Nicholaus Copernicus

Childhood and education

Dear friend I will tell you a story about the most renowned citizen of the town of Torun all over the world. You must have heard about him earlier. Of course, this is Nicholas Copernicus- the author of heliocentric theory.

TORUN

From the early beginning, the life of Copernicus was connected with our family town. He was born on the 19th of February 1473 in Torun. His mother name was Barbara and his father name was Nicholas. His father was a known merchant in the town of Torun at that time. His mother's family name was Watzenrode. However, there is a controversy around Copernicus birthplace. We still do not know if the astronomer's birthplace was in the house at 15 or 17 Kopernika Street (Sw. Anny Street at that time) or in some other house in the Old Town Square. House of Copernicus The school of Nicholaus The map of Torun in XVII century.

Nicholas Copernicus's family came from Cracow - the former capital of Poland. He had three siblings: a brother- Andrew and two sisters - Barbara and Catherine. Nicholas was the youngest of them. In Torun Copernicus spent his early childhood and youth. The roots of his versatile personality were enriched with impressions of specific atmosphere of this town. At that time, Torun was swarming with multilingual and multicultural crowd. Foreign merchants were trading their goods from the most exotic countries. Some merchants stayed at Copernicus' house. Their interesting opinions and remarks arose the curiosity of an astronomer to be.

In his family town, Copernicus started his education. He attended the local school at St. Johns' Cathedral Church at Jana Street. ( Szkolna Street at that time). This school distinguished form others, a high level of teaching, outstanding teachers and the rich collection of books containing manuscripts and splendid works on astronomy and astrology~ We can assume that from this school, Copernicus took his early interests in Science. At the age of 16 Nicholas Copernicus lost his father. Then, his uncle Lukasz Watzenrode took care of him.

CRACOW

After graduating from the local school in 1491, Nicholas started his education at Academy in Cracow. Four years later, he graduated from this school.( but without doing a master degree). In the register book of students from the year 1491/1492- winter term,we can :l see the following inscription "Nicolaus Nicolai de Thuronia solvit totum" it means “Nicholas - Nicholas' son from Torun paid all. Colegium Maius in Cracow

At that time, Academy in Cracow was one of the best schools of this kind in Europe. Especially, mathematics and astronomical science were at high level students from different European studied in Cracow then. The stamp of Academy of Cracow

In 1495 Nicholas Copernicus was also ordinated by his unde Łukasz Watzenrode and got the title of Warmian canon. Nicholas did not finish his education when he completed his studies at Academy in Cracow. In the year of 1496, he went to Bolonia where he studied astronomy at Bolonian University. In Rome, he also received any training in law.

In 1501 Copernicus took up study again. This time, he studied law and medicine at University in Padwa. In 1503 he got a PhD degree in law from University in Farra and graduated trom Medical Academy in Padwa and got the right to start his medical practice.

Eventually, Nicholas returned to his homeland in 1503, having resided abroad for many years and settled in Warmia. He never settled in Torun permanently.