COPERNICUS

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                                                Copernican heliocentrism






Predecessors



Early traces of a heliocentric model are found in several anonymous Vedic Sanskrit texts composed in ancient India before the 7th century BCE. Additionally, the Indian astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata anticipated elements of Copernicus' work by over a thousand years.

Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BCE elaborated some theories of Heraclides Ponticus (the daily rotation of the Earth on its axis, the revolution of Venus and Mercury around the Sun) to propose what was the first scientific model of a heliocentric solar system: the Earth and all other planets revolving around the Sun, the Earth rotating around its axis daily, the Moon in turn revolving around the Earth once a month. His heliocentric work has not survived, so we can 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."

Copernicus cited Aristarchus and Philolaus in a surviving early manuscript of his book, stating: "Philolaus believed in the mobility of the earth, and some even say that Aristarchus of Samos was of that opinion." For reasons unknown (possibly from reluctance to quote pre-Christian sources), he did not include this passage in the published book. It has been argued that in developing the mathematics of heliocentrism Copernicus drew on not just the Greek, but also the work of Muslim astronomers, especially the works of Nasir al-Din Tusi (Tusi-couple), Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi (Urdi lemma) and Ibn al-Shatir. Copernicus also discussed the theories of Ibn Battuta and Averroes in his major work.





Ptolemy







Ptolemy. Medieval artist's rendition.


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 center 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.

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Copernicus' major theory was published in the book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) during the year of his death, 1543, though he had arrived at his theory several decades earlier.

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 major parts of Copernican theory are:



Heavenly motions are uniform, eternal, and circular or compounded of several circles (epicycles).
The center of the universe is near the Sun.

Around the Sun, in order, are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the fixed stars.

The Earth has three motions: daily rotation, annual revolution, and annual tilting of its axis.

Retrograde motion of the planets is explained by the Earth's motion.

The distance from the Earth to the sun is small compared to the distance to the stars.

The work itself was then divided into six books:

General vision of the heliocentric theory, and a summarized exposition of his idea of the World

Mainly theoretical, presents the principles of spherical astronomy and a list of stars (as a basis for the arguments developed in the subsequent books)

Mainly dedicated to the apparent motions of the Sun and to related phenomena

Description of the Moon and its orbital motions

Concrete exposition of the new system

Concrete exposition of the new system (continued)

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                                                                 Copernicanism





 


Copernicus, astronomer.


Copernicus' theory is of extraordinary importance in the history of human knowledge. Many authors suggest that few other persons have exerted a comparable influence on human culture in general and on science in particular.[citation needed] There are parallels with the life of Charles Darwin, in that both men produced a short early description of their theories, but held back on a definitive publication until late in life, against a backdrop of controversy, particularly with regard to religion.

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

The Copernican theory challenged Aristotle's and Ptolemy's commonly accepted geocentric model of the universe endorsed by the Church.

Copernicanism also opened the way to immanence, the view that a divine force, or divine being, pervades all that exists — a view that has since been developed further in modern philosophy.[citation needed] 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 mark the beginning of the Scientific Revolution, together with the publication of Andreas Vesalius' De Humani Corporis Fabrica.

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Copernicus:



Copernicus' signature


"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 center 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."
 
"Hence I feel no shame in asserting that this whole region engirdled by the moon, and the center of the earth, traverse this grand circle amid the rest of the planets in an annual revolution around the sun. Near the sun is the center of the universe. Moreover, since the sun remains stationary, whatever appears as a motion of the sun is really due rather to the motion of the earth."[12]
"At rest, however, in the middle of everything is the sun. For, in this most beautiful temple, who would place this lamp in another or better position than that from which it can light up the whole thing at the same time? For, the sun is not inappropriately called by some people the lantern of the universe, its mind by others, and its ruler by still others. The Thrice Greatest labels it a visible god, and Sophocles' Electra, the all-seeing. Thus indeed, as though seated on a royal throne, the sun governs the family of planets revolving around it."




 
Goethe Johann Wolfgang von 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 center 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."




 
NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche:

"It gave me pleasure to contemplate the right of the Polish nobleman to upset with his simple veto the determinations of a [parliamentary] session; and the Pole Copernicus seemed to have made of this right against the determinations and presentations of other people, the greatest and worthiest use."





Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (General German Biography), 1875:


"The nationality question has been a subject of various writings; an honoring controversy over the claim to the founder of our current world view is conducted between Poles and Germans, but as already mentioned nothing certain can be determined concerning the nationality of Copernicus' parents; the father seems to have been of Slavic birth, the mother German; he was born in a city whose municipal authorities and educated inhabitants were Germans, but which at the time of his birth was under Polish rule; he studied at the Polish capital, Krakau, then in Italy, and lived out his days as a canon in Frauenburg; he wrote Latin and German. In science, he is a man who belongs to no single nation, whose labors and strivings belong to the whole world, and we do not honor the Pole nor 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."




 
J. RauJohannes Rau as President of Germany (1999-2004) in an address to 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."





Declaration of the Polish Senate, June 12, 2003:



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

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Grave




 
Copernicus was reportedly buried in the Cathedral of Frauenburg where archeologists had long vainly searched for his remains. 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 the 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.[16] 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.

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Nationality





 

Bust at Jordan Park, Cracow



Bust at the United Nations headquarters, New York CityIt remains a matter of dispute whether a nationality should be attributed in hindsight to Copernicus, and if so, if he should be regarded as German or Polish.  Already from the late 18th century until 1918, in a time in which no Polish state existed, the issue was noted as controversial, e. g. on German records at least since 1875 (see ADB quote above)  Current German sources call the controversy, as manifested in older literature, superfluous and shameful.  While the Catholic Encyclopedia does not attribute a nationality, Encyclopædia Britannica[21] and Microsoft Encarta[22] introduce him as "Polish astronomer", while refering to the cities of his life by their German names, not the Polish ones.

While numerous variations of his names are documented, he himself signed mostly with Coppernic until the mid-1530s, after which he preferred Copernicus. Thus, on the title page of his epochal book, Nicolai Copernici Torinensis De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium Libri VI (Six Books on the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, by Nicolaus Copernicus of T.), the astronomer's name appears in the Latin form, "Nicolaus Copernicus". First introduced by Herder in 1776 by replacing each of the three "c" with the letter "k", Nikolaus Kopernikus became popular in German even though scholars argued for Coppernicus. The Polish rendering is "Mikołaj Kopernik". Poles claim that the ending "–nik" in the original[citation needed] form of the astronomer's name (Kopernik, meaning "one who works with (copper)," indicates Polish roots.

 
 In 1853Copernicus' father, possibly a Germanized Slav,[25] had been a citizen of Cracow but had left Poland's capital in 1460 to move to Toruń. Most historians believe Copernicus' mother was German.[26] It has therefore been argued that Copernicus' "mother tongue" was German. While he was fluent in German and communicated with many German scholars, no direct evidence survives of the extent of his knowledge of Old Polish. As typical for the time, his main language for written communication was Latin.

An important inland port in the Hanseatic League, his home town was also part of the Prussian Confederation of cities with a mainly German citizenry which after the battle of Grunwald of 1410 sought independence from the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order had founded the city two hundred years earlier but, as a result of the battle, they had to impose high taxes that hindered economic development. About two decades before Copernicus' birth, a secession led to the Thirteen Years' War and the Peace of Toruń of 1466; Prussia's western part willingly became subordinate to the Polish king as "Royal Prussia", while the eastern part remained under the administration of the Catholic Teutonic Order until 1525.

Copernicus was born, grew up and spend most of his life in Royal Prussia and therefore was a subject of the Polish crown. This is cited as a major reason why he is commonly regarded as Polish. However, in Copernicus' time, nationality had yet to play as important a role as it would later, and people generally did not think of themselves primarily as Poles or Germans. Indeed, he might have considered himself to be both at the same time.

 
Following extended studies in Italy, Copernicus spent most of his working life as a cleric in the bishopric of Warmia within Royal Prussia which, though subject to the Polish crown, enjoyed substantial autonomy — it had its own Diet, monetary unit and treasury (which Copernicus famously labored to place on a sound footing) and army.

