Nicholas Copernicus

Nicholas Copernicus , Pol. Mikotaj Kopérnik, 1473-1543, Polish astronomer. After studying astronomy at the Univ. of Kraków, he spent a number of years in Italy studying various subjects, including medicine and canon law. He lectured c.1500 in Rome on mathematics and astronomy; in 1512 he settled in Frauenburg, East Prussia, where he had been nominated canon of the cathedral. There he performed his canonical duties, practiced medicine, was a legal officer, and wrote a pioneering treatise on currency reform. But the work that immortalized him is De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, in which he set forth his beliefs concerning the universe, known as the Copernican system . That treatise, which was dedicated to Pope Paul III, was probably completed by 1530 but was not published until 1543, when Copernicus was on his deathbed. Modern astronomy was built upon the foundation of the Copernican system.

Bibliography: See his complete works (3 vol., 1973-85, ed. and tr. by E. Rosen); biography by J. Repcheck (2007); studies by E. Rosen (1984, 1995) and O. Gingerich (2004).

Copernicus, Nicholas (1473–1543), astronomer. From 1495 he held a canonry in Frauenburg (NE Poland) and lived there from 1510. By 1514 he had written a short treatise, the Commentariolus (first published in 1878), sketching out a new system of astronomy in which the sun rather than the earth was the centre of the universe, and the earth one of the planets revolving round it. This was given mature expression in his De revolutionibus orbium caelestium (1543). Theological objections were muted at first, but when the issues were popularized by G. Galileo, religious debate became intense and in 1616 the De revolutionibus was put on the Index.