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Nicolaus Copernicus
Portrait from Toruń, early 16th century
Born(1473-02-19)19 February 1473,
Toruń (Thorn), Royal Prussia, Poland
Died24 May 1543(1543-05-24) (aged 70),
Frombork (Frauenburg), Warmia, Poland
Alma materKraków University, Bologna University, University of Padua, University of Ferrara
Known forHeliocentrism
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics, astronomy, canon law, medicine
Doctoral studentsGeorg Joachim Rheticus
Signature

Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe.[1] His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), published in 1543 just before he died, is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the Scientific Revolution. His heliocentric model, with the sun at the center of the universe, demonstrated that the observed motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting the Earth at rest in the center of the universe. His work stimulated further scientific investigations, becoming a landmark in the history of modern science that is now often referred to as the Copernican Revolution.

Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classical scholar, translator, artist,[2] Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. Among his many responsibilities, astronomy figured as little more than an avocation — yet it was in that field that he made his mark upon the world.

Life

Family

Copernicus' birthplace
Copernicus' uncle, Lucas Watzenrode

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 in a house on St. Anne's Street (now Copernicus Street) in the city of Toruń (Thorn). Toruń, situated on the Vistula River, was part of Royal Prussia, a region of the Kingdom of Poland.[3][4]

Nicolaus was named after his father, who about 1458 had moved to Toruń from Kraków in Lesser Poland. The father was a wealthy copper trader who had become a respected citizen of Toruń. Nicolaus' mother, Barbara Watzenrode (died after 1495), had been born into a wealthy merchant family that was part of the city's patrician class.

Nicolaus' father died between 1483 and 1485. After that, his maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger (1447–1512), a church canon who would later become Prince-Bishop of the Archbishopric of Warmia, took young Nicolaus under his protection and saw to his education and future career.

Nicolaus was the youngest of four children. His brother Andreas became an Augustinian canon at Frombork (Frauenburg). His sister Barbara (named after her mother) became a Benedictine nun. His sister Katharina married Barthel Gertner, a businessman and city councilor.

Name

Monument in Toruń by Friedrich Tieck

Numerous variants of Copernicus' name are documented.[5] Until the mid-1530s, he mostly signed himself Coppernic. Afterward, he followed the academic custom of his time and adopted a Latinized version of his name. Thus, on the title page of his epochal book, Nicolai Copernici Torinensis De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium Libri VI, the astronomer's name appears as Nicolaus Copernicus with pp changed to p.

In 1776, Johann Gottfried Herder introduced the spelling Nikolaus Kopernikus, which replaced each c with k. This spelling became popular in German writings, although scholars argued for Coppernicus. The Polish rendering is Mikołaj Kopernik; the surname means "one who works with copper".[6]

Education

Kraków University's Collegium Maius

In 1491 Copernicus enrolled at the Kraków Academy (now Jagiellonian University), where he probably first encountered astronomy with Professor Albert Brudzewski. Astronomy soon fascinated him, and he began collecting a large library on the subject. Copernicus' library would later be carried off as war booty by the Swedes during "the Deluge" and is now at the Uppsala University Library.

After four years in Kraków, followed by a brief stay back home in Toruń, Copernicus went to study law and medicine at the universities of Bologna and Padua. Copernicus' uncle, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger, financed his education and hoped that Copernicus too would become a bishop. Copernicus, however, while studying canon and civil law at Bologna, met the famous astronomer, Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara. Copernicus attended Novara's lectures and became his disciple and assistant. The first observations that Copernicus made in 1497, together with Novara, are recorded in Copernicus' epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.

Copernicus with medicinal plant
Thorvaldsen's Copernicus with compass and armillary sphere, before the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw

In 1497 Copernicus' uncle was ordained Bishop of Warmia, and Copernicus was named a canon at Frombork Cathedral. But Copernicus remained in Italy, where he attended the great Jubilee of 1500. He also went to Rome, where he observed a lunar eclipse and gave some lectures in astronomy and mathematics.

