304 Copernicus. 



which surrounds the altar. Spheres cut out on it in relief, 

 and the letters Nicol, showed the place where the ashes 

 of this man were deposited. The chapter were so kind as 

 to permit us to remove every incumbrance. Having washed 

 the stone, we found the following letters Nicol .... 

 Cop . . . .cus, and in another line an .... m; the other let- 

 ters were obliterated. We raised up the stone and came to 

 the grave, where we found only the remains of mouldering 

 bones, of which the chapter kept a part, and gave us five 

 fragments with an attestation by the chief prelates : two of 

 these fragments we have reserved for ourselves, another we 

 sent to Pulavy, and two we shall bring to the society. We 

 searched for the manuscripts of this great man, and found 

 some of his signatures among the acts of the chapter. It 

 gives us pleasure to remark, that the tour of Copernicus to 

 Italy, where he seems to have formed his system, was defray- 

 ed by the chapter*. The inhabitants of Frauenburg relate, 

 according to an old tradition, that there were there some ma- 

 thematical instruments made bv Copernicus himself. Ty- 

 cho Brahe in the 16th century set great value on an instru- 

 ment called a parallactic um, which, as he said, had been 

 constructed by that incomparable man, and which was 

 presented to him by Hannof canon of Ermeland. All these 

 monuments are lost, and those who have seen them differ 

 in their accounts. We endeavoured to find some work of 

 Copernicus ; but all his works, unfortunately, have been di- 

 spersed. His work on the establishment of the mint, to an 

 office in which he was appointed like Newton, is lying 

 somewhere in a town of West Prussia. We, however, 

 found some of his letters on private affairs. One of them 

 we transmit, in order to verify his writing, in case any of his 

 manuscripts should be discovered. We were also in the 

 place in which he resided. It is a small chamber in the 

 upper story, from which there was a passage to his observa- 

 tory ; and of the steps some fragments are still remaining. 

 On three sides he had a view of the strait ; on the fourth was 

 a plain, which at present is concealed by a tower built at a 

 later period. Thad^ius Czacki, 



Martin Molki.' 1 



*. M. Sniadecki is of a different opinion. 



HUMBOLDT 



