Nicolaus Copernicus

Hari ini, tepatnya 19 Februari adalah tanggal kelahiran seorang tokoh dunia yang memberikan cikal bakal dalam pengembangan ilmu modern. ya, beliau ialah Nicolaus Copernicus. siapakah beliau..?

Nicolaus Copernicus
Portrait, 1580, Toruń Old Town City Hall
Born	19 February 1473 Toruń (Thorn), Royal Prussia,Kingdom of Poland
Died	24 May 1543 (aged 70) Frombork (Frauenburg), Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland
Fields	Mathematics, astronomy, canon law, medicine, economics
Alma mater	Kraków University Bologna University University of Padua University of Ferrara
Known for	Heliocentrism Copernicus' Law
Signature

Nicolaus Copernicus adalah seseorang ahli matematika dan astronomi yang pada masanya mengeluarkan gagasan baru bahwa pusat dari alam semesta ini bukanlah bumi, melainkan matahari. penasaran..? langsung saja lihat.. ^_^

 Penerbitan buku dr jaman yg penting Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Pada Revolusi dari Spheres Celestial), sesaat sebelum kematiannya pada tahun 1543, dianggap sebagai peristiwa besar dalam sejarah ilmu pengetahuan. Ini mulai Revolusi Copernican dan memberikan kontribusi penting bagi munculnya Revolusi Ilmiah berikutnya. Teori heliosentris Copernicus 'menempatkan Matahari di pusat tata surya dan menjelaskan bahwa sistem mekanik dalam matematika daripada istilah Aristoteles.

Salah satu polymaths besar dari Renaissance, Copernicus adalah seorang ahli matematika, astronomi, ahli hukum dengan gelar doktor di bidang hukum, dokter, polyglot quadrilingual, klasik sarjana, penerjemah, seniman, Katolik ulama, gubernur, diplomat, dan ekonom.

KEHIDUPAN NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

Toruń birthplace (ul. Kopernika 15, left).
Together with the house at no. 17 (right),
it forms the Muzeum Mikołaja Kopernika.

Nicolaus Copernicus lahir pada 19 Februari 1473 di kota Toruń (Thorn), di provinsi Royal Prusia, dalam Mahkota Kerajaan Polandia. Ayahnya adalah seorang pedagang dari Kraków dan ibunya adalah putri seorang pedagang kaya Toruń. Nicolaus adalah anak bungsu dari empat bersaudara. Saudaranya Andreas (Andrew) menjadi kanon Augustinian di Frombork (Frauenburg). Saudara perempuannya Barbara, dinamai ibunya, menjadi seorang biarawati Benediktin dan, di tahun-tahun terakhirnya (dia meninggal setelah 1517), priorin dari sebuah biara di Chełmno (Kulm). Saudara perempuannya menikah dengan Katharina pengusaha dan Toruń dewan kota Barthel Gertner dan meninggalkan lima anak, yang Copernicus rawat sampai akhir hidupnya. Copernicus tidak pernah menikah atau memiliki anak.

Menjelang penutupan tahun 1542, ia ditangkap dengan pitam dan kelumpuhan, dan ia meninggal pada usia 70 pada tanggal 24 Mei 1543, dihari ia memperlihatkan salinan buku "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" nya.

AYAH NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

Ayah beliau dulunya bertempat tinggal disebuah desa di Silesia dekat Nysa (Neisse). Nama desa telah banyak dieja menjadi Kopernik, Köppernig, Köppernick, dan sekarang dinamai Koperniki. Pada abad ke-14, anggota keluarganya mulai pindah ke berbagai kota Silesian lainnya, ke ibukota Polandia, Krakow (Cracow, 1.367), dan Toruń (1400). Sang ayah, kemungkinan putra Jan, berasal dari garis Kraków.  Nicolaus adalah nama yang diberikan oleh ayahnya, yang muncul dalam catatan untuk pertama kalinya sebagai well-to-do pedagang yang bergerak di bidang tembaga, menjual sebagian besar di Danzig (Gdańsk). Ia pindah dari Kraków ke Toruń sekitar tahun 1458. Toruń, terletak di Sungai Vistula, pada waktu itu terlibat dalam Perang 13 tahun '(1454-1466), di mana Kerajaan Polandia dan Konfederasi Prusia, aliansi Prusia kota, bangsawan dan pendeta , berjuang untuk memperebutkan siapa yang mengambil alih daerah Orde Teutonik. Dalam perang ini kota Hanseatic seperti Danzig dan Toruń, kota kelahiran Nicolaus Copernicus, memilih untuk mendukung raja Polandia, yang berjanji untuk menghormati kemerdekaan tradisional kota-kota besar ', yang telah menantang Orde Teutonik.

