Nicolas Copernic

Its studies

Born in a family from merchants and civils servant, it is adopted by his maternal uncle, the bishop of Cracow Lukas Watzelrode (or Lucas Watzenrode) following the death of his father (towards 1483).

This one takes care its nephew of course and makes sure that he attends the best schools and universities; in 1491 it becomes student with the Academy of Cracow (currently the Université Jagellonne) where it studies arts without however obtaining diploma.

Before leaving Toruń, his/her uncle names it Chanoine Frombork; one allots especially the financial responsibilities but no religious responsibility to him. Thereafter it goes in Italy where it studies the canonical Droit and medicine to the Université of Bologna, then the Astronomie in the courses of Domenico Maria Novara (Novara is one of the first scientists to call into question the geocentric Système of Ptolémée).

The interest of Copernic for the Geography and the Astronomie is encouraged by its professor. The two men observe together many Occultation S, eclipses of the moon, as well as the screening of the star Aldébaran the March 9th 1497 with Bologna.

He becomes professor of Mathématiques and lecturer on astronomy with Rome in 1500 before turning over the following year to Frombork. He turns over finally in Italy to finish his studies with and medicine the Faculty of Law of the Université of Padoue (the university where Galileo will teach hundred years later).

After its studies, in 1503 it makes build an observatory with Frombork, where it starts its research in astronomy during several years.

Its various activities

On its return in Poland, Copernic lives in a palate in his/her uncle with Lidzbark Warminski. It deals mainly with the businesses of the diocese and for this reason, share with the conflict against the teutonic Chevaliers takes.

Copernic has a very good knowledge of the Latin , like all the scholars of its time: it thus publishes its first book, a translation of Latin letters on the morals, whose original author is a Byzantine 7th century, Théophylacte Simocatta. It spends seven years of its life to write De Hypothesibus Motuum Coelestium has Contitutis Commentariolus (known under the title of Commentariolus ), a treated court of astronomy which it finishes towards 1515.

This treaty however will not be published before the 19th century. It is in this work, that it states for the first time the principles of heliocentric astronomy , which will enormously upset the scientific community of its time.

It is at the same period that Copernic takes part in the V {{E}} council of Lateran on the reform of the calendar; he writes later, towards 1517, a treaty on the currency and then his principal work De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium , Of the revolutions of the celestial spheres , completed towards 1530. This masterly work will be published, by a printer Lutheran of Nuremberg, only the May 24th 1543, little time before the death of Copernic. It never would undoubtedly have been published without the enthusiastic intervention of a young mathematics professor, Georg Joachim Rheticus.

The revolution “copernician”

Before Copernic, the way of seeing the cosmos rested on the thesis aristotelician that the Ground is in the center of the Univers and that all turns around it: “geocentric universe”. This thesis (the Géocentrisme) remained the doctrines established until the Renaissance.

The system and theories of Copernic

The system of Copernic rests on the observation which the Earth rotates and makes a turn on its axis in one day, which explains the diurnal Mouvement initially of the celestial Sphère in one day.

He also claims that the Earth made the turn of the Sun (revolution), and not the reverse, in one year.

He affirms moreover than the another planets, like the Earth, turn all around the Sun. Copernic also advances the fact that the axis of the ground oscillates like that of a Toupie, which explains the Précession.

The theory of Copernic contradicts the theory of Ptolémée: Copernic preserves however certain elements of the old system: thus the idea of the solid spheres, or the sphere of fixed the physical, it is preserved by Copernic.

The new system suggested by Copernic has certain advantages on that of its predecessor. He explains, inter alia, the daily movement of the Sun and stars by the terrestrial rotation . The movement of the sun during the year is also explained by the new system.

It also has the advantage of explaining the movement retrogresses of the external Planets, (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn). Its theory also takes into account the internal Planets, Venus and Mercure, which is located more close to the Sun than the Earth.

Copernic advances also a theory on the order of planets, their distances and, consequently, the period of their revolution. Indeed, Copernic contradicts Ptolémée by affirming that the larger the orbit of a planet is, the more it will take him time to make a complete revolution around the Sun. This theory will be deepened later by Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton.

It is also said that the theory of Héliocentrisme allotted to Copernic was based on old writings dating from the time of Antiquity. Those would be the work of Greek scientists (as Aristarque de Samos) who proposed the idea of a Sun in the center of the Solar system.

Reserves

In the 16th century, one believes firmly that the Earth is motionless, and the theory of the geocentrism is the universal rule. Psalm 96.10 in the Bible indicates at that time: “You fixed the ground, firm and motionless”, (this formulation changed today: “Yes, the world remains firm, inébranlable”) It is accepted badly that the ground is mobile. The researchers and scientists of the 16th century accept certain elements of the theory, on the other hand the base of the heliocentrism is rejected.

Only one ten researchers of its time grants a support to him. But these researchers often work outside the universities (subsidized), in courses royal or imperial, or even very close to the Church. Most famous are Galileo, Léonard de Vinci (his deprived correspondences make state through coded messages of it) and the German astronomer Johannes Kepler.

However in 1588, well after the death of Copernic, one arrives at a certain compromise. The astronomer Danish Tycho Brahé supports a theory which keeps the motionless ground but which provides that all the another planets turn around the Sun while this one turns around the Earth. The system of Copernic will be condemned in 1616, and Galileo which remains an enthusiastic defender of the theory copernician will be condemned by an ecclesiastical court in 1633. The acceptance of the new theory is slow.

Nearly one hundred years after the publication of the book Of the revolutions of the celestial spheres , reserves and hesitations always exist. So certain philosophers Jesuits are deeply convinced, some are even disciples of Copernic, others accept rather the system of Tycho Brahé.

It is necessary to await the end of the 17th century to see reconciling the majority of the scientists of the Europe, thanks to the installation of the Celestial mechanics of Isaac Newton. Put aside the Great Britain, the France, the Netherlands and the Denmark, the rest of Europe keeps its anti-copernicienne position during still a century.

It is into 1830 that the Church accepts the idea that the Earth turns around the Sun.

The influence of Copernic

Copernic delayed several years the publication of the work of its life. Its beliefs and the fear of the lightnings of the the Vatican and Wittenberg are the main reasons. This text will be published only the day of its death.

He does not forget a dedication with the pope Paul III in his work written in Latin where he asserts the right to freedom of expression. Copernic will have known to release its contemporaries scientific and enquiring their theological prejudices, it leads also the theologists to take a certain distance with respect to the too strict interpretation of the crowned texts.

The asteroid 1322 Coppernicus was named in its honor ( Coppernicus is one of the German épellations).

Discusses on its nationality

The nationality of Copernic is, since the 19th century, prone to controversies ( cf . the English article ). Today, it is often qualified as a Pole, partly on the basis of its its origin and birthplace; however, at the time of alive sound, nationality played a secondary part and actually, Copernic could have been regarded as being German and Polish at the same time.

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