Set of gold and silver coins Nicolaus Copernicus 2008 Proof Cook Islands

RAZITKO_POSTOVNE_ZDARMA_NENI

Nicolas Copernicus luxury set

An exclusive gold (partly silver plated) and silver (partly gold plated) coin issued by the Cook Islands in 2008 depicts a portrait of Polish astronomer and scientist Nicolaus Copernicus on its reverse. The obverse is accompanied by the inscriptions 'Nicolaus Copernicus' (name also written in Polish), 'Stellarium', the year '1473 - 1543' and the year of issue. The portrait also includes a depiction of a planetarium with a Swarowski crystal in the centre. The obverse shows a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the face value.

The coins are supplied in a luxurious dark brown wooden box along with a certificate of authenticity.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473, Torun - May 24, 1543, Frombork) was an astronomer, mathematician, lawyer, strategist and physician, Roman Catholic clergyman and the creator of the heliocentric (sun-centered) theory.

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in the family of a merchant Nicholas and Barbara née Watzenrode. After the death of his father, Nicholas was taken in charge by his mother's brother Lukas Watzenrode, who was elected Bishop of Warmia in 1489.

Thanks to his uncle's efforts, he graduated from the parish school of St. John in Toruń in 1491 and began his studies at the University of Cracow, which he completed in 1495. In 1496 he began studying law at the University of Bologna, in 1500 he completed a legal internship in the papal office in Rome, and the following year he received permission to begin medical studies in Padua along with continuing his legal studies. In 1503 he became a doctor of canon law in Ferrara and completed his medical studies in Padua, obtaining the right to practise medicine.

In 1507, at the suggestion of the Frombora Chapter, he became personal physician to the Bishop of Warmia. In the same year he produced a commentary on the theory of the motion of the heavenly bodies, the first outline of the heliocentric theory, and disseminated it in numerous letters. In 1510 he moved to Frombork and compiled a map of Warmia.

In 1539, Bishop Jan Dantyszek accused Nicolaus Copernicus of concubinage, ordered him to dismiss his housekeeper and prepared a canonical trial. In 1539, Georg Joachim von Lauchen, called Rhaeticus, professor of mathematics in Wittenberg, came to Nicolaus Copernicus to learn about his teachings. In the same year, Martin Luther expressed his opinion of Nicolaus Copernicus: This fool wants to overturn the whole art of astronomy! But as the Scriptures state, Joshua preached to stop at the Sun, not the Earth! The Nuremberg theologian Andreas Osiander persuaded Nicolaus Copernicus to present his model as a hypothesis in the preface to his work, thereby softening his overly bold ideas. In 1541, the second edition of Narratio prima was published in Basel, and Copernicus made the last astronomical observation of his life (a solar eclipse). In the same year, his pupil Georg Joachim called Reticus leaves Frombork with the manuscript of De Revolutionibus to have it printed in Nuremberg. The full title of this work, in which Copernicus summarized his findings in a comprehensive heliocentric theory, is De Revolutionibus orbium coelesticum libri VI (Six Books on the Orbits of the Celestial Spheres).

Luther's associate Philip Melanchton summarized his view of Nicolaus Copernicus as follows: Some think it excellent to work out a thing so absurd as that Sarmatian astronomer who sets the earth in motion and holds back the sun. Wise rulers should surely control talented levity. In 1542, the first two sheets of De Revolutionibus came off the presses. Nicolaus Copernicus sends to Nuremberg a preface dedicated to Pope Paul III. Chapters 13 and 14 of the first book were printed in Wittenberg as a separate book, De lateribus et angulis triangulorum... (On the walls and angles of triangles) with a preface by Georg Joachim von Reticus. And in the following year the whole book De Revolutionibus was published in Nuremberg. This book, although considered unacceptable for at least the next hundred years, especially by the ecclesiastical authorities, brought about a fundamental change in the understanding of man's place in the cosmos, since, unlike the Ptolemaic system, it refused to grant the Earth the most important place at the centre of the universe.