Ayah Nicolaus 'adalah orang yang aktif terlibat dalam politik pada masa itu dan didukung Polandia serta kota Orde Teutonik. Pada tahun 1454 ia dimediasi negosiasi antara Polandia Kardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki dan kota-kota Prusia untuk pembayaran kembali pinjaman perang. Dalam Perdamaian Kedua Thorn (1466), Orde Teutonik secara resmi melepaskan semua klaim ke provinsi barat, yang bertujuan sebagai Royal Prusia tetap menjadi wilayah Polandia untuk 300 tahun ke depan.

Sang ayah menikah dengan Barbara Watzenrode, ibu astronom, antara 1461 dan 1464. Ia meninggal kira-kira antara 1483 dan 1485. Setelah kematian ayah, paman dari pihak ibu muda Nicolaus ', Lucas Watzenrode Muda (1447-1512), mengambil anak itu di bawah perlindungannya serta memperhatikan pendidikan dan karir Nicolaus.

IBU NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

Copernicus' maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger

Ibu Nicolaus ', Barbara Watzenrode, adalah putri dari Lucas Watzenrode the Elder dan istrinya Katherine (Modlibóg née). Tidak banyak yang diketahui tentang hidupnya, tetapi ia diyakini telah meninggal ketika Nicolaus masih kecil. Para Watzenrodes datang dari wilayah Schweidnitz (Świdnica) dari Silesia dan telah menetap di Toruń setelah 1360, menjadi anggota terkemuka dari kelas ningrat kota. Melalui hubungan yang luas dengan Watzenrodes 'keluarga karena perkawinan', mereka berhubungan dengan keluarga kaya Toruń, Danzig dan Elbląg (Elbing), dan menonjol ke Czapski, Działyński, Konopacki dan keluarga Kościelecki yang mulia. The Modlibógs (harfiah, dalam bahasa Polandia, "Berdoalah kepada Allah") adalah keluarga Polandia terkemuka yang telah dikenal dalam sejarah Polandia sejak 1271. Lucas dan Katherine memiliki tiga anak: Lucas Watzenrode Muda, yang akan menjadi patron Copernicus ', Barbara, ibu astronom, dan Christina, yang pada 1459 menikah dengan pedagang dan walikota Toruń, Tiedeman von. Allen.

Lucas Watzenrode yang Penatua dihormati di Toruń sebagai orang yang taat dan pedagang yang jujur, dan ia aktif dalam politik. Dia adalah lawan dari Ksatria Teutonik dan sekutu Raja Polandia Casimir IV Jagiellon. Pada tahun 1453 ia adalah delegasi dari Toruń pada konferensi (Graudenz) Grudziadz yang direncanakan untuk sekutu kota-kota Konfederasi Prusia dengan Casimir IV dalam perang berikutnya mereka melawan Ksatria Teutonik Selama Perang 13 tahun '. yang terjadi pada tahun berikutnya, ia aktif mendukung upaya perang dengan subsidi moneter substansial, dengan aktivitas politik di Toruń dan Danzig, dan beliau berjuang sendiri dalam pertempuran di Łasin (Mengurangi) dan Malbork (Marienburg). Ia meninggal tahun 1462.