In 1501 Copernicus returned to Frombork. As soon as he arrived, he obtained permission to complete his studies in Padua, where he studied medicine (with Guarico and Fracastoro), and at Ferrara, where in 1503 he received his doctorate in canon law. One of the subjects that Copernicus must have studied at that time was astrology, since it was considered an important part of a medical education.[7] However, unlike most other prominent Renaissance astronomers, he appears never to have practiced it or expressed any subsequent interest in it.[8] It has also been surmised that it was in Padua that he encountered passages from Cicero and Plato about opinions of the ancients on the movement of the Earth, and formed the first intuition of his own future theory. In 1504 Copernicus began collecting observations and ideas pertinent to his theory.

Work

In 1503, Copernicus returned to Polish Prussia, to the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, where he resided the rest of his life. From 1503 until 1510 he had the position of secretary to his maternal uncle Lucas Watzenrode, Bishop of Warmia, and until 1510 resided in the Bishop's castle at Lidzbark Warmiński (Heilsberg). It is there that he started work on his heliocentric view of the heavens.[9]

In 1510, he moved to Frombork (Frauenburg), a town in the north and downstream of Toruń on the Vistula Lagoon. The Bishopric of Warmia, within Royal Prussia, though subject to the Polish crown, enjoyed substantial autonomy, with its own diet, army, monetary unit (the same as in the other parts of Prussia) and treasury.[10] Some time before his return to Warmia, he received a position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław (Breslau), Silesia, Bohemia, which he held for many years and only resigned for health reasons shortly before his death. Copernicus remained for the rest of his life a burgher of Warmia (Bishopric of Warmia). During the Protestant Reformation, he remained a loyal subject of the Catholic Prince-Bishops and the Catholic Polish King. Throughout his life, he performed astronomical observations and calculations, but only as time permitted and never in a professional capacity.

Olsztyn Castle

In 1516-21, Copernicus resided at Olsztyn Castle as economic administrator of Warmia, including Allenstein (Olsztyn) and Mehlsack (Pieniężno), and wrote the manuscript Locationes mansorum desertorum (Locations of Deserted Fiefs).

When Olsztyn was besieged by the Teutonic Knights during the Polish-Teutonic War (1519–1521), Copernicus was in charge of the defenses of Olsztyn and Warmia at the head of Royal Polish forces. He also participated in the peace negotiations.[11]

Copernicus before Olsztyn Castle

Copernicus worked for years with the Royal Prussian diet, and with Duke Albert of Prussia, and advised Poland's King Sigismund I the Old on monetary reform. Holding the office of canon, he traveled extensively on government business and as a diplomat on behalf of the Prince-Bishop of Warmia.[12] He participated in the discussions in the East Prussian diet about coin reform in the Prussian countries. One question at issue to members of the Diet concerned who had the right to mint coin. The matter required much diplomacy, but was resolved successfully. Some of the difficulties were caused by the political upheavals occurring in Prussia at the time, including the 1525 establishment of the Duchy of Prussia as a Protestant state. Copernicus translated his coin-reform treatise into Latin for external use. In 1530 an agreement was negotiated with Duke Albert at Elbląg (Elbing).

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 before 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.[13][14]

Two years before Copernicus' death, Duke Albert urgently summoned him to Königsberg to treat one of his counsellors, who was dangerously ill. The patient recovered within a month or so, and Copernicus then returned to Frombork.[15]

In 1551, eight years after Copernicus' death, Erasmus Reinhold would publish, under Duke Albert's sponsorship, the Prutenic Tables, a set of astronomical tables based on Copernicus' work, which astronomers and astrologers quickly adopted in place of superseded tables.[16]

Heliocentrism

Astronomer Copernicus: Conversation with God, by Jan Matejko

In 1514 Copernicus made available to friends his Commentariolus (Little Commentary), a six page hand-written text describing his ideas about the heliocentric hypothesis. It contained seven basic assumptions. Thereafter he continued gathering data for a more detailed work.

