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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Nicolaus Copernicus Biography COPERNICUS (Latinized form of Koppernigk), Nicolaus (1473–1543). A celebrated Polish astronomer, born at Thorn, a Prussian town on the Vistula, at that time belonging to Poland. He was instructed in the Latin and Greek languages at home; in 1491 he was sent to the University of Cracow, where he studied mathematics and other sciences. In 1495 he went to Italy and spent some years in the study of law, astronomy, and medicine, in Bologna and Padua. His natural bent, however, was towards mathematics, the study of which he pursued with passion through all its branches. Having become enamored of the study of astronomy, he projected a journey to Rome in his enthusiastic admiration of Regiomontanus, who resided there and was then the most illustrious of the astronomers. On his arrival, in 1500, he was kindly received by Regiomontanus. Here his reputation, and the favor of his distinguished friend, led to his being chosen professor of mathematics. He became doctor decretorum at Ferrara in 1503 and in 1505 returned to his native country, where, having entered into holy orders, he obtained through his uncle, the Bishop of Ermeland, a canonry at Frauenburg, in the enjoyment of which he passed the rest of his life. His working day, it is said, he divided into three parts—one devoted to the duties of his office, another to giving medical advice gratuitously to the poor, and the third to study. Soon after his return to Prussia he began, in his thirty-fifth year (1507), to apply his fund of observations and mathematical knowledge to correcting the system of astronomy which then prevailed. The result was his De Revolutionibus Orbium Cślestium (Nuremberg, 1543), a brief account of which is given under Copernican System. He completed it in 1530, in his fifty-seventh year. Twelve years, however, elapsed before he could be persuaded to give his book to the world. Perhaps the strongest motive for his reticence was the fear of the unpopularity which the work threatened to bring him; for many who had heard of the views it advocated doubted if these were in harmony with Scripture. At all events, it is pretty certain that it was his desire to conciliate the Church that led him to dedicate his book, when it was published, to Pope Paul III. By the time the book was actually printed, however, the author was beyond the power of the Church. An attack of dysentery, followed by paralysis of the right side, had destroyed his memory and obscured his understanding, and he is said to have died a few hours after a copy of the labor of his life reached him. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. VI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 54.
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