නිකොලස් කොපර්නිකස්

From Wikipedia

නිකොලස් කොපර්නිකස්
ටොරුන් වෙතින් හමුවූ සිතුවම, 16වන සියවස මුල් අවදියෙහි
Born	19 1473(1473-Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character "�"-19), ටොරුන් (තෝර්න්), රාජකීය ප්‍රසියාව, පෝලන්තය
Died	සැකිල්ල:මරණ දින හා වයස, ෆ්‍රොම්බර්ක් (ෆ්‍රොවන්බර්ග්), වෝමියා, පෝලන්තය ෆ්‍රොම්බර්ක් (ෆ්‍රොවන්බර්ග්), වෝමියා, පෝලන්තය
Field	ගණිතඥ, තාරකා විද්‍යාඥ, නීතිවේදි, වෛද්‍ය, සම්භාව්‍ය උගතා, කතෝලික පූජක, ආණ්ඩුකාර, යුද්ධ සේනාධිනායක, තානාපති, අර්තශාස්ත්‍රඥ
Religious stance	රෝමානු කතෝලික

Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was the first astronomer to formulate a scientifically based heliocentric cosmology that displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the Scientific Revolution.

Although Greek, Indian and Muslim savants had published heliocentric hypotheses centuries before Copernicus, his publication of an observation-based, mathematically-supported scientific theory of heliocentrism, demonstrating that the motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting the Earth at rest in the center of the universe, was a landmark in the history of modern science that is known as the Copernican Revolution.

Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classical scholar, translator, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. Amid his extensive responsibilities, astronomy figured as little more than an avocation — yet it was in that field that he made his mark upon the world.

පටුන 1 Life 1.1 Origins 1.2 Education 1.3 Work 1.4 Heliocentrism 1.5 The book 1.6 Death 1.7 Later censorship 2 Copernican system 2.1 Predecessors 2.2 Ptolemy 2.3 Copernicus 3 Copernicanism 4 Nationality 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit] Life

Copernicus was born in the city of Toruń (Thorn) on the Vistula River, in the Royal Prussia region of the Kingdom of Poland, on February 19, 1473.^[1] He was educated at Kraków, Bologna, Padua and Ferrara, and spent most of his working life within the prince-bishopric of Warmia (Ermeland), in the town of Frombork (Frauenburg), on the shore of the Baltic Sea, where he died on May 24, 1543.

[edit] Origins

Copernicus's home town of Toruń (Thorn) was a meeting point of many cultures. During the Middle Ages, in the 7th–13th centuries, it had been the site of an ancient Polish settlement.^[2] It was an important inland port of the Hanseatic League, and a member of the Prussian Confederation of cities.

Toruń had been founded as an outpost of the Teutonic Knights, but had become independent after the 1410 Battle of Grunwald. About two decades before Copernicus's birth, a secession had led to the Thirteen Years' War and the Peace of Toruń of 1466; Prussia's western part had willingly become part of Poland under the Polish king as "Royal Prussia," while the eastern part would remain under the administration of the Catholic Teutonic Order as a Polish fief until 1525. Though Prussia eventually assimilated into German culture, the native Old Prussian language and cultural traditions were still alive in Copernicus's time.^[3] Prussian subjects variously of a German Duke and a Polish King, the citizens of Toruń were also subjects of the Catholic Church during the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation.

Nicolaus Copernicus's father — a wealthy businessman, copper trader, and respected citizen of Toruń — died when Nicolaus was ten years old. Little is known of Nicolaus's mother, Barbara Watzenrode, except that she was born into a rich merchant family and appears to have predeceased her husband. After the elder Copernicus's death, Nicolaus's maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, a church canon and later Prince-Bishop governor of the Archbishopric of Warmia, reared Nicolaus and his three siblings. The uncle's position facilitated Nicolaus's pursuit of a career within the church, enabling him to devote much time to his astronomy studies.