In 1533, Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter delivered in Rome a series of lectures outlining Copernicus' theory. The lectures were heard with interest by Pope Clement VII and several Catholic cardinals.

On 1 November 1536, Archbishop of Capua Nicholas Schönberg wrote a letter 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 ...[17]

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 with the 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 physical and philosophical objections from other natural philosophers, or whether he was also concerned about religious objections from theologians.[18]

The book

De revolutionibus, Nürnberg, 1543
Melanchthon

Copernicus was still working on De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (even if not convinced that he wanted to publish it) when in 1539 Georg Joachim Rheticus, a Wittenberg mathematician, arrived in Frombork. Philipp Melanchthon 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 trigonometry by 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 Johannes Petreius at Nuremberg (Nürnberg).

Death

Frombork Cathedral, where Copernicus was buried

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 archeologists long searched in vain for his remains. In August 2005, a team led by Jerzy Gąssowski, head of an archaeology and anthropology institute in Pułtusk, after scanning beneath the cathedral floor, discovered what they believe to be Copernicus' remains.[19][20] The find came after a year of searching, and the discovery was announced only after further research, on November 3, 2008.[19] Gąssowski said he was "almost 100 percent sure it is Copernicus." Forensic expert Capt. Dariusz Zajdel of the Central Forensic Laboratory of the Polish Police 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.[19][21] 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.[22] The grave was in poor condition, and not all the remains of the skeleton were found; missing, among other things, was the lower jaw.[23] The DNA from the bones found in the grave matched hair samples taken from a book owned by Copernicus which was kept in the library of the University of Uppsala in Sweden.[24]

On November 21, 2008, National Public Radio reported that confirmation had been made that the skull was indeed Copernicus'. The NPR website contains a portrait, reconstructed on the basis of the skull, of what Copernicus might have looked like.[25]

Copernican system

Main article: Copernican heliocentrism

Predecessors

Early traces of astronomical models that include a moving Earth are found in several anonymous Vedic Sanskrit texts composed in ancient India before the 7th century BCE.[citation needed] The sixth century Indian astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata held to a geocentric view in which the Earth rotated.[citation needed]

Philolaus (c. 480–385 BCE), a Greek philosopher of the Pythagorean school, described an astronomical system in which the Earth, Moon, Sun, planets, and stars all revolved about a central fire.[26] Heraclides Ponticus (387–312 BCE) proposed that the Earth rotates on its axis.[27] According to Archimedes, Aristarchus of Samos (310–230 BCE) wrote of heliocentric hypotheses in a book that does not survive.[28] Plutarch wrote that Aristarchus was accused of impiety for "putting the Earth in motion".[29]

In a manuscript of De revolutionibus, Copernicus wrote, "It is likely that ... Philolaus perceived the mobility of the earth, which also some say was the opinion of Aristarchus of Samos", but later struck out the passage and omitted it from the published book.[30] De revolutionibus did remark upon the theories of Ibn Battuta and Averroes.[citation needed] It has been argued[who?] that in developing the mathematics of heliocentrism, Copernicus also drew on the work of Islamic astronomers,[citation needed] especially from Nasir al-Din al-Tusi,[citation needed] Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi,[citation needed] and Ibn al-Shatir.[citation needed]

Ptolemy

Ptolemy: medieval rendition
Copernicus: a 16th-century portrait

The prevailing theory in Europe as Copernicus was writing was that created by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in his Almagest, dating from about 150 CE. The Ptolemaic system drew on many previous theories that viewed Earth as a stationary center of the universe. Stars were embedded in a large outer sphere which rotated relatively rapidly, while the planets dwelt in smaller spheres between — a separate one for each planet.

Copernicus

Copernicus' major theory was published in the book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), in the year of his death, 1543, though he had arrived at his theory several decades earlier.

In his Commentariolus Copernicus had summarized his system with the following list of seven assumptions:[31]

  1. There is no one center of all the celestial circles or spheres.
  2. The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only of gravity and of the lunar sphere.
  3. All the spheres revolve about the sun as their mid-point, and therefore the sun is the center of the universe.
  4. The ratio of the earth's distance from the sun to the height of the firmament (outermost celestial sphere containing the stars) is so much smaller than the ratio of the earth's radius to its distance from the sun that the distance from the earth to the sun is imperceptible in comparison with the height of the firmament.
  5. Whatever motion appears in the firmament arises not from any motion of the firmament, but from the earth's motion. The earth together with its circumjacent elements performs a complete rotation on its fixed poles in a daily motion, while the firmament and highest heaven abide unchanged.
  6. What appear to us as motions of the sun arise not from its motion but from the motion of the earth and our sphere, with which we revolve about the sun like any other planet. The earth has, then, more than one motion.
  7. The apparent retrograde and direct motion of the planets arises not from their motion but from the earth's. The motion of the earth alone, therefore, suffices to explain so many apparent inequalities in the heavens.

De revolutionibus itself was divided into six books:

  1. General vision of the heliocentric theory, and a summarized exposition of his idea of the World
  2. Mainly theoretical, presents the principles of spherical astronomy and a list of stars (as a basis for the arguments developed in the subsequent books)
  3. Mainly dedicated to the apparent motions of the Sun and to related phenomena
  4. Description of the Moon and its orbital motions
  5. Concrete exposition of the new system
  6. Concrete exposition of the new system

Copernicanism

Copernicus, astronomer

At original publication, Copernicus' epoch-making book caused only mild controversy, and provoked no fierce sermons about contradicting Holy Scripture. It was only three years later, in 1546, that a Dominican, Giovanni Maria Tolosani, denounced the theory in an appendix to a work defending the absolute truth of Scripture.[32] He also noted that the Master of the Sacred Palace (i.e., the Catholic Church's chief censor), Bartolomeo Spina, a friend and fellow Dominican, had planned to condemn De revolutionibus but had been prevented from doing so by his illness and death.[33]

Arthur Koestler, in his popular book The Sleepwalkers, asserted that Copernicus' book had not been widely read on its first publication.[34] This claim was trenchantly criticised by Edward Rosen,[35] and has been decisively disproved by Owen Gingerich, who examined every surviving copy of the first two editions and found copious marginal notes by their owners throughout many of them. Gingerich published his conclusions in 2004 in The Book Nobody Read.[36]

It has been much debated why it was not until six decades after Spina and Tolosani's attacks on Copernicus's work that the Catholic Church took any official action against it. Proposed reasons have included the personality of Galileo Galilei and the availability of evidence such as telescope observations.

Galileo

In March 1616, in connection with the Galileo affair, the Roman Catholic Church's Congregation of the Index issued a decree suspending De revolutionibus until it could be "corrected," on the grounds that the supposedly Pythagorean doctrine[37] that the Earth moves and the Sun doesn't was "false and altogether opposed to Holy Scripture."[38] The same decree also prohibited any work that defended the mobility of the Earth or the immobility of the Sun, or that attempted to reconcile these assertions with Scripture.

On the orders of Pope Paul V, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine gave Galileo prior notice that the decree was about to be issued, and warned him that he could not "hold or defend" the Copernican doctrine.[39] The corrections to De revolutionibus, which omitted or altered nine sentences, were issued four years later, in 1620.[40]

In 1633 Galileo Galilei was convicted of grave suspicion of heresy for "following the position of Copernicus, which is contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture,"[41] and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.

Galileo had gotten off lightly. Another Copernican, Giordano Bruno, had been prosecuted in Rome by the same Cardinal Bellarmine and on 17 February 1600, burned at the stake as a heretic primarily for his theologic views and not necessarily his scientific ones.

The Catholic Church's 1758 Index of Prohibited Books omitted the general prohibition of works defending heliocentrism,[42] but retained the specific prohibitions of the original uncensored versions of De revolutionibus and Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Those prohibitions were finally dropped from the 1835 Index.[43]

It has been asserted[44] that medieval scholars had known that the Earth was a sphere and that, paradoxically, it might have been Copernicus' criticism of the early Christian author Lactantius (ca. 240 – ca. 320 C.E.) in De revolutionibus that later developed into the flat-Earth myth.