Lucas Watzenrode Muda, paman dari pihak ibu astronom dan pelindung, dididik di Universitas Krakow (sekarang Universitas Jagiellonian) dan di Universitas Cologne dan Bologna. Dia adalah lawan yang pahit Orde Teutonik, dan yang Grand Master pernah menyebutnya sebagai "penjelmaan setan." Pada 1489 Watzenrode terpilih Uskup Warmia (Ermeland, Ermland) saat preferensi Raja Casimir IV, yang berharap untuk menginstal anaknya sendiri di kursi itu. Akibatnya, Watzenrode bertengkar dengan raja sampai kematian Casimir IV tiga tahun kemudian Watzenrode kemudian mampu membentuk hubungan erat dengan tiga raja Polandia berturut-turut:. John Albert I, Alexander Jagiellon, dan Sigismund I Lama. Dia adalah seorang teman dan penasihat kunci untuk setiap penguasa, dan pengaruhnya sangat memperkuat hubungan antara Warmia dan Polandia yang tepat. Watzenrode datang untuk dianggap sebagai orang paling kuat di Warmia, kekayaan, koneksi dan pengaruh diperbolehkan untuk mengamankan pendidikan Copernicus 'dan karir sebagai kanon di Katedral Frombork.

Education

Collegium Maius, Kraków

Nicolaus Copernicus Monument in Kraków

Copernicus' uncle Watzenrode maintained contacts with the leading intellectual figures in Poland and was a friend of the influential Italian-born humanist and Kraków courtier, Filippo Buonaccorsi. Watzenrode seems first to have sent young Copernicus to the St. John's School at Thorn where he himself had been a master. Later, according to Armitage (some scholars differ), the boy attended the Cathedral School at Włocławek, up the Vistula River from Thorn, which prepared pupils for entrance to the University of Kraków, Watzenrode's alma mater in Poland's capital.

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). 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, acquiring the foundations for his subsequent mathematical achievements. 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 astronomyprivately outside the university; Copernicus became familiar with Brożek's widely read commentary to Georg von Peuerbach's Theoricæ novæ planetarum and almost certainly attended the lectures of Bernard of Biskupie and Wojciech Krypa of Szamotuły and probably other astronomical lectures by Jan of Głogów, Michael of Wrocław (Breslau), Wojciech of Pniewy and Marcin Bylica of Olkusz.

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) and Averroes (which later would play an important role in shaping his theory), stimulated his interest in learning, and made him conversant with humanistic culture. 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. 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 and is now at the Uppsala University Library.

Copernicus' four years at Kraków played an important role in the development of his critical faculties 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.

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 (after November 1495) sought to place his nephew in a Warmia canonry vacated by 26 August 1495 death of its previous tenant. 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 law in Italy, seemingly with a view to furthering their ecclesiastic careers and thereby also strengthening his own influence in the Warmia chapter.

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 Polish youths from Silesia, Prussia and Pomerania as well as students of other nationalities.

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. Despite having received a papal indult on 29 November 1508 to receive further benefices, through his ecclesiastic career Copernicus not only did not acquire further prebends and higher stations (prelacies) at the chapter, but in 1538 he relinquished the Breslau sinecure. It is uncertain whether he was ordained a priest; he may only have taken minor orders, which sufficed for assuming a chapter canonry.

Via Galliera 65, Bologna, site of house of Domenico Maria Novara. Plaque onportico commemorates Copernicus.

"Here, where stood the house of Domenico Maria Novara, professor of the ancient Studium of Bologna, NICOLAUS COPERNICUS, the Polish mathematician and astronomer who would revolutionize concepts of the universe, conducted brilliant celestial observations with his teacher in 1497–1500. Placed on the 5th centenary of [Copernicus'] birth by the City, the University, the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna, the Polish Academy of Sciences. 1473 [—] 1973."

During his three-year stay at Bologna, between fall 1496 and spring 1501, Copernicus seems to have devoted himself less keenly to studyingcanon law (he received his doctorate in law only after seven years, 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 astronomerDomenico Maria Novara da Ferrara and became his disciple and assistant. 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, 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, Plutarch, Philolaus,Heraclides, Ecphantos, Plato), gathering, especially while at Padua, fragmentary historic information about ancient astronomical,cosmological and calendar systems.

