Nicolaus Copernicus
Name at birth: Niclas Kopernik
(19 February 1473, Toruń (Thorn), Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland – 24 May 1543, Frombork (Frauenburg), East Prussia) (aged 70)
Nationality: Poland
Category: Scientists
Occupation: Astronomers, Mathematics
Unique distinction: Creator of the heliocentric model of the Universe, polymaths.
Gender: Male
(19 February 1473, Toruń (Thorn), Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland – 24 May 1543, Frombork (Frauenburg), East Prussia) (aged 70)
Nationality: Poland
Category: Scientists
Occupation: Astronomers, Mathematics
Unique distinction: Creator of the heliocentric model of the Universe, polymaths.
Gender: Male
Quotes:
1. First of all, we must note that the universe is spherical. 2. Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. 3. To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge. 4. Those things which I am saying now may be obscure, yet they will be made clearer in their proper place. 5. Yet if anyone believes that the earth rotates, surely he will hold that its motion is natural, not violent.
1. First of all, we must note that the universe is spherical. 2. Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. 3. To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge. 4. Those things which I am saying now may be obscure, yet they will be made clearer in their proper place. 5. Yet if anyone believes that the earth rotates, surely he will hold that its motion is natural, not violent.
Video: World History
Achievements and contributions:
Social and professional position: Copernicus was a Polish astronomer, mathematician, polyglot and a great Renaissance polymath.
His main contribution to (Best known for): He was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the Universe. His work stimulated further scientific investigations. His work is regarded as the Copernican Revolution in science.
Contributions: Copernicus was a Polish astronomer, physician, mathematician, polyglot, classical scholar, translator, artist, Catholic cleric, jurist, diplomat and economist, so great Renaissance polymath.
He was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the Universe.
Copernicus was the first person in history to create a complete and general system, combining mathematics, physics, and cosmology.
Copernicus’ epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), published just before his death in 1543, is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy.
His heliocentric model, with the Sun at the center of the universe, demonstrated that the observed motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting Earth at rest in the center of the universe.
By attributing to Earth a daily rotation around its own axis and a yearly revolution around a stationary Sun, he developed an idea that had far-reaching implications for the rise of modern science.
Aristarchus, an early Greek, had proposed similar ideas, but few accepted them. Copernicus revived this idea and asserted, that astronomy must describe the real, physical system of the world.
His work stimulated further scientific investigations, becoming a landmark in the history of science. At the same time only with Johannes Kepler was Copernicus’s model fully transformed into a new philosophy about the fundamental structure of the universe. Modern astronomy was built upon the foundation of the Copernican system.
Because Copernicus’ heliocentric theory of the planets defied 1,500 years of tradition, some historians mark the publication date of De revolutionibus as the beginning of the “scientific revolution” or the Copernican Revolution in science.
Major works: On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (1543).
His main contribution to (Best known for): He was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the Universe. His work stimulated further scientific investigations. His work is regarded as the Copernican Revolution in science.
Contributions: Copernicus was a Polish astronomer, physician, mathematician, polyglot, classical scholar, translator, artist, Catholic cleric, jurist, diplomat and economist, so great Renaissance polymath.
He was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the Universe.
Copernicus was the first person in history to create a complete and general system, combining mathematics, physics, and cosmology.
Copernicus’ epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), published just before his death in 1543, is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy.
His heliocentric model, with the Sun at the center of the universe, demonstrated that the observed motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting Earth at rest in the center of the universe.
By attributing to Earth a daily rotation around its own axis and a yearly revolution around a stationary Sun, he developed an idea that had far-reaching implications for the rise of modern science.
Aristarchus, an early Greek, had proposed similar ideas, but few accepted them. Copernicus revived this idea and asserted, that astronomy must describe the real, physical system of the world.
His work stimulated further scientific investigations, becoming a landmark in the history of science. At the same time only with Johannes Kepler was Copernicus’s model fully transformed into a new philosophy about the fundamental structure of the universe. Modern astronomy was built upon the foundation of the Copernican system.
Because Copernicus’ heliocentric theory of the planets defied 1,500 years of tradition, some historians mark the publication date of De revolutionibus as the beginning of the “scientific revolution” or the Copernican Revolution in science.
Major works: On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (1543).