Ethnicity and nationality

Kopernik bust in Kraków's Jordan Park

Copernicus' ethnicity and nationality are disputed. His father has been described as a Pole, and his mother was most likely of German origin.[45] The family came originally from the Silesian village of the same name (Coprnik, Copernik, Copirnik, Copernic, Kopernic, today Koperniki) near Nysa. In the 14th century, members of the family had begun moving to Silesian and later to Polish cities: Kraków (1367) and Toruń (1400), and also to Lwów. The astronomer's father (probably the son of Jan) came from the Kraków line. He appears in records for the first time in 1448 as a well-to-do merchant who dealt in copper with Gdańsk (Danzig). In the early period of the Pomeranian cities' struggle for independence from the Teutonic Order, in August 1454, he mediated financial negotiations between Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki and the great Prussian cities regarding repayment of a loan for the Polish-Teutonic war. About 1458 the future astronomer's father moved from Poland's capital, Kraków, to Toruń, where a few years later (before 1464) he married Barbara, daughter of a wealthy Toruń patrician and city councillor, Lucas Watzenrode the elder (died 1462).[46]

Copernicus bust at United Nations, New York

The Watzenrodes had likewise come from Silesia, from the Świdnica (Schwednitz) region, and had settled in Toruń after 1360. The astronomer's grandfather Watzenrode was a decided opponent of the Teutonic Order. In 1453 he was the delegate from Toruń at the Grudziądz conference that planned the anti-Teutonic-Order uprising, and during the Thirteen Years' War he actively supported the struggle of the Prussian cities not only with substantial monetary subsidies but with political activity in Toruń and Gdańsk as well as with his own personal participation in battles at Łaszyn and Malbork. He died in 1462, leaving three children: Lucas (1447–1512), future Bishop of Warmia and the astronomer's patron, and two daughters: Barbara, the astronomer's mother (died after 1495), and Christina (died before 1502), who in 1459 married the merchant and Toruń mayor, Tiedeman von Allen. Through the Watzenrodes' extensive family relationships by marriage, the future astronomer was related both to wealthy burgher families of Kraków, Toruń, Gdańsk and Elbląg and to prominent noble families of Prussia: the Działyński, Kościelecki and Konopacki families.[47]

It remains a matter of dispute whether a nationality should be ascribed to Nicolaus Copernicus retrospectively and, if so, whether he should be regarded as a German or a Pole.[48] During his time, nationality did not yet play as important a role as it would later, and people generally did not think of themselves primarily as Polish or German.[49] Already in the 123-year period when no Polish state existed (see History of Poland, 1795–1918), the matter was debated in German writings; nevertheless, the 1875 Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie acknowledged the Polish aspects of Copernicus's life.[50] Current German sources call the controversy, as reflected in the older literature, superfluous and shameful.[51]

File:1000 zl a 1982.jpg
Polish 1,000-old-złoty banknote with an image of "MIKOŁAJ KOPERNIK" (year 1982)
File:Kopernik.PNG
Polish 10-złoty coins with Copernicus on obverse, minted 1968 (left) and 1959.

Encyclopædia Britannica,[52] Encyclopedia Americana[53] and the Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia[54] identify Copernicus as Polish. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Thus the child of a German family was a subject of the Polish crown."[55]

Many people assign a single nationality to Copernicus. Nazi Germany claimed Copernicus to have been purely German,[56] while Poland has always claimed that he was purely Polish.[citation needed] Even today, some Germans and most Poles continue to regard him as having been exclusively their own.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ A Greek mathematician, Aristarchus of Samos, had already discussed heliocentric hypotheses as early as the third century BCE. However, there is little evidence that he ever developed his ideas beyond a very basic outline (Dreyer, 1953, pp.135–48; Linton, 2004, p. 39).
  2. ^ A self-portrait helped confirm the identity of his cranium when it was discovered at Frombork Cathedral in 2008.
  3. ^ Barbara Bieńkowska, The Scientific World of Copernicus: On the Occasion of the 500th Anniversary of His Birth, 1473–1973, 1973, p. 137: "His country was the province of ancient Royal Prussia, composed of his native Toruń and Warmia, both components of the Polish state since 1454."
  4. ^ Jean W. Sedlar, East Central Europe in the Middle Ages 1000-1500, 1994, p. 281-282 [1]: "The Prussians themselves viewed their territory as united to Poland only through the king's person. [...] Social and ethnic differences reinforced this separateness."
  5. ^ Koeppen (1973)
  6. ^ "O historii i o współczesności". In Polish. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  7. ^ Rabin (2005).
  8. ^ Gingerich (2004, pp.187–189,201 ); Koyré (1973, p.94); Kuhn (1957, p.93); Rosen (2004, p.123); Rabin (2005).
  9. ^ Repcheck (2007), p. 51
  10. ^ Sedlar (1994)
  11. ^ Repcheck (2007), p.66
  12. ^ Prof. Fred L. Wilson of the Rochester Institute of Technology. "Copernicus".
  13. ^ Minor Works, translated by E. Rosen, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, pp. 176-215.
  14. ^ Oliver Volckart, "Early Beginnings of the Quantity Theory of Money and Their Context in Polish and Prussian Monetary Policies, c. 1520-1550", The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Aug., 1997), pp. 430-449
  15. ^ Koyré (1973, p.80), Armitage (1951, pp.52–53)
  16. ^ Kuhn (1957, pp.187–88)
  17. ^ Schönberg, Nicholas, Letter to Nicolaus Copernicus, translated by Edward Rosen
  18. ^ Koyré (1973, pp.27, 90) and Rosen (1995, pp.64,184) take the view that Copernicus was indeed concerned about possible objections from theologians, while Lindberg and Numbers (1986) argue against it. Koestler (1963) also denies it. Indirect evidence that Copernicus was concerned about objections from theologians comes from a letter written to him by Andreas Osiander in 1541, in which Osiander advises Copernicus to adopt a proposal by which he says "you will be able to appease the Peripatetics and theologians whose opposition you fear." (Koyré, 1973, pp.35, 90)
  19. ^ a b c "Scientists say Copernicus' remains found". The Associated Press-Kansas City.com. Retrieved 2008-11-20.
  20. ^ "Polish tests 'confirm Copernicus'". Europe. BBC News. 21 November 2008. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
  21. ^ "Czy tak wyglądał Mikołaj Kopernik?". In Polish. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  22. ^ "Polish tests 'confirm Copernicus'". Retrieved 2008-11-20.
  23. ^ 16th-century skeleton identified as astronomer Copernicus The Guardian, November 21, 2008
  24. ^ Scientists say Copernicus' remains found, Associated Press, 2008-11-20, retrieved 2008-11-20
  25. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97250330
  26. ^ Dreyer (1953, pp. 40–52); Linton (2004, p. 20).
  27. ^ Dreyer (1953, pp. 123–35); Linton (2004, p. 24).
  28. ^ Archimedes refers to Aristarchus's book in The Sand Reckoner. Heath's (1913, p.302) translation of the relevant passage reads: "You ['you' being King Gelon] are aware that 'universe' is the name given by most astronomers to the sphere the center of which is the center of the Earth, while its radius is equal to the straight line between the center of the Sun and the center of the Earth. This is the common account as you have heard from astronomers. But Aristarchus has brought out a book consisting of certain hypotheses, wherein it appears, as a consequence of the assumptions made, that the universe is many times greater than the 'universe' just mentioned. His hypotheses are that the fixed stars and the Sun remain unmoved, that the Earth revolves about the Sun on the circumference of a circle, the Sun lying in the middle of the orbit, and that the sphere of the fixed stars, situated about the same center as the Sun, is so great that the circle in which he supposes the Earth to revolve bears such a proportion to the distance of the fixed stars as the center of the sphere bears to its surface." The bracketed insertion is in Heath's translation.