Copernicus had a brother and two sisters:

• Andreas/Andrzej became an Augustinian canon at Frombork.
• Barbara became a Benedictine nun.
• Katharina/Katarzyna married Barthel Gertner, a businessman and city councillor.

Copernicus's ethnicity is uncertain. His father has been described as a Pole[7] or a Germanized Slav,^[4] had been a citizen of Kraków but had left Poland's capital in 1460 to move to Toruń. Most historians believe Copernicus's mother was German.^[5] It has therefore been argued that Copernicus's "mother tongue" was German. While he was fluent in German and communicated with many German scholars, no direct evidence survives of the extent of his knowledge of Old Polish. As typical for the time, his main language for written communication was Latin.

While numerous variants of Copernicus's name are documented,^[6] until the mid-1530s he mostly signed himself "Coppernic", afterward preferring "Copernicus". Thus, on the title page of his epochal book, Nicolai Copernici Torinensis De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium Libri VI, the astronomer's name appears in the Latin form, "Nicolaus Copernicus."

The spelling "Nikolaus Kopernikus", first introduced by Herder in 1776 by replacing each of the three "c's" with the letter "k," became popular in German, even though scholars argued for "Coppernicus". The Polish rendering is "Mikołaj Kopernik" (the surname means "one who works with copper").^[7]

[edit] Education

In 1491 Copernicus enrolled at the Kraków Academy (now Jagiellonian University), where he probably first encountered astronomy with Professor Albert Brudzewski. Astronomy soon fascinated him, and he began collecting a large library on the subject. Copernicus's library would later be carried off as war booty by the Swedes during "the Deluge" and is now at the Uppsala University Library.

After four years in Kraków, followed by a brief stay back home in Toruń, Copernicus went to study law and medicine at the universities of Bologna and Padua. Copernicus's uncle, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger, financed his education and hoped that Copernicus too would become a bishop. Copernicus, however, while studying canon and civil law at Bologna, met the famous astronomer, Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara. Copernicus attended Novara's lectures and became his disciple and assistant. The first observations that Copernicus made in 1497, together with Novara, are recorded in Copernicus's epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.

In 1497 Copernicus's uncle was ordained Bishop of Warmia, and Copernicus was named a canon at Frombork Cathedral. But Copernicus remained in Italy. He attended the great Jubilee of 1500. He also went to Rome, where he observed a lunar eclipse and gave some lectures in astronomy and mathematics.

In 1501 Copernicus returned to Frombork. As soon as he arrived, he obtained permission to complete his studies in Padua, where he studied medicine (with Guarico and Fracastoro), including astrological medicine, and at Ferrara, where in 1503 he received his doctorate in canon law. It has been surmised that it was in Padua that he encountered passages from Cicero and Plato about opinions of the ancients on the movement of the Earth, and formed the first intuition of his own future theory. In 1504 Copernicus began collecting observations and ideas pertinent to his theory.

[edit] Work

In 1505 Copernicus moved to Frombork (Frauenburg), a town in the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia north and downstream of Toruń on the Vistula Lagoon. The Bishopric of Warmia, within Royal Prussia, though subject to the Polish crown, enjoyed substantial autonomy, with its own Diet, army, monetary unit and treasury. Some time before his return to Warmia, he received a position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław (Breslau), Silesia, Bohemia, which he held for many years and only resigned for health reasons shortly before his death. Copernicus remained for the rest of his life a burgher of Warmia (Bishopric of Warmia). During the Protestant Reformation he remained a loyal subject of the Catholic Prince-Bishops and the Catholic Polish King when in 1525 Duke Albert and the Duchy of Prussia became a secular entity where monarch and burghers alike adopted Protestantism. Throughout his life he performed astronomical observations and calculations, but only as time permitted and never in a professional capacity.

Copernicus oversaw the defense of the castle of Olsztyn (Allenstein) at the head of Royal Polish forces when the town was besieged by the forces of Albrecht Hohenzollern, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order during the Polish-Teutonic War (1519–1521). He also participated in the peace negotiations.

