BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

I take the life and works of Nicolaus Copernicus and, in particular, his famous book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, published in 1543, as marking the end of the 'old' astronomy - indeed, the 'old' science - rather than the beginning of the modern era. My reasoning is that, although he initiated the reform of astronomy, a great deal of work was needed before it was completed. The Copernican theory was correct but the system he devised was not; indeed, strictly speaking, it was just wrong as Ptolemy's had been. As we will see, according to Copernicus all celestial orbits are perfectly circular, and so as a consequence he was forced to accept the ideas of deferents and epicycles. Furthermore, he was not able to give firm scientific proof of his theory. Suffice it to say that he did, on the other hand, build a system that was capable of being further developed by astute observers. His work, then, marked the transition from the period when 'saving the phenomena' and simply predicting the positions of the Moon, Sun and planets by mathematical constructions based on uniform motion around circles, with a stationary (non-rotating) Earth at the center of the system, was the modus operandi, to a time when scientists became somewhat more serious about the actual shapes of their orbits and the laws governing their motions. In addition, despite being a canon of the church in Poland, he was, clearly, less concerned with religious dogma and authority than many of his contemporaries.

Before Copernicus published his theory astronomers had concentrated pretty much on trying to 'tidy-up' or refine Ptolemy's model rather than formulate any new ideas. However, it would be an overstatement to claim that Copernicus was responsible for the 'scientific revolution' or the 'renaissance of scientific thinking'; the major players would have to be Brähe, Kepler, Galileo and Newton, who came later. Nevertheless, by demoting the Earth from a central position and replacing it with the Sun, he made understanding of the solar system very much simpler and more logical. If we take the publication of Copernicus' De Revolutionibus and Newton's Principia as setting the time limits [1] then the revolution itself took place over a period of about 140 years.


Niklas Koppernigk [2] was born on February 19, 1473, in the Polish city of Thorn (now Torun), on the River Vistula. Poland has had a troubled history - at times it has been split and controlled by foreign oppressors - but during Copernicus' lifetime it was going through one of its most powerful and prosperous periods. The peace was not total, however, since the infamous Order of Teutonic Knights [3] were often causing trouble. But, generally speaking, this was a period of relative stability during which learning and culture flourished. Copernicus came from a wealthy and influential family of German colonists who, a century or so before his birth, had been called into the country by the Polish king. His grandfather had been a merchant in Cracow - the capital city - and it was there that his father, also named Nicolaus, was born. His father, a merchant, moved from Cracow to Thorn around 1458 and spent the rest of his life there, gained citizenship and even became a magistrate. (Thorn was an excellent center for his operations with many connections to the major towns and ports of Europe.) Around 1460 he married Barbara Watzenrode, whose father, Lukasz, was an alderman and so among the most important, aristocratic and celebrated citizens of Thorn. For some time previous, Thorn had been ruled by the Teutonic Knights; they were harsh and greedy and no citizen was safe from their tax-collectors. The Knights had control of the province centered at Gdansk and they reached out to Thorn, where they had built a large castle that towered over the city as a symbol of darkness and oppression. The Knights were very unpopular and had constantly to be on their guard. In February 1454 the senior citizens of Thorn informed the Grand Master that they were breaking all their ties with the Teutonic Knights. The castle was taken by storm and in May 1454 the Polish King, Casimir, arrived and took the city under his protection. The Watzenrode family had been active and influential during the fighting; they provided monetary support and Barbara's grandfather had actually fought in the battle. It was during this relatively calm period that Nicolaus Copernicus was born at 17 Anna Street (now called Copernicus Street).

