Happy 540th birthday Copernicus

On February 19th was Nicolaus Copernicus‘s 540th birthday. He is widely known as the father of modern astronomy and for arguing that the Earth revolves around the Sun. He never earned a bachelor’s degree and he practiced medicine, without a medical degree. Image © wikipedia

Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543), one of the great polymaths of the Renaissance, was a mathematician and astronomer who formulated a comprehensive heliostatic model of the universe, which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at [near to] the center.

The publication of Copernicus’ epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just before his death in 1543, is considered a major event in the history of science.

It began the Copernican Revolution and contributed importantly to the rise of the ensuing Scientific Revolution. Copernicus’ heliostatic theory placed the Sun near (not at the center this is a common misconception) the center of the solar system and described that system’s mechanics in mathematical rather than Aristotelian terms.

Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, jurist with a doctorate in law, physician, quadrilingual polyglot, classics scholar, translator, artist,governor, diplomat and economist.