Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus (German: Nikolaus Kopernikus; Polish:  Mikołaj Kopernik (help·info); 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a heliocentric model of the universe which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center.^[a] DELL XPS 15 L502X Laptop Keyboard The publication of Copernicus' book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just before his death in 1543, is considered a major event in the history of science. It began the Copernican Revolutionand contributed importantly to the scientific revolution. Copernicus was born and died in Royal Prussia, a region of the Kingdom of Poland since 1466. DELL Vostro 1015 Laptop Keyboard Copernicus had a doctorate in canon law and, though without degrees, was a physician, polyglot, classics scholar, translator, governor, diplomat, and economist who in 1517 set down a quantity theory of money, a principal concept in economics to the present day, and formulated a version of Gresham's law in the year 1519, before Gresham. HP 643263-001 Laptop Keyboard Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 in the city of Toruń (Thorn), in the province of Royal Prussia, in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.^[2][3] His father was a merchant from Kraków and his mother was the daughter of a wealthy Toruń merchant.^[4]Nicolaus was the youngest of four children. SAMSUNG N140 Laptop Keyboard His brother Andreas (Andrew) became an Augustinian canon at Frombork (Frauenburg).^[4]His sister Barbara, named after her mother, became a Benedictine nun and, in her final years, prioress of a convent in Chełmno(Kulm); she died after 1517.^[4] His sister Katharina married the businessman and Toruń city councilor Barthel Gertner and left five children, whom Copernicus looked after to the end of his life.^[4] Copernicus never married or had children. TOSHIBA Mini NB 505-SP0160 Laptop Keyboard The father’s family can be traced to a village in Silesia near Nysa (Neiße). The village's name has been variously spelled Kopernik,^[5] Copernik, Copernic, Kopernic, Coprirnik, and today Koperniki.^[6] In the 14th century, members of the family began moving to various other Silesian cities, to the Polish capital, Kraków (1367), and to Toruń (1400).^[6] The father, Mikołaj the Elder, likely the son of Jan, came from the Kraków line.^[6] IBM 42T4026 laptop keyboard Nicolaus was named after his father, who appears in records for the first time as a well-to-do merchant who dealt in copper, selling it mostly in Danzig (Gdańsk).^[7][8] He moved from Kraków to Toruń around 1458.^[9] Toruń, situated on the Vistula River, was at that time embroiled in the Thirteen Years' War (1454–66), in which the Kingdom of Poland and the Prussian Confederation, Lenovo 3000 G530 4151 laptop keyboard an alliance ofPrussian cities, gentry and clergy, fought the Teutonic Order over control of the region. In this war, Hanseatic cities like Danzig and Toruń, Nicolaus Copernicus' hometown, chose to support the Polish King, Casimir IV Jagiellon, who promised to respect the cities' traditional vast independence, which the Teutonic Order had challenged.  Packard Bell Easynote TM98 laptop keyboard Nicolaus' father was actively engaged in the politics of the day and supported Poland and the cities against the Teutonic Order.^[10] In 1454 he mediated negotiations between Poland’s Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki and the Prussian cities for repayment of war loans.^[6] In the Second Peace of Thorn (1466), the Teutonic Order formally relinquished all claims to its western provinces, which as Royal Prussia remained a region of Poland for the next 300 years. SONY VAIO VGN-N21E/W laptop keyboard Copernicus' father married Barbara Watzenrode, the astronomer's mother, between 1461 and 1464.^[6] He died about 1483. Nicolaus’ mother, Barbara Watzenrode, was the daughter of a wealthy Toruń patrician and city councillor, Lucas Watzenrode the Elder(deceased 1462), and Katarzyna (widow of Jan Peckau), mentioned in other sources as Katarzyna "Rüdiger gente Modlibog" (deceased 1476).^[4] HP Pavilion DV7T-4100 laptop keyboard The Watzenrode family, like the Kopernik family, had come from Silesia from near Świdnica (Schweidnitz), and after 1360 had settled in Toruń. They soon became one of the wealthiest and most influential patrician families.^[4] Through the Watzenrodes' extensive family relationships by marriage, Copernicus was related to wealthy families of Toruń, SONY VAIO VGN-FS215E laptop keyboard Danzig and Elbląg (Elbing), and to prominent noble families of Prussia: the Czapskis, Działyńskis, Konopackis and Kościeleckis.^[4] The Modlibógs (the Polish name means "Pray God") were a prominent Polish family who had been well known in Poland's history since 1271.