Copernicus worked for years with the Royal Prussian Diet, with Albert, Duke of Prussia and advised the Polish king Sigismund I the Old on monetary reform. Holding the office of canon, he traveled extensively on government business and as a diplomat on behalf of the Prince-Bishop of Warmia.^[8] He participated in the discussions in the East Prussian Diet about coin reform in the Prussian countries. One issue of concern to participants of the Diet was who had the right to mint coins. The task required much diplomacy, but proved to be a success. The difficulties were the different political situation, which Prussia found itself in at the time. Ducal Prussia became a Protestant state in 1525. Copernicus translated the coin reform treatise into Latin for external use. In 1530 at the Elbląg (Elbing) negotiations agreement came with Duke Albrecht of Brandenburg Prussia.

In 1526 Copernicus wrote a study on the value of money, Monetae Cudendae Ratio. In it, Copernicus formulated an early iteration of the theory, now called "Gresham's Law," that "bad" (debased) coinage drives "good" (un-debased) coinage out of circulation, 70 years before Gresham. He also formulated a version of quantity theory of money.

As governor of Warmia, he administered taxes and dealt out justice.

Copernicus later served as physician to Duke Albrecht, who in 1551 financed the publishing of a volume of his astrological observations.^[9]

[edit] Heliocentrism

In 1514 Copernicus made available to friends his Commentariolus (Little Commentary), a short hand-written text describing his ideas about the heliocentric hypothesis. Thereafter he continued gathering data for a more detailed work.

In 1533, Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter delivered in Rome a series of lectures outlining Copernicus's theory. The lectures were heard with interest by Pope Clement VII and several Catholic cardinals.

On 1 November 1536, Archbishop of Capua Nicholas Schönberg wrote a letter to Copernicus from Rome:

Some years ago word reached me concerning your proficiency, of which everybody constantly spoke. At that time I began to have a very high regard for you... For I had learned that you had not merely mastered the discoveries of the ancient astronomers uncommonly well but had also formulated a new cosmology. In it you maintain that the earth moves; that the sun occupies the lowest, and thus the central, place in the universe... Therefore with the utmost earnestness I entreat you, most learned sir, unless I inconvenience you, to communicate this discovery of yours to scholars, and at the earliest possible moment to send me your writings on the sphere of the universe together with the tables and whatever else you have that is relevant to this subject...^[11]

By then Copernicus's work was nearing its definitive form, and rumors about his theory had reached educated people all over Europe. Despite urgings from many quarters, Copernicus delayed with the publication of his book, perhaps from fear of criticism — a fear delicately expressed in the subsequent Dedication of his masterpiece to Pope Paul III. About this, historians of science David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers have written:

If Copernicus had any genuine fear of publication, it was the reaction of scientists, not clerics, that worried him. Other churchmen before him — Nicole Oresme (a French bishop) in the fourteenth century and Nicolaus Cusanus (a German cardinal) in the fifteenth — had freely discussed the possible motion of the earth, and there was no reason to suppose that the reappearance of this idea in the sixteenth century would cause a religious stir.^[12]

[edit] The book

Copernicus was still working on De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (even if not convinced that he wanted to publish it) when in 1539 Georg Joachim Rheticus, a Wittenberg mathematician, arrived in Frombork. Philipp Melanchthon had arranged for Rheticus to visit several astronomers and study with them.

Rheticus became Copernicus's pupil, staying with him for two years and writing a book, Narratio prima (First Account), outlining the essence of Copernicus's theory. In 1542 Rheticus published a treatise on trigonometry by Copernicus (later included in the second book of De revolutionibus).

Under strong pressure from Rheticus, and having seen the favorable first general reception of his work, Copernicus finally agreed to give De revolutionibus to his close friend, Tiedemann Giese, bishop of Chełmno (Kulm), to be delivered to Rheticus for printing by Johannes Petreius at Nuremberg (Nürnberg).

[edit] Death

Copernicus died on May 24, 1543. Legend has it that the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was placed in Copernicus's hands on the very day he died, allowing him to take farewell of his opus vitae (life's work). He is reputed to have woken from a stroke-induced coma, looked at his book, and died peacefully.