Copernicus also oversaw the defense of the castle of Olsztyn (Allenstein) at the head of Royal Polish forces when the town was besieged by the forces of Albrecht Hohenzollern, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order during the Polish-Teutonic War (1519–1521). He also participated in the peace negotiations. Copernicus later served as a physician to Duke Albrecht who in 1551 financed the publishing of a volume of his astrological observations.[29]

Copernicus remained for the rest of his life a burgher of Warmia (Bishopric of Warmia). During the Protestant Reformation he remained a loyal subject of the Catholic Prince-Bishops and the Catholic Polish King when in 1525 Duke Albert and the Duchy of Prussia became a secular entity where monarch and burghers alike adopted Protestantism.

In 1757, Copernicus' book was removed from the Vatican's Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the list of books banned by the Catholic Church. Ever since, Poles have claimed that Copernicus was a Pole and Germans that he was a German. Before Copernicus and his ideas were widely embraced, it had been the reverse.


Stamp with German TV satellite DFS Kopernikus

The bust of Copernicus was in 1807 one of the first made to be enshrined later at the Walhalla temple, the German Hall of Fame.

In 1875, when no Polish state and no Polish citizenship existed, with Poles being subjects to Russian, Austrian or Prussian monarchs for a century, the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie article on Copernicus acknowledged the Polish aspects of his life. In Nazi Germany, Copernicus was claimed to be purely German. Since 1945, German assertions have returned to balanced views, while some Soviet bloc-era editions in socialist East Germany pronounced him a Pole. Acknowledgment of his connections to Poland notwithstanding, however, in Germany Copernicus is not considered "un-German" or "non-German." In 2003 he was declared eligible for the Unsere Besten (Our Best), a ranking of the "200 greatest Germans" organized by ZDF TV. Since 1989, three German TV satellites had been named de:DFS Kopernikus.


 
Polish banknote labelled "MIKOŁAJ KOPERNIK"In Poland, in 1973, the 500th anniversary of Copernicus' birth was an occasion to celebrate the "great Pole"; a banknote was issued, bearing Copernicus' likeness. Thirty years later, on June 12, 2003, the Polish Senate declared him an "exceptional Pole."

These claims and counter-claims are somewhat anachronistic. In Copernicus' lifetime, "nationality" did not have the same meaning as today. Many ethnic Germans were loyal subjects of the Polish crown. The universal language of science was Latin, and academics throughout Europe communicated in that idiom.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus

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The Sun-centred or heliocentric theory of the solar system is usually associated with the 16th century Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543). It is often called

                                                       'the Copernican System',

just as the Earth-centred 'Ptolemaic System' is named after Ptolemy.

Yet, neither Ptolemy nor Copernicus invented the systems named after them.

Both formulated coherent mathematical frameworks to explain ideas that were 'in the air' during their lifetimes.

The concept of a Sun-centred solar system was known to the ancient Greeks.

It predates Copernicus by nearly two millennia and can be traced back several centuries before
Ptolemy's pronouncement that the Earth stood fixed and motionless at the centre of the universe.

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Ionians and Pythagoreans



In the earliest Greek cosmological systems, the Earth was envisaged as a shield-like disc floating on water and surrounded by the mythical streams of Ocean. This is the view presented around 800 BC in Homer's iliad and Odyssey. During the 6th century BC, the earliest schools of Greek philosophy emerged. Among them was the Ionian school, inspired by Thales of Miletus (c.624-c.547 BC), who began looking for explanations of the origin and nature of the universe that did not involve the supernatural intervention of the gods of Olympus. The essential ingredients of what later became the Ptolemaic system were first formulated by the Ionian philosophers. Anaximander (c.610-c.547 BC) made the first attempt to explain planetary motion as some kind of mechanism; Anaximenes (fl. 550 BC) suggested that the planets were carried in transparent crystal spheres in their orbits around the Earth; Anaxagoras (c.500-c. 428 BC) postulated an outer sphere of the 'Prime Mover' that was analogous to mind and reason.