^[11] Lucas and Katherine had three children: SONY Vaio PCG-K23 laptop keyboard Lucas Watzenrode the Younger (1447-1512), who would become Bishop of Warmia and Copernicus' patron; Barbara, the astronomer's mother (deceased after 1495); and Christina (deceased before 1502), who in 1459 married the Toruń merchant and mayor, Tiedeman von Allen.^[4] Lucas Watzenrode the Elder, a wealthy merchant and owner of the village of Sławkowo, and in 1439-62 president of the judicial bench, was a decided opponent of the Teutonic Knights.^[4] DELL NSK-DB301 laptop keyboard In 1453 he was the delegate from Toruń at the Grudziądz (Graudenz) conference that planned the uprising against the Teutonic Knights.^[4] During the ensuing Thirteen Years' War (1454–66), he actively supported the Prussian cities' war effort with substantial monetary subsidies (only part of which he later re-claimed), with political activity in Toruń and Danzig, and by personally fighting in battles at Łasin (Lessen) and Malbork (Marienburg).^[4] He died in 1462.^[4] TOSHIBA P205-S7469 laptop keyboard Lucas Watzenrode the Younger, the astronomer's maternal uncle and patron, was educated at the University of Kraków (now Jagiellonian University) and at the universities of Cologne and Bologna. He was a bitter opponent of the Teutonic Order,^[12][13] and its Grand Master once referred to him as "the devil incarnate".^[14] HP 6730S laptop keyboard In 1489 Watzenrode was elected Bishop of Warmia (Ermeland, Ermland) against the preference of King Casimir IV, who had hoped to install his own son in that seat. As a result, Watzenrode quarreled with the king until Casimir IV’s death three years later.^[15] Watzenrode was then able to form close relations with three successive Polish monarchs: SONY VAIO VGN-NW110D laptop keyboard John I Albert, Alexander Jagiellon, and Sigismund I the Old. He was a friend and key advisor to each ruler, and his influence greatly strengthened the ties between Warmia and Poland proper.^[14][16] Watzenrode came to be considered the most powerful man in Warmia, and his wealth, connections and influence allowed him to secure Copernicus’ education and career as a canon at Frombork Cathedral. SONY VAIO VGN-N250E/B laptop keyboard Copernicus is postulated to have spoken Latin, German, and Polish with equal fluency. He also spoke Greek and Italian.^{[19][20][21][b]}The vast majority of Copernicus’ surviving works are in Latin, which in his lifetime was the language of academia in Europe.^[ Latin was also the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and of Poland's royal court, and thus all of Copernicus’ correspondence with the Church and with Polish leaders was in Latin.^[ HP G42-475TU laptop keyboard There survive a few documents written by Copernicus in German. The German philosophy professor Martin Carrier mentions this as a reason to consider Copernicus’ native language to have been German.^[25] Other arguments for German being Copernicus' native tongue are that he was born in a predominantly German-speaking city and that, while studying canon law at Bologna in 1496, HP G62-a25SI laptop keyboard he signed into the German natio (Natio Germanorum)—a student organization which, according to its 1497 by-laws, was open to students of all kingdoms and states whose mother-tongue ("Muttersprache") was German.^[26] However, according to French philosopher Alexandre Koyré, Copernicus' registration with the Natio Germanorum does not in itself imply that Copernicus considered himself German, IBM Thinkpad R40 laptop keyboard since students from Prussia and Silesia were routinely so categorized, which carried certain privileges that made it a natural choice for German-speaking students, regardless of their ethnicity or self-identification. In Copernicus' time, people were often called after the places where they lived. HP Pavilion DV7-3186cl laptop keyboard Like the Silesian village that inspired it, Copernicus' surname has been spelled variously. The surname likely had something to do with the local Silesian copper-miningindustry,^[24] though some scholars assert that it may have been inspired by the dill plant (in Polish, "koperek" or "kopernik") that grows wild in Silesia.^[31] SONY VAIO VGN-N320E/W laptop keyboard As was to be the case with William Shakespeare a century later,^[32] numerous spelling variants of the name are documented for the astronomer and his relatives. The name first appeared as a place name in Silesia in the 13th century, where it was spelled variously in Latin documents. Copernicus "was rather indifferent about orthography".^[33] Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E520 laptop keyboard During his childhood, about 1480, the name of his father (and thus of the future astronomer) was recorded in Thorn as Niclas Koppernigk.^[34] At Kraków he signed himself, in Latin, Nicolaus Nicolai de Torunia (Nicolaus, son of Nicolaus, of Toruń).^[35] At Bologna, in 1496, he registered in the Matricula Nobilissimi Germanorum Collegii, resp. Annales Clarissimae Nacionis Germanorum, HP Pavilion dv6-2170eo laptop keyboard of the Natio Germanica Bononiae, as Dominus Nicolaus Kopperlingk de Thorn – IX grosseti.^[36][37] At Padua he signed himself "Nicolaus Copernik", later "Coppernicus".^[33] The astronomer thus Latinized his name to Coppernicus, generally with two "p"s (in 23 of 31 documents studied),^[38] but later in life he used a single "p". On the title page ofDe revolutionibus, Rheticus published the name as (in the genitive, or possessive, case) "Nicolai Copernici". TOSHIBA Satellite L655-S5153 laptop keyboard Upon the father’s death, young Nicolaus’ maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger (1447–1512), took the boy under his wing and saw to his education and career.^[4] Watzenrode maintained contacts with leading intellectual figures in Poland and was a friend of the influential Italian-born humanist and Kraków courtier, Filippo Buonaccorsi.^[39] HP Pavilion DV7-3067cl laptop keyboard There are no surviving primary documents on the early years of Copernicus' childhood and education.^[4] Copernicus biographers assume that Watzenrode first sent young Copernicus to St. John's School, at Toruń, where he himself had been a master.^[4] Later, according to Armitage,^[c] the boy attended the Cathedral School at Włocławek, up the Vistula River from Toruń, which prepared pupils for entrance to the University of Kraków, Watzenrode's alma mater in Poland's capital.^[40] HP Pavilion DV7-3180us laptop keyboard In the winter semester of 1491–92 Copernicus, as "Nicolaus Nicolai de Thuronia", matriculated together with his brother Andrew at the University of Kraków (now Jagiellonian University).^[4]Copernicus began his studies in the Department of Arts (from the fall of 1491, presumably until the summer or fall of 1495) in the heyday of the Kraków astronomical-mathematical school, SONY VAIO VGN-FW11S laptop keyboard acquiring the foundations for his subsequent mathematical achievements.^[4]According to a later but credible tradition (Jan Brożek), Copernicus was a pupil of Albert Brudzewski, who by then (from 1491) was a professor of Aristotelian philosophy but taught astronomy privately outside the university; Copernicus became familiar with Brudzewski's widely read commentary to Georg von HP Pavilion dv6-2170ee laptop keyboard Peuerbach's Theoricæ novæ planetarum and almost certainly attended the lectures of Bernard of Biskupie andWojciech Krypa of Szamotuły, and probably other astronomical lectures by Jan of Głogów, Michał of Wrocław (Breslau), Wojciech of Pniewy, and Marcin Bylica ofOlkusz.^[41] HP Pavilion DV6-1122us laptop keyboard Copernicus' Kraków studies gave him a thorough grounding in the mathematical-astronomical knowledge taught at the university (arithmetic, geometry, geometric optics, cosmography, theoretical and computational astronomy), a good knowledge of the philosophical and natural-science writings of Aristotle (De coelo,Metaphysics), stimulated his interest in learning, and made him conversant with humanistic culture.^[17] SONY VAIO VGN-FS315M laptop keyboard Copernicus broadened the knowledge that he took from the university lecture halls with independent reading of books that he acquired during his Kraków years (Euclid, Haly Abenragel, the Alfonsine Tables, Johannes Regiomontanus' Tabulae directionum); to this period, probably, also date his earliest scientific notes, now preserved partly at Uppsala University.^[17]  DELL PK130801B00 laptop keyboard At Kraków Copernicus began collecting a large library on astronomy; it would later be carried off as war booty by the Swedes during the Deluge in 1650s and is now at theUppsala University Library.^{[citation needed]} Copernicus' four years at Kraków played an important role in the development of his critical faculties TOSHIBA Satellite L655-S5163 laptop keyboard and initiated his analysis of the logical contradictions in the two most popular systems of astronomy—Aristotle's theory of homocentric spheres, and Ptolemy's mechanism of eccentrics and epicycles—the surmounting and discarding of which constituted the first step toward the creation of Copernicus' own doctrine of the structure of the universe.^[17] HP Pavilion dv5t-1200se CTO laptop keyboard   Without taking a degree, probably in the fall of 1495, Copernicus left Kraków for the court of his uncle Watzenrode, who in 1489 had been elevated to Prince-Bishop of Warmia and soon (before November 1495) sought to place his nephew in the Warmia canonry vacated by the 26 August 1495 death of its previous tenant, Jan Czanow. COMPAQ Presario C700 Laptop Keyboard For unclear reasons—probably due to opposition from part of the chapter, who appealed to Rome—Copernicus' installation was delayed, inclining Watzenrode to send both his nephews to study canon law in Italy, seemingly with a view to furthering their ecclesiastic careers and thereby also strengthening his own influence in the Warmia chapter.