Copernicus was reportedly buried in the Cathedral of Frauenburg where archeologists had long vainly searched for his remains. In August 2005, a team of archeologists led by Jerzy Gąssowski, head of an archaeology and anthropology institute in Pułtusk, discovered what they believe to be Copernicus's grave and remains, after scanning beneath the floor of the Cathedral. The find came after a year of searching, and the discovery was announced only after further research, on November 3. Gąssowski said he was "almost 100 percent sure it is Copernicus". Forensic expert Capt. Dariusz Zajdel of the Central Forensic Laboratory of the Polish Police used the skull to reconstruct a face that closely resembled the features — including a broken nose and a scar above the left eye — on a Copernicus self-portrait.^[13] The expert also determined that the skull had belonged to a man who had died about age 70 — Copernicus's age at the time of his death. The grave was in poor condition, and not all the remains were found. The archeologists hoped to find deceased relatives of Copernicus in order to attempt DNA identification.

[edit] Later censorship

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය: Galileo affair

In 1616, in connection with the Galileo affair, the Roman Catholic Church's Congregation of the Index suspended De revolutionibus until it could be "corrected," on the grounds that the Pythagorean doctrine that the Earth revolved about an immobile Sun was "false and altogether opposed to Holy Scripture."^[14][15] The corrections, omitting or altering nine sentences, were issued four years later, in 1620.^[16] The same edict also prohibited any work that defended the mobility of the Earth or the immobility of the Sun, or that attempted to reconcile these assertions with Scripture.

In 1633 Galileo Galilei was convicted of grave suspicion of heresy for "following the position of Copernicus, which is contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture,"^[17] and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. The Catholic Church's Index of Prohibited Books issued in 1758 omitted the general prohibition of works defending heliocentrism,^[18] but retained the specific prohibitions of the original uncensored versions of De revolutionibus and Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Those prohibitions were finally dropped in the Index of 1835.^[19]

[edit] Copernican system

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය: Copernican heliocentrism

[edit] Predecessors

Early traces of a heliocentric model are found in several anonymous Vedic Sanskrit texts composed in ancient India before the 7th century BCE. Additionally, the Indian astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata anticipated elements of Copernicus's work by over a thousand years.

Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BCE elaborated some theories of Heraclides Ponticus (the daily rotation of the Earth on its axis, the revolution of Venus and Mercury around the Sun) to propose what was the first scientific model of a heliocentric solar system: the Earth and all other planets revolving around the Sun, the Earth rotating around its axis daily, the Moon in turn revolving around the Earth once a month. His heliocentric work has not survived, so we can only speculate about what led him to his conclusions. It is notable that, according to Plutarch, a contemporary of Aristarchus accused him of impiety for "putting the Earth in motion."

Copernicus cited Aristarchus and Philolaus in a surviving early manuscript of his book, stating: "Philolaus believed in the mobility of the earth, and some even say that Aristarchus of Samos was of that opinion." For reasons unknown (possibly from reluctance to quote pre-Christian sources), he did not include this passage in the published book. It has been argued that in developing the mathematics of heliocentrism Copernicus drew on not just the Greek, but also the work of Muslim astronomers, especially the works of Nasir al-Din Tusi (Tusi-couple), Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi (Urdi lemma) and Ibn al-Shatir. In his major work, Copernicus also discussed the theories of Ibn Battuta and Averroes.

[edit] Ptolemy

The prevailing theory in Europe as Copernicus was writing was that created by Ptolemy in his Almagest, dating from about A.D. 150. The Ptolemaic system drew on many previous theories that viewed Earth as a stationary center of the universe. Stars were embedded in a large outer sphere which rotated relatively rapidly, while the planets dwelt in smaller spheres between — a separate one for each planet.

[edit] Copernicus

Copernicus's major theory was published in the book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), in the year of his death, 1543, though he had arrived at his theory several decades earlier.

