COPERNICUS, NICOLA'US. The real name was Copernik, or, according to others, Zepernic. Wo shall not discuss either this, or the somewhat more important question, whether he was born, asJuncti nue asserts, at 38 minutes past four on the 19th of January 1472; or, se 31cestlinus asserts, at 48 minutes past four in the afternoon, February 19, 1473. Morin adopts the date of the latter, but remarks that the horoscope was a most happy one for talent, as appears by the nativity given by the former.
The principal authorities for the life of Copernicus are the account )f Gassendi, published with the life of Tycho Brand [Munk, TYCHO); Narratio,' &c., of RIIETICUS ; and an account prefixed to his Ephemeris' for 1551. The latter two we have not seen, but Gassendi :Res abundantly from them. Weidler also mentions Adamus, 'Vit. Phil. Germ.' There is nearly a literal translation of a large part of lassendi's life in Martin's 'Biographia Philosophica ; ' a sufficient tbstract in Weidler; and a full account of the writings of Coper Aetna in Delambro's 'Hist. de l'Art Mod.,' voL L Copernicus was born at Thorn in Prussia, a town on the Vistula, tear the place where it crosses the Polish frontier. His family was tot noble; but his uncle, Lucas Watzelrode, was bishop of Warmia episcopus 1Varmiensis), whence it is frequently stated that Copernicus Lfterwards settled at a town of that name; whereas the cathedral was ituated at Frauenburg, a town on the coast, near the mouth of the ristula, aud, as to social position, about 50 miles both from Konigs ?erg and Danzig. Copernicus was educated first at home, and then at he University of Cracow, where he became Doctor of Medicine. He laid more than usual attention to mathematics, and afterwards to Ierapective and painting. A portrait of himself, painted by himself, lasted into the possession of Tycho Brahe (see his 'Epistles,' p. 240), eho wrote an epigram ou it, the point of which appears to be (the ,ortrait being a half-length) that the whole earth would not contain he whole of the man who whirled the earth itself in ether. After he completion of his studies at Cracow, Copernicus went to Italy, nd stayed some time at Bologna, under the instruction of Dominico [aria. His turn for unusual speculation began to appear in his having t this time the notion that the altitude of the pole was not always the ame at the same place. He was certainly at Bologna in 1497, and by he year 1500 he had settled himself at Rome, as appears by astrono tical observations which be is recorded as having made. At Rome e gave publio instructions, and in some official capacity (magma pplausu factue mathematum professor) : he is said, while thus nage& to have established a reputation hardly less than that of :egiomontanus. In a few years (but the date is not precisely stated) e returned to his native country, where (having taken orders, we sup ose, in Italy) his uncle gave him a canonry in his diocesan Church of rauenburg. There, after some contests in defence of his rights, not ery intelligibly described, he passed the rest of his days in a three dd occupation—his ecclesiastical duties, his gratuitous medical prac ce among the poor, and astronomical researches. He went very little ito the world ; he considered all conversation as fruitless, except that r a serious and learned cast ; so that he formed no intimacies except ith grave and learned men, among whom are particularly recorded ysius, bishop of Culm, and his pupil and follower, the celebrated heticus. A large mass of his epistles is said by Gassendi to have lien into the hands of Broscius, professor at Cracow, but none have ten published. He was all this time engaged as well in actual
sservation as in speculation. Hie instrumeutal means however were >t superior to those of Ptolemy ; and ho perfectly well knew the tcessity of improvement in this department. "If,' said he to Rhoticus 2 — — (whose Latin has certtin:y b•en misprinted, but in • m inner which 1 ay.w the meauing suffcien ly clear), " I coeld determine the true pleas* of the heavenly b elle, within ten seconds of a degree. I should not glory less in this than in the rule which Pythagoras has left us." Coperuicua was struck by the complexity of the Ptolemaic system, and searched all ancient authors to find one of a more simple character. The earth stationary in the centre of the universe, the planets moving round it carried on enormous crystalline spheres (for though many might we this as mere hypothesis, the refutation of Tycho Braid from the nature of the orbits of comets shows that he oonaidered the sieferiol spheres as one of the opinions of his day), and finally, the enormous sphere of the fixed stare, carried round once In every 21 hours, struck him with a feeling that such a system could not be that of nature. Ile found in Martianu? Capella, and others, proofs that an opinion had formerly prevailed to some extent that Mercury and Venus at least moved round the sun ; that the Pythagoreans held the rotation of the earth ; and that Philolaus had even imagined the earth to have an orbit round the sun. It is very doubtful to what point these several opinions were carried, or on what grounds they were supported ; it is sufficient for our purpose here that Copernicus found such doctrines attributed to the sects and persons above men tioned, and took them into consideration, with a view to see how far phenomena could be made to follow from them with more simplicity than in the system of Ptolemy. At what Limo he finally adopted his own system is not very clear ; his work was completely written in 1530, and from that time he did nothing except to add and alter; and since Copernicus says, in his epistle to Paul HI., that be bad been very long pressed by his friends to publish, the above date is not improbable. In the mean while his opinion was circulated even among the vulgar; and he wss satirised on the stage at Elburg. His reasons had convinced Reinhold, Rhetictus Gysius, and others; and upon the representations made to him, Cardinal Schonberg was desirous of having the work printed, and wrote to Copernicus to that effect from Rome in 1536. But though backed by a cardinal, a bishop, and two of the most learned astronomers of the age, Copernicus was well aware of the odium which an attempt to disturb established opinions would excite; and it was not it seems till about 1541 that a tardy consent was extorted from hint. The work was accordingly delivered to Gyaiva, and by him to Itheticus, who, thinking that it would be best printed at Nuremberg, entrusted it to Andrew Osiander, who superintended the printing, and wrote the remarkable preface, which is always attributed, and even by Delambre, to Copernicus himself. This is explicitly stated by Gsasendi, and the reason assigned is the obvious one that Osiander (besides thinking it neces sary to print the cardinal's request) was afraid of shocking public) opinion, and thought it beat to represent the scope of the work, not as actually affirming the motion of the earth, but as using such an hypothesis for the more simple and ready calculation of the heavenly motions.