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. Here, too, however, he continued his astronomical work begun at Bologna, observing, for example, alunar eclipse on the night of 5–6 November 1500. According to a later account by Rheticus, Copernicus also—probably privately, rather than at the Roman Sapienza--as a "Professor Mathematum" (professor of astronomy) delivered, "to numerous... students and... leading masters of the science," public lectures devoted probably to a critique of the mathematical solutions of contemporary astronomy.

On his return journey doubtless stopping briefly at Bologna, in mid-1501 Copernicus arrived back in Warmia. 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. 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.

Copernicus studied medicine probably under the direction of leading Padua professors—Bartolomeo da Montagnana, Girolamo Fracastoro, Gabriele Zerbi, 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.

One of the subjects that Copernicus must have studied was astrology, since it was considered an important part of a medical education. However, unlike most other prominent Renaissance astronomers, he appears never to have practiced or expressed any interest in astrology.

As at Bologna, Copernicus did not limit himself to his official studies. 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 Bessarion, J. Valla and others. There also seems to be evidence that it was during his Padua stay that there finally crystallized the idea of basing a new system of the world on the movement of the Earth.

As the time approached for Copernicus to return home, in spring 1503 he journeyed to Ferrara where, on 31 May 1503, 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.

Work

Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God, by Matejko. In background: Frombork Cathedral.

Having completed all his studies in Italy, 30-year-old Copernicus returned to Warmia, where – apart from brief journeys to Kraków and to nearby Prussian cities (Thorn, Danzig, Elbing, Graudenz, Malbork Marienburg, Königsberg (Królewiec) – he would live out the remaining 40 years of his life.

The Prince-Bishopric of Warmia enjoyed substantial autonomy, with its own diet(parliament), army, monetary unit (the same as in the other parts of Royal Prussia) and treasury.

Copernicus was his uncle's secretary and physician from 1503 to 1510 (or perhaps till that 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. 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."

Copernicus' translation ofTheophylact Simocatta'sEpistles. Cover shows coats-of-arms of (clockwise from top) Poland, Lithuania andKraków.

In 1504–12 Copernicus made numerous journeys as part of his uncle's retinue—in 1504, to Toruń and Danzig, 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); and he may have attended a Poznań (Posen) session (1510) and the coronation of Poland's King Sigismund I the Oldin Kraków (1507). Watzenrode's itinerary suggests that in spring 1509 Copernicus may have attended theKraków sejm.

It was probably on the latter occasion, in Kraków, that Copernicus submitted for printing at Jan Haller's press his translation, from Greek to Latin, of a collection, by the 7th-century Byzantine historianTheophylact 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. 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. With this translation, Copernicus declared himself on the side of thehumanists in the struggle over the question whether Greek literature should be revived. 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.

Some time before 1514, Copernicus wrote an initial outline of his heliocentric theory known only from later transcripts, by the title (perhaps given to it by a copyist), Nicolai Copernici de hypothesibus motuum coelestium a se constitutis commentariolus—commonly referred to as the Commentariolus. It was a succinct theoretical description of the world's heliocentric mechanism, without mathematical apparatus, and differed in some important details of geometric construction from De revolutionibus; but it was already based on the same assumptions regarding Earth's triple motions. The Commentariolus, which Copernicus consciously saw as merely a first sketch for his planned book, was not intended for printed distribution. He made only a very few manuscript copies available to his closest acquaintances, including, it seems, several Kraków astronomers with whom he collaborated in 1515–30 in observing eclipses. Tycho Brahe would include a fragment from the Commentariolus in his own treatise, Astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata, published inPrague in 1602, based on a manuscript that he had received from the Bohemian physician and astronomer Tadeáš Hájek, a friend of Rheticus. The Commentariolus would appear complete in print for the first time only in 1878.

