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Nicolaus Copernicus

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Astronomers and
physicists

   CAPTION: Nicolaus Copernicus

   Portrait from Toruń, beginning of 16th century.
   Portrait from Toruń, beginning of 16th century.
      Born    February 19, 1473
              Toruń (Thorn), Royal Prussia, ( Kingdom of Poland)
      Died    May 24, 1543
              Frombork (Frauenburg), Ermeland, ( Kingdom of Poland)
   Residence  Poland, Italy
     Field    Mathematician, Astronomer
   Alma Mater Cracow Academy (today the Jagiellonian University)
   Known for  The first modern formulation of a heliocentric (sun-centered)
              theory of the solar system.
    Religion  Roman Catholic

   Nicolaus Copernicus ( February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was an
   astronomer who provided the first modern formulation of a heliocentric
   (sun-centered) theory of the solar system in his epochal book, De
   revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial
   Spheres).

   Copernicus was one of the great polymaths of the Renaissance. He was a
   mathematician, astronomer, jurist, physician, classical scholar,
   governor, administrator, diplomat, economist and soldier. He was a
   Catholic cleric during most of his life too. Amid his extensive
   responsibilities, he treated astronomy as an avocation. However, his
   formulation of how the sun rather than the earth is at the centre of
   the solar system is considered one of the most important scientific
   hypotheses in history. It came to mark the starting point of modern
   astronomy and, in turn, of modern science.

Biography

   Toruń — Copernicus' childhood home.
   Enlarge
   Toruń — Copernicus' childhood home.

   Copernicus was born in 1473 in the city of Toruń (German: Thorn), in
   Royal Prussia, an autonomous province of the Kingdom of Poland. He was
   educated in Poland and Italy, and spent most of his working life in
   Frombork (Frauenburg), Warmia, where he died in 1543.

   When he was ten years old, his father, a wealthy businessman, copper
   trader, and respected citizen of Toruń, died. Little is known of
   Copernicus' mother, Barbara Watzenrode, who appears to have predeceased
   her husband. Copernicus' maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, a church
   canon and later Prince-Bishop governor of the Archbishopric of Warmia,
   reared him and his three siblings after the death of his father. His
   uncle's position helped Copernicus in the pursuit of a career within
   the Church, enabling him to devote much time to his astronomy studies.
   Copernicus had a brother and two sisters:
     * Andreas became a Augustinian canon at Frombork (Frauenburg).
     * Barbara became a Benedictine nun.
     * Katharina married Barthel Gertner, a businessman and city
       councilor.

Education

   In 1491, Copernicus enrolled at the Cracow Academy (today the
   Jagiellonian University), where he probably first encountered
   astronomy, taught by his teacher, Albert Brudzewski. This science soon
   fascinated him, as shown by his books, which would later be carried off
   as war booty by the Swedes, during "The Deluge", to the Uppsala
   University Library. After four years at Cracow, followed by a brief
   stay back home at Toruń, he went to Italy, where he studied law and
   medicine at the universities of Bologna and Padua. His bishop-uncle
   financed his education and wished for him to become a bishop as well.
   However, while studying canon and civil law at Ferrara, Copernicus 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.
   Statue of a seated Copernicus holding a armillary sphere, by Bertel
   Thorvaldsen, in front of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw.
   Enlarge
   Statue of a seated Copernicus holding a armillary sphere, by Bertel
   Thorvaldsen, in front of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw.

   In 1497 Copernicus' uncle was ordained Bishop of Warmia, and Copernicus
   was named a canon at Frauenburg Cathedral, but he waited in Italy for
   the great Jubilee of 1500. Copernicus went to Rome, where he observed a
   lunar eclipse and gave some lectures in astronomy or mathematics.

   He would thus have visited Frombork (Frauenburg) only in 1501. As soon
   as he arrived, he requested and obtained permission to return to Italy
   to complete his studies at Padua (with Guarico and Fracastoro) and at
   Ferrara (with Giovanni Bianchini), where in 1503 he received his
   doctorate in canon law. It has 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. It was in 1504 that Copernicus began
   collecting observations and ideas pertinent to his theory.

