In the early 16th century, when the majority of people believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus proposed that the planets orbited around the Sun (Redd, 2018). However, his significance lies not only in being the first to formulate a coherent heliocentric theory but also in being the precursor to the scientific revolution that accompanied the European Renaissance (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). This revolution, involving figures like Galileo Galilei and culminating in the work of Isaac Newton, systematized physics and brought about a profound change in philosophy and religious beliefs. Therefore, this historical process is called the Copernican revolution, which had a significant impact not only on astronomy and science but also on thought and culture (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). Thus, according to Williams (2015), the Copernican revolution marked the beginning of the era of modern science.
Biography
Nicolas Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473, in Torun, a city in Thorn, located in central-northern Poland, on the banks of the Vistula River and south of the important Baltic Sea port of Gdańsk (Westman, 2021). He came from an affluent and distinguished family of merchants: his father, Nicolaus, and his mother, Barbara Watzenrode, were part of this guild (Westman, 2021). He was the youngest of four siblings: Andreas, Barbara, and Katharina (Brown, n.d.). His elder brother devoted himself to religious life as an Augustinian canon, similar to his sister Barbara, who became a Benedictine nun and prioress of a convent (Williams, 2015). Only his sister Katharina married and had descendants, whom Nicolas Copernicus cared for until the end of his days. According to Williams (2015), Copernicus never married or had children, dedicating his life to study and the Church.
When his father died in 1483, his maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, took charge of his guardianship and education (Westman, 2021). Lucas Watzenrode was a successful clergyman who promoted his nephew's ecclesiastical career and sent him to the best schools of the time (Rabin, 2019). Williams (2015) mentions that although there is little information about his childhood, it is believed that he first attended the School of St. John in Torun, where his uncle had been a teacher, and later the Cathedral School of Wloclawek, which prepared him for admission to the University of Krakow, the alma mater of Lucas Watzenrode.
In 1491, Nicolas Copernicus began his studies in the Department of Arts at the University of Krakow, where he specialized in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and natural sciences (Williams, 2015). Although there is no record of him obtaining a degree, it was not necessary for his ecclesiastical career or further studies (Rabin, 2019). It was during this time that Copernicus developed his interest in astronomy, thanks to contact with various contemporary philosophers teaching or associated with the School of Mathematics and Astrology in Krakow (Williams, 2015). Additionally, according to Williams (2015), he acquired a solid foundation in mathematical-astronomical knowledge, as well as the works of Aristotle, Euclid, and other humanist writers.
In 1495, his maternal uncle and guardian chose him as a canon of the chapter of Frombork of the Cathedral Chapter of Warmia, an administrative position just below that of bishop (Rabin, 2019). Two years later, he assumed the position, securing his financial situation for life. Meanwhile, he moved to the University of Bologna in 1496 to study canon law. There, he lived with astronomy professor Domenico Maria Novara and made his first astronomical observations (Rabin, 2019). Over time, he began to question the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic models of the universe, which had difficulties explaining the motion of planets and their variations in size in the night sky (Williams, 2015). Therefore, according to Williams (2015), he used his time at the university to study Greek and Latin authors, as well as historical information fragments held by the university about ancient astronomical, cosmological, and calendar systems, including other heliocentric theories.
In 1501, Nicolas Copernicus moved to Padua, where he studied medicine as part of his ecclesiastical career (Williams, 2015). Like in Bologna, Copernicus completed his designated studies but remained committed to his own astronomical research. Between 1501 and 1503, according to Williams (2015), he continued studying ancient Greek texts, and it is believed that during this time, his ideas for a new astronomy system crystallized, one in which the Earth itself moved.
In 1503, after obtaining a doctorate in canon law, he returned to Warmia (Williams, 2015). Around 1507, he first described the heliocentric astronomical system, in which the Earth orbited the Sun, in contrast to the traditional Ptolemaic system, which placed Earth at the center of all celestial movements (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). According to Fernández & Tamaro (2004), a limited number of manuscript copies of the scheme circulated among astronomers, and Copernicus began to be considered a notable astronomer; however, his research was primarily based on the analysis of texts and data established by his predecessors, as there is little evidence that he made more than fifty observations throughout his life.
In 1513, he was invited to participate in the reform of the Julian calendar, and in 1533, his doctrines were presented to Pope Clement VII (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). In 1536, Cardinal Schönberg wrote to him from Rome, urging him to make his findings public. By then, Copernicus had already finished writing his work "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres," an astronomical treatise advocating the heliocentric theory. According to Fernández & Tamaro (2004), the writing adhered to the model of Ptolemy's "Almagest," preserving the traditional concept of a limited and spherical universe and the principle that circular movements were the only ones suitable for the nature of celestial bodies. However, it contradicted the old conception of the universe, where the center was no longer coincident with that of the Earth, and there was no single common center for all celestial movements.
Aware of the novelty of his ideas and fearful of potential criticism, Copernicus did not release the work to the media (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). However, its publication occurred thanks to the intervention of the astronomer Georg Joachim von Lauchen, known as Rheticus, who visited Copernicus and persuaded him to print the treatise, taking care of it himself. According to Fernández & Tamaro (2004), the work appeared a few weeks before its creator's death, preceded by an anonymous prologue written by editor Andreas Osiander, presenting the Copernican system as a conjecture, as a precautionary measure and in opposition to Copernicus's conviction.
Towards the end of 1542, Nicolas Copernicus suffered a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke that left him paralyzed (Williams, 2015). On May 24, 1543, he passed away at the age of 70 and was buried in the cathedral of Frombork, Poland (Williams, 2015). According to Williams (2015), it is said that on the day of his death, he was given an early copy of his book, at which he smiled before dying.
The Heliocentric Theory
The science of the Renaissance (15th-17th centuries) was propelled by the heliocentric model of Nicolaus Copernicus, who challenged the geocentric conception of the universe that had prevailed for fourteen centuries (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). This conception, based on Ptolemy's Almagest (2nd century), consisted of a detailed and systematic development of the Greek astronomical method, positing a geocentric cosmos with the Moon, the Sun, and the planets fixed in spheres orbiting the Earth (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). According to Cartwright (2020), Copernicus's proposal, surprising to the European academic community and especially to the Catholic Church hierarchy, was that the central point of the universe was not the Earth with all other bodies revolving around it, but the Sun, around which the Earth orbited as just another planet.
Moreover, the movement of celestial bodies through the sky in a single night and over the course of a year was attributed to the Earth rotating on its own axis and orbiting around the Sun, not to these bodies revolving around the Earth (Cartwright, 2020). Additionally, Copernicus suggested that the Earth completed one rotation on its axis in a day and took a year to orbit around the Sun (Cartwright, 2020). However, the Copernican universe maintained the finitude and limitation of the sphere of fixed stars from classical astronomy (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). Although Copernicus began to undermine Ptolemy's astronomical work, his goal was rather modest, aiming for a simplification of the traditional system that had become too complex. Therefore, according to Fernández & Tamaro (2004), he assumed that the heliocentric theory would resolve many difficulties and make the system more economical by merely replacing the Earth with the Sun as the center of the universe, without altering the rest of the scheme.
Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to develop a coherent heliocentric system, but his theory was not so much based on the observation of empirical data as on the formulation of new hypotheses from a previous worldview with a metaphysical foundation (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). Firstly, Copernicus was inspired by the Neoplatonic tradition of Pythagorean origin, assigning the Sun an immobile position at the center of the cosmos. Secondly, the Copernican motion of the planets was grounded in a geometric imperative. That is, Copernicus still believed that the planets described uniform circular orbits as they moved around the Sun. Finally, according to Fernández & Tamaro (2004), the Copernican metaphysical paradigm rested on the conviction that the ontological truth of his system perfectly reflected the true harmony of the universe.
The Copernican Revolution
The Danish Tycho Brahe proposed a third way that combined the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems after the latter presented his heliocentric model in the 16th century (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). According to this model, planets revolved around the Sun, and the Sun, in turn, revolved around the Earth, thus maintaining the central role of the Earth in the universe (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). However, Brahe did not adopt a heliocentric cosmology; instead, he left his observational data to Johannes Kepler, a German astronomer who used them to enhance the heliocentric model by introducing elliptical orbits in the year 1609 (Williams, 2015). By the end of the same century, according to Fernández & Tamaro (2004), Isaac Newton published the "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" with his three axioms or laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. The Copernican heliocentrism had laid the foundation for traditional physics, providing a comprehensive description of terrestrial and celestial phenomena.
However, Copernicus's contribution's importance goes beyond a more or less successful contribution to astronomical science (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). By equating the Earth with the other planets orbiting the Sun, Copernicus's cosmos composition broke with scholastic and philosophical postulates that advocated the distinction between an immutable celestial world and a sublunary world subject to changes and movements (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). Over time, this theory became widespread, accepted, and gained the support of many influential proponents (Williams, 2015). Thus, Copernicus's theses marked the first step in the progressive secularization of Renaissance conceptions, which began to seek an interpretation of interactions between the universe, Earth, and human beings. According to Fernández & Tamaro (2004), the first gap between science and magic, astronomy and astrology, mathematics and mystical numbers opened up.
The new system had profound repercussions on scientific methodology, mindset, and the religious and philosophical convictions of an entire era (Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). Consequently, in line with Fernández & Tamaro (2004), five centuries later, the language continues to use the concept of the "Copernican revolution" to denote a drastic change in a situation or way of thinking.
References
Brown, C. (s.f.). Nicolaus Copernicus. Khan Academy. Recuperado 17 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/big-bang/how-did-big-bang-change/a/nicolaus-copernicus-bh
Cartwright, M. (2020). Nicolaus Copernicus. World History Encyclopedia. Recuperado 17 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.worldhistory.org/Nicolaus_Copernicus/
Fernández, T., & Tamaro, E. (2004). Biografia de Nicolás Copérnico. Biografías y Vidas. Recuperado 17 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/c/copernico.htm
Rabin, S. (2019). Nicolaus Copernicus. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Recuperado 17 de noviembre de 2021, de https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/
Redd, N. T. (2018). Nicolaus Copernicus biography: Facts & discoveries. Space.com. Recuperado 17 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.space.com/15684-nicolaus-copernicus.htmlhttps://www.space.com/15684-nicolaus-copernicus.html
Westman, R. (2021). Nicolaus Copernicus. Encyclopedia Britannica. Recuperado 17 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus
Williams, M. (2015). Who Was Nicolaus Copernicus? Universe Today. Recuperado 17 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.universetoday.com/45091/copernicus/