Nicolaus was one of four children. One of his sisters, Barbara, became a nun and the other, Katarzyna, married a merchant. Nicolaus and his brother, Andrzej, who was three years older, shared many early experiences. In 1480 the family moved to a new house, 36 Market Square, but in 1483 Nicolaus' father died. Although there was no shortage of money Barbara's brother, Lukasz [4], took responsibility for the family and so was destined to play an important role in Nicolaus' life. Nicolaus' early schooling was probably conventional but higher education was essential and the choice was obvious; Cracow, were his uncle had studied at one time. So, in 1491, at age eighteen years Nicolaus - and his brother Andrzej - went to study at the University of Cracow. The University - now known as the Jagiellonian University - was founded around 1364 and had become one of the most highly regarded and famous universities in Europe with many eminent scholars, particularly in mathematics and astronomy; notably Albert of Brudzew and Jan of Glogow in astronomy. However, Nicolaus and Andrzej enrolled in the Faculty of Arts; they had not been sent to Cracow to study the stars! There is no evidence that the brothers were necessarily influenced by Albert of Brudzew, but the latter was a skillful teacher and so it is likely that he had some effect on Nicolaus [5]. Their maternal uncle had become Bishop of Warmia in 1489 and a trusted advisor to King John Albert (who succeeded Casimir in 1492), which meant that the brothers were highly respected in the student community.

Nicolaus left the University around 1495 probably without a degree, although without doubt he had received a very broad education. His uncle was very anxious for him to fill a vacant position as a canon of Frombork. However, there was some opposition and so he agreed to wait and sent his nephews to the University of Bologna to continue their education. They left for Italy late in 1496 and Nicolaus enrolled at the University on January 6, 1497 as a student of canon law; the statutes at Frombork required that canons had studied theology, law and medicine. The University was founded in 1119 and had a well-known Law school. Astronomy may well have been a hobby of Nicolaus' but his uncle wanted him to follow in his own footsteps into the Church [4]. So Nicolaus spent about 3-1/2 years at Bologna studying Greek and the writings of Plato and obtained the degree of magister artium (Master of Arts) after one year. He also became closely associated with the astronomer Domenico Maria da Novara (1454-1504) [6]

as his later disciple Rheticus tells us. Although Novara was a professor of Astronomy he held also the Chair of astrology. However, it is very unlikely that Novara held other than the conventional, i.e., Ptolemaic, views. But from what happened later - and not very many years later - it is quite possible that Copernicus' own doubts about the Ptolemaic system were becoming more focused. A second attempt at getting Nicolaus the canonry at Frombork, probably around 1497 and by proxy, was successful but he was also given leave of absence to remain in Bologna. (His brother Andrzej also obtained a canonry around 1499.) In the Spring of 1500 he left Bologna for Rome for the celebrations of 15 centuries of Christianity; mind you, the Church was going through one of its most notorious periods [7]. Nicolaus had obviously gained some sort of reputation because, according to Rheticus, he ..."lectured in Rome, with large audiences and in a circle of eminent men." Unfortunately, we have no idea what those lectures comprised. However, we can speculate with some certainty that they were not overtly anti-Ptolemaic otherwise they would have generated a great deal of negative attention!

The brothers left Rome for Poland in May 1501 to be installed officially in the Cathedral at Frombork. They visited Thorn to find it once again preparing for confrontation with the Teutonic Knights. Following their installation as canons in Frombork, Nicolaus and Andrzej requested a further leave of absence to continue their studies in Italy; indeed, Nicolaus said he wanted to study medicine in addition to completing his degree in canon law. That suited the Cathedral chapter very well because adequately qualified medical doctors were scarce. Nicolaus went to Padua and Andrzej returned to Rome.