Career and personal life:
Origin: Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 at Thorn in Prussian Poland, where his father, a native of Krakow, had settled as a wholesale trader. His mother, Barbara Watzelrode was the daughter of a wealthy Toruń merchant. His father’s family has been described as Polish, and his mother’s family as of German origin.
Education: He was educated at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Bologna University, University of Padua; University of Ferrara.
Career highlights: He lectured c.1500 in Rome on mathematics and astronomy. In 1503 he moved to Ferrara where, on 31 May 1503, having passed the obligatory examinations, he was granted the degree of doctor of canon law. In this year 30-year-old Copernicus returned to Warmia, where he would live out the remaining 40 years of his life. Copernicus was his uncle’s secretary and physician from 1503 to 1510 and resided in the Bishop’s castle at Heilsberg.
in 1512 he settled in Frombork (Frauenburg) a town to the northwest at the Vistula Lagoon on the Baltic Sea coast (East Prussia), where he had been nominated canon of the cathedral.
There in Frombork he performed his canonical duties, practised medicine, was a legal officer, and wrote a pioneering treatise on currency reform. He took advantage of his financial security to begin his astronomical observations. There Copernicus conducted over half of his more than 60 registered astronomical observations.
Hesitant to publish his work for fear of being charged with heresy, Copernicus summarized it at 1530 in the treatise, which was dedicated to Pope Paul III and circulated it among Europe’s scholars, where it was greeted with enthusiasm.
His work, titled De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was finally published in 1543, apparently just a few weeks before he died.
Personal life: Nicolaus was the youngest of four children in the family. After his father died in 1483 he was put under the guardianship of his uncle, a bishop of Warmia (Poland).
He was educated at Jagiellonian University, Krakow and also at Bologna, and Padua, where he mastered all the knowledge of the day in mathematics, astronomy, canon law, medicine and theology.
Copernicus never married or had children.
Copernicus spoke Latin, Polish, and German with equal fluency. He also spoke Greek and Italian.
He died on May 24, 1543, in Frauenburg, East Prussia (now Frombork, Poland).
Remains: Buried, St. John’s Cathedral, Frombork, Poland.
Zest: Among his many responsibilities, astronomy figured as little more than an avocation. Nationality did not yet play as important a role in Copernicus’ time as it would later, and people generally did not think of themselves primarily as Polish or German.
Education: He was educated at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Bologna University, University of Padua; University of Ferrara.
Career highlights: He lectured c.1500 in Rome on mathematics and astronomy. In 1503 he moved to Ferrara where, on 31 May 1503, having passed the obligatory examinations, he was granted the degree of doctor of canon law. In this year 30-year-old Copernicus returned to Warmia, where he would live out the remaining 40 years of his life. Copernicus was his uncle’s secretary and physician from 1503 to 1510 and resided in the Bishop’s castle at Heilsberg.
in 1512 he settled in Frombork (Frauenburg) a town to the northwest at the Vistula Lagoon on the Baltic Sea coast (East Prussia), where he had been nominated canon of the cathedral.
There in Frombork he performed his canonical duties, practised medicine, was a legal officer, and wrote a pioneering treatise on currency reform. He took advantage of his financial security to begin his astronomical observations. There Copernicus conducted over half of his more than 60 registered astronomical observations.
Hesitant to publish his work for fear of being charged with heresy, Copernicus summarized it at 1530 in the treatise, which was dedicated to Pope Paul III and circulated it among Europe’s scholars, where it was greeted with enthusiasm.
His work, titled De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was finally published in 1543, apparently just a few weeks before he died.
Personal life: Nicolaus was the youngest of four children in the family. After his father died in 1483 he was put under the guardianship of his uncle, a bishop of Warmia (Poland).
He was educated at Jagiellonian University, Krakow and also at Bologna, and Padua, where he mastered all the knowledge of the day in mathematics, astronomy, canon law, medicine and theology.
Copernicus never married or had children.
Copernicus spoke Latin, Polish, and German with equal fluency. He also spoke Greek and Italian.
He died on May 24, 1543, in Frauenburg, East Prussia (now Frombork, Poland).
Remains: Buried, St. John’s Cathedral, Frombork, Poland.
Zest: Among his many responsibilities, astronomy figured as little more than an avocation. Nationality did not yet play as important a role in Copernicus’ time as it would later, and people generally did not think of themselves primarily as Polish or German.