In his Commentariolus Copernicus had summarized his system with the following list of seven assumptions:^[20]

1. There is no one center of all the celestial circles or spheres.
2. The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only of gravity and of the lunar sphere.
3. All the spheres revolve about the sun as their mid-point, and therefore the sun is the center of the universe.
4. The ratio of the earth's distance from the sun to the height of the firmament is so much smaller than the ratio of the earth's radius to its distance from the sun that the distance from the earth to the sun is imperceptible in comparison with the height of the firmament.
5. Whatever motion appears in the firmament arises not from any motion of the firmament, but from the earth's motion. The earth together with its circumjacent elements performs a complete rotation on its fixed poles in a daily motion, while the firmament and highest heaven abide unchanged.
6. What appear to us as motions of the sun arise not from its motion but from the motion of the earth and our sphere, with which we revolve about the sun like any other planet. The earth has, then, more than one motion.
7. The apparent retrograde and direct motion of the planets arises not from their motion but from the earth's. The motion of the earth alone, therefore, suffices to explain so many apparent inequalities in the heavens.

De revolutionibus itself was divided into six books:

1. General vision of the heliocentric theory, and a summarized exposition of his idea of the World
2. Mainly theoretical, presents the principles of spherical astronomy and a list of stars (as a basis for the arguments developed in the subsequent books)
3. Mainly dedicated to the apparent motions of the Sun and to related phenomena
4. Description of the Moon and its orbital motions
5. Concrete exposition of the new system
6. Concrete exposition of the new system (continued)

[edit] Copernicanism

Copernicus's theory is of extraordinary importance in the history of human knowledge. Many authors suggest that few other persons have exerted a comparable influence on human culture in general and on science in particular.^{[citation needed]} There are parallels with the life of Charles Darwin, in that both men produced a short early description of their theories, but held back on a definitive publication until late in life, against a backdrop of controversy, particularly with regard to religion.

Many meanings have been ascribed to Copernicus's theory, apart from its strictly scientific import. His work affected religion as well as science, religious belief as well as freedom of scientific inquiry. Copernicus's rank as a scientist is often compared with that of Galileo.

A corollary of Copernicanism is that scientific law need not be congruent with appearance. This contrasts with Aristotle's system, which placed much more importance on the derivation of knowledge through the senses.

Copernicus's concept marked a scientific revolution. The publication of his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is often taken to mark the beginning of the Scientific Revolution, together with the publication of Andreas Vesalius's De Humani Corporis Fabrica.^[21]

[edit] Nationality

It remains a matter of dispute whether a nationality should be attributed in hindsight to Copernicus, and if so, if he should be regarded as German or Polish.^[22] Already from the late 18th century until 1918, in a time in which no Polish state existed, the issue was noted as controversial, e. g. on German records at least since 1875 (see ADB quote above).^[23] Current German sources call the controversy, as manifested in older literature, superfluous and shameful.^[24] While the Catholic Encyclopedia does not attribute a nationality^[25], Encyclopædia Britannica^[26] and Microsoft Encarta^[27] introduce him as "Polish astronomer", while referring to the cities of his life by their German names, not the Polish ones.

Copernicus was born, grew up and spent most of his life in Royal Prussia and therefore was a subject of the Polish crown.^[28] This is cited as a major reason why he is commonly regarded as Polish. However, in Copernicus's time, nationality had yet to play as important a role as it would later, and people generally did not think of themselves primarily as Poles or Germans.^[29] Indeed, he might have considered himself to be both at the same time.

The bust of Copernicus was in 1807 one of the first made to be enshrined later at the Walhalla temple, the German Hall of Fame. In 1875, when no Polish state and no Polish citizenship existed, with Poles being subjects to Russian, Austrian or Prussian monarchs for a century, the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie article on Copernicus acknowledged the Polish aspects of his life. In Nazi Germany, Copernicus was claimed to be purely German;^[30]. Since 1945, German assertions have returned to balanced views, while some Soviet bloc-era editions in socialist East Germany pronounced him a Pole. Acknowledgment of his connections to Poland notwithstanding, however, in Germany Copernicus is not considered "un-German" or "non-German." In 2003 he was declared eligible for Unsere Besten (Our Best), a ranking of the "200 greatest Germans" organized by ZDF TV. Since 1989, three German TV satellites had been named DFS Kopernikus.

