Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on this day in 1473. He was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which made the Sun the center of the universe. Among the great polymaths of the the time period, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, jurist, diplomat, governor, physician, quadrilingual polyglot, classics scholar, translator, artist, Catholic cleric, and economist.

Copernicus spoke several Latin, German, and Polish with equal fluency. He also spoke Greek and Italian.The vast majority of Copernicus’ surviving works are in Latin, which in his lifetime was the language of academia in Europe. Latin was also the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and of Poland’s royal court, and thus all of Copernicus’ correspondence with the Church and with Polish leaders was in Latin.

He was educated at several of the leading universities of Europe. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) is was his seminal work on the heliocentric theory, which was widely published after his death in 1543, but which he had given secret copies to his close friends in 1514.

There were no great outcries or persecutions by the Roman Catholic Church after the publication of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. As a matter of fact, Copernicus considered himself inspired directly by God. He was actually mocked in a contemporary play because of it.

Modern astronomy and science owe a great deal to this revolutionary thinker.  While we take for granted today, that the Sun in the center of the solar system, no one believed that before Copernicus. He risked his professional reputation to bring great truth to light. 

Thank you, Nicolaus.