Work

   Having left Italy at the end of his studies, he came to live and work
   at Frombork (Frauenburg). Some time before his return to Warmia, he had
   received a position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in
   Breslau, Silesia, which he would resign a few years before his death.
   Through the rest of his life, he performed astronomical observations
   and calculations, but only as time permitted and never in a
   professional capacity.

   Copernicus worked for years with the Royal Prussian Diet on monetary
   reform and published studies on the value of money; as governor of
   Warmia, he administered taxes and dealt out justice. It was at this
   time (beginning in 1519, the year of Thomas Gresham's birth) that
   Copernicus formulated one of the earliest iterations of the theory that
   'bad' (or debased) money will drive 'good' legal-tender money out of
   circulation, now known as " Gresham's Law." During these years, he also
   traveled extensively on government business and as a diplomat, on
   behalf of the Prince-Bishop of Warmia.

Heliocentric model

   In 1514 he made his Commentariolus (Little Commentary) — a short
   handwritten text describing his ideas about the heliocentric hypothesis
   — available to friends. Thereafter he continued gathering data for a
   more detailed work. During the war between the Teutonic Order and the
   Kingdom of Poland ( 1519– 1524), Copernicus at the head of royal troops
   successfully defended Allenstein, besieged by the forces of Albert of
   Brandenburg.
   The astronomer Copernicus: Conversation with God. Painting by Jan
   Matejko Enlarge
   The astronomer Copernicus: Conversation with God. Painting by Jan
   Matejko

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

   By 1536, Copernicus' work was nearing its definitive form, and rumors
   about his theory had reached educated people all over Europe. From many
   parts of the continent, Copernicus was urged to publish.

   In a letter dated Rome, 1 November 1536, the Archbishop of Capua
   Nikolaus Cardinal von Schönberg asked Copernicus to communicate his
   ideas more widely and requested a copy for himself:

          "Therefore, learned man, without wishing to be inopportune, I
          beg you most emphatically to communicate your discovery to the
          learned world, and to send me as soon as possible your theories
          about the Universe, together with tables and whatever else you
          have pertaining to the subject."

   It has been suggested that this letter may have made Copernicus leery
   of publication, while others have suggested that it indicated that the
   Church wanted to ensure that his ideas were published.

   Despite urgings from many quarters, Copernicus delayed with the
   publication of his book — perhaps from fear of criticism delicately
   expressed in the " Dedication to Pope Paul III" associated with his
   great book. About this, historians of science David Lindberg and Ronald
   Numbers wrote:

          "If Copernicus had any genuine fear of publication, it was the
          reaction of scientists, not clerics, that worried him. Other
          churchmen before him — Nicole Oresme (a French bishop) in the
          fourteenth century and Nicolaus Cusanus (a German cardinal) in
          the fifteenth — had freely discussed the possible motion of the
          earth, and there was no reason to suppose that the reappearance
          of this idea in the sixteenth century would cause a religious
          stir." .

Publication of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

   Copernicus was still working on De revolutionibus (even if not
   convinced that he wanted to publish it) when in 1539 Georg Joachim
   Rheticus, a mathematician from Wittenberg, arrived in Frombork. Philipp
   Melanchthon had arranged for Rheticus to visit several astronomers and
   study with them. Rheticus became a pupil of Copernicus, staying with
   him for two years, during which he wrote 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 the book to
   his close friend, Tiedemann Giese, bishop of Chełmno (Kulm), to be
   delivered to Rheticus for printing by Johannes Petreius at Nuremberg
   (Nürnberg).

   Legend has it that the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was
   placed in Copernicus' hands on the very day he died, allowing him to
   take farewell of his opus vitae (life's work). He is reputed to have
   woken from a stroke-induced coma, looked at his book, and died
   peacefully.

   Copernicus was buried in Frombork Cathedral. Archeologists had long
   searched vainly for his remains when, on November 3, 2005, it was
   announced that in August that year Copernicus' skull had been
   discovered (see "Grave" below).

