Nicholas Copernicus: (1473-1543) Polish Astronomer and Mathematician

Nicholas Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in Torun, Poland and received his college education at Krakow in Poland and at Bologna and Padua in Italy.   He studied liberal arts and took the degree of doctor of medicine.  However, his real passions for astronomy and mathematics would thrive throughout all of his work.

In 1503, he moved to Frauenburg where he made his first astronomical observations.  He became more dissatisfied with Earth-centered theories and developed one of his own, by which Earth spun on its own axis and it along with the other planets revolve around a center point in space near the Sun.  After developing this theory, Copernicus created and circulated a manuscript summary of his observations titled, Commentariolus. “Not until 1540, did he consent to the publication of his complete work, On The Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres.” (The Encyclopedia Britannica, 15^th Edition, p. 610)

Copernicus’s findings had a profound impact on the study of astronomy and philosophy for the following centuries. 

Photographs:

Bust of Copernicus The Cleveland Memory Project

Photographs of the Garden

Further Reading:

CrystaLinks, The Biography of Nicholas Copernicus

Biography of Nicholas Copernicus

The Poles, The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

Polish National Catholic Church, The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

The Encyclopedia Britannica, 15^th Edition, Vol. 3, p. 610

Sanford, George and Adriana Gozdecka-Sanford.  Historical Dictionary of Poland.  Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., p.54, 1994