Nicholaus Copernicus, or
Mikolaj Kopernik, his
Polish name, is often described as the father of astronomy. He was born on February 19, 1473, in
Torun,
Poland, a city located on the
Vistula River. His father was also Nicolaus and his mother was
Barbara Watzenrode, both from well-to-do merchant families. Between 1491 and 1494, Copernicus studied liberal arts, including
astronomy and astrology, at the
University of Krakow. He left before completing his degree and went to study in Italy at the
University of Bologna. He lived with
Domencio Maria de Novara, the principal astronomer at the university, and Copernicus assisted in many of Novara's observations.
In 1500, he spoke before an audience in Rome on the mathematical concepts, til he returned to Italy in 1501 to study medicine at the
University of Padua. At this time, medicine was closely related to
astrology, as the stars were thought to influence the body's dispositions. In 1503, he finally received a doctorate in
canon law and took a position as a church canon back in Poland.
Nicholaus Copernicus is mainly known for his idea that the planets have the Sun as the fixed point to which they orbit, that the Earth turns daily on its own axis, and that the very slow, long-term changes in the direction of this axis account for the precession of the
equinoxes. His ideas are normally referred to as the
heliocentric system.
He wrote many papers on the subject but never had them published, until, lying on his deathbed, it's said he saw the first printed copy of his work in the form of
De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. He died May 23, 1543.