Nicholas Copernicus (Nicolaus Copernicus)

1473 - 1543
Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, located on the banks of the Vistula. After his father was brought up by his uncle, Bishop Lucas Vachenrode, and at 24, Copernicus was elected a canon. First, he studied at the University of Cracow, and later went to Italy, where he studied law, medicine and astronomy at the University of Bologna, and later in Padua. He eventually earned a doctorate at the university in the city of Ferrara. From 1512 he lived in Mr.. Frombork, where he died. Among the contemporaries of Copernicus was known as a statesman, a skillful physician and expert in astronomy.
The result of many years of labor was the creation of the Copernican system of the world geleotsentricheskoy. He began with attempts to improve the geocentric system of the world contained in Ptolemy "Almagest". Such attempts have been made before, but Copernicus first understand the relationship between visible movements of the planets and the Sun, and, based on a system built geleotsentricheskuyu. One of the most important features of the philosophical ideas of Copernicus was the fact that the Earth, previously considered the center of the world relegate the position of one of the planets. This bears a new idea of exceptional importance - the unity of the world, that the "sky" and "land" subject to the same laws. He kept the idea of a finite universe, bounded by the sphere of fixed stars, which was, in fact, one of the remnants geocentric views. Shortly before his death in 1543 came the publication of works of Copernicus, entitled "On the complaints of the celestial spheres, which were summarized the results of four decades of work. This book is quickly aroused great interest. However, the revolutionary nature of the views of Copernicus was understood by the Catholic Church only after the G. Galileo and others. has made explicit the philosophical consequences of his teachings. In 1616 the decree of the Inquisition book of Copernicus was made "until corrected" in the index of banned books remained banned until 1833.

WWC Team