Other schools of thought emerged alongside the Ionian philosophers with different theories to account for the origin of the universe and to explain its workings. The most influential of these was the Pythagorean Brotherhood. Even during his own lifetime Pythagoras (c.580-490 BC) was a legendary figure. His most enthusiastic followers declared that he was the son of Apollo. Astronomers in the Pythagorean tradition moved steadily towards an understanding of the solar system. Pythagoras himself is credited with advancing the idea that the Earth is a spherical globe. His pupil Philolaus (fl.500 BC) was the first to visualise it moving through space and simultaneously rotating on its axis. Philolaus took the first step towards a heliocentric theory with his conception of a mystical 'central fire' around which all the celestial bodies, including Earth and Sun, were said to revolve.

Herakleides (c. 380-c.310 BC) developed a hybrid theory half-way between the geocentric and heliocentric systems in which the inferior planets Mercury and Venus were in orbit around the Sun while the Sun itself and the superior planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were in orbit around the Earth. Finally Aristarchus of Samos (c.310-c.250 BC), the last of the Pythagorean astronomers, reasoned that the motions of the celestial bodies could all be explained by assuming that the Sun rather than the Earth stood at the centre.

Aristarchus' heliocentric theory was not widely accepted. Greek astronomy of the 3rd century BC was preoccupied with developing an accurate method of predicting planetary movements but the heliocentric theory in itself offered no practical solutions. Furthermore, the concept of a moving Earth seemed to contradict the evidence of the senses as well as breaking every law of physics as then understood. Yet the idea never quite went away. A century after Aristarchus, Hipparchus (c. 190-c.127 BC), generally acknowledged as the greatest astronomical observer of the ancient world, investigated the heliocentric theory. He rejected it because the instruments and techniques at his disposal were not advanced enough to detect any scientific evidence for a moving Earth. But even when Ptolemy wrote his great compendium of astronomy the Almagest around 150 AD, he too felt obliged to present arguments 'proving' that the Earth was stationary at the centre of the universe.

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Plato and Aristotle



The persistence of the Earth-centred theory from the time of the ancient Greeks down to the 16th and 17th centuries can be attributed to the tremendous influence of Plato and Aristotle on Greek, Arabic and European philosophy.

Plato (c.427-c.347 BC) taught that behind the world of physical appearances was an archetypal world of forms and ideas. The everyday world was no more than a shadow of the Ideal world; sensory impressions were simply illusions. Consequently, Plato had little interest in the facts and figures of empirical science. His pure world of ideas could only be approached intuitively - through allegory, poetry or myth. This was the spirit in which his pronouncements on the nature of the celestial bodies were made. He declared that the Earth, which possessed a divine essence or 'world soul', was perfectly spherical in shape. It stood fixed and motionless at the centre of creation. The orbits of the Sun, Moon and planets around it were perfectly circular; they moved along their orbits at perfectly uniform speeds, never speeding up or slowing down.

The idealised Platonic universe of spheres and circles came to be regarded as axiomatic. The principle of circular motion was inviolable because the heavens were believed to be perfect and immutable. The messy processes of generation and decay, death and rebirth, prevailed only in the earthly 'sub-lunar' regions. Later generations of astronomers and mathematicians were saddled with the task of devising a theory of planetary motion that could explain such awkward anomalies as retrograde motion and the apparent variations in the brilliance of the planets, yet remain within the prescribed requirements of a fixed central Earth with circular planetary orbits and uniform speeds.

Aristotle (c.384-c.322 BC) was a disciple of Plato but later rejected his abstract idealism in favour of a more pragmatic approach, insisting that all speculation must be based upon observation, analysis and systematic research. He left a vast body of written works that provided a first foundation for several modern sciences. Classical astrology - from the Greeks to the 17th century masters - owes its theoretical foundation to the doctrines of Aristotle. In astronomy Aristotle followed Plato's geocentric concepts, but unlike Plato he attempted to explain the laws that made the planets physically revolve.

Plato's pupil Eudoxus (c.400-c.355 BC) had devised a model of planetary motion in which the planets revolved in several spheres, one nestling within another and all rotating independently. This construct explained all the variations of planetary motion by combinations of simple circular movements, thus demonstrating that Plato's conception of circular motion and uniform speeds was mathematically possible - and mathematical truth was close to the Ideal in Platonic thought. Aristotle took Eudoxus' scheme literally as a working model of the universe and set about improving it in the light of contemporary physics. He attempted to explain retrograde motion with a system of 'working' and 'neutralising' spheres. While this idea never really caught on, it led eventually to the development of the elaborate theory of planetary epicycles or wheels-within-wheels, a theory first proposed by Appolonius of Perga (fl. 200 BC), developed by Hipparchus and perfected by Ptolemy (c. 100-178 AD). The Earth-centred 'Ptolemaic' universe, founded upon the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, remained the last word in astronomical theory for 1500 years.

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An Arabic Interlude



With the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 AD, knowledge of classical science was lost to Europe for several centuries. The Church eventually established the monastic system as a means of promoting learning but the philosophers of pre-Christian times were regarded with suspicion by the Church fathers. In early Christendom, astronomy regressed into Old Testament fundamentalism.

In 622 AD the Prophet Mohammed launched his holy war against the infidel. Within a century, the Islamic Empire extended eastwards across northern India to the borders of China, and westwards across Asia Minor, north Africa and - with the Arabic conquest of Spain and Sicily - into western Europe. Alexandria, the centre of classical learning, fell to the Arabians in 642. When the period of military expansion was over, Islamic scholars became enthusiastic students of classical philosophy. Many important manuscripts were translated from Greek into Arabic. In the world of medieval Islam, Aristotle and Ptolemy were the supreme authorities in matters of natural science and astronomy.

In 999 AD, Gerbert of Aurillac, the most accomplished mathematician, musician, astronomer and classical scholar in Europe, ascended to the papal throne as Sylvester II, known as 'the magician Pope' to his contemporaries. His papacy, at the symbolic date 1000 AD marks the turning point of the European 'dark ages'. Contact was established with Arabic centres of learning in Spain, where Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars congregated. During the following centuries, Hebrew and Arabic versions of ancient Greek texts were translated into Latin and began to circulate in Europe. The works of Aristotle were translated from around 1200. The translation of Ptolemy's Almagest into Latin in 1175 re-vitalised European astronomy. King Alfonso X of Castile (122-184) commissioned new astronomical tables calculated according to Ptolemy's theory with Arabic mathematical refinements. Completed in 1252, the Alphonsine Tables remained the best astronomical tables available in Europe for the next three centuries. The complexities of the Ptolemaic system exasperated King Alfonso however. When the intricacies of epicycles, deferents and equants were explained to him Alfonso 'the Wise' is said to have remarked that if the Almighty had consulted him on the matter, he would have recommended something a little simpler...

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The Copernican Revolution



The heliocentric theory proposed by Aristarchus also found its way into Europe through translations of Arabic texts. It was discussed in learned circles as it had been in ancient Greece, but the Ptolemaic system gave the only explanation of planetary motion that could be put to practical use. The heliocentric theory remained speculative because observing instruments were not good enough to detect any evidence for it. In an attempt to rectify this, Regiomontanus (1436-76) set up the first European observatory, which he established at Nuremburg in 1471.

Regiomontanus (Johann Muller) was born at Konigsburg in Prussia. He was a child prodigy who went to Leipzig university at the age of 11, published his first almanac at the age of 12 and at age 15 was casting horoscopes for the Hapsburg Emperor Frederick III. Regiomontanus became famous as a mathematician. He made important advances in spherical trigonometry and developed the system of astrological house division that bears his name. He also wrote a celebrated summary of the Almagest but grew dissatisfied with Ptolemy's explanation of planetary motion and impatient with his fellow astronomers' unquestioning acceptance of it. He was interested in the alternative theories of Herakleides and Aristarchus, but realised that better observational data would be needed before any advances could be made. He also recognised the limitations of contemporary astronomical instruments and with the help of a wealthy patron equipped his observatory with improved instruments of his own design. Regiomontanus' preparations for what could have become a major reform of astronomy were cut short by his untimely death at the age of 40. Yet his influence played its part in shaping the ideas of Doctor Copernicus.

Born at Torun on the border between Prussia and Poland, Copernicus studied astronomy and mathematics at the university of Cracow, then went to Italy where he studied canon law at Bologna and medicine at Padua, finally obtaining his degree at Ferrera in 1503. His principal teachers in astronomy, Brudzevsky at Cracow and Novara at Bologna, both described themselves as students of Regiomontanus. The heliocentric theory that came to be associated with the name of Copernicus was a regular topic of discussion and debate during his student years.

Copernicus was not particularly interested in observing the sky but he was devoted to Pythagorean mathematics. He believed that the harmony of the universe revealed itself through the perfect geometry of planetary orbits. A technical imperfection in the Ptolemaic scheme forced him to formulate his Sun-centred theory. Ptolemy had been a little devious in the matter of uniform planetary speeds. In his system each planet would appear to move at a constant rate (as Plato decreed it should) only if it could be seen from a hypothetical point in space called its equant. Most philosophers were content to accept this device but it irritated the perfectionist Copernicus. He concluded that the only way to 'save the phenomena' of perfect circles and uniform speeds was to place the Sun at the centre of the solar system and let the planets revolve around it, as Aristarchus had suggested. Since Copernicus assumed that the orbits of the planets are circular his scheme still needed epicycles to make it work, but the simulation was precise. For the first time, tables of planetary motion could be calculated from heliocentric principles. Furthermore, these tables proved more accurate than those based on the Ptolemaic system.

Copernicus was reluctant to commit his theory to print. Around 1512 he wrote the Commentariolus ('brief commentary') in which he outlined the new system. This was circulated in manuscript form amongst a few selected scholars. By 1530 he had completed the text of his major work De Revolutionibus ('On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres') but he kept the manuscript locked away and made no plans to publish it. This was not through fear of religious persecution as is often supposed. At least during the early part of the 16th century, a climate of intellectual tolerance prevailed in Europe. Cardinal Schonberg, a close advisor to three successive popes, urged him to publish but Copernicus had no desire to draw attention to himself. He suspected that he would be ridiculed as his ideas became known outside rarefied academic circles.

It was the Protestant astronomer Georg Joachim von Lauten (15 14-74), known as Rheticus, who persuaded Copernicus to publish. Rheticus was professor of mathematics and astronomy at the university of Wittenberg, the newly-established centre of Protestant learning. Although Martin Luther and other Protestant theologians argued against the heliocentric theory Rheticus was given permission to visit Copernicus, in Catholic Frauenburg, in order to discuss it. After lengthy negotiations he obtained Copernicus' permission to publish De Revolutionibus and it finally appeared in print in May 1543. Copernicus died within a few hours of receiving the first copy.

The book's initial impact was negligible. Few people bothered to read it. Of those who did, most regarded the Copernican system as a useful calculation device rather than a serious theory of the structure of the solar system. The literally earth-shaking implications of the Copernican revolution did not begin to emerge until the work of Galileo and Kepler at the beginning of the 17th century.

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David Plant


is a respected scholar of the history and traditional practice of astrology.

He is also an expert on the English Civil War period and the life and work of the 17th century
astrologer William Lilly.

He runs two very reputable websites: the



English Merlin site,

which is devoted to all aspects of the life and times of William Lilly and his contemporaries; and the



British Civil Wars and Commonwealth site,

which explores the turmoil of the Civil Wars and Interregnum, and the constitutional experiments of the Commonwealth and Protectorate period of the 1650s.


Both sites are leading points of reference for their fields and a visit is strongly recommended.




© David Plant   



http://www.skyscript.co.uk

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Computer reconstruction of Copernicus from skull discovered in the cathedral in Frombork, Poland.










                                             Polish tests 'confirm Copernicus' 






By Adam Easton
BBC News, Warsaw
Nov. 21, 2008

Researchers in Poland say they have solved a centuries-old mystery and identified the remains of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

A comparison of DNA from a skeleton in Poland and strands of the astronomer's hair found in a book in Sweden almost certainly confirm it is his skeleton.

Archaeologists found the skeleton in north-eastern Poland three years ago in a cathedral where Copernicus lived.

He worked in Frombork Cathedral on the Baltic Sea coast in the 16th Century.

Copernicus was one of the key proponents of the idea that the Earth orbits the Sun.

For many years he was a canon and only carried out his astronomical studies in his spare time. People had speculated about his final resting place for centuries.