The University of Padua, which dated back to 1222, boasted a fine law school and a first-rate medical school. Nicolaus completed his studies there but decided to graduate with a doctoral degree in canon law from the University of Ferrara, on May 31, 1503, possibly because the graduation fee was much less there than at Padua! Although he never took a degree in medicine he became a more than competent doctor. Some of his books survive with comments and prescriptions written in his own hand:

Sometime around 1503 Nicolaus left Italy and returned to Poland. He went to Warmia and joined his uncle, whose Episcopal seat was in the town of Lidzbark, in the northern part of Poland. Nicolaus lived in the castle and was kept active as the Bishop's secretary and physician; it is perhaps surprising to note that the man who later revolutionized astronomy was also very much involved in politics in Warmia [9], and rather than being drawn away from astronomy, he had actually made up his mind to 'study the stars'. It was at Lidzbark that he wrote the first book that claimed categorically that the Ptolemaic theory must be wrong. It was a short book of some twenty pages - Nicolai Copernici de Hypothesibus Motuum Coelestium a se Constituis Commentariolus - simply known as the Commentariolus (or Commentary) for short and written around 1507. Handwritten copies were circulated among his friends chiefly in the Cracow area [10].

The Commentary is an outline sketch of the 'Copernican system' without any mathematical reasoning. Although he realized that by taking the Earth away from the center of the system and replacing it with the Sun made things very much more logical and simpler, he was still convinced that all celestial orbits had to be circular. That meant that he was forced to keep the ideas of the deferent and epicycle. However, there were a number of new, revolutionary ideas. For example:

As indicated above he still included epicycles in the details of the orbits and he concludes the Commentary by adding that a total of 34 circles are required to explain "the structure of the world and the entire dance of the planets".

The restricted circulation of the Commentary meant that, at least initially, few people outside Poland heard about these revolutionary ideas. The Papal Court in the Vatican - the Pope at that time was Clement VII - was given a verbal account of the 'Copernican system' in 1533 but, for the moment, there was no adverse criticism possibly because the Church considered it a new 'fad' that would soon disappear. (Also, it should be noted that the word hypothesis appears in the (full) title and the word assumption appears throughout the text. On the other hand, maybe neither the Pope nor the Cardinals understood the implications of the theory.)

In 1512, while returning from a trip to Cracow, Bishop Lukasz Watzenrode fell ill (in Thorn). By the time Nicolaus arrived the Bishop had died (aged 65 years old). Copernicus' career at Lidzbark was over. He left the castle and as a canon of Warmia, he returned to Frombork, the seat of the Chapter. He took rooms in the north-west tower adjacent to the Cathedral and it was there:

that he spent the rest of his life [11]. Shortly after arriving he built a wooden quadrant - for measuring the position of the Sun - and possibly a triquetrum - for measuring the position of stars - that was later owned Tycho Brähe. He did make a few of his own observations - chiefly eclipses and oppositions of planets - and used some of them in De Revolutionibus, but he was not noted for his observational skills; he was what we call today a 'theorist'. From about 1515 he worked on the manuscript of his famous book, which, for a variety of reasons, was not completed until around 1533 and remained unpublished until 1543. For the first part of his time at Frombork he faced problems posed by the Teutonic Knights and he had to act as military organizer as well as physician and statesman. The Knights had become increasingly active, raiding Warmia. Copernicus moved to Olsztyn, which had a well-built castle, and stayed there from 1516-1519; it became the mainstay of resistance to the Knights. Copernicus, and the new Bishop of Warmia, Fabian, who was weak and vacillating, carried out negotiations with the Grand Master of the Order but on Jan 1, 1520 open war broke out between the Knights, who had declared themselves the legal defenders of Warmia, and the Poles, claiming they had the support of the Pope. By the end of January the Knights reached Frombork and Copernicus returned to Olsztyn from 1520-1521. However, the Knights failed to take the castles at Olsztyn and Lidzbark and in 1521 a 4-year cease fire began although sporadic raids continued. Eventually the Knights admitted failure and on April 10, 1525 the Grand Master rendered homage to King Sigismund I in the marketplace in Cracow.

His involvement with the military aspects of repelling the Knights invasion obviously interfered with his astronomical studies but, somewhat surprisingly, he continued his astronomical observations during his times at Olsztyn (although he delayed work on his manuscript until the war with the Knights was over). Also, in his capacity as the administrator of the chapter's assets - it owned about 1/3 of the country - he was busy with other pursuits. For example, in 1519 he produced a report on methods of restoring the value of currency that was debased by minting coins using an inferior alloy [9]. Once the Knights had been defeated Copernicus was able to return to Frombork where he spent the remainder of his life, occasionally traveling around the local area. At long last he could return and complete his manuscript.

