Nicolaus Copernicus Accomplishments

Nicolaus Copernicus was an extremely famous and important scientist, astronomer, mathematician, religious figure, and scholar during the 1500’s. He helped shape many of the theories and ideas about the universe that are prevalent in society today. His accomplishments were and still are considered infamous, and although not commonly accepted by people during his lifetime, his development of the heliocentric model of the universe is what we all currently believe to be true. Without his hard work and perseverance on his research, our views of our universe would be very different, and possibly quite incorrect, today. Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19th, 1473 in Torun, West Prussia. He was the youngest of four children, and his family was well known as being copper merchants. There is some debate over Copernicus’ heritage, because although he was born of

Yet again, two short years later, Copernicus left this school too and chose to continue his studies at the University of Ferrara. This is where he finally earned his degree in canon law, following in the footsteps of his uncle. Upon his completion of school, he returned to Poland and resumed his job as a canon in Lidzbark-Warminski, alongside his uncle. Copernicus held this position for several years, and during this time he “he collected rents from church-owned lands; secured military defenses; oversaw chapter finances; managed the bakery, brewery, and mills; and cared for the medical needs of the other canons and his uncle.” This kept him quite busy, and resulted in him studying astronomy in his spare time. Copernicus moved to a residence in the Frombork cathedral chapter, which is where he lived and worked as a canon for the majority of his life, and is also where he made many of his astronomical