COPENHAGEN FIELDS 



COI'KKNH T.S 



461 



church, