Nicholas Copernicus was a famous astronomer who is credited with the early 16th-century discovery that the sun is the center of the universe and that Earth and several other planets orbit it. Copernicus' discovery has now become known as the heliocentric solar system. Nicholas was a polyglot and polymath. He obtained a doctorate in canon law and was also a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classics scholar, translator, governor, diplomat, and economist.
Nicholas Copernicus was born in the city of Torun, in the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, northern Poland on February 19, 1473. Nicholas's birth name was Mikolaj Kopernik. He later started calling himself the Latin form of his name, Nicholas Copernicus, when he went to a university. Nicholas was born into a wealthy family. He was named after his father a prosperous copper trader. His mother, Barbara Watzenrode, also came from a wealthy, upper-class family of merchants. Nicholaus was the youngest of their four children.When Nicholas was just 10 years old his father died. After this Nicholas's uncle Lucas Watzenrode, a nobleman who was to become Prince-Bishop of the region of Warmia, became his guardian. In 1491, at the age of 18, Copernicus began as an undergraduate at the University of Krakow. While there he studied astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, and the sciences.Through his uncle's influence Copernicus was then appointed as a canon (church official) of the Catholic Church. …show more content…
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance polymath responsible for what some have called the “Copernican Revolution.” One of the most important contributions of Copernicus was to the field of astronomy. Copernicus placed the sun at the center of the universe, rather than the earth.
(Nicholas next to his theory of the solar