We do not know when Copernicus finished De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. It was definitely not before 1530 because he refers to observations made in 1529; nor was it much later than 1532 because he does not use observations after that date. The book represents the final stage of Copernicus' ideas, giving us his theory in its final form. The manuscript itself was written in neat longhand and is now stored in the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow. It comprises six books that deal with, in turn; the arrangement of the Solar system; a newly arranged star catalogue; precession; the movements of the Moon and the last two on the motion of the planets. Obviously, the whole basis of the book is the claim that the Sun, not the Earth, lies at the center of the system. In addition, and as we saw earlier in the Commentary he proposes that the Earth rotates. To overcome some of the objections that arose over the latter idea, such as ..."why, then, are we not surrounded by howling gales?" ... etc., he suggested that it carries the atmosphere with it. The Copernican theory was correct but his system was not; in fact, it was just wrong as Ptolemy's had been. According to Copernicus all celestial orbits are perfectly circular, and so as a consequence he was forced to accept the ideas of deferents and epicycles. Furthermore, he was not able to give firm scientific proof of his theory.

Hints of his new theory were being spread during the long years of preparation of the manuscript, due principally to the circulation of the Commentary and the actions of some of his friends, notably the map-maker Wapowski and Bishop Tideman Giese. As we saw above, in 1533 Pope Clement VII asked his secretary to find out about the new theory and in 1536 Nicolaus Schönberg, Cardinal of Capua, and a trusted councilor of both Pope Clement and his successor Paul III, wrote to Copernicus asking for further clarification and some tables, which he duly received and made him a convert and he urged Copernicus to publish his discoveries and offered to pay for the publication of the book [12]. Unfortunately, Schönberg died shortly afterwards (in 1537). In the dedication of the book, when it was eventually published, Copernicus paid tribute to both Cardinal Schönberg and Bishop Giese. He says that Giese had

The final impetus for publication came from Georg Joachim von Lauchen (1516-1574), better known as Rheticus. In May 1539 Rheticus, a young professor of mathematics at the University of Wittenberg, arrived at Frombork. He had heard about the new theories of Copernicus and wanted to know a good deal more [14]. After seeing a copy of the manuscript Rheticus was immediately a 'believer' and declared himself to be a disciple of Copernicus, referring to him as Dominus Doctor Praeceptor, his Preceptor and Master. Rheticus pressed Copernicus to publish the manuscript but he first wrote a brief, 38 page book, the Narratio prima (or First Account), in which he outlined the Copernican theory. It was published in Gdansk, was soon sold out and a second edition was produced in Basle. Rheticus was to follow it with a 'Second Account', which was to deal with some other aspects of the theory, but after further pleadings from Giese and Rheticus, Copernicus eventually agreed to publish his manuscript (influenced possibly by the positive reception the Narratio prima had received). Giese passed the manuscript to Rheticus who in turn took it to a Nürnberg publisher, Petrejus, who was anxious to produce it. Rheticus had wanted to supervise the publication himself, but in 1541 he handed that responsibility over to a Lutheran theologian, Andreas Osiander, when he left Wittenberg to take up a post in Leipzig. It was not a particularly good choice since Osiander was very worried about the reaction of the Church to the book. He suggested that Copernicus write a preface stating that the theory was not to be taken literally. Naturally, Copernicus refused but he did dedicate the book to the new Pope, Paul III, who was known to be a scholar and admirer of science. Copernicus wrote:

The attacks had already started before publication; the critics based their comments on the Narratio prima of Rheticus (since the Commentary was not generally available). The religious reformer Martin Luther led the way since he was convinced that everything in the Bible was literally correct. To the quote shown at the top of this essay he added

to prove his point.

There were other critics also but they were all made on religious rather than scientific grounds . Naturally Copernicus was not happy with the hostility but although now old and infirm he was determined to get his book published. Printing [15] started around March 1543 in Nürnberg under the watchful eye of Osiander. We know the book as De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, or De Revolutionibus for short. There was an unsigned preface that stated the text was simply theory and not to be accepted as the literal truth. Initially, since it was unsigned, many felt the preface had been written by Copernicus himself, but it had been written in fact by Osiander, possibly to soften its effect on the Church. Giese, furious with this outrage, wrote to Rheticus to complain about

of the printer or some envious person and suggested that a formal letter of protest be sent to the Nürnberg Senate.

Nicolaus Copernicus died on May 24, 1543 and legend has it that he saw the first copy on his death bed, and on the day he died, but this is considered unlikely because he had been unconscious for some days before he died. It is probable, therefore, he was completely unaware of Osiander's preface. Initially, the Church took little notice of the book and Copernican theory [16], but news of it spread. In England, for example, Robert Recorde, astrologer, mathematician and physician to Queen Mary Tudor, and Thomas Digges became very strong advocates. Because of the inadequacies and (incorrect) assumptions in the Copernican system, i.e., the use of circular orbits, etc., the first tables prepared using the theory, the Prutenic Tables of Erasmus Reinhold (1551), were not much better than those based on the Ptolemaic system.

Strictly speaking, the idea of a Sun-centered (heliocentric) system was not new. Similar ideas had been put forward by Aristarchus (ca. 310-230 BC) [17] and Nicolaus Krebs, better known as Nicolaus de Cusa, (1401-1464) in his book De docta ignorantia (or On the aknowledged ignorance) published in 1440, for example. In fact, Copernicus made reference to Aristarchus in his manuscript of De Revolutionibus although he later crossed it out! Nicolaus Copernicus was truly a great man as well as a great thinker. Little is known to his detriment but there is much to his credit. He may not have been as colorful as Brähe and Galileo, but he rose to the occasion when needed; his contributions to science have proved to be invaluable and we will never forget the quiet man from 'the remotest corner of the Earth'.

FOOTNOTES

[1] There are grounds for claiming that his first book Nicolai Copernici de Hypothesibus Motuum Coelestium a se Constituis Commentariolus (or the Commentariolus for short), which was written about 1507, started the revolution. However, it had a highly restricted circulation as was little known outside of Poland.

[2] His original name was definitely Koppernigk. Later, he wrote his name as Coppernicus or Copernicus. There are 29 known signatures; during the years 1512-1528 he spelt his name with 'pp' but without the 'us' termination. Five other undated signatures appear in books he owned; four have 'pp' - three with us and one without - while one is in Greek with a single 'p'. In 1537, when he was a canon at Frombork (Frauenberg), he signed the election of a new Bishop as Nicolaus Coppernic. But in seven letters from 1537-1541 he signed himself Nicolaus Copernicus, which was also the name used by his colleague and enthusiastic supporter Rheticus. I will use this latter form in this essay.

[3] They preferred to be called, the Order of the Hospital of the Holy Virgin Mary of the German House in Jerusalem. They were founded in the 12th century in Palestine out of the brotherhood that served in the German Hospital for crusading knights. They became a religious/military organization with the joint aims of tending the sick and injured, and fighting against those who would not accept Christianity. The members were recruited from German knights of the nobility and usually wore white coats marked with a black cross.

[4] After studying at the Universities of Cracow and Bologna, where he became a Doctor of Laws, Lukasz Watzenrode followed an ecclesiastical career and was, at the time of Copernicus' father's death, a canon at Frombork, one of the more remote parts of Poland. He was thought to be a rather curious character; intensely ambitious, ruthless and with little humor. Yet his treatment of his two nephews was beyond reproach.

[5] It appears that Albert of Brudzew had only lectured on Aristotle after 1490 and so Nicolaus may have had private lessons in astronomy with him. In his book, a commentary to Peurbach's Theoricae novae Planetarum, written in 1482 for his pupils and published in Milan in 1495, Albert accepts the Ptolemaic system (as he would have been required to do as a public teacher). So, there is no evidence at all that he suggested to Copernicus that the Earth was in motion.

[6] Novara was a practical astronomer; in 1491, for example, he had determined the obliquity of the ecliptic, i.e., the tilt of the Earth's axis.

[7] The Pope, Alexander VI, was a member of the infamous Borgia family. He, and neither of his children, Lucretia and Cesare, could ever be thought of as 'model and virtuous citizens'. They were rogues of the first order, murderers and open to bribery.

[8] Podagra is gout in the feet.

[9] A canon's life at that time was not simply devoted to prayer, study and meditation. The Bishopric of Warmia was as much a political as an ecclesiastical institution and so Copernicus would have had to involve himself with administration and current affairs.

[10] Three copies survive today; in Vienna, in Stockholm and in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is known that Tycho Brähe received a copy in 1575. No printed versions were available for more than 350 years after the original manuscript appeared around 1507.

[11] Earlier, Nicolaus' brother Andrzej had been installed as a canon there. Apparently he had contracted some disfiguring disease (leprosy?). Nicolaus tried all his medicinal skills learned at Padua on his brother but to no avail and eventually Andrzej left Frombork (for about a year) seeking a cure. He returned but his condition grew steadily worse and in 1512 he was forced to leave the cathedral in case he infected everyone else. We do not know what became of him but it seems certain he died in or before 1519, probably in Rome.

[12] Some of the possible reasons Copernicus was reluctant to publish were, (a) he was a staunch Pythagorean and so thought that the difficult teachings of philosophy should not be made indiscriminately available to the general public but only to the elite, and (b) he told Pope Paul III (in 1533) he wanted peace more than anything else - he was, after all over 60 years old - fully realizing that his ideas would cause much debate.

[13] If we take this statement literally it refers to the year 1506; as such, it cannot refer to the book but maybe the basic idea, i.e., a Sun-centered universe.

[14] Rheticus was a Protestant and so was running a risk in traveling to Warmia, a stronghold of Roman Catholicism. The Catholic church of Warmia was strongly opposed to the religious reformer Martin Luther and anyone from Wittenberg was automatically suspected of being a Lutheran. Copernicus received Rheticus warmly so the latter stayed for two years.

[15] The manuscript, which is available today, was not used by the printing office since it does not always correspond to the text of the printed book. Sentences were added or re-inserted despite the fact that the author had struck them out!

[16] De Revolutionibus was eventually placed on the Index of Prohibited Books by the Roman Catholic Church - pending 'corrections' - in 1616 (at the time of Galileo's first brush with the Inquisition). It was removed from the Index in 1835.

[17] Archimedes of Syracuse (ca. 287-212 BC) in his book The Sand-Reckoner refers to Artistarchus' ideas:

Furthermore, Plutarch (in his De facie in orbe lunae or On the face in the disc of the Moon) writes:

So, there can be little doubt that sometime around 263 BC Aristarchus hypothesized that the Earth revolved around the Sun in a circle and at the same time rotated on its own axis ... precisely Copernicus' theory! However, it is not clear whether this was guesswork on the part of Aristarchus or whether he had made observations and/or calculations.

REFERENCES

I have used material from the following sources (sometimes quoting verbatim):

Books

Patrick Moore Watchers of the Stars (Michael Joseph Ltd., 1974)

Andrew Koyre The Astronomical Revolution (Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1992). An unaltered republication of the English translation, originally published in 1973 by Methuen & Co. Ltd., London. The work was first published by Hermann, Paris in 1961 with the title La revolution astronomique.

J.L.E. Dreyer A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler (Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1953). The work was first published with the title History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler