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Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), (son of Nicolas Koppernigk and Barbara Watzenrode),was an astronomer , who developed a heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory of the solar system. His main occupation was as church canon and medical doctor of the people of Ermeland, astrologer and astronomer were a fortunate sideline.

His major theory was published in the book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ("On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres") in the year of his death 1543, even though he had arrived at it several decades earlier. Illustrations in this book had been worked on in the imperial city of Nuremberg for twenty years and it marked the beginning of the shift from a geocentric (and anthropocentric) universe. Copernicus held that the Earth is another planet revolving around the fixed sun once a year, and turning on its axis once a day. He arrived at the correct order of the planets and explained the precession of the equinoxes correctly by a slow change in the position of the Earth's rotational axis. His theory, unfortunately, still had some serious defects, among them circular as opposed to elliptical orbits and epicycles, that made it no more precise in predicting ephemerides than the then current tables based on Ptolemy's model. But it had a large influence on scientists such as Galileo and Kepler, who adopted, championed and, in Kepler's case, improved the model. The book was put on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1616 by the Roman Catholic Church. Galileo's observation of the phases of Venus produced the first observational evidence for Copernicus' theory.

Legend says that a printed copy of De revolutionibus was put in Copernicus's hands shortly before his death so that he could say goodbye to his opus vitae. He awoke from his stroke induced coma, looked at his book, and died peacefully.

Polish or German?

Copernicus is recently by some regarded as Polish in terms of the political geography of his time .Thorn (Latin: Torun, Thorun) in Culmer Land, his place of birth, had passed from the suzerainty of the Order of Teutonic Knights to that of the King of Poland, Sigismund I Jagiello of Lithuania, shortly after his father's arrival there from Krakow. His mother, father and grandparents , all Thorn Patrician tradesmen and city government officials had been Prussian subjects of the German Holy Roman Empire. The family name can be traced to the town of Koppernigk near Neisse in Silesia, which was inhabited by Germans in the 14th century at the time of emigration from that region eastwards into Prussia and Poland. No known letter written by him was in the Polish language -- they were all in Latin or German language/German. However, that means little, as Latin was at the time the international language of scholars. Those letters in German language were written by him in his function as Ermeland official working with the duke Albert of Prussia. All his handwritten signatures were spelled with N..., never with M..., which would indicate, that he had considered himself to be named Mikolai, the Polish version of the name Nicolaus.

Nicolaus Copernicus was ten years old,when his father, the elder Nicolas Koppernigk died. He and his brother Andreas were then raised by their uncle Lucas Watzenrode, bishop of Ermeland. Lucas Watzenrode was the son of Lucas Watzenrode (the elder), statesman of the Prussian Hanseatic League city of Thorn. Copernicus' mother Barbara of Thorn was the sister of bishop Lucas Watzenrode. Their other sister Christina married Tideman von Allen, also a Thorn Patrician statesman.

Some people like to claim Copernicus was definitely Polish by allegiance (in terms of the politics of the time). In 1512, when he was Canon of the Chapter of Frombork, Copernicus swore allegiance to King Sigismund I of Poland. In 1520, after the outbreak of war between Poland and the Teutonic Knights, Copernicus was a member of the Polish embassy to the Grand Master requesting restoration of Braniewo to Poland. He also organized the defence of Olsztyn against the Order.

It has to be pointed out , that here are several incorrections in this assumption, first the city and chapter's official name was Frauenburg. Sigismund I, by then king of Poland, was previously already duke of Silesia, which means that he had worked and continued to work with the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire . Copernicus was a member of the Prussian government under the Hohenzollern duke of Prussia Albrecht or Albert of Prussia and the cities mentioned were officially called Braunsberg and Allenstein. The names of the cities in Prussia including Ermeland and Culmer Land remained the same from the beginning of the thirteenst century until the twentiest century.