Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in 1473 in Poland to a family of merchants and

municipal officals. Copernicus later moved in with his uncle Bishop Lukasz

Watzenrode. Nicolaus obtained a better education while living with his uncle.

Copernicus entered Jagullonian University in 1491. He studied the liberial arts for four

years without recieving a degree. He then went to Italy to study medicine and law. In

1497 Copernicus began to study canon law at the University of Bologna. On 1500

Copernicus lectured on astronomy in Rome. The following year he gained prmission to

study medicine at Padua. Copernicus,without completing his medical studies,recieved a

doctrine in canon law from Ferrara in 1503. In 1510 Copernicus published his first

book,a Latin translation of letters on morals written by 7th century Byzantine writers.

Between 1507 and 1515 he completed a short astromical treatise. It was not published

until the 19th century . Copernicus took part in the Fifth Laterian Council commission

on calendar reform in 1515. Then he began his major work when he published a book on

the Revolution of Celestial Spheres,Which was finished in1530. Just before Copernicus’s

death in1543. Cosmology was replaced by the Copernican theory in which he stated that

the Earth rotates daily on its axis and revolves yearly around the sun. Copernicus argued

and said that the planets orbit around the sun to. The Copernican Theory also stated that

the bigger the diameter of the planet the longer it takes to orbit around the sun.Their were

ten Copernicus’s between 1543 and 1600. They all supported this theory. Nicolaus

Copernicus died in 1543.

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