Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473 - May 24, 1543) was a Polish Renaissance mathematician and astronomer, of a Prussian descent, who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. This syste
Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473 - May 24, 1543) was a Polish Renaissance mathematician and astronomer, of a Prussian descent, who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. This system contrasted with the thousand year old Earth-centered Ptolemaic system to which the Roman Catholic church held. Copernicus feared persecution and delayed publication of his book. The publication of this model in his 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, triggering the Copernican Revolution and making an important contribution to the Scientific Revolution. The book was banned by the Roman Catholic church from 1616 until 1835. Copernicus was a polyglot and polymath who obtained a doctorate in canon law and also practiced as a physician, classics scholar, translator, governor, diplomat, and economist. In 1517 he derived a quantity theory of money - a key concept in economics - and in 1519 he formulated a version of what later became known as Gresham's law. From 1512 he developed a mathematical model for this heliocentric theory. Toward the close of 1542, Copernicus was seized with apoplexy and paralysis, and he died at the age of 70 in 1543. Legend has it that he was presented with the final printed pages of his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium on the very day that he died, allowing him to take farewell of his life's work. He is reputed to have awoken from a stroke-induced coma, looked at his book, and then died peacefully.
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