^[17]  HP G72-b60US Laptop Keyboard Leaving Warmia in mid-1496—possibly with the retinue of the chapter's chancellor, Jerzy Pranghe, who was going to Italy—in the fall (October?) of that year Copernicus arrived in Bologna and a few months later (after 6 January 1497) signed himself into the register of the Bologna University of Jurists' "German nation", which also included young Poles from Silesia, Prussia and Pomerania, as well as students of other nationalities. HP 519265-001 Laptop Keyboard It was only on 20 October 1497 that Copernicus, by proxy, formally succeeded to the Warmia canonry which had been granted to him two years earlier. To this, by a document dated 10 January 1503 at Padua, he would add a sinecure at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław, Silesia, Bohemia. COMPAQ Presario C700 Laptop Keyboard Despite having been granted a papal indult on 29 November 1508 to receive further benefices, through his ecclesiastic career Copernicus not only did not acquire further prebendsand higher stations (prelacies) at the chapter, but in 1538 he relinquished the Wrocław sinecure. It is uncertain whether he was ordained a priest; Lenovo Thinkpad T420 Laptop Keyboard he may only have taken minor orders, which sufficed for assuming a chapter canonry. During his three-year stay at Bologna, between fall 1496 and spring 1501, Copernicus seems to have devoted himself less keenly to studying canon law (he received his doctorate in law only after seven years, TOSHIBA Satellite A305 Laptop Keyboard following a second return to Italy in 1503) than to studying the humanities—probably attending lectures by Filippo Beroaldo,Antonio Urceo, called Codro, Giovanni Garzoni, and Alessandro Achillini—and to studying astronomy. He met the famous astronomer Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara and became his disciple and assistant. Compaq Presario CQ57 Series Laptop Keyboard Copernicus was developing new ideas inspired by reading the "Epitome of the Almagest" (Epitome in Almagestum Ptolemei) by George von Peuerbach and Johannes Regiomontanus (Venice, 1496). He verified its observations about certain peculiarities in Ptolemy's theory of the Moon's motion, by conducting on 9 March 1497 at Bologna a memorable observation of Aldebaran,  Lenovo 39T7417 Laptop Keyboard the brightest star in the Taurus constellation, whose results reinforced his doubts as to the geocentric system. Copernicus the humanist sought confirmation for his growing doubts through close reading of Greek and Latin authors (Pythagoras, Aristarchos of Samos,Cleomedes, Cicero, Pliny the Elder, DELL Vostro 3450 Laptop Keyboard Plutarch, Philolaus, Heraclides, Ecphantos,Plato), gathering, especially while at Padua, fragmentary historic information about ancient astronomical, cosmological and calendar systems.^[42] Copernicus spent the jubilee year 1500 in Rome, where he arrived with his brother Andrew that spring, doubtless to perform an apprenticeship at the Papal Curia. HP Mini 210-1014TU Laptop Keyboard Here, too, however, he continued his astronomical work begun at Bologna, observing, for example, a lunar eclipse on the night of 5–6 November 1500. According to a later account by Rheticus, Copernicus also—probably privately, rather than at the RomanSapienza—as a "Professor Mathematum" (professor of astronomy) delivered, HP Pavilion DV6-1002tx Laptop Keyboard "to numerous... students and... leading masters of the science", public lectures devoted probably to a critique of the mathematical solutions of contemporary astronomy.^[43] On his return journey doubtless stopping briefly at Bologna, in mid-1501 Copernicus arrived back in Warmia. HP 519265-001 Laptop Keyboard After on 28 July receiving from the chapter a two-year extension of leave in order to study medicine (since "he may in future be a useful medical advisor to our Reverend Superior [Bishop Lucas Watzenrode] and the gentlemen of the chapter"), in late summer or in the fall he returned again to Italy, probably accompanied by his brother Andrew and by Canon B. Sculteti. DELL Precision M4500 Laptop Keyboard This time he studied at the University of Padua, famous as a seat of medical learning, and—except for a brief visit to Ferrara in May–June 1503 to pass examinations for, and receive, his doctorate in canon law—he remained at Padua from fall 1501 to summer 1503.^[43] Copernicus studied medicine probably under the direction of leading Padua professors—Bartolomeo da Montagnana, Girolamo Fracastoro, Gabriele Zerbi, DELL PK130801B00 Laptop Keyboard Alessandro Benedetti—and read medical treatises that he acquired at this time, by Valescus de Taranta, Jan Mesue, Hugo Senensis, Jan Ketham, Arnold de Villa Nova, and Michele Savonarola, which would form the embryo of his later medical library.