aristotle accepted the idea that there were four physical elements — earth, water, air, and fire.
He put the earth in the center of the universe and contended that these elements were below the moon, which was the closest celestial body. There were seven planets, or wandering stars, because they had a course through the zodiac in addition to traveling around the earth: the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter.
Beyond that were the fixed stars. But observers realized that the heavenly bodies did not move as Aristotle postulated. The earth was not the true center of the orbits and the motion was not uniform.
He restored the science of the heavenly motions in such a way that nobody before him had a more accurate knowledge of the movements of the heavenly bodies. Rudnicki [ 13 ] gives this appreciation of Copernicus:- He was truly creative. His scientific method, though determined by the horizons of contemporary knowledge and belief, was yet ideally objective. Ethically, his actions throughout his life bear witness to the highest standards.
He did good. He earned the general respect and honour of his contemporaries. For many years he served self-sacrificingly the cause of his native country. But he knew no private, domestic joys. References show. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica. A Armitage, The World of Copernicus H Wussing, Nicolaus Copernicus Leipzig, P Barker, Copernicus, the orbs, and the equant, Pierre Duhem : historian and philosopher of science I, Synthese 83 2 , - F Barone, The 'modernity' of Nicolaus Copernicus Italian , in Copernicus and the Copernican question in Italy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century Florence, , 1 - Storia Sci.
N Bonev, The great achievement of Nicolaus Copernicus - : on the occasion of the th anniversary of his birth Bulgarian , Fiz. M Di Bono, Copernicus, Amico, Fracastoro and the mechanism of al- Tusi : observations on the use and the transmission of a model Italian , in Copernicus and the Copernican question in Italy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century Florence, , 69 - J Casanovas, Copernicus and the Gregorian calendar reform, in Copernicus and the Copernican question in Italy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century Florence, , 97 - J Drewnowski, A new source concerning the unsuccessful canonical proceedings against Nicolaus Copernicus Polish , Kwart.
History Sci. O Gingerich, Did Copernicus owe a debt to Aristarchus? I, Synthese 83 2 , - Geschichte Naturwiss. Medizin 11 1 , 40 - D K Hill, The projection argument in Galileo and Copernicus : rhetorical strategy in the defence of the new system, Ann.
London Ser. A , - Mathematical Phys. Histoire Sci. III Fiz. C Methuen, Maestlin's teaching of Copernicus : The evidence of his university textbook and disputations, Isis 87 2 , - Toimetised Vih.
K P Moesgaard, Success and failure in Copernicus' planetary theories. I, Arch. II, Arch. Nauk SSSR. Nauk , - O Neugebauer, On the planetary theory of Copernicus, in Vistas in astronomy 10 Oxford, , 89 - Nauk Turkmen. SSR Ser. Ferrara Sez. Although his model wasn't completely correct, it formed a strong foundation for future scientists to build on and improve mankind's understanding of the motion of heavenly bodies. Indeed, other astronomers built on Copernicus' work and proved that our planet is just one world orbiting one star in a vast cosmos loaded with both, and that we're far from the center of anything.
Here is a brief biography of Copernicus:. Born on Feb. However, he spent most of his time studying mathematics and astronomy. Due to his uncle's influence, Copernicus did become a canon in Warmia, but he asked to return to Italy to study medicine and to complete his law doctorate.
Of course, he may also have been thinking that the skies above Italy were clearer than above Warmia, according to Famous Scientists. While attending the University of Bologna, he lived and worked with astronomy professor Domenico Maria de Novara, doing research and helping him make observations of the heavens. Copernicus never took orders as a priest, but instead continued to work as a secretary and physician for his uncle in Warmia. When he returned to Poland to take up his official duties, his room in one of the towers surrounding the town boasted an observatory, giving him ample time and opportunity to study the night sky, which he did in his spare time.
In Copernicus' lifetime, most believed that Earth held its place at the center of the universe. The sun, the stars, and all of the planets revolved around it. One of the glaring mathematical problems with this model was that the planets, on occasion, would travel backward across the sky over several nights of observation. Astronomers called this retrograde motion.
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