The Copernican heliocentric system

Earlier theories

   Much has been written about earlier heliocentric theories. Early traces
   of a heliocentric model are found in several Vedic Sanskrit texts
   composed in ancient India before the 7th century BC: the Vedas,
   Aitareya Brahmana and Shatapatha Brahmana. The 1st century Sanskrit
   commentary Vishnu Purana elaborates on these earlier heliocentric
   concepts. Philolaus ( 4th century BC) was also one of the first to
   hypothesize movement of the Earth, probably inspired by Pythagoras'
   theories about a spherical Globe.

   Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BC had developed some theories
   of Heraclides Ponticus (speaking of a revolution by Earth on its axis)
   to propose what was, so far as is known, the first serious model of a
   heliocentric solar system. His work about a heliocentric system has not
   survived, so one may only speculate about what led him to his
   conclusions. It is notable that, according to Plutarch, a contemporary
   of Aristarchus accused him of impiety for "putting the Earth in
   motion."

   Aryabhata in India anticipated Copernicus' discoveries by over 1,000
   years and formulated a heliocentric model in which the Earth was taken
   to be spinning on its axis and the periods of the Earth and the planets
   were given with respect to a stationary Sun. He was also the first to
   discover that the light from the Moon and the planets were reflected
   from the Sun, and that the planets follow an elliptical orbit around
   the Sun. The 14th-century Arab astronomer ibn al-Shatir developed
   mathematical techniques similar to those used by Copernicus, and it has
   been suggested that Copernicus might have been influenced by them.

   Copernicus cited Aristarchus and Philolaus in an early manuscript of
   his book which survives, stating: "Philolaus believed in the mobility
   of the earth, and some even say that Aristarchus of Samos was of that
   opinion." For reasons unknown (although possibly out of reluctance to
   quote pre-Christian sources), he did not include this passage in the
   publication of his book. Inspiration came to Copernicus not from
   observation of the planets, but from reading two authors. In Cicero he
   found an account of the theory of Hicetas. Plutarch provided an account
   of the Pythagoreans Heraclides Ponticus, Philolaus, and Ecphantes.
   These authors had proposed a moving earth, which did not, however,
   revolve around a central sun. Copernicus did not attribute his
   inspiration to Aristarchus as is sometimes stated. When Copernicus'
   book was published, it contained an unauthorized preface by the
   Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander. This cleric stated that
   Copernicus wrote his heliocentric account of the earth's movement as a
   mere mathematical hypothesis, not as an account that contained truth or
   even probability. Since Copernicus' hypothesis was believed to
   contradict the Old Testament account of the sun's movement around the
   earth ( Joshua 10:13), this was apparently written to soften any
   religious backlash against the book. However, there is no evidence that
   Copernicus himself considered the heliocentric model as merely
   mathematically convenient, separate from reality.

   It has been argued that in developing the mathematics of heliocentrism
   Copernicus drew on, not just the Greek, but the Islamic tradition of
   mathematics and astronomy, especially the works of Nasir al-Din Tusi,
   Mu’ayyad al-Din al-‘Urdi and ibn al-Shatir.

The Ptolemaic system

   The prevailing theory in Europe as Copernicus was writing was that
   created by Ptolemy in his Almagest, dating from about 150 A.D.. The
   Ptolemaic system drew on many previous theories that viewed Earth as a
   stationary centre 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. To account
   for apparent anomalies to this view, such as the retrograde motion
   observed in many planets, a system of epicycles was used, by which a
   planet rotated on a small axis while also rotating on a larger axis
   around the Earth.

   A complementary theory to Ptolemy's employed homocentric spheres: the
   spheres within which the planets rotated, could themselves rotate
   somewhat. This theory predated Ptolemy (it was first devised by Eudoxus
   of Cnidus; by the time of Copernicus it was associated with Averroes).
   Also popular with astronomers were variations such as eccentrics — by
   which the rotational axis was offset and not completely at the centre.