Copernicus' tower at Frombork, where he lived and worked; rebuilt recently

Frombork Cathedral mount and fortifications. In foreground: statue of Copernicus

In 1510 or 1512 Copernicus moved to Frombork, a town to the northwest at the Vistula Lagoon on the Baltic Seacoast. There, in April 1512, he participated in the election of Fabian of Lossainen as Prince-Bishop of Warmia. It was only in early June 1512 that the chapter gave Copernicus an "external curia"—a house outside the defensive walls of the cathedral mount. In 1514 he purchased the northwestern tower within the walls of the Frombork stronghold. He would maintain both these residences to the end of his life, despite the devastation of the chapter's buildings by a raid against Frauenburg carried out by the Teutonic Order in January 1520, during which Copernicus' astronomical instruments were probably destroyed. Copernicus conducted astronomical observations in 1513–16 presumably from his external curia; and in 1522–43, from an unidentified "small tower" (turricula), using primitive instruments modeled on ancient ones—thequadrant, triquetrum, armillary sphere. At Frombork Copernicus conducted over half of his more than 60 registered astronomical observations.

Having settled permanently at Frombork, where he would reside to the end of his life, with interruptions in 1516–19 and 1520–21, Copernicus found himself at the Warmia chapter's economic and administrative center, which was also one of Warmia's two chief centers of political life. In the difficult, politically complex situation of Warmia, threatened externally by the Teutonic Order's aggressions (attacks by Teutonic bands; the Polish-Teutonic War of 1519–21; Albert's plans to annex Warmia), internally subject to strong separatist pressures (the selection of the prince-bishops of Warmia; currency reform), he, together with part of the chapter, represented a program of strict cooperation with the Polish Crown and demonstrated in all his public activities (the defense of his country against the Order's plans of conquest; proposals to unify its monetary system with the Polish Crown's; support for Poland's interests in the Warmia dominion's ecclesiastic administration) that he was consciously a citizen of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic. Soon after the death of uncle Bishop Watzenrode, he participated in the signing of the Second Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski (7 December 1512), governing the appointment of the Bishop of Warmia, declaring, despite opposition from part of the chapter, for loyal cooperation with the Polish Crown.

That same year (before 8 November 1512) Copernicus assumed responsibility, as magister pistoriae, for administering the chapter's economic enterprises (he would hold this office again in 1530), having already since 1511 fulfilled the duties of chancellor and visitor of the chapter's estates.

His administrative and economic dutes did not distract Copernicus, in 1512–15, from intensive observational activity. The results of his observations of Mars and Saturn in this period, and especially a series of four observations of the Sun made in 1515, led to discovery of the variability of Earth's eccentricity and of the movement of the solar apogee in relation to the fixed stars, which in 1515–19 prompted his first revisions of certain assumptions of his system. Some of the observations that he made in this period may have had a connection with a proposed reform of the Julian calendar made in the first half of 1513 at the request of the Bishop of Fossombrone,Paul of Middelburg. Their contacts in this matter in the period of the Fifth Lateran Council were later memorialized in a complimentary mention in Copernicus' dedicatory epistle in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium and in a treatise by Paul of Middelburg, Secundum compendium correctionis Calendarii (1516), which mentions Copernicus among the learned men who had sent the Council proposals for the calendar's emendation.

Olsztyn Castle

During 1516–21, Copernicus resided at Olsztyn (Allenstein) Castle as economic administrator of Warmia, including Olsztyn (Allenstein) and Pieniężno (|Mehlsack). While there, he wrote a manuscript, Locationes mansorum desertorum (Locations of Deserted Fiefs), with a view to populating those fiefs with industrious farmers and so bolstering the economy of Warmia. When Olsztyn was besieged by the Teutonic Knights during thePolish–Teutonic War (1519–21), Copernicus directed the defense of Olsztyn and Warmia by Royal Polish forces. He also represented the Polish side in the ensuing peace negotiations.

Copernicus worked for years with the Royal Prussian diet, and with Duke Albert of Prussia(against whom Copernicus had defended Warmia in the Polish-Teutonic War), and advised King Sigismund, on monetary reform. He participated in discussions in the Ducal Prussian diet about coinage reform in the Prussian countries; a question that concerned the diet was who had the right to mint coin. Political developments in Prussia culminated in the 1525 establishment of the Duchy of Prussia as a Protestant state in vassalage to Poland.

In 1526 Copernicus wrote a study on the value of money, Monetae cudendae ratio. In it he 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 beforeThomas Gresham. He also formulated a version of quantity theory of money. Copernicus' recommendations on monetary reform were widely read by leaders of both Prussia and Poland in their attempts to stabilize currency.

Thorvaldsen's Copernicus Monument in Warsaw

In 1533, Johann Widmanstetter, secretary to Pope Clement VII, explained Copernicus' heliocentric system to the Pope and two cardinals. The Pope was so pleased that he gave Widmanstetter a valuable gift. In 1535 Bernard Wapowski wrote a letter to a gentleman in Vienna, urging him to publish an enclosed almanac, which he claimed had been written by Copernicus. This is the only mention of a Copernicus almanac in the historical records. The "almanac" was likely Copernicus' tables of planetary positions. Wapowski's letter mentions Copernicus' theory about the motions of the earth. Nothing came of Wapowski's request, because he died a couple of weeks later.

Following the death of Prince-Bishop of Warmia Mauritius Ferber (1 July 1537), Copernicus participated in the election of his successor, Johannes Dantiscus (20 September 1537). Copernicus was one of four candidates for the post, written in at the initiative of Tiedemann Giese; but his candidacy was actually pro forma, since Dantiscus had earlier been named coadjutor bishop to Ferber. At first Copernicus maintained friendly relations with the new Prince-Bishop, assisting him medically in spring 1538 and accompanying him that summer on an inspection tour of Chapter holdings. But that autumn, their friendship was strained by suspicions over Copernicus' housekeeper, Anna Schilling, whom Dantiscus removed from Frombork in 1539.

Copernicus withmedicinal plant

In his younger days, Copernicus the physician had treated his uncle, brother and other chapter members. In later years he was called upon to attend the elderly bishops who in turn occupied the see of Warmia—Mauritius Ferber and Johannes Dantiscus — and, in 1539, his old friend Tiedemann Giese, Bishop of Chełmno (Kulm). In treating such important patients, he sometimes sought consultations from other physicians, including the physician to Duke Albert and, by letter, the Polish Royal Physician.

"Nicolaus CopernicusTornaeusBorussusMathemat.", 1597

In the spring of 1541, Duke Albert summoned Copernicus to Königsberg to attend the Duke's counselor, George von Kunheim, who had fallen seriously ill, and for whom the Prussian doctors seemed unable to do anything. Copernicus went willingly; he had met von Kunheim during negotiations over reform of the coinage. And Copernicus had come to feel that Albert himself was not such a bad person; the two had many intellectual interests in common. The Chapter readily gave Copernicus permission to go, as it wished to remain on good terms with the Duke, despite his Lutheran faith. In about a month the patient recovered, and Copernicus returned to Frombork. For a time, he continued to receive reports on von Kunheim's condition, and to send him medical advice by letter.

Throughout this period of his life, Copernicus continued making astronomical observations and calculations, but only as his other responsibilities permitted and never in a professional capacity.

Some of Copernicus' close friends turned Protestant, but Copernicus never showed a tendency in that direction. The first attacks on him came from Protestants. Wilhelm Gnapheus, a Dutch refugee settled in Elbląg, wrote a comedy in Latin, Morosophus (The Foolish Sage), and staged it at the Latin school that he had established there. In the play, Copernicus was caricatured as a haughty, cold, aloof man who dabbled in astrology, considered himself inspired by God, and was rumored to have written a large work that was moldering in a chest.