  29. ^ Tassoul, Jean-Louis & Monique (2004). Concise History of Solar and Stellar Physics. Princeton University.
  30. ^ Dreyer (1953, pp. 314–15).
  31. ^ Translated by Rosen (2004, p. 58–59).
  32. ^ Rosen (1995, pp.151–59)
  33. ^ Rosen (1995, p.158)
  34. ^ Koestler (1959, p.191)
  35. ^ Rosen (1995, pp.187–192), originally published in 1967 in Saggi su Galileo Galilei . Rosen is particularly scathing about this and other statements in The Sleepwalkers which he criticises as inaccurate.
  36. ^ Gingerich (2004), DeMarco (2004) [2]
  37. ^ In fact, in the Pythagorean cosmological system the Sun was not motionless.
  38. ^ Decree of the General Congregation of the Index, March 5, 1616, translated from the Latin by Finocchiaro (1989, pp.148-149). An on-line copy of Finocchiaro's translation has been made available by Gagné (2005).
  39. ^ Fantoli (2005, pp.118–19); Finocchiaro (1989, pp.148, 153). On-line copies of Finocchiaro's translations of the relevant documents, Inquisition Minutes of 25 February, 1616 and Cardinal Bellarmine's certificate of 26 May, 1616, have been made available by Gagné (2005). This notice of the decree would not have prevented Galileo from discussing heliocentrism solely as a mathematical hypothesis, but a stronger formal injunction (Finocchiaro, 1989, p.147-148) not to teach it "in any way whatever, either orally or in writing", allegedly issued to him by the Commissary of the Holy Office, Father Michelangelo Segizzi, would certainly have done so (Fantoli, 2005, pp.119–20, 137). There has been much controversy over whether the copy of this injunction in the Vatican archives is authentic; if so, whether it was ever issued; and if so, whether it was legally valid (Fantoli, 2005, pp.120–43).
  40. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia.
  41. ^ From the Inquisition's sentence of June 22, 1633 (de Santillana, 1976, pp.306-10; Finocchiaro 1989, pp.287-91)
  42. ^ Heilbron (2005, p. 307); Coyne (2005, p. 347).
  43. ^ McMullin (2005, p. 6); Coyne (2005, p. 346-47).
  44. ^ By Jeffrey Burton Russell (1997, p.64), for instance
  45. ^ Rudnicki, Konrad (2006). "The Genuine Copernican Cosmological Principle". Southern Cross Review: note 2. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |quotes= ignored (help)
  46. ^ Jerzy Dobrzycki and Leszek Hajdukiewicz, "Kopernik, Mikołaj", Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. XIV, 1969, pp. 3-4.
  47. ^ Dobrzycki and Hajdukiewicz, Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. XIV, p. 4.
  48. ^ ... as there were no natural geographical boundaries, especially in the east. Accordingly, it remains a matter of dispute to this day whether the astronomer Copernicus should be regarded as a German or a Pole. - K. Stuart Parkes, Understanding Contemporary Germany, Routledge, 1997, 247 pages ISBN 0-415-14123-0 page xxi
  49. ^ Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland, [3]. ISBN 0-231-05353-3.
  50. ^ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Gesamtübersicht, Bd. 4, Seite 461. [4]
  51. ^ Der Streit in der Literatur darüber, ob Kopernikus ein Deutscher oder ein Pole sei, war überflüssig und beschämend. Leider ist die ältere Literatur davon durchsetzt.University of Braunschweig
  52. ^ "Copernicus, Nicolaus". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-21.,
  53. ^ "Copernicus, Nicolaus", Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 7, pp. 755–56, 1986.
  54. ^ "Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer". Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. Microsoft. 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  55. ^ "Nicolaus Copernicus". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  56. ^ Diemut Majer, Non-Germans Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and occupied Eastern Europe with special regard to occupied Poland, 1939-1945, [5]. ISBN 0-8018-6493-3

References

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