On February 19, 1473, in the now Polish city of Torun, the future creator of a new picture of the world was born Nicolaus Copernicus.

Almost everyone who studied at school heard his name one way or another. However, information about him, as a rule, is placed in one or two lines, along with a couple of other names of outstanding scientists who strengthened the triumph of the heliocentric system of the world - and Galileo Galilei.

This triumvirate is so entrenched in the minds that it sometimes causes confusion in the minds of even high-ranking politicians. Former speaker of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov, defending the controversial scientific developments of his longtime acquaintance and “scientific collaborator” academician Petrika, threw out the phrase that immediately became famous: “The term pseudoscience goes back far to the Middle Ages. We can remember Copernicus, who was burned because he said, “But the Earth still turns!”

Thus, the politician mixed the fates of all three scientists into one pile. Although in fact, Nicolaus Copernicus, unlike his students, managed to happily escape the persecution of the Inquisition.

Canon "through connections"

The future creator of a new picture of the world was born on February 19, 1473 in the now Polish city of Torun, into a merchant family. Interestingly, there is no consensus even about his national origin. Despite the fact that Copernicus is considered a Pole, there is not a single document that the scientist wrote in Polish. It is known that Nikolai’s mother was German, and his father, a native of Krakow, may have been Pole, but it is not possible to establish this for sure.

Copernicus's parents died early, and Nicholas found himself in the care of his maternal uncle, a Catholic priest. Luke Watzenrode. It was thanks to his uncle that in 1491 Copernicus entered the University of Krakow, where, among other sciences, he became interested in astronomy.

Nicholas's uncle, meanwhile, became a bishop, and in every possible way contributed to his nephew's career. In 1497, Copernicus continued his studies at the University of Bologna in Italy. It is interesting that Nikolai did not receive any academic degree either in Krakow or Bologna.

Since 1500, Copernicus studied medicine at the University of Padua, after which he passed the exams and received the degree of Doctor of Canon Law.

After spending three years in Italy as a practicing physician, Nikolai returned to his uncle, the bishop, under whom he took the position of secretary and confidant, while simultaneously serving as a personal physician.

The career of Copernicus, who by that time held the ecclesiastical rank of canon, was completely successful. While remaining his uncle's secretary, Nikolai managed to engage in astronomical research in Krakow.

The Plumber and the Plague Winner

The comfortable life ended in 1512, along with the death of his uncle, the bishop. Copernicus moved to the town of Frombork, where he had been nominally listed as a canon for several years, and began his spiritual duties.

Copernicus also did not abandon his scientific activity, starting to develop his model of the world.

It must be said that Copernicus did not make a big secret of his ideas. His handwritten text “Small Commentary on Hypotheses Relating to Celestial Movements” even circulated among his friends. However, it will take the scientist almost 40 years to fully develop the new system.

The astronomical works of Copernicus became known in Europe, but at first there was no persecution of the concept he proposed. Firstly, the astronomer himself rather carefully formulated his own ideas, and secondly, the church fathers for a long time could not decide whether to consider the heliocentric system of the world a heresy.

Heliocentric system of the world. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Copernicus himself, without forgetting about the main work of his life, managed to make his mark in other sciences: he developed a new coin system for Poland, as a physician he actively contributed to the elimination of the plague epidemic of 1519 and even designed a system for supplying water to houses Frombork.

Since 1531, Copernicus was only concerned with the development of his heliocentric system and medical practice. His health began to deteriorate, and in the last years of his life he was helped in his work by students and like-minded people.

In the last year of his life, Copernicus was struck down by paralysis, and a couple of months before his death he fell into a coma. The scientist died in his bed on May 24, 1543, without ever seeing the work of his whole life published - the book “On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres.” It was first published in Nuremberg, in the same year 1543.

Life's work

It should be noted that in his criticism of the Ptolemaic picture of the world with the Earth at the center of the Universe, Copernicus was far from the first. Ancient authors such as Nikita Syracuse And Philolaus, believed that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa. However, the authority of such luminaries of science as Ptolemy And Aristotle, turned out to be higher. The geocentric system finally won when the Christian Church made it the basis of its picture of the world.

Interestingly, the work of Copernicus himself was far from accurate. Affirming the heliocentric system of the world, the rotation of the Earth around its axis, the movement of planets in orbits, he, for example, assumed the orbits of the planets to be perfectly round, not elliptical. As a result, even enthusiasts of his theory were quite puzzled when, during astronomical observations, the planets turned out to be in a place other than that prescribed by Copernicus’ calculations. And for critics of his works it was a gift.

As already mentioned, Copernicus happily escaped persecution by the Inquisition. The Catholic Church had no time for him - it waged a desperate struggle against the Reformation. Some bishops, of course, even during the scientist’s lifetime accused him of heresy, but it did not lead to real persecution.

Only in 1616, with Pope Paul V, the Catholic Church officially prohibited the adherence to and defense of the Copernican theory as a heliocentric world system, since such an interpretation contradicts Scripture. It’s a paradox, but at the same time, according to the theologians, the heliocentric model could still be used to calculate the motion of the planets.

It is also interesting that Copernicus’ book “On the Rotation of the Celestial Bodies” was included in the famous Roman Index of Prohibited Books, a kind of medieval prototype of the “black list” of prohibited Runet sites, for only 4 years, from 1616 to 1620. After that, it returned to circulation, albeit with an ideological edit - references to the heliocentric system of the world were cut out of it, while leaving the mathematical calculations that underlay it.

This attitude towards the work of Copernicus only spurred interest in it. Followers developed and refined the theory of the great scientist, ultimately establishing it as the correct picture of the world.

The burial place of Nicolaus Copernicus became known only in 2005. On May 22, 2010, the remains of the great scientist were solemnly reburied in Frombork Cathedral.

Reburial of the remains of Copernicus. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The Catholic Church admitted its guilt in denying the correct theory of Copernicus only in 1993, when the Pope was John Paul II- fellow countryman of Copernicus, Pole Karol Wojtyla.

Rebellious Bruno and humble Galileo

It is also necessary to mention the fate of two followers of Nicolaus Copernicus - Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilee.

Giordano Bruno, who not only shared the teachings of Copernicus, but also went much further than him, proclaiming the plurality of worlds in the Universe, defining the stars as distant bodies similar to the Sun, was very active in promoting his ideas. Moreover, he encroached on many church postulates, including the immaculate nature of the conception of the Virgin Mary. Naturally, the Inquisition began to persecute him, and in 1592 Giordano Bruno was arrested.

Giordano Bruno. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

For more than six years, the inquisitors sought the renunciation of the scientist, who was also a monk, but they failed to break Bruno’s will. On February 17, 1600, the scientist was burned in the Square of Flowers in Rome.

Unlike the works of Copernicus, the books of Giordano Bruno remained in the Index of Prohibited Books until its most recent publication in 1948. 400 years after the execution of Giordano Bruno, the Catholic Church considers the execution of the scientist justified and refuses to rehabilitate him.

Galileo Galilei. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Galileo Galilei, whose works and discoveries in astronomy were unusually great, did not show the stamina of Giordano Bruno. Finding himself in the hands of the Inquisition at almost 70 years of age, after torture and under the threat of “sharing the fate of the heretic Bruno,” Galileo in 1633 chose to renounce the heliocentric system, of which he had been a defender throughout his life. And, of course, it never occurred to the unfortunate old man, who barely escaped the auto-da-fé, to throw the daring “But still she’s spinning!” in the face of his tormentors!

Galileo Galilei will be finally rehabilitated only in 1992, also by the decision of Pope John Paul II.

Nicolaus Copernicus was a great scientist who lived from 1473 to 1543 in Poland. Copernicus's range of interests and subjects of study included a variety of things relating to astronomy, physics, mathematics, economics and mechanics. His discoveries and works contributed to the development of many areas of human life and more than one scientific revolution.

The main achievements of Copernicus, known to every schoolchild, were works on natural science, in which the usual theory about the central position of the Earth in the solar system was refuted and described how celestial bodies actually interact with each other. Unfortunately, the work entitled “On the Revolutions of Celestial Bodies” was banned for some time due to the religious beliefs of those years, however, it was not forgotten and remained one of the most ingenious creations in the field of physics and natural science.

Childhood and youth

Copernicus was born in a city called Torun. This significant event took place on February 19, 1473. Although the scientist’s homeland is Poland, his ancestors were of German origin. The future genius became the fourth child. However, the Copernicians were far from poor, and the head of the family was a respected merchant, so each of the offspring received a decent education.

For the first ten years of his life, the boy grew up in complete peace, cared for by his parents and having everything he needed. However, life began to test the future scientist from an early age. His hometown was overtaken by a terrible plague epidemic, which flourished in those days. Copernicus Sr. came under attack, and then the boy’s entire family. Left unattended, he could have lost everything, but his maternal uncle suddenly decided to take part in his nephew's life. Lukasz Vachenrodi took upon himself the responsibility for Nikolai's education and upbringing.

As a young man, in October 1491, Copernicus came to Krakow with the goal of adding his name to the list of applicants to the Faculty of Arts. Together with his brother, whose name was Andrzej, he successfully graduated from the university and then went on a trip to Italy.

Nicolaus Copernicus and heliocentrism.

The emergence of a craving for science

Fate brought Copernicus to Bologna, which was famous for its educational institutions. Having become interested in jurisprudence, which was especially popular at that time, he decides to enroll in the faculty to study civil, ecclesiastical and canon law. However, despite his academic success, Nikolai began to gravitate more and more towards the natural and exact sciences, and especially astronomy.

The young Copernicus took his first serious step in this area in 1497, when he made his first observation together with the experienced and fairly famous astronomer Dominico Maria Novaro. As a result, it was found that the Moon is approximately at an equal distance from the earth both in quadrature and during the full moon and new moon. However, this statement completely contradicted the theory put forward earlier by Claudius Ptolemy. It was this discrepancy that pushed Copernicus to new experiments and works.

Despite his many talents, Copernicus often lacked funds. At the beginning of 1498, he was approved for the post of canon of the Frombork Chapter, and a little later, Nicholas’s brother received the same position. However, this did not help cope with the lack of money. The fact is that the brothers lived in Bologna, which at that time was famous for its high cost and attracted rich people from all over the world.

Left without a livelihood, the Copernicians were in a depressed state, but, fortunately, fate sent them a man like Bernard Sculteti. He took part in their lives and helped organize their income. More than once the Polish canon would meet the brothers and help them more than once.

Having decided to travel a little, Nikolai leaves Bologna and heads to his homeland - Poland. Having stayed there not so long, a little less than a year, he goes to Italy and begins to study medicine. Having entered the University of Padua to study, he quickly absorbs enormous amounts of knowledge and a few years later receives the long-awaited doctorate.

Having enriched his knowledge and acquired many different skills, he again goes to his homeland as an educated person, ready to conduct new experiments and capable of new discoveries. Therefore, with particular interest and enthusiasm, Copernicus began to continue the astronomical observations that he began in Italy. In the Polish city of Lidzbark he was constrained by certain circumstances, and in Frombork he had at his disposal not very convenient conditions for carrying out work.

However, nothing stopped the young scientist: neither the latitude of the area, which interfered with comfortable observation of the planets, nor fogs, nor cloudy weather. Good telescopes had not yet been invented at that time., and Copernicus did not have tools that made it possible to track the time of all phenomena with absolute accuracy.

But despite everything the above difficulties, the scientist nevertheless published his book entitled “Small Commentary,” in which he summarized the results of his experiments and observations, and also revealed the first hypotheses of his main theory. The convictions were understandable and impressive, but the book was not full of mathematical proofs, which Copernicus saved for a more voluminous work.

This video will tell about the life of this talented person.

Life in wartime

Copernicus was unable to fully delve into the proof of his numerous hypotheses, since the war with the crusaders began. The scientist then again received quite a significant government position, however, unlike many other high-ranking officials, he chose not to sit in places remote from the battles, but to take direct part in them. Showing remarkable courage, courage and military ingenuity, he became the commander-in-chief of the defense of Olsztyn and defended the city from the enemy.

The merits of Copernicus during the war did not go unnoticed and, and he was awarded for courage and bravery by the Polish government. Copernicus was appointed commissioner. A little later, Nikolai takes over the post of general administrator. Since this was the highest position that Copernicus had to hold, his financial situation improved significantly, which opened up new opportunities for the scientist in conducting experiments and scientific work.

