Reference
- NICOLAUS COPERNICUS (b. 1473–d. 1543)The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus is often considered the founder of modern astronomy. His study led to his theory that Earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun.
Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473, in Torun, Poland. His father was a well-to-do merchant, and his mother also came from a leading merchant family. After his father's death, the boy was reared by his uncle, a wealthy Catholic bishop, who sent him to the University of Kraków. There he studied liberal arts, including astronomy and astrology. Copernicus also studied law at Bologna and medicine at Padua in Italy. Following his studies, he became an officer in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1500 he lectured on mathematical subjects in Rome. He returned to his uncle's castle near Frauenburg in 1507 as attending physician to the elderly man. Copernicus spent his spare time studying the heavens.
For centuries before Copernicus's time, astronomy had been based on Ptolemy's theory that Earth was the center of the universe and motionless. The problem was to explain how the other planets and heavenly bodies moved. At first it was thought that they simply moved in circular orbits around Earth. Calculations based on this view, however, did not agree with actual observations. Then it was thought that the other planets traveled in small circular orbits. These in turn were believed to move along larger orbits around Earth. With this theory, however, it could not be proved that Earth was the center of the universe...
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Perspectives
Copernicus' Secret
Nicolaus Copernicus gave the world perhaps the most important scientific insight of the modern age, the theory that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. He was also the first to proclaim that the earth rotates on its axis once every twenty-four hours. His theory was truly radical: during his lifetime nearly everyone believed that a perfectly still earth rested in the middle of the cosmos, where all the heavenly bodies revolved around it. One of the transcendent geniuses of the early Renaissance, Copernicus was also a flawed and conflicted person. A cleric who lived during the tumultuous years of the early Reformation, he may have been sympathetic to the teachings of the Lutherans. Although he had taken a vow of celibacy, he kept at least one mistress. Supremely confident intellectually, he hesitated to disseminate his work among other scholars. It fact, he kept his astronomical work a secret, revealing it to only a few intimates, and the manuscript containing his revolutionary theory, which he refined for at least twenty years, remained "hidden among my things." It is unlikely that Copernicus' masterwork would ever have been published if not for a young mathematics professor named Georg Joachim Rheticus. He had heard of Copernicus' ideas, and with his imagination on fire he journeyed hundreds of miles to a land where, as a Lutheran, he was forbidden to travel. Rheticus' meeting with Copernicus in a small cathedral town in northern Poland proved to be one of the most important encounters in history. Copernicus' Secretrecreates the life and world of the scientific genius whose work revolutionized astronomy and altered our understanding of our place in the world. It tells the surprising, little-known story behind the dawn of the scientific age.
The Book Nobody Read
In the spring of 1543 as the celebrated astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, lay on his death bed, his fellow clerics brought him a long-awaited package: the final printed pages of the book he had worked on for many years: De revolutionibus (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres). Though Copernicus would not live to hear of its extraordinary impact, his book, which first suggested that the Sun, not the Earth, was the center of the universe, is today recognized as one of the most influential scientific works of all time--thanks in part to astrophysicist Owen Gingerich. Four and a half centuries after its initial publication, Gingerich embarked on an epic quest to see in person all extant copies of the first and second editions of De revolutionibus. He was inspired by two contradictory pieces of information: Arthur Koestler's claim, in his bookThe Sleepwalkers, that nobody had read Copernicus's book when it was published; and Gingerich's discovery, in Edinburgh, of a first edition richly annotated in the margins by the leading teacher of astronomy in Europe in the 1540s. If one copy had been so quickly appreciated, Gingerich reasoned, perhaps others were as well--and perhaps they could throw new light on a hinge point in the history of astronomy. After three decades of investigation, and after traveling hundreds of thousands of miles across the globe--from Melbourne to Moscow, Boston to Beijing--Gingerich has written an utterly original book built on his experience and the remarkable insights gleaned from examining some 600 copies of De revolutionibus. He found the books owned and annotated by Galileo, Kepler and many other lesser-known astronomers whom he brings back to life, which illuminate the long, reluctant process of accepting the Sun-centered cosmos and highlight the historic tensions between science and the Catholic Church. He traced the ownership of individual copies through the hands of saints, heretics, scalawags, and bibliomaniacs. He was called as the expert witness in the theft of one copy, witnessed the dramatic auction of another, and proves conclusively that De revolutionibus was as inspirational as it was revolutionary. Part biography of a book, part scientific exploration, part bibliographic detective story, The Book Nobody Read recolors the history of cosmology and offers new appreciation of the enduring power of an extraordinary book and its ideas.
