System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Nicolaus Copernicus, Famous Astrologer
19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543
Nicolaus Copernicus famous astronomer died this day in history on May 24, 1542 in Fromburk Poland. Nicolaus’ parents Nicolaus and Barbara Koppernigk had four children, two sons and two daughters, of whom Nicolaus Copernicus was the youngest. When young Nicolaus was ten years old his father died. His uncle Lucas Waczenrode, who was a canon at Frauenburg Cathedral, became guardian to Nicolaus and Barbara Koppernigk's four children. Nicolaus’ uncle persuaded the young Nicolaus to follow in his footsteps and become a priest. In October 1497, it was decided that Nicolaus was going to study canon law at the University in Bologna. He roomed at the house of the astronomy professor Domenico Maria de Novara and began to undertake research with him, assisting him in making astrological observations. Soon after Nicolaus became far more interested in astrology than canon law.
In 1500 Copernicus visited Rome and decided to stay for a year and lecturing to scholars on mathematics and astronomy. He returned to Frombork in the spring of 1501 and was officially installed as a canon of the Ermland Chapter. However not completing his degree in canon law, he asked his uncle if he could return to Italy both to take a law degree and to study medicine. Nicolaus was granted to study in Italy, but he actually went back to study astronomy. By 1514 Nicolaus completed and published a hand written book called Little Commentary. He allowed only a hand full of his friends to read the book, it outlined his theories about how the sun is the centre of the universe.
By 1514 Nicolaus began writing his major work De Revolutionibus. In his findings Nicolaus details his theories of how at the middle of all things lies the sun. Nicolaus tried to prove that the earth rotated on its axis once daily and traveled around the sun once yearly. His theories cause a serious stir with in the political and religious communities. The churches preached that God was the middle of all things and that man was made by God in his image. Man was the extension of God, and thus superior, especially to all creatures. Nicolaus claimed just the opposite, he stated that man was not created by God but simply apart of nature and not superior to it. Both the Protestants and Catholics refuted his theories because they disproved a scientific system built on a foundation of a thousand years of universal acceptance. After his death on May 24, 1542 other scientists like Galileo and Bruno picked up were Nicolaus left off. These men also suffered at the hands of political and religious authorities however; their persecution was far more violent and brutal.