^[43] One of the subjects that Copernicus must have studied was astrology, HP Pavilion DV6-1030us Laptop Keyboard since it was considered an important part of a medical education.^[44] However, unlike most other prominent Renaissance astronomers, he appears never to have practiced or expressed any interest in astrology.^[45] As at Bologna, Copernicus did not limit himself to his official studies. HP Probook 4520S Laptop Keyboard It was probably the Padua years that saw the beginning of his Hellenistic interests. He familiarized himself with Greek language and culture with the aid of Theodorus Gaza's grammar (1495) and J.B. Chrestonius' dictionary (1499), expanding his studies of antiquity, begun at Bologna, to the writings of Basilius Bessarion, Lorenzo Valla and others. SONY 147977821 Laptop Keyboard There also seems to be evidence that it was during his Padua stay that the idea finally crystallized, of basing a new system of the world on the movement of the Earth.^[43] As the time approached for Copernicus to return home, in spring 1503 he journeyed to Ferrara where, on 31 May 1503, SONY 147963021 Laptop Keyboard having passed the obligatory examinations, he was granted the degree of doctor of canon law. No doubt it was soon after (at latest, in fall 1503) that he left Italy for good to return to Warmia. Having completed all his studies in Italy, 30-year-old Copernicus returned to Warmia, where he would live out the remaining 40 years of his life, ASUS F3M Laptop Keyboard apart from brief journeys to Kraków and to nearby Prussian cities: Toruń (Thorn), Gdańsk (Danzig),Elbląg (Elbing), Grudziądz (Graudenz), Malbork (Marienburg), Königsberg (Królewiec).^[43] The Prince-Bishopric of Warmia enjoyed substantial autonomy, with its own diet (parliament) and monetary unit (the same as in the other parts of Royal Prussia) and treasury.^[46] Lenovo 63Y0047 Laptop Keyboard Copernicus was his uncle's secretary and physician from 1503 to 1510 (or perhaps till his uncle's death on 29 March 1512) and resided in the Bishop's castle at Lidzbark (Heilsberg), where he began work on his heliocentric theory. In his official capacity, he took part in nearly all his uncle's political, ecclesiastic and administrative-economic duties.  HP Pavilion dv6-3107ax Laptop Keyboard From the beginning of 1504, Copernicus accompanied Watzenrode to sessions of the Royal Prussian diet held at Malbork and Elbląg and, write Dobrzycki and Hajdukiewicz, "participated... in all the more important events in the complex diplomatic game that ambitious politician and statesman played in defense of the particular interests of Prussia and Warmia, between hostility to the [Teutonic] Order and loyalty to the Polish Crown." SONY VAIO VGN-C2S Series Laptop Keyboard In 1504–12 Copernicus made numerous journeys as part of his uncle's retinue—in 1504, to Toruń and Gdańsk, to a session of the Royal Prussian Council in the presence of Poland's King Alexander Jagiellon; to sessions of the Prussian diet at Malbork (1506), Elbląg (1507) and Sztum (Stuhm) (1512); HP 488590-001 Laptop Keyboard and he may have attended a Poznań (Posen) session (1510) and the coronation of Poland's KingSigismund I the Old in Kraków (1507). Watzenrode's itinerary suggests that in spring 1509 Copernicus may have attended the Krakówsejm.^[43] It was probably on the latter occasion, in Kraków, that Copernicus submitted for printing at Jan Haller's press his translation, TOSHIBA P000482730 Laptop Keyboard from Greek to Latin, of a collection, by the 7th-century Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta, of 85 brief poems called Epistles, or letters, supposed to have passed between various characters in a Greek story. They are of three kinds—"moral," offering advice on how people should live; "pastoral", giving little pictures of shepherd life; and "amorous", comprising love poems.  SONY 147977821 Laptop Keyboard They are arranged to follow one another in a regular rotation of subjects. Copernicus had translated the Greek verses into Latin prose, and he now published his version as Theophilacti scolastici Simocati epistolae morales, rurales et amatoriae interpretatione latina, which he dedicated to his uncle in gratitude for all the benefits he had received from him. TOSHIBA Tecra M9-S5514 Laptop Keyboard GATEWAY NV-54 Laptop Keyboard With this translation, Copernicus declared himself on the side of the humanists in the struggle over the question whether Greek literature should be revived.^[22] Copernicus' first poetic work was a Greek epigram, composed probably during a visit to Kraków, for Johannes Dantiscus' epithalamium for Barbara Zapolya's 1512 wedding to King Zygmunt I the Old.^[47] FUJITSU Lifebook P1510 Laptop Keyboard