The Revolutions Of The Heavenly Bodies By Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland in 1473 and died in the month of May 1543 in Frauenberg, Poland. Nicolaus’ main occupations consisted of being an astronomer, scientist, and mathematician but was also a doctor and painter. Copernicus studied at Krakow University, there he studied painting and mathematics. He then graduated from Krakow University and went to Italy, there he went to two universities, one called the University of Bologna, there he studied religious law and after completing that program he went to the University of Padua, where he studied medicine. He, however, did not finish his medicine degree and left to Rome where he got a chair of mathematics. He then pursued a life time career in the Church but along with working …show more content…
He wrote the book, intending the audience to consist of being the educated individuals in mathematics, he did not think it would appeal to the general readers who consisted of the uneducated in mathematics and astronomy. Copernicus was an educated man, but wasn’t always educated. He was orphaned at a young age and moved in with his Uncle, who was a bishop, and then went to university from there. So it’s not like he didn’t want the lower class to read his book, it was more that no one would understand his theory unless they were an astronomer or mathematician. Also, in that time period only the wealthy people could afford an education and …show more content…
His whole life he practically worked and lived at the church. Copernicus created a theory that altered the Ptolemaic model which was that the heavens moved in uniform in a circular motion, Aristotle’s theory was also based off of a Christian theology. It was risky to bring up a new theory against this one because that meant you questioned Aristotle’s theory and if you questioned the already made theory you were also questioning the theology in Aristotle’s theory. There were multiple other factors that Copernicus had to be cautious about. Firstly, it was during the 1500’s where Martin Luther began to make his own controversies against the churches authority, Copernicus knew that if he also brought up his theory, it would also be super controversial. Secondly, Copernicus’ work was still not finished yet. His findings could not explain a great deal of many things such as predicting the planetary positions. Thirdly, changing individual’s minds that the sun was at the centre of the universe, not the earth. Despite the controversies, Copernicus eventually finished his book, but unfortunately died before the printing of the book was complete. To conclude, Copernicus’ main findings consisted of the sun being the center of the universe, not the earth, but only the earth’s gravity and lunar sphere. Also, all the other planets revolve around the sun, and the earth rotates on an axis making it have more than one motion around