Nicolaus Copernicu's 540th Birthday

Born on Feb. 19, 1473, n Thorn (Torun), Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus wz destined 2 become, Thru d publicAtN of Hs heliocentric theory 70 years later, 1 of d seminal figures n d history of scientific thawt. d son of a prosperous merchant, he wz raised aftR Hs father's def by a maternal uncle, hu enabled him 2 entR d uni of Krakow, thN famous 4 itz mathematics, philosophy, & astronomy curriculum. DIS XperENs stimulated d yung Copernicus 2 study furthr liberal arts @ Bologna (1496-1501), medicine @ Padua, & law @ d uni of Ferrara, frm whch he emerged n 1503 w d doctorate n canon law. Shortly aftRwrd he returned 2 Poland & eventually setLD permanently @ d cathedral n Frauenberg (Frombork), less thN 100 miles frm Hs birthplace. Thru Hs uncle's influence he had Bin elected a canon of d church evN b4 Hs journey 2 Italy. Copernicus not only faithfully performed Hs ecclesiastical duties, bt also practiced medicine, rOt a treatise on monetary reform, & turnD Hs ATTN 2 a subjec n whch he had lng Bin interested--astronomy.

By mA 1514 Copernicus had RitN & discreetly circulated n manuscript Hs Commentariolus, d 1st outline of thOs arguments eventually substantiated n De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On d Revolutions of d Heavenly Spheres, 1543). DIS classic wrk challenged d geocentric cosmology dat had Bin dogmatically accepted since d tym of Aristotle. n diRct opositN 2 Aristotle & 2 d 2d-century astronomer Ptolemy, hu enunciated d Dtails of d geocentric SYS basD on d celestial phenomena, Copernicus proposed dat a rotating erth revolving w d othR planets bout a stationary central Sun c%d acownt n a simpler way 4 d sAm obsRvd phenomena of d daily rotation of d heavens, d annual movement of d Sun Thru d ecliptic, & d periodic retrograde motion of d planets.

Anticipated n various aspects by d Pythagoreans & ARISTARCHUS OF SAMOS (with huM he wz familiar), & by d Muslim astronomer Ibn al-Shatir & certan Xtian writers (whose ideas ther iz n conclusive evidence he knew), d nu theory dat Copernicus espoused n De revolutionibus exhibits a peculiar mixture of both rad & conservative elements. n d midst of Hs rad reordering of d structure of d universe, Copernicus stil adhered 2 d ancient Aristotelian doctrines of solid celestial spheres & perfect circular motion of heavenly bodies, & he held essentially intact d entire Aristotelian physics of motion. Moreover, w significant innovations, he clung 2 d Ptolemaic representation of planetary motion by mEnz of complicated combinations of circles caLd epicycles. Although Copernicus realized dat Hs theory implied an enormous incrEs n d size of d universe, he declined 2 pronounce it infinite.

dEz aspects of d Copernican treatise do not mitigate d novelty o d impact of d fInL theory, o d author's firm conviction dat Hs SYS wz an accurate representation of fizikL reality. Rather, dey indicate d scope of d wrk dat lay ahed & dat wz effectively addressed n d NXT centRe wen Kepler determined d ellipticity of planetary orbits, Galileo formulated Hs nu concept of motion, & Newton espoused Hs theory of universal gravitation.

d enunciation of d heliocentric theory by Copernicus maRkd d beginN of d scientific revolution, & of a nu vu of a gr8ly enlarged universe. It wz a shift awA frm d comfortable anthropocentrism of d ancient & medieval wrld. A scientific theory dat reflected so profoundly on humanity wz not welcomed by d church, & it wz only aftR d publicAtN (1540) of Narratio prima (A 1st Account), by an enthusiastic supporter named Rheticus, dat d aged Copernicus agreed 2 commit 2 prNt d theory alredi outlined n 1514. An undocumented, bt ofn repeated, story holds dat Copernicus rcvd a printed copy of Hs treatise on Hs deathbed. He died on mA 24, 1543.