The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus lived from to He was trained in theology and spent nearly half a century working for the Catholic Church. Yet, he devoted much of his life to try to construct a mathematical model of the solar system, a model in which the Sun, not the Earth, was at the center. Copernicus studied at the University of Krakow in Poland.
He built his own astronomical observatory in his spare time. He made his own records of the positions of the stars and the Moon. A preliminary manuscript version of his heliocentric theory, the Sun-centered theory, was circulated as early as , and a few copies of that manuscript survive. Copernicus never sought personal recognition for this theory and the theory was not published until around the time of his death in In it, he proposed essentially the modern model of the solar system where the Earth and the other planets all circle the Sun, while the Moon circles around the Earth.
The Copernican model explained most of the retrograde motion of planets like Mars and so forth. And he said that was merely a consequence of the fact that the Earth swings in its orbit from side to side around the Sun. But the model still relied on perfect circular orbits, and so he still had to use epicycles, although much smaller than the epicycles of Ptolemy.
The Copernican model led to a greatly simplified and more accurate prediction of planetary positions, and that led to its acceptance by many scholars. That, after all, is the true measure of a theory, whether it works, whether it leads to useful predictions. But the greatest supporter of the Copernican heliocentric view was Galileo Galilei.
This is a transcript from the video series The Joy of Science. Watch it now, on Wondrium. Copernicus had his translation printed in , his only publication prior to the On the Revolutions De revolutionibus. Copernicus left Bologna for Frombork in 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.
The actual uses of astrology in medical diagnosis and treatment by learned physicians were many and various. 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 , Copernicus was his attending physician.
Rosen , —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 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 — 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 — He was physician for the bishop his uncle had died in 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 and he wrote an essay that has come to be known as the Commentariolus MW 75— 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.
In a young mathematician named Georg Joachim Rheticus — 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. Most importantly, he convinced Copernicus to publish On the Revolutions.
Rheticus oversaw most of the printing of the book, and on 24 May Copernicus held a copy of the finished work on his deathbed. Classical astronomy followed principles established by Aristotle. Aristotle accepted the idea that there were four physical elements — earth, water, air, and fire. He put the earth in the center of the universe and contended that these elements were below the moon, which was the closest celestial body.
There were seven planets, or wandering stars, because they had a course through the zodiac in addition to traveling around the earth: the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter. Beyond that were the fixed stars. But observers realized that the heavenly bodies did not move as Aristotle postulated. The earth was not the true center of the orbits and the motion was not uniform.
And in an age without professional astronomers, let alone the telescope, Ptolemy did a good job plotting the courses of the heavenly bodies. Not all Greek astronomical ideas followed this geocentric system. Pythagoreans suggested that the earth moved around a central fire not the sun. Archimedes wrote that Aristarchus of Samos actually proposed that the earth rotated daily and revolved around the sun. During the European Middle Ages, the Islamic world was the center of astronomical thought and activity.
In addition, Ragep, , has shown that a theory for the inner planets presented by Regiomontanus that enabled Copernicus to convert the planets to eccentric models had been developed by the fifteenth-century, Samarqand-trained astronomer ali Qushji — Renaissance humanism did not necessarily promote natural philosophy, but its emphasis on mastery of classical languages and texts had the side effect of promoting the sciences.
He noted that Ptolemy showed the moon to be at various times twice as far from the earth as at other times, which should make the moon appear twice as big. It is impossible to date when Copernicus first began to espouse the heliocentric theory. Had he done so during his lecture in Rome, such a radical theory would have occasioned comment, but there was none, so it is likely that he adopted this theory after His first heliocentric writing was his Commentariolus.
It was a small manuscript that was circulated but never printed. Thus, Copernicus probably adopted the heliocentric theory sometime between and It is impossible to know exactly why Copernicus began to espouse the heliocentric cosmology.
