SKETCH OF NICOLAUS COPERNICUS. 261 



"berg and Tidium Gisius, Bishop of Kulin succeeded in overcom- 

 ing my repugnance. The last, especially, insisted most earnestly 

 on my publishing this book, which I had kept on the shelf, not 

 nine years, but nearly thirty-six." 



The book {De Revolutionibus Orbium Ccelestium) was printed 

 at Nuremberg, under the care of Rheticus, one of Copernicus's 

 pupils, in 1543. Although Copernicus had till that time been 

 enjoying excellent health, he had then been attacked by a dys- 

 entery; and this had passed into a paralysis, with loss of his 

 mental faculties, when the first copy of the book was given to him 

 only a few hours before his death. He saw it and handled it, but 

 was too far gone to exhibit any signs of appreciation of it, or for 

 his friends to be able to know how he was affected by it, or 

 whether he realized what it was. The first edition of the De Revo- 

 lutionibus, which is now very rare, was followed by a second edi- 

 tion in 1566, and a third in 1617. Seventy-three years after the death 

 of its author, on the 5th of March, 1616, it was condemned by the 

 Congregation of the Index " for containing ideas set forth as true 

 on the positions and motions of the earth entirely contrary to the 

 Holy Scripture." 



The first work recording the labors of the astronomer was the 

 letter published by Rheticus under the title Ad Clar. V. de Jo. 

 Schonerum de Libris Revolutionum eruditiss, Viri et Matliematici 

 excellentiss. Rev. Doctoris Nicolai Copernici Torunnwi, Canoni- 

 ci Varmiensis, per quemdam juvenem Mathematical studiosum, 

 Narratio prima, Dantzic, 1540 ; reprinted, with a eulogium, at 

 Basle, 1541. The works of Copernicus are De Revolutionibus Or- 

 bium Cozlestium Libri VI, Nuremberg, 1543 ; reprinted at Basle 

 in 1566, with the letter of Rheticus, and also included in the As- 

 tronomia Instaurataol Nicolas Muller, Amsterdam, 1617 and 1640 ; 

 a treatise on Trigonometry, with tables of sines, entitled De La- 

 teribus et Angulis Triangulorum, Wittenberg ; Theophylacti Scho- 

 lastici Simocattw EpistolcB morales, rurales, et amatoriw, cum 

 Versione Latina. There are also the treatise on money, already 

 mentioned, and several manuscript treatises in the library of the 

 bishopric of Wiarmia. 



The tomb of Copernicus, which was exactly like those of the 

 other canons of Frauenburg, was adorned with a Latin epitaph 

 by the Polish Bishop Cromer, in 1581. It was repaired by Na- 

 poleon I in 1807, and so placed that it could be seen from all 

 parts of the church. A statue of Copernicus by Thorwaldsen 

 was erected by subscriptions from the Polish people, in 1829, in 

 the Casimir Palace at Warsaw. The Polish clergy, invited to 

 attend the ceremonies, refused, because his. book had been con- 

 demned by the Holy Office in 1616. Another monument to him, 

 by Tieck, was erected at Thorn in 1853. 