   Ptolemy's unique contribution to this theory was the idea of an equant
   — a complicated addition which specified that, when measuring the
   rotation of the Sun, one sometimes used the central axis of the
   universe, but sometimes a different axis. This had an overall effect of
   making certain orbits "wobble," a fact that would greatly bother
   Copernicus (such wobbling rendered implausible the idea of material
   "spheres" in which the planets rotated). In the end, after all these
   complications, the astronomers could still not get observation and
   theory to match up exactly. In Copernicus' day, the most up-to-date
   version of the Ptolemaic system was that of Peurbach (1423-1461) and
   Regiomontanus (1436-1476).

Copernican theory

   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.
   Statue of Copernicus next to Cracow University's Collegium Novum
   Enlarge
   Statue of Copernicus next to Cracow University's Collegium Novum

   The book marks the beginning of the shift away from a geocentric (and
   anthropocentric) universe with the Earth at its centre. Copernicus held
   that the Earth is another planet revolving around the fixed sun once a
   year, and turning on its axis once a day. He arrived at the correct
   order of the known planets and explained the precession of the
   equinoxes correctly by a slow change in the position of the Earth's
   rotational axis. He also gave a clear account of the cause of the
   seasons: that the Earth's axis is not perpendicular to the plane of its
   orbit. He added another motion to the Earth, by which the axis is kept
   pointed throughout the year at the same place in the heavens; since
   Galileo Galilei, it has been recognized that for the Earth not to point
   to the same place would have been a motion.

   Copernicus also replaced Ptolemy's equant circles with more epicycles.
   This is the main source of the statement that Copernicus' system had
   even more epicycles than Ptolemy's. With this change, Copernicus'
   system showed only uniform circular motions, correcting what he saw as
   the chief inelegance in Ptolemy's system. But while Copernicus put the
   Sun at the centre of the celestial spheres, he did not put it at the
   exact centre of the universe, but near it.

   Copernicus' system was not experimentally better than Ptolemy's model.
   Copernicus was aware of this and could not present any observational
   "proof" in his manuscript, relying instead on arguments about what
   would be a more complete and elegant system. From publication until
   about 1700, few astronomers were convinced by the Copernican system,
   though the book was relatively widely circulated (around 500 copies are
   known to still exist, which is a large number by the scientific
   standards of the time). Many astronomers, however, accepted some
   aspects of the theory at the expense of others, and his model did have
   a large influence on later scientists such as Galileo and Johannes
   Kepler, who adopted, championed and (especially in Kepler's case)
   sought to improve it. Galileo's observation of the phases of Venus
   produced the first observational evidence for Copernicus' theory.

   The Copernican system can be summarized in seven propositions, as
   Copernicus himself collected them in a Compendium of De revolutionibus
   that was found and published in 1878.

   The seven parts of Copernicus' theory are:
    1. There is no one centre in the universe
    2. The Earth's center is not the centre of the universe
    3. The centre of the universe is near the sun
    4. The distance from the Earth to the sun is imperceptible compared
       with the distance to the stars
    5. The rotation of the Earth accounts for the apparent daily rotation
       of the stars
    6. The apparent annual cycle of movements of the sun is caused by the
       Earth revolving around the sun
    7. The apparent retrograde motion of the planets is caused by the
       motion of the Earth, from which one observes

   Whether these propositions were "revolutionary" or "conservative" was a
   topic of debate in the late twentieth century. Thomas Kuhn argued that
   Copernicus only transferred "some properties to the sun's many
   astronomical functions previously attributed to the earth." Other
   historians have since argued that Kuhn underestimated what was
   "revolutionary" about Copernicus' work, and emphasized the difficulty
   Copernicus would have had in putting forward a new astronomical theory
   relying alone on simplicity in geometry, given that he had no
   experimental evidence.

   Arthur Koestler puts Copernicus in a different light to what many
   authors seem to suggest, portraying him as a coward who was reluctant
   to publish his work due to a crippling fear of ridicule.

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

   Image:De revolutionibus orbium coeleftium.jpg
   Nicolai Copernicito Torinensis De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium,
   Libri VI (title page of 2nd edition, Basel, 1566).

