ABSTRACT
Copernicus is known today for a single contribution to astronomy, but it is an important one, the heliocentric theory. He was born to a prosperous merchant family in Torun in Royal Prussia, now a part of Poland. His parents died when he was young, and he was raised in the household of his mother’s brother, Lucas Watzenrode, who became bishop of Warmia in 1489 and intended an ecclesiastical career for his nephew. In 1491 Copernicus entered the University of Cracow, where courses were given in mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, but he left without a degree in 1495, following which his uncle obtained for him a canonry of the Cathedral Chapter of Warmia. From 1496 to 1501, he studied canon and civil law at the University of Bologna; from 1501 to 1503, medicine at the University of Padua; finally, in 1503, he received a degree in canon law from the University of Ferrara. While at Bologna, he worked as assistant to the professor of astronomy, Domenico Maria Novara (1454-1504), and made his earliest-known observations; in 1500 he delivered a lecture in Rome on mathematics,
which could mean astronomy. After he returned to Warmia, he lived with his uncle, serving as his physician, but in 1510 he moved to Frauenburg, the headquarters of the Cathedral Chapter, where he spent most of the rest of his life working at various administrative duties.