In Poland, in 1973, the 500th anniversary of Copernicus's birth was an occasion to celebrate the "great Pole"; a banknote was issued, bearing Copernicus's likeness. Thirty years later, on June 12, 2003, the Polish Senate declared him an "exceptional Pole."

These claims and counter-claims are somewhat anachronistic. In Copernicus's lifetime, "nationality" did not have the same meaning as today. Many ethnic Germans were loyal subjects of the Polish crown. The universal language of science was Latin, and academics throughout Europe communicated in that idiom.

[edit] See also

• Copernican principle
• Dedication to Pope Paul III
• List of things named after Copernicus
• Inferior and superior planets
• History of philosophy in Poland
• Copernicus Airport Wrocław
• Scientific revolution

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• Danielson, Dennis, "The First Copernican: Georg Joachim Rheticus and the Rise of the Copernican Revolution", Walker & Company, 2006, ISBN 0-8027-1530-3
• Nicolaus Copernicus Gesamtausgabe (complete edition), several volumes, Akademie Verlag, Berlin
• Leopold Friedrich Prowe, Nicolaus Coppernicus,

[edit] External links

Primary Sources

• සැකිල්ල:MacTutor Biography
• සැකිල්ල:Gutenberg author
• De Revolutionibus, autograph manuscript — Full digital facsimile, Jagiellonian University
• සැකිල්ල:Pl icon Copernicus's letters to various celebrities, among others the King Sigmundus I of Poland

General

• Copernicus in Torun
• Nicolaus Copernicus Museum in Frombork
• Portraits of Copernicus: Copernicus' face reconstructed; Portrait; Nicolaus Copernicus
• Copernicus and Astrology — Cambridge University: Copernicus had – of course – teachers with astrological activities and his tables were later used by astrologers.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
• Find-A-Grave profile for Nicolaus Copernicus
• 'Body of Copernicus' identified — BBC article including image of Copernicus using facial reconstruction based on located skull
• Copernicus and Astrology
• Nicolaus Copernicus on the 1000 Polish Zloty banknote.
• Parallax and the Earth's orbit [8]
• Copernicus's model for Mars [9]
• Retrograde Motion[10]
• Copernicus's explanation for retrograde motion [11]
• Geometry of Maximum Elongation [12]
• Copernican Model [13]

About De Revolutionibus

• The Copernican Universe from the De Revolutionibus
• De Revolutionibus, 1543 first edition — Full digital facsimile, Lehigh University
• The front page of the De Revolutionibus
• The text of the De Revolutionibus
• A java applet about Retrograde Motion
• The Antikythera Calculator (Italian and English versions)
• Pastore Giovanni, ANTIKYTHERA E I REGOLI CALCOLATORI, Rome, 2006, privately published

Legacy

• සැකිල්ල:It icon Copernicus in Bologna — in Italian
• Chasing Copernicus: The Book Nobody Read — Was One of the Greatest Scientific Works Really Ignored? All Things Considered. NPR
• Copernicus and his Revolutions — A detailed critique of the rhetoric of De Revolutionibus
• Article which discusses Copernicus's debt to the Arabic tradition

German-Polish cooperation

• සැකිල්ල:De iconසැකිල්ල:Pl icon German-Polish school project on Copernicus
• සැකිල්ල:De iconසැකිල්ල:En iconසැකිල්ල:Pl icon Büro Kopernikus - An initiative of German Federal Cultural Foundation
• සැකිල්ල:De iconසැකිල්ල:Pl icon German-Polish "Copernicus Prize" awarded to German and Polish scientists (DFG website) (FNP website)

සැකිල්ල:Persondata