Despite his importance in the history of philosophy, there is a paucity of primary sources on Copernicus. Sadly, the biography by Rheticus, which should have provided scholars with an enormous amount of information, has been lost. Goddu —84 has plausibly maintained that while the initial motivation for Copernicus was dissatisfaction with the equant, that dissatisfaction may have impelled him to observe other violations of uniform circular motion, and those observations, not the rejection of the equant by itself, led to the heliocentric theory.
Blumenberg has pointed out that the mobility of the earth may have been reinforced by the similarity of its spherical shape to those of the heavenly bodies. As the rejection of the equant suggests a return to the Aristotelian demand for true uniform circular motion of the heavenly bodies, it is unlikely that Copernicus adopted the heliocentric model because philosophies popular among Renaissance humanists like Neoplatonism and Hermetism compelled him in that direction.
Most importantly, we should bear in mind what Swerdlow and Neugebauer 59 asserted:. In the Commentariolus Copernicus listed assumptions that he believed solved the problems of ancient astronomy. Although the Copernican model maintained epicycles moving along the deferrent, which explained retrograde motion in the Ptolemaic model, Copernicus correctly explained that the retrograde motion of the planets was only apparent not real, and its appearance was due to the fact that the observers were not at rest in the center.
The work dealt very briefly with the order of the planets Mercury, Venus, earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, the only planets that could be observed with the naked eye , the triple motion of the earth the daily rotation, the annual revolution of its center, and the annual revolution of its inclination that causes the sun to seem to be in motion, the motions of the equinoxes, the revolution of the moon around the earth, and the revolution of the five planets around the sun.
Around , he shared his findings in the Commentariolus. His second book on the topic, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium , was banned by the Roman Catholic Church decades after his May 24, death in Frombork. The fourth and youngest child born to Nicolaus Copernicus Sr. By the time he was born, Torun had ceded to Poland, rendering him a citizen under the Polish crown.
German was Copernicus' first language, but some scholars believe that he spoke some Polish as well. During the mids, Copernicus' father passed away. His maternal uncle, Bishop of Varmia Lucas Watzenrode, generously assumed a paternal role, taking it upon himself to ensure that Copernicus received the best possible education.
In , Copernicus entered the University of Cracow, where he studied painting and mathematics. He also developed a growing interest in the cosmos and started collecting books on the topic.
By mid-decade, Copernicus received a Frombork canon cathedral appointment, holding onto the job for the rest of his life. It was a fortunate stroke: The canon's position afforded him the opportunity to fund the continuation of his studies for as long as he liked. Still, the job demanded much of his schedule; he was only able to pursue his academic interests intermittently, during his free time.
In , Copernicus took leave and traveled to Italy, where he enrolled in a religious law program at the University of Bologna.
There, he met astronomer Domenico Maria Novara — a fateful encounter, as the two began exchanging astronomical ideas and observations, ultimately becoming housemates.
Historian Edward Rosen described the relationship as follows: "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 [astrologist Claudius Ptolemy] the most eminent ancient writer in his chosen fields of study. In , Copernicus went on to study practical medicine at the University of Padua. He did not, however, stay long enough to earn a degree, since the two-year leave of absence from his canon position was nearing expiration.
In , Copernicus attended the University of Ferrara, where he took the necessary exams to earn his doctorate in canon law. He hurried back home to Poland, where he resumed his position as canon and rejoined his uncle at an Episcopal palace. Copernicus remained at the Lidzbark-Warminski residence for the next several years, working and tending to his elderly, ailing uncle and exploring astronomy.
In , Copernicus moved to a residence in the Frombork cathedral chapter. He would live there as a canon for the duration of his life. Throughout the time he spent in Lidzbark-Warminski, Copernicus continued to study astronomy.
Among the sources that he consulted was Regiomontanus's 15th-century work Epitome of the Almagest , which presented an alternative to Ptolemy's model of the universe and significantly influenced Copernicus' research.
Scholars believe that by around , Copernicus had begun developing his own celestial model, a heliocentric planetary system.
During the second century A.
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