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BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Copernicus Nicholas. Biography of a scientist
Directory / Biographies of great scientists
Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in the Polish city of Torun in the family of a merchant who came from Germany. He was the fourth child in the family. He received his primary education, most likely, in a school located near the house at the church of St. Yana. Until the age of ten, he grew up in an atmosphere of well-being and contentment. Carefree childhood ended suddenly and quite early. As soon as Nicholas was ten years old, the plague epidemic, a frequent visitor and formidable scourge of mankind at that time, visited Torun, and one of its first victims was Nicholas Copernicus, father. Lukasz Wachenrode, his mother's brother, took over the care of education and the further fate of his nephew. In the second half of October 1491, Nicolaus Copernicus, together with his brother Andrzej, arrived in Krakow and enrolled in the Faculty of Arts at the local university. Upon graduation in 1496, Copernicus went on a long journey to Italy. In autumn, Nicholas, together with his brother Andrzej, ended up in Bologna, which was then part of the Papal States and was famous for its university. At that time, the faculty of law with its departments of civil and canonical, i.e., ecclesiastical law, was especially popular here, and Nikolai enrolled in this faculty. It was in Bologna that Copernicus developed an interest in astronomy, which determined his scientific interests. On the evening of March 9, 1497, together with the astronomer Domenico Maria Novara, Nicholas made his first scientific observation. After him, it became clear that the distance to the Moon, when it is in quadrature, is approximately the same as during the new or full moon. The inconsistency of Ptolemy's theory with the discovered facts was amusing to think about ... In the first months of 1498, Nicolaus Copernicus was confirmed in absentia as canon of the Frombork chapter, a year later Andrzej Copernicus became a canon of the same chapter. However, the very fact of obtaining these positions did not reduce the financial difficulties of the brothers: life in Bologna, which attracted many wealthy foreigners, was not cheap, and in October 1499 the Copernicans found themselves completely without a livelihood. They were rescued by canon Bernard Skulteti, who came from Poland, and later met on their life path more than once. Then Nikolai returned to Poland for a short time, but only a year later he went back to Italy, where he studied medicine at the University of Padua and received a doctorate in theology from the University of Ferrara. Copernicus returned to his homeland at the end of 1503 as a comprehensively educated person. He settled first in the city of Lidzbark, and then took up the post of canon in Frombork, a fishing town at the mouth of the Vistula. Astronomical observations begun by Copernicus in Italy were continued, albeit on a limited scale, in Lidzbark. But he deployed them with particular intensity in Frombork, despite the inconvenience of the great latitude of this place, which made it difficult to observe the planets, and because of the frequent fogs from the Vistula Lagoon, considerable cloudiness and overcast skies over this northern area. The invention of the telescope was still far away, and Tycho Brahe's best instruments for pre-telescopic astronomy did not yet exist, with the help of which the accuracy of astronomical observations was brought to one or two minutes. The most famous device used by Copernicus was the triquetrum, a parallax instrument. The second device used by Copernicus to determine the angle of the ecliptic, "horoscopies", a sundial, a kind of quadrant. Despite the obvious difficulties, in the "Small Commentary", written around 1516, Copernicus already gave a preliminary presentation of his teaching, or rather, then his hypotheses. He did not consider it necessary to give mathematical proofs in it, since they were intended for a more extensive work. On November 3, 1516, Nicolaus Copernicus was elected to the position of manager of the chapter's possessions in the Olsztyn and Penenzhnensky districts. In the autumn of 1519, Copernicus' powers in Olsztyn expired, and he returned to Frombork, but this time he could not really devote himself to astronomical observations to test his hypotheses. There was a war with the crusaders. In the midst of the war, at the beginning of November 1520, Copernicus was again elected administrator of the chapter's possessions in Olsztyn and Pieniężno. By that time, Copernicus turned out to be the eldest not only in Olsztyn, but throughout Warmia - the bishop and almost all members of the chapter, having left Warmia, sat out in safe places. Taking command of the small garrison of Olsztyn, Copernicus took steps to strengthen the defense of the castle-fortress, taking care of installing guns, creating a supply of ammunition, provisions and water. Copernicus, unexpectedly showing decisiveness and remarkable military talent, managed to defend Olsztyn from the enemy. Personal courage and determination did not go unnoticed - soon after the conclusion of the truce in April 1521, Copernicus was appointed commissioner of Warmia. In February 1523, before the election of a new bishop, Copernicus was elected general administrator of Warmia - this is the highest position that he had to hold. In the autumn of the same year, after the selection of a bishop, he is appointed chancellor of the chapter. It was only after 1530 that Copernicus' administrative activity narrowed somewhat. Nevertheless, it was in the twenties that a significant part of the astronomical results of Copernicus falls. Many observations have been made. So, around 1523, observing the planets at the moment of opposition, that is, when the planet is in the opposite point of the celestial sphere to the Sun, Copernicus made an important discovery: he refuted the opinion that the position of planetary orbits in space remains motionless. The line of apsides - a straight line connecting the points of the orbit at which the planet is closest to the Sun and most distant from it, changes its position compared to that observed 1300 years before and recorded in Ptolemy's Almagest. But most importantly, by the beginning of the thirties, work on the creation of a new theory and its design in his work "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" was basically completed. By that time, the world order system proposed by the ancient Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy had existed for almost one and a half millennia. It consisted in the fact that the Earth rests motionless in the center of the Universe, and the Sun and other planets revolve around it. Ptolemy's theory did not allow explaining many phenomena well known to astronomers, in particular the looping motion of the planets across the visible sky. But its provisions were considered unshakable, since they were in good agreement with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Long before Copernicus, the ancient Greek scientist Aristarchus argued that the Earth moves around the Sun. But he could not yet experimentally confirm his teaching. Observing the movement of celestial bodies, Copernicus came to the conclusion that Ptolemy's theory was incorrect. After thirty years of hard work, long observations and complex mathematical calculations, he convincingly proved that the Earth is only one of the planets and that all planets revolve around the Sun. True, Copernicus still believed that the stars are motionless and are located on the surface of a huge sphere, at a great distance from the Earth. This was due to the fact that at that time there were no such powerful telescopes with which one could observe the sky and stars. Having discovered that the Earth and the planets are satellites of the Sun, Copernicus was able to explain the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky, the strange entanglement in the movement of some planets, as well as the apparent rotation of the firmament. Copernicus believed that we perceive the movement of celestial bodies in the same way as the movement of various objects on Earth when we ourselves are in motion. When we sail in a boat on the surface of the river, it seems that the boat and we are stationary in it, and the banks are floating in the opposite direction. Similarly, to an observer on Earth, the Earth appears to be stationary and the Sun moves around it. In fact, it is the Earth that moves around the Sun and makes a complete revolution in its orbit during the year. In the twenties, Copernicus gained fame as a skilled doctor. The knowledge he received in Padua, he replenished throughout his life, regularly getting acquainted with the latest medical literature. The fame of an outstanding physician was well-deserved - Copernicus managed to save many patients from severe and intractable ailments. And among his patients were all the Bishops of Warmia, high-ranking officials of Royal and Ducal Prussia, Tidemann Giese, Alexander Skulteti, many canons of the Warmian Chapter. He often helped ordinary people. There is no doubt that Copernicus creatively used the recommendations of his predecessors, carefully monitoring the condition of the patients and trying to understand the mechanism of action of the drugs prescribed by him. After 1531, his activity in the affairs of the chapter and his social activities began to decline, although as early as 1541 he served as chairman of the building fund of the chapter. Long years of life told. 60 years is an age that in the XNUMXth century was already considered quite advanced. But the scientific activity of Copernicus did not stop. He did not stop medical practice, and his fame as a skilled physician steadily increased. In mid-July 1528, while present as a representative of the Frombork chapter at the sejmik in Torun, Copernicus met the then famous medalist and metal carver Matz Schilling, who had recently moved to Torun from Krakow. There is an assumption that Copernicus knew Schilling from Krakow, moreover, on the maternal side, he was distantly related to him. In the house of Schilling, Copernicus met his daughter, the young and beautiful Anna, and soon, compiling one of his astronomical tables, in the heading of the column assigned to the planet Venus, Copernicus outlines the sign of this planet with an ivy leaf contour - the Schilling family stamp, which was placed on all coins and medals minted by Anna's father... As a canon, Copernicus had to observe celibacy - a vow of celibacy. But over the years, Copernicus felt more and more lonely, more and more clearly felt the need for a close and devoted being, and here is a meeting with Anna ... Years passed. The presence of Anna in the house of Copernicus seemed to be accustomed to. However, a denunciation followed to the newly elected bishop. During his illness, Dantiscus summons Dr. Nicholas to himself and, in a conversation with him, casually remarks that it was not appropriate for Copernicus to have such a young and so distant relative with him - one should look for a less young and more closely related one. And Copernicus is forced to "take action." Anna will soon move into her own house. And then she had to leave Frombork as well. This undoubtedly overshadowed the last years of the life of Nicolaus Copernicus. In May 1542, Copernicus' book "On the sides and angles of triangles, both flat and spherical" was published in Wittenberg, with detailed tables of sines and cosines attached. But the scientist did not live to see the time when the book "On the rotations of the celestial spheres" spread throughout the world. He was dying when friends brought him the first copy of his book, printed in one of the Nuremberg printing houses. Copernicus died on May 24, 1543. Church leaders did not immediately understand what a blow to religion the book of Copernicus deals. For some time, his work was freely distributed among scientists. Only when Copernicus had followers, his teaching was declared heresy, and the book was included in the "Index" of banned books. Only in 1835 did the Pope exclude the book of Copernicus from it and thereby, as it were, acknowledge the existence of his teaching in the eyes of the church. Author: Samin D.K.
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