Despite the war, it was in the twenties that Copernicus conducted the most active research activities. During this period, the scientist made the following discoveries and experiments:

1. Conducted observations of planets during a time called opposition. Its essence is that the planets are at the opposite point from the Sun. This study prompted Copernicus to think about the possibility that the celestial bodies in question were in a constant position and did not make any movements relative to their orbit.
2. Completed the creation of his theory and presented it fully formalized in a book, which called into question the veracity of the statements of Claudius Ptolemy, who argued that our planet does not leave its orbit and is at the center of the Universe, and the rest of the celestial bodies revolve around it.
3. Confirmed the above hypothesis through complex mathematical calculations.

The work of Copernicus turned the entire scientific world upside down, because the opinion that the Sun and other planets move in relation to the Earth has existed for more than one and a half thousand years. However, there are some inaccuracies in Copernicus's work. For example, he believed that all stars were stationary and located on a huge sphere, which, in turn, was located at a very distant distance from the Earth. Such inaccuracies were a consequence of the lack of decent equipment and good telescopes, which were invented a little later.

other hobbies

As has already been said many times, Copernicus was a versatile and developed person in many areas of activity. And during his research, he continued to improve his medical skills and abilities, thanks to which he gained fame great doctor. His list of patients included the following:

• bishops of Warmia;
• officials and those close to the royal court of Prussia;
• Tiedemann Giese - famous geologist, as well as prince-bishop;
• Alexander Skulteti - canon of the chapter.

It should be noted that Copernicus never refused to help ordinary people and strove to do as much as possible for each patient. Thanks to him, people survived; looking at their illness, many professionals of that time simply shrugged their shoulders. Nikolai's contemporaries always noticed that he was not guided by the traditional prescriptions of doctors for certain situations, but rather approached the issue with his characteristic originality.

At the age of 60, Copernicus was entrusted with the duties of chairman of the construction fund. Despite his age, he did not stop his scientific activity and continued his research. A year before his death, Nikolai publishes a book dedicated to the study of the sides and angles of a triangle.

Having lived a long life full of amazing discoveries, Nicolaus Copernicus died on May 24, 1543. However, the memory of him and his achievements still lives among us, and his works are highly valued by modern scientists and researchers.

Video

You will learn about the life of this outstanding person from this video.

Nicolaus Copernicus: biography and his discoveries. In the 16th century it became finally clear to most astronomers that the system leads to such large errors in calculations that it itself raises doubts.

Some people tried to “improve” it by adding “epicycles,” but the situation did not get better, and ideas about what the movement of the planets actually looks like became completely confused.

Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus(1473-1543) became the person who, for the first time in a year and a half, proposed a fundamentally different - much simpler and clearer system of the world.

This was a colossal breakthrough, and soon the heliocentric model became generally accepted.

The name of the man who “turned upside down” what was described by Claudius Ptolemy is known to the whole world today. Modern astronomy began with his model and optical ones.

The Polish scientist was the first to abandon the erroneous view that it is the center of the universe. He explained the movement of celestial bodies by the rotation of the Earth around its axis and the revolution of the planets around the Sun.

Brief biography of Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland, into the family of a merchant who moved to Polish lands from Germany.

He was orphaned early - his father died during a plague epidemic, and Lucas Watzenrode, a canon, and later a bishop, an educated and influential man, took care of his nephew.

In 1491, Copernicus went to Krakow and became a student at the Faculty of Liberal Arts at the University of Krakow, one of the oldest in the world.

Here he studied medicine and theology, but did not receive a diploma. The family decided that the young man would have a spiritual career.

However, this did not inspire Copernicus too much, and he went to Bologna to study church law at the famous University of Bologna, but in fact because only there could he seriously study astronomy, which interested him more than other sciences.

There he learned the basic skills of astronomical observations under the guidance of the famous astronomer Domenico Novara.

Copernicus then went to the University of Padua in Italy to study medicine, and in Ferrara he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Theology.

He returned to his homeland only in 1503, having received the most comprehensive education, and took the position of canon in Frombork, a fishing town at the mouth of the Vistula.

Here he was finally able to completely immerse himself in astronomical observations and the search for confirmation of his desperately bold hypothesis. Here he was to spend the rest of his life and create his main work, which he never saw published.

"On the revolution of the celestial spheres"

Even in his youth, Nicolaus Copernicus was struck by the complexity and intricacy of the world system created by Claudius Ptolemy.

Carrying out astronomical observations, the scientist came to the conclusion that not the Earth, but the Sun should be the center of the motionless Universe, and then it was possible to easily explain the apparent intricacy of the movement of the planets in their orbits.

