Nicolaus Copernicus and his Epoch [antikvár]

The Country of his Childhood 1473 -1491 rom the frame of a dark old portrait a man looks out at us, "a man calm, devout and quiet, possessing neither great power nor titles, nor great wealth'', wrote one of his biographers. A similar opinion has been voiced by other commentators on his life, namely that he was a quiet and a modest man. And yet "no Genghis Khan, no Napoleon, no emperor nor pope, has had a more radical influence on the history of mankind than this canon from Toruri, Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer and humanist." The Copernicus family stemmed from a Silesian village called Koperniki, in the vicinity of Nysa and Otmuchow. From the end of the 12th century Koperniki was part of the property of the Wroclaw bishopric, property lying within the Polish Kingdom. The village which was founded prior to 1272, had a predominantly Polish population, as indeed did the entire Otmuchow-Nysa region. The name of the village has been preserved in the oldest records, though under different spellings: Coprnik (1272), Copirnik (1284), Copirnich (approximately 1284), Copernic (1290), Copernik (1291), Kopernic (1298). Some scholars are of the opinion that the name Kopernik comes from cuprum, the Latin word for copper, as in Old Polish this metal was called koper. The locality Koperniki would then be a settlement of koperniks, that is persons engaged in working copper. On the other hand, many researchers take the view that the name of the village, Koperniki comes from koper, the Polish word for dill. Such root-words, originating from names of plants, are to be found in the names of many Polish localities, such as Szczawnik (szczaw - sorrel), Chmielnik (ichmiel = hop), Jodlownik (jodla - fir), Lipnik (lipa = lime). Thus the Copernicus family came from a village and was of peasant stock. But as early as the 14th century the sons of this family began settling in various towns of Poland, in Zqbkowice, Nysa, Zgorzelec, OIkusz, Lwow, Cracow and Toruri. We know, for instance, that in 1427 the vicar in the Wroclaw Cathedral and the mansionarius (priest freed of all duties save saying mass and prayers) in the crypt of the Holy Cross Church was "Stanisiaw Czawdener, alias Coppernick.1' As we know from old writings, the descendants of this very mobile family reached Cracow as well. And these members are of particular interest to us, for it is precisely from the Cracow line of Koperniks that the hero of our story descended. And thus the old chronicles tell us: