Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543 SM)
"Finally, we shall place the Sun itself at the center of Universe. All this is suggested by the
systematic procession of events and the harmony of the whole Universe, if only
we face the fact, as they say ‘with both eyes open".
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) was a mathematician and astronomer
who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe
and the earth revolved around it. Disturbed by the failure of
Ptolemy's geocentric model of the universe to follow Aristotle's
requirement for the uniform circular motion of all celestial bodies
and determined to eliminate Ptolemy's equant, an imaginary point
around which the bodies seemed to follow that requirement, Copernicus
decided that he could achieve his goal only through a heliocentric
model. He thereby created a concept of a universe in which the
distances of the planets from the sun bore a direct relationship to
the size of their orbits. At the time Copernicus's heliocentric idea
was very controversial; nevertheless, it was the start of a change in
the way the world was viewed, and Copernicus came to be seen as the
initiator of the Scientific Revolution.
Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473, the youngest of
four children of Nicolaus Copernicus, Sr., a well-to-do merchant who
had moved to Torun from Cracow, and Barbara Watzenrode, the daughter
of a leading merchant family in Torun. 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 1466, 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.
The father died in 1483, and the children's maternal uncle, Lucas
Watzenrode (1447–1512), took them under his protection. Watzenrode was
a very successful cleric — he was to become bishop of Warmia
(Ermland in German) in 1489 — and he both facilitated his
nephew's advancement in the church and directed his education. In 1491
Copernicus enrolled in the University of Cracow. There is no record of
his having obtained a degree, which was not unusual at the time as he
did not need a bachelor's degree for his ecclesiastical career or even
to study for a higher degree. But the University of Cracow offered
courses in mathematics, astronomy, and astrology (see Goddu 25–33 on
all the university offerings), and Copernicus's interest was sparked,
which is attested to by his acquisition of books in these subjects
while at Cracow.
In 1495 Watzenrode arranged Copernicus's election as canon of the
chapter of Frombork (Frauenberg in German) of the Cathedral Chapter of
Warmia, an administrative position just below that of bishop. He
assumed the post two years later, and his financial situation was
secure for life. In the meantime, following in his uncle's footsteps,
Copernicus went to the University of Bologna in 1496 to study canon
law (see Goddu part 2 on what Copernicus may have encountered in
Italy). While at Bologna he lived with the astronomy professor
Domenico Maria Novara and made his first astronomical observations. In
addition, as Rosen (1971, 323) noted, “In establishing close
contact with Novara, Copernicus met, perhaps for the first time in his
life, a mind that dared to challenge the authority of [Ptolemy] the
most eminent ancient writer in his chosen fields of study.”
Copernicus also gave a lecture on mathematics in Rome, which may have
focused on astronomy.
Copernicus's studies at Bologna provided an advantage he did not
have at Cracow — a teacher of Greek. Humanism began to
infiltrate the Italian universities in the fifteenth century. As
Grendler (510) remarked, “By the last quarter of the century,
practically all universities had one or several humanists, many of
them major scholars.” Antonio Cortesi Urceo, called Codro,
became professor at Bologna in 1482 and added Greek several years
later. 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 1499 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 1509, his only publication prior to
the On the Revolutions (De revolutionibus). It is
important to note that Copernicus's acquisition of a good reading
knowledge of Greek was critical for his studies in astronomy because
major works by Greek astronomers, including Ptolemy, had not yet been
translated into Latin, the language of the universities at the
time.
Copernicus left Bologna for Frombork in 1501 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. Siraisi (1990, 16) noted that
“the reception in twefth-century western Europe of Greek and
Islamic technical astronomy and astrology fostered the development of
medical astrology…the actual practice of medical astrology was
greatest in the West between the fourteenth and the sixteenth
centuries.” Astrology was taught in the medical schools of
Italy. “The importance attached to the study of the stars in
medieval medical education derived from a general and widely held
belief that the heavenly bodies play an intermediary role in the
creation of things here below and continue to influence them
throughout their existence. The actual uses of astrology in medical
diagnosis and treatment by learned physicians were many and various.
‘Astrological medicine’ is a vague and unsatisfactory term
that can embrace any or all of the following: first, to pay attention
to the supposed effect of astrological birth signs or signs at
conception on the constitution and character of one's patients;
second, to vary treatment according to various celestial
conditions…third, to connect the doctrine of critical days in
illness with astrological features, usually phases of the moon; and
fourth, to predict or explain epidemics with reference to planetary
conjunctions, the appearance of comets, or weather conditions”
(Siraisi, 1981, 141–42). 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 1507, Copernicus was his
attending physician. Rosen (1971, 334–35) 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 1510 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 176–215) 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
1520–1525. He was physician for the bishop (his uncle had died in
1512) 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 1510 and 1514 he wrote an essay that has come to
be known as the Commentariolus (MW 75–126) 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. He also wrote what is known as
Letter against Werner (MW 145–65) in 1524, a
critique of Johann Werner's “Letter concerning the Motion of the
Eighth Sphere” (De motu octavae sphaerae tractatus
primus). Copernicus claimed that Werner erred in his calculation
of time and his belief that before Ptolemy the movement of the fixed
stars was uniform, but Copernicus's letter did not refer to his
cosmological ideas.
In 1539 a young mathematician named Georg Joachim Rheticus
(1514–1574) 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. He published an introduction to Copernicus's
ideas, the Narratio prima (First Report). Most importantly,
he convinced Copernicus to publish On the Revolutions.
Rheticus oversaw most of the printing of the book, and on 24 May 1543
Copernicus held a copy of the finished work on his deathbed.
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