Elsewhere Protestants were the first to react to news of Copernicus' theory. Melanchthon wrote:

Some people believe that it is excellent and correct to work out a thing as absurd as did that Sarmatian [i.e., Polish] astronomer who moves the earth and stops the sun. Indeed, wise rulers should have curbed such light-mindedness.

Nevertheless, in 1551, eight years after Copernicus' death, astronomer Erasmus Reinhold published, under the sponsorship of Copernicus' former military adversary, the Protestant Duke Albert, the Prussian Tables, a set of astronomical tables based on Copernicus' work. Astronomers and astrologers quickly adopted it in place of its predecessors.

Heliocentrism

Mid-16th-century portrait^[67]

Some time before 1514 Copernicus made available to friends his "Commentariolus" ("Little Commentary"), a forty-page manuscript describing his ideas about the heliocentric hypothesis. It contained seven basic assumptions (detailed below). Thereafter he continued gathering data for a more detailed work.

About 1532 Copernicus had basically completed his work on the manuscript of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium; but despite urging by his closest friends, he resisted openly publishing his views, not wishing—as he confessed—to risk the scorn "to which he would expose himself on account of the novelty and incomprehensibility of his theses."

In 1533, Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter delivered a series of lectures in Rome outlining Copernicus' theory.Pope Clement VII and several Catholic cardinals heard the lectures and were interested in the theory. On 1 November 1536, Cardinal Nikolaus von Schönberg, Archbishop of Capua, wrote 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' 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 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' concern was limited to possible astronomical and philosophical objections, or whether he was also concerned about religious objections.

The book

De revolutionibus, 1543. Click on image to read book.

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

Rheticus became Copernicus' pupil, staying with him for two years and writing a book, Narratio prima (First Account), outlining the essence of Copernicus' theory. In 1542 Rheticus published a treatise on trigonometryby 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 the German printer Johannes Petreius at Nuremberg(Nürnberg), Germany. While Rheticus initially supervised the printing, he had to leave Nuremberg before it was completed, and he handed over the task of supervising the rest of the printing to a Lutheran theologian,Andreas Osiander.

Osiander added an unauthorised and unsigned preface, defending the work against those who might be offended by the novel hypotheses. He explained that astronomers may find different causes for observed motions, and choose whatever is easier to grasp. As long as a hypothesis allows reliable computation, it does not have to match what a philosopher might seek as the truth.

Death

1735 epitaph,Frombork Cathedral. A 1580 epitaph had been destroyed.

Casket with Copernicus' remains, St. James' Cathedral Basilica,Allenstein, March 2010

Frombork Cathedral

Copernicus' 2010 grave, Frombork Cathedral

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

Copernicus was reportedly buried in Frombork Cathedral, where archaeologists for over two centuries searched in vain for his remains. Efforts to locate the remains in 1802, 1909, 1939 and 2004 had come to nought. In August 2005, however, a team led by Jerzy Gąssowski, head of an archaeology and anthropology institute in Pułtusk, after scanning beneath the cathedral floor, discovered what they believed to be Copernicus' remains.

The find came after a year of searching, and the discovery was announced only after further research, on 3 November 2008. Gąssowski said he was "almost 100 percent sure it is Copernicus."Forensic expert Capt. Dariusz Zajdel of the Polish Police Central Forensic Laboratory 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 belonged to a man who had died around age 70—Copernicus' age at the time of his death.

The grave was in poor condition, and not all the remains of the skeleton were found; missing, among other things, was the lower jaw. The DNA from the bones found in the grave matched hair samples taken from a book owned by Copernicus which was kept at the library of the University of Uppsala in Sweden.

On 22 May 2010 Copernicus was given a second funeral in a Mass led by Józef Kowalczyk, the formerpapal nuncio to Poland and newly named Primate of Poland. Copernicus' remains were reburied in the same spot in Frombork Cathedral where part of his skull and other bones had been found. A black granite tombstone now identifies him as the founder of the heliocentric theory and also a church canon. The tombstone bears a representation of Copernicus' model of the solar system—a golden sun encircled by six of the planets.

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