Description

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543), like all true scholars of the Renaissance, was an astronomer, a doctor, a mathematician and a theologist. Going against generally accepted views, he developed the theory of heliocentrism, which placed the Sun, and not the Earth, at the centre of the world. This theory overturned all prevailing scientific, philosophical and religious points of view of the time. When Copernic died in 1543, his ideas, known to certain scientists only, circulated secretly and attracted great minds such as Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci and Johannes Kepler.