Nicolaus Copernicus
1473-1543
Polish Astronomer, Priest, and Mathemetician
Nicolaus Copernicus founded modern astronomy by breaking with classical and theological tradition and proposing a mathematically supported heliocentric theory of planetary motion. His work also initiated the process that led to the Scientific Revolution.
Copernicus was born and spent his early life in Poland. After beginning his education at the University of Cracow, he studied mathematics, astrology, astronomy, canon and civil law, and medicine in Italy at Bolgna, Rome, and Padua. He received a doctorate in canon law from the University of Ferrara. Returning to Poland, he devoted his life to church administration as canon of Frombork Cathedral.
Copernicus became interested in problems in astronomy and mathematics when he served as an assistant to Domenico Maria de Novara during his studies in Italy. He became aware that a sun-centered rather than an Earth-centered universe had long been supported by some astronomers. This idea was initially proposed by Greek astronomer Aristarchus (310-230 B.C.) and had been supported more recently by Nicholas de Cusa (1401-1464) as fitting observable data better.
The earth-centered (geocentric) model, in which the planets and the Sun moved around Earth as the stationary center of the universe, was proposed by Greek astronomer Ptolemy (90-168) and was supported by the Church and by scholars of the day. It was thought that a Suncentered (heliocentric) model, in which the planets, including Earth, moved around the Sun, was not in agreement with the Bible. More importantly, such a model would seem to remove Earth and humans from their unique position as God's chosen ones for whom all else was created.
Copernicus worked on his astronomical ideas in his spare time. He became convinced that the heliocentric model correctly describes the relative motion of Earth, the other planets, and the Sun. He used the principle of relativity of motion to explain why the motion of Earth is not detectable by observers who are moving with Earth and proposed that Earth rotates daily about its axis and revolves annually around the Sun. He proposed that other planets behave in the same manner, pointing out that the further a planet is located from the Sun, the longer its period of motion around the Sun will be.
Aware of the possible repercussions of proposing such a theory in direct opposition to the Church, he first wrote a short version of his ideas, entitled Commentariolus, in 1513 and distributed it for comment to friends and colleagues. The full work, entitled The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium or simply De Revolutionibus) was completed by 1530 but was not published until 1543. De Revolutionibus was not received well by the Church and scholars, even though a churchman, without Copernicus's permission, had added a preface which stated that the theory was not being proposed as representing the actual motion and position of the Earth and Sun, but merely as a mathematical model to make calculations easier. Copernicus died soon after De Revolutionibus appeared, thereby, escaping inevitable punishment.
Although the Copernican model successfully explained such phenomena as the retrograde motion of the planets, it was significantly undermined by his insistence, primarily for aesthetic reasons, on circular orbits for the planets. The Copernican Revolution was completed after his death by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), who correctly adjusted the theory by making the orbits elliptical. Galileo was forced by the Inquisition to recant his support for the Copernican theory in 1633, and it was subsequently suppressed. Even though it was substantiated by the work of Isaac Newton (1642-1727) on mechanics and universal gravitation, it took another one hundred years for the theory to gain acceptance.
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