The First Copernican
In May, 1539, a young, German mathematician named Georg Joachim Rheticus traveled hundreds of miles across Europe in the hopes of meeting and spending a few days with the legendary astronomer, Nicolas Copernicus, in Frombork, Poland. Two and a half years later, Rheticus was still there, fascinated by what he was discovering, but largely engaged in trying to convince Copernicus to publish his masterwork--De revolutionibus (On the Revolutions of the Heavens), the first book to posit that the sun was the center of the universe. That he was finally able to do so just as Copernicus was dying became a turning point for science and civilization. That he then went on to a legendary career of his own--he founded the field of trigonometry, for example--will be one of the many surprises in this eye-opening book, which will restore Rheticus to his rightful place in the history of science.
Defining Reality
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Take a step back to define reality as understood by the ancient Greeks. Then work your way forward through revolutionary ideas about reality proposed by Plato, Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and finally Newton, who inspired the Age of Enlightenment. Close with the Romantic backlash of the 19th century.
Revolution in the Heavens
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowDrawing on ideas and observations of Nicolaus Copernicus and Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler achieved a great insight about gravity by discovering three laws of planetary motion, relating to the mathematics of orbits. The cause of planetary motion, he determined, must lie in the sun.
How Ancient Astronomy Ended
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowReview the state of astronomy in 1500. Then chart the revolution sparked by Copernicus's heliocentric theory of the Sun and planets. Learn how Copernicus was the last of the ancient astronomers, succeeded by the founders of modern science, including Tycho, Kepler, and Galileo.
Online Resources
- AI Copernicus 'discovers' that Earth orbits the SunA neural network that teaches itself the laws of physics could help to solve quantum-mechanics mysteries.
- Genetic Identification of Putative Remains of the Famous Astronomer Nicolaus CopernicusWe report the results of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analyses of skeletal remains exhumed in 2005 at Frombork Cathedral in Poland, that are thought to be those of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543). The analyzed bone remains were found close to the altar Nicolaus Copernicus was responsible for during his tenure as priest. The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) profiles from 3 upper molars and the femurs were identical, suggesting that the remains originate from the same individual. Identical mtDNA profiles were also determined in 2 hairs discovered in a calendar now exhibited at Museum Gustavianum in Uppsala, Sweden. This calendar was the property of Nicolaus Copernicus for much of his life. These findings, together with anthropological data, support the identification of the human remains found in Frombork Cathedral as those of Nicolaus Copernicus. Up-to-now the particular mtDNA haplotype has been observed only 3 times in Germany and once in Denmark. Moreover, Y-chromosomal and autosomal short tandem repeat markers were analyzed in one of the tooth samples, that was much better preserved than other parts of the skeleton. Molecular sex determination revealed that the skeleton is from a male individual, and this result is consistent with morphological investigations. The minimal Y-chromosomal haplotype determined in the putative remains of Nicolaus Copernicus has been observed previously in many countries, including Austria, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Finally, an analysis of the SNP located in the HERC2 gene revealed the C/C genotype that is predominant in blue-eyed humans, suggesting that Copernicus may have had a light iris color.
- Nicolaus Copernicus: not only a great astronomer but also a physicianNicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), an internationally recognized Polish astronomer, studied liberal arts at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow during the period 1491-1495. Shortly thereafter he was sent by his uncle to Bologna University, where he spent almost 5 years (1496-1501) studying law and philosophy. After his return to Poland, Nicolaus was nominated as canon in the cathedral chapter in Frombork. Next he started to study medicine in the University of Padua, one of the best-known centers of medical education in Europe. He was granted a bachelor degree and after another year, a therapeutic license (veniam practicandi), but never obtained his doctoral degree from Padua, though he was always called doctor of medicine ("medici doctor"). Copernicus returned to Warmia in 1503 and spent almost 40 years there. During the first few years he was the personal "medicus" and secretary of his uncle, Bishop Lucas Watzenrode. After the death of his uncle in 1512, Copernicus became the personal physician to the subsequent 4 Warmian bishops and his confreres from the Warmian chapter in Frombork. Copernicus practiced medicine not only in diagnosing and taking care of his patients but also in personally preparing the prescribed drugs. He was often consulted (consiglia) from several other cities, including Gdańsk, Königsberg, Lubawa, Elblag and Olsztyn. He also collaborated and consulted with Jan Benedict Solfa and Laurence Wille, the official Polish royal physicians at the time. During the epidemics of 1519, Copernicus employed sanitary preventive measures by providing several Warmian and Pomeranian towns with an innovative water supply system. Copernicus is well known as a genius in astronomy, but this great Renaissance man was also a mathematician, engineer, soldier, writer, economist and, last but not least, a practicing physician.
Heaven and Earth, Place and Motion
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowUnderstanding motion is the key to understanding space and time. Is there a "natural" state of motion? Learn why the ancients gave different answers to this question, and how Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo laid the foundation for a new approach.