He was the first modern European scientist to propose that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun, or the Heliocentric Theory of the universe. In addition to correctly postulating the order of the known planets, including Earth, from the sun, and estimating their orbital periods relatively accurately, Copernicus argued that Earth turned daily on its axis and that gradual shifts of this axis accounted for the changing seasons.
He was given the best education of the day and bred for a career in canon church law. At the University of Krakow, he studied liberal arts, including astronomy and astrology, and then, like many Poles of his social class, was sent to Italy to study medicine and law. While studying at the University of Bologna, he lived for a time in the home of Domenico Maria de Novara, the principal astronomer at the university.
Astronomy and astrology were at the time closely related and equally regarded, and Novara had the responsibility of issuing astrological prognostications for Bologna. Copernicus sometimes assisted him in his observations, and Novara exposed him to criticism of both astrology and aspects of the Ptolemaic system, which placed Earth at the center of the universe. Copernicus later studied at the University of Padua and in received a doctorate in canon law from the University of Ferrara.
He returned to Poland, where he became a church administrator and doctor. In his free time, he dedicated himself to scholarly pursuits, which sometimes included astronomical work.
By , his reputation as an astronomer was such that he was consulted by church leaders attempting to reform the Julian calendar. The cosmology of early 16th-century Europe held that Earth sat stationary and motionless at the center of several rotating, concentric spheres that bore the celestial bodies: the sun, the moon, the known planets, and the stars.
From ancient times, philosophers adhered to the belief that the heavens were arranged in circles which by definition are perfectly round , causing confusion among astronomers who recorded the often eccentric motion of the planets, which sometimes appeared to halt in their orbit of Earth and move retrograde across the sky.
In the second century A. These small circles he called epicycles, and by incorporating numerous epicycles rotating at varying speeds he made his celestial system correspond with most astronomical observations on record.
Astronomers disagreed on the order of the planets from Earth, and it was this problem that Copernicus addressed at the beginning of the 16th century. The work was not published in his lifetime. In the treatise, he correctly postulated the order of the known planets, including Earth, from the sun, and estimated their orbital periods relatively accurately. For Copernicus, his heliocentric theory was by no means a watershed, for it created as many problems as it solved.
For instance, heavy objects were always assumed to fall to the ground because Earth was the center of the universe. This gave him more time to devote to astronomy. Although he did not seek fame, it is clear that he was by now well known as an astronomer.
In , when the Catholic church was seeking to improve the calendar, one of the experts to whom the pope appealed was Copernicus. Its central theory was that the Earth rotates daily on its axis and revolves yearly around the sun.
He also argued that the planets circled the Sun. This challenged the long held view that the Earth was stationary at the centre of the universe with all the planets, the Moon and the Sun rotating around it. Search term:. Pope Clement VII r. There is no indication of how Pope Paul III, to whom On the Revolutions was dedicated reacted; however, a trusted advisor, Bartolomeo Spina of Pisa — intended to condemn it but fell ill and died before his plan was carried out see Rosen, Thus, in there was no official Catholic position on the Copernican system, and it was certainly not a heresy.
Although he wrote a popular textbook that was geocentric, he taught his students that the heliocentric system was superior. In the Polish Academy of Sciences under the direction of J. The first volume was a facsimile edition. The annotations in the English translations are more comprehensive than the others.
The English edition was reissued as follows:. Life and Works 2. Astronomical Ideas and Writings 2. Complete Works of Copernicus B. Translations of Other Primary Sources D. MW Most importantly, we should bear in mind what Swerdlow and Neugebauer 59 asserted: Copernicus arrived at the heliocentric theory by a careful analysis of planetary models — and as far as is known, he was the only person of his age to do so — and if he chose to adopt it, he did so on the basis of an equally careful analysis.
Moreover, as Gingerich , 37 pointed out, [Copernicus] was far from the major international centers of printing that could profitably handle a book as large and technical as De revolutionibus. On the other [hand], his manuscript was still full of numerical inconsistencies, and he knew very well that he had not taken complete advantage of the opportunities that the heliocentric viewpoint offered…Furthermore, Copernicus was far from academic centers, thereby lacking the stimulation of technically trained colleagues with whom he could discuss his work.
Bibliography A. The English edition was reissued as follows: Minor Works , , trans. Referred to herein as MW. On the Revolutions , , trans. Referred to herein as Revolutions. Wallis, vol. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres , , trans. Swerdlow, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society , — Gosselin and L. Rheticus, G. Rosen, , — Blumenberg, H. Cohen, I. Norton, Crowe, M. Feldhay, R. Ragep eds. Finocchiaro, M. Gatti ed. Gatti, H. Gillespie, C. Gingerich, O. Goldstein, B.
Goddu, A. Grendler, P. Hallyn, F. Leslie, New York: Zone Books. Koestler, A. Maddison, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Kuhn, T. Morrison, R. Omodeo, P. Ragep, F. Rosen, E. Saliba, G. Shumaker, W. Siraisi, N. Swerdlow, N. Applebaum ed. Westman, R.
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