In addition, he suggested the existence of universal gravity, anticipating. However, Copernicus treated his conclusions with caution - they contradicted the point of view adopted by the church.

He began to distribute a “summary” of his hypothesis in scientific circles, as if testing what the reaction to his “crazy” idea would be. Meanwhile, he continued his observations, compiled astronomical tables and carried out calculations that confirmed he was right.

Work on the manuscript “On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres” lasted almost 40 years - Copernicus made additions and clarifications to it until he was able to convincingly prove that the Earth is one of the planets revolving in its orbits around the Sun.

During these years, Nicolaus Copernicus did a lot not only as an astronomer, but also as a doctor, engineer and economist. According to his project, a new one was introduced in Poland; in Frombork, he built a hydraulic machine that supplied the entire city.

Copernicus was personally involved in the fight against the plague epidemic in 1519, and during the Polish-Teutonic War (1520-1522) he organized the defense of the bishopric from the Teutonic knights.

The first copy of the scientist's main work was printed in Nuremberg a few weeks before his death.

For some time, the book “On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres” was freely distributed among scientists. But in the 17th century. The teachings of Copernicus were declared heresy, the book was banned, and the followers of “Copernicanism” were persecuted.

What did Copernicus say about gravity?

Documentary evidence of Copernicus' thoughts on what gravity is has been preserved. These guesses appeared long before the theories later developed by other European scientists.

In one of his letters to Nicolaus Copernicus wrote, ahead of the discoveries of Isaac Newton:

“I think that heaviness is nothing other than the desire with which the divine Builder has endowed the particles of matter so that they unite in the shape of a ball. This property is probably possessed by the Sun, Moon and planets; These luminaries owe their spherical shape to him.”

The world's fundamental science is based on the guesses, theories and works of scientists who were sent from above to become discoverers. The Polish canon Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) appeared to the world as such a unique person. The thinker's guesses and predictions, formalized over more than half a century in only a few fundamental scientific works, led many talented followers and popularizers of his theories to the medieval bonfire of the Inquisition. He was born in the 15th century - too early for alchemists and pseudoscientists to recklessly recognize the correctness of his scientific conclusions.

The breadth of his scientific horizons is truly unimaginable. He made his main works and discoveries in the fields of economics, mathematics and astronomy. At the University of Krakow, where he entered in 1491, the main emphasis was, naturally, on medicine and theology. But young Nikolai immediately found a branch of science that he liked - astronomy. He failed to obtain an academic degree in Krakow, and from 1497 he continued his education at the University of Bologna. His astronomical observations were supervised by Domenico Novara. Copernicus was lucky to have a mentor in Bologna - he was lectured by the father of the European medieval mathematical school, Scipio del Ferro.

Works devoted to another field of science - economics - date back to the same period. “Treatise on Coins” (1519), “Monetae cudendae ratio” (1528).

Copernicus Fortress

Copernicus' education was completed in 1503 at the University of Padua. In those years, the worldview of a young admirer of astronomy began to take shape, which he could calmly practice by turning the northwestern tower of the Frombork fortress on the Baltic into an observatory.

Nikolai's scientific works, dating back to the beginning of the 16th century, were devoted to a new theory of the construction of the world - heliocentric. It was first presented in the monograph “Small Commentary...” (lat. Commentariolus). In 1539, Copernicus’s student Georg von Rheticus spoke in simple and understandable language in his book about the meaning of the mentor’s discovery. The main book that Copernicus worked on for more than forty years was called “On the Rotation of Celestial Bodies.” He constantly made corrections to it, based on increasingly accurate astronomical calculations.

Having read Ptolemy’s thoughts on the structure of the world for the first time, Copernicus immediately noticed that the conclusions of the scientific ancient thinker were very controversial, and the method of presentation was very complex and difficult to understand for the common reader. Copernicus' conclusion was clear - the center of the system is the Sun, around which the Earth and all the planets known at that time revolve. Some elements of Ptolemy’s theory still had to be recognized - the Pole could not know what the orbits of the planets were.

A work on the fundamental postulates of the heliocentric system was first published by Georg Rheticus in Nuremberg in 1543 under the title “On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres.” Fearing persecution by the Inquisition, the book's publisher, theologian Andreas Osiander, wrote a preface to it. He called the theory a special mathematical technique designed to simplify the process of astronomical calculations. Copernicus' monograph as a whole resembles Ptolemy's Almagest, only there are fewer books - six instead of thirteen. Copernicus easily proved that the planets move reciprocally, that is, in circular orbits.

The mathematical part of the book contains information about the calculations of the location of stars, the Sun and planets in the sky. The principles of the Earth's orbit around the Sun were described by Copernicus using the rule of precession of the equinoxes. Ptolemy could not explain it, but Copernicus absolutely speaks about it from the point of view of kinematics. Copernicus mentions in his work the principles and laws of motion of the Moon and planets, and examines the nature and causes of solar eclipses.

The final theory of the heliocentric theory of the world of Nicolaus Copernicus was formed in the form of seven postulates that completely rejected the geocentric system. She had a huge influence on the formation of the worldview of the descendants of Copernicus in the study of the astronomical picture of the world.

Five hundred years of recognition

Copernicus' active scientific work continued until 1531. He focused on medicine, and, as far as possible, tried to finally prepare his scientific theory for publication. Historians and biographers of Copernicus do not agree on the question of whether he managed to see the book printed. On May 24, 1543, while in a coma, he died after a severe stroke. The remains of the burial of the brilliant Pole were discovered in Frombork Cathedral in 2005, identified and reburied with grandiose honors in the same place on May 20, 2010. Only in 1854 did Jan Baranowski publish the complete works of Copernicus in Polish and Latin.

Nicolaus Copernicus is immortalized by his descendants in hundreds of monuments and names. The transuranium element of the Mendeleev Periodic Table No. 112 is called “copernicium”. In the vastness of the Universe lives a small planet (1322) Copernicus.

Nicolaus Copernicus, whose brief biography will be discussed in this article, is an outstanding scientist. He is not only a great astronomer who created the heliocentric Copernicus, he was a good mechanic, mathematician, canonist, and also the man who laid the foundation for the real first earthly civilization in the entire history. The scientist had at his disposal only primitive instruments, made by him with his own hands. But this did not stop him from making a number of discoveries during his thirty years of observations of the celestial sphere.

Copernicus, whose brief biography demonstrates the great power of the mind of an ordinary person, was born into a merchant family in 1473 in the city of Torun (Poland). His father died early, so the boy was raised by his uncle, Bishop Lukasz Wachenrode. The future scientist studied in Krakow and Padua and studied astronomy, medicine, and law. After training, he was elected a canon, worked as a doctor and secretary of his uncle at his residence (Lidzbark).

Copernicus, whose short biography is not only white stripes, had an inquisitive mind and knew how to observe. After the death of his tutor, he moved to Frombork, where he settled in a secluded tower, which still stands today. Nikolai set up an observatory in his house, so we can say that he made his discoveries exclusively at home. In addition, he served as a canon, treated the sick for free, developed a coin system, which was later introduced in Poland, and built a hydraulic machine. The great astronomer stayed in this place for the rest of his life. But this did not prevent him from actively participating in the life of his country: more than once he was entrusted with important tasks, which he coped with glory. For example, he negotiated between warring monarchs and corresponded with the best minds of that time.

Nicolaus Copernicus made revolutionary discoveries for his time. At first, he only wanted to improve the heliocentric system developed by Ptolemy, which he outlined in the Almagest. However, his work was significantly different: Nikolai more accurately determined the routes and also added his own comments to it. Thus, the Polish astronomer turned the Earth from, as previously thought, into one of the ordinary planets of the solar system. His tables were significantly more accurate than Ptolemy’s, which had a positive impact on the development of navigation. He outlined all his observations and calculations in the work “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres”, small in volume, but with very important content.

Copernicus, whose brief biography cannot but delight his contemporaries, published his work only in 1543, almost before his death. This saved him from the persecution to which his followers and disciples were later subjected. He quietly left this world and was buried in the Church of St. John in the city of Torne.

The Catholic Church for a long time considered Nicholas's work to be heresy and did not recognize it. However, the revolutionary teachings were continued and further revealed by Galileo Galilei. Copernicus, whose brief biography is outlined above, was awarded a monument only in the nineteenth century. But now they are available not only in Krakow, Warsaw, Thorn, Regensburg, but all over the world.