Copernicus scientist biography

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  • Where was nicolaus copernicus born
  • What is nicolaus copernicus famous for

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    Nicolaus Copernicus

    (1473-1543)

    Who Was Copernicus?

    Circa 1508, Nicolaus Copernicus developed his own celestial model of a heliocentric planetary system. Around 1514, 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, 1543 death in Frombork.

    Early Life and Education

    Famed astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik, in Polish) came into the world on February 19, 1473. The fourth and youngest child born to Nicolaus Copernicus Sr. and Barbara Watzenrode, an affluent copper merchant family in Torun, West Prussia, Copernicus was technically of German heritage. 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 mid-1480s, Copernicus' father passed away. His maternal uncle, Bishop of Var

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    Who Was Copernicus?

    Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in Torun, a city in north-central Poland on the Vistula River. Copernicus was born into a family of well-to-do merchants, and after his father’s death, his uncle–soon to be a bishop–took the boy under his wing. He was given the best education of the day and bred for a career in canon (church) law.

    At the University of Krakow (today’s Jagiellonian University), he studied frikostig arts, including astronomy and astrology, and then, like many Europeans of his social class, was sent to Italy to study medicine and law.

    While studying at the University of Bologna, he lived for a time in the home of Domenico Maria de Novara, the principal astronomer at the university. Astronomy and astrology were at the time closely related and equally regarded, and Novara had the responsibility of issuing astrological prognostications for Bologna.

    Copernicus sometimes assisted him in his observations, and Novara exposed him to criti

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    Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)

    Regarded as one of the central figures of the so-called Scientific Revolution, Copernicus (1473-1543) postulated a heliostatic theory in his De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543). He did, however, maintain that planetary orbits were circular, and many believed that his system did not reflect the physical universe.

    Born in Torun, Poland, in 1473, Copernicus first studied astronomy and astrologyat the University of Cracow (1491-94). Through his uncle, Lukas Watzenrode (1447-1512), who later became the bishop of Varmia (Ermland), he was elected a canon of the cathedral chapter of Frombork (Frauenburg). As part of his requirement as a canon, he matriculated in 1496 in the University of Bologna to study both canon and civil law. There, he lodged with and worked as an assistant to Domenico Maria the Ferrarese of Novara (1454-1504), professor of mathematics and astrology and also the official compiler of prognostications for the university.

    After bri

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