Innovative yet traditional, Nicholas's work thus marks a turning point between the medieval and modern worlds.
Nicholas was born in Kues--now Bernkastel-Kues--on the Moselle River, near Trier, in 1401. His Latinized name, Cusanus, reflects his place of birth. He was one of four children of Katharina Römer and Johann Cryfftz (or Krebs), a prosperous boat owner and ferryman.
According to his early biographers, Nicholas studied with the Brothers of the Common Life in Deventer; there is, however, little evidence to support this claim. In 1416 he attended the University of Heidelberg. The following year he enrolled at the University of Padua, where he completed a doctorate in canon law in 1423. At Padua he also studied mathematics and the sciences with Paolo Toscanelli and began a lasting friendship with Giuliano Caesarini, the brilliant canonist and churchman. Returning to Germany, in 1425-1426 he lectured on law and studied philosophy and theology at the University of Cologne, where Heimericus de Campo continued the teaching of the school's early master, Albert the Great. Heimericus befriended Nicholas and introduced him to the works of Pseudo-Dionysius and Raymond Lull, two Neoplatonic thinkers who became major influences on his later thought.
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