   Copernicus' major work, (Six books) On the Revolutions of the Heavenly
   Spheres (first edition 1543 in Nuremberg, second ed. 1566 in Basel),
   was the result of decades of labor. It opened with an originally
   anonymous preface by Andreas Osiander, a theologian friend of
   Copernicus, who urged that the theory, which was considered a tool that
   allows simpler and more accurate calculations, did not necessarily have
   implications outside the limited realm of astronomy.

   Copernicus' actual book began with a letter from his (by then deceased)
   friend Nikolaus Cardinal von Schönberg, the Archbishop of Capua, urging
   Copernicus to publish his theory. Then, in a lengthy introduction,
   Copernicus dedicated the book to Pope Paul III, explaining his
   ostensible motive in writing the book as relating to the inability of
   earlier astronomers to agree on an adequate theory of the planets, and
   noting that if his system increased the accuracy of astronomical
   predictions it would allow the Church to develop a more accurate
   calendar. At that time, a reform of the Julian Calendar was considered
   necessary and was one of the major reasons for Church funding of
   astronomy.

   The work itself was then 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 (continued)

Copernicus and Copernicanism

   Nicolaus Copernicus.
   Enlarge
   Nicolaus Copernicus.

   Copernicus' theory is of extraordinary importance in the history of
   human knowledge. Many authors suggest that only a few other persons
   have exerted a comparable influence on human culture in general and on
   science in particular.

   Many meanings have been ascribed to Copernicus' theory, apart from its
   strictly scientific import. His work affected religion as well as
   science, dogma as well as freedom of scientific inquiry. Copernicus'
   rank as a scientist is often compared with that of Galileo.

   Copernicus' work contradicted then-accepted religious dogma: it could
   be inferred that there was no need of an entity (God) that granted a
   soul, power and life to the World and to human beings — science could
   explain everything that was attributed to Him.

   Copernicanism, however, also opened a way to immanence, the view that a
   divine force, or a divine being, pervades all things that exist — a
   view that has since been developed further in modern philosophy.
   Immanentism also leads to subjectivism: to the theory that it is
   perception that creates reality, that there is no underlying reality
   that exists independent of perception. Thus some argue that
   Copernicanism demolished the foundations of medieval science and
   metaphysics.

   A corollary of Copernicanism is that scientific law need not be
   congruent with appearance. This contrasts with Aristotle's system,
   which placed much more importance on the derivation of knowledge
   through the senses.

   Copernicus' concept marked a scientific revolution. The publication of
   his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is often taken to be the
   beginning of the Scientific Revolution, together with the publication
   of the De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Andreas Vesalius .

Quotes

   Goethe:

          "Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have exerted a
          greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of
          Copernicus. The world had scarcely become known as round and
          complete in itself when it was asked to waive the tremendous
          privilege of being the centre of the universe. Never, perhaps,
          was a greater demand made on mankind — for by this admission so
          many things vanished in mist and smoke! What became of our Eden,
          our world of innocence, piety and poetry; the testimony of the
          senses; the conviction of a poetic — religious faith? No wonder
          his contemporaries did not wish to let all this go and offered
          every possible resistance to a doctrine which in its converts
          authorized and demanded a freedom of view and greatness of
          thought so far unknown, indeed not even dreamed of."

   Nietzsche:

          "I was pleased to think of the right of the Polish nobleman to
          upset with its simple veto the resolution of a (parliament)
          meeting; and the Pole Copernikus seemed to have made from this
          right against the resolution and all appearances of other people
          the largest and worthiest use."

   Copernicus:

          "For I am not so enamored of my own opinions that I disregard
          what others may think of them. I am aware that a philosopher's
          ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons,
          because it is his endeavor to seek the truth in all things, to
          the extent permitted to human reason by God. Yet I hold that
          completely erroneous views should be shunned. Those who know
          that the consensus of many centuries has sanctioned the
          conception that the earth remains at rest in the middle of the
          heaven as its centre would, I reflected, regard it as an insane
          pronouncement if I made the opposite assertion that the earth
          moves.

          "For when a ship is floating calmly along, the sailors see its
          motion mirrored in everything outside, while on the other hand
          they suppose that they are stationary, together with everything
          on board. In the same way, the motion of the earth can
          unquestionably produce the impression that the entire universe
          is rotating.

          "Therefore alongside the ancient hypotheses, which are no more
          probable, let us permit these new hypotheses also to become
          known, especially since they are admirable as well as simple and
          bring with them a huge treasure of very skillful observations.
          So far as hypotheses are concerned, let no one expect anything
          certain from astronomy, which cannot furnish it, lest he accept
          as the truth ideas conceived for another purpose, and depart
          from this study a greater fool than when he entered it.
          Farewell."

   Declaration of the Polish Senate issued on 12th of June 2003.

          "At the time of five hundred and thirtieth anniversary of the
          birth and four hundred sixtieth anniversary of the death of
          Mikołaj Kopernik, the Senate of the Republic of Poland expresses
          its highest respect and praise for this exceptional Pole, one of
          the greatest scientists in the history of the world. Mikołaj
          Kopernik, world-famous astronomer and author of the breakthrough
          work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, is the one who "Held
          the Sun and moved the Earth". He distinguished himself for the
          country as exceptional mathematician, economist, lawyer, doctor
          and priest, as well as defender of the Olsztyn Castle during
          Polish-Teutonic war. May the memory of his achievements endure
          and be a source of inspiration for future generations."

   Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie: ADB, published between 1875 and 1912,
   Seite 465

          "The nationality question was a subject of different writings;
          an honouring controversy over the claim to the founder of our
          current world view is led between Poles and Germans, but it is
          already mentioned that over the nationality of parents of the
          Copernicus nothing sure could be determined; the father seems to
          be of Slavic birth, the mother to be a German; he was born in a
          city, whose municipal authorities and educated inhabitants were
          Germans, which however at present of his birth was under Polish
          rule; he studied in Krakau in the Polish capital, then in Italy
          and lived to his end in Frauenburg as a capitular; he wrote
          Latin and German. In the science he is a man, who does not
          belong to a nation, his working, his striving belongs to the
          whole world, and we do not honour the Pole, not the German, in
          Copernicus but the man of free spirit, the great astronomer, the
          father of the new astronomy, the author of the true world view."

   Johannes Rau (at that time President of Germany) addresses the Polish
   people in 1999:

          "Poles and Germans have a common history of great scientists:
          Today we no longer perceive Copernicus, Hevelius, Schopenhauer,
          and Fahrenheit as the property of one nation but as
          representatives of one transnational culture."

Grave

   Frombork Cathedral — Copernicus' burial place.
   Enlarge
   Frombork Cathedral — Copernicus' burial place.

   In August 2005, a team of archeologists led by Jerzy Gąssowski, head of
   an archaeology and anthropology institute in Pułtusk, discovered what
   they believe to be Copernicus' grave and remains, after scanning
   beneath the floor of Frombork Cathedral. The find came after a year of
   searching, and the discovery was announced only after further research,
   on November 3. 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 . The expert also determined
   that the skull had belonged to a man who had died about age 70 —
   Copernicus' age at the time of his death.

   The grave was in poor condition, and not all the remains were found.
   The archeologists hoped to find deceased relatives of Copernicus in
   order to attempt DNA identification.

Historical background to the question of Copernicus' nationality

   Bust of Copernicus at Jordan Park, Kraków.
   Enlarge
   Bust of Copernicus at Jordan Park, Kraków.

   It remains to this day a matter of dispute whether Copernicus should be
   called German or Polish.

   Copernicus' father, likewise named Nicolaus, might have had the surname
   Koppernigk, which could have been derived from a village in Silesia
   near Nysa (Neiße) which was called Köppernig until 1945, and is called
   Koperniki since. A Polish theory says that the original ending –nik in
   Copernicus' name indicates its Polish form, meaning a person who works
   with copper . The Polish modern word for copper is Miedź, though, while
   the German is Kupfer. However, "Kopernik" may as well refer to a Polish
   word "koper" which stands for a herb - fennel(Foeniculum vulgare)

   In the title of his famous book, his name is written as "Nicolai
   Copernici Torinensis De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, Libri VI",
   roughly meaning "Nicolaus' Copernicus' of Torin six books on ...". In
   the German: Nikolaus Kopernikus, each C was substituted with K to
   clarify pronunciation (not Z as in the German pronunciation of Cicero
   or Caesar). In Poland, Polish: Mikołaj Kopernik is used (or claimed to
   be his original name).

   The father of Copernicus, possibly a Germanized Slav , had been a
   citizen of Cracow, but left the (then) capital of Poland in 1460 to
   move to Thorn/Toruń (German/Polish). That Hanseatic city was also part
   of the Prussian Confederation, which, some decades before Copernicus'
   birth, had tried to gain independence from the Teutonic Knights who had
   ruled the area for two hundred years, but imposed high taxes that were
   hindering economic development. This led to the Thirteen Years' War and
   the Second Treaty of Thorn of 1466: Thorn/Toruń and Prussia's western
   part, called " Royal Prussia", became connected to the Kingdom of
   Poland, which had supported the uprising, while the eastern part
   remained under the administration of the Teutonic Order, later to
   become " Ducal Prussia". Thus the child of a German family was a
   subject of the Polish crown. Copernicus was born and has grown up in
   Thorn/Toruń, and was certainly fluent in the German language, while no
   direct evidence survives of the extent to which he knew the Polish
   language. His main language for written communication was Latin.

   After his prolonged studies in Italy, Copernicus spent most of his
   working life as a cleric in Royal Prussia, which enjoyed substantial
   autonomy as part of the lands of the Polish Crown — it had its own
   Diet, monetary unit and treasury (which Copernicus famously helped to
   place on a sound footing) and army. Copernicus also oversaw the defense
   of Olsztyn/ Allenstein at the head of Polish royal forces when the
   local castle was besieged by the forces of Albrecht I Hohenzollern von
   Brandenburg-Ansbach, the future ( Protestant) Duke of Prussia. He
   became for the rest of his life a burgher of Prussian Ermland (
   Bishopric of Warmia), and was a loyal subject of the Catholic
   Prince-Bishops and the Catholic Polish king during the Protestant
   Reformation in which many parts of Germany, starting with Ducal
   Prussia, became Protestant.

   In 1757 Copernicus's book was removed from the Index Librorum
   Prohibitorum, the list of books which were banned by the Catholic
   Church. Ever since, Poles claimed that Copernicus was a Pole and
   Germans that he was a German. Before that, when Copernicus and his
   ideas were rejected, it was contrariwise . A bust of Copernicus is
   enshrined since 1842 in the Walhalla, German Hall of Fame. In Nazi
   Germany attempts were made to claim that Copernicus was exclusively a
   German; however, after 1945 those attempts have greatly diminished.
   Despite the acknowledgement of his connections to Poland he is
   certainly not considered in Germany as Un-German or Non-German either.
   In 2003 he was declared eligible for the Unsere Besten ranking of
   outstanding Germans.
   Polish banknote of 1982, with Copernicus identified, in Polish, as
   "MIKOŁAJ KOPERNIK." Polish banknote of 1982, with Copernicus
   identified, in Polish, as "MIKOŁAJ KOPERNIK."

   In Poland, on the other hand, his 500th birthday was celebrated in
   1973, emphasizing his Polishness. A banknote with an image of
   Copernicus was issued, and the Polish Senate called him on 12 June 2003
   an "exceptional Pole".

   Today he is often classified as Polish, in part based on the location
   of his birthplace in then and present-day Poland, though not only
   limited to that. It must be remembered though that during Copernicus'
   lifetime, nationality was yet to play as important a role as it would
   later, and people generally did not think of themselves primarily as
   Poles or Germans. In fact, Copernicus might have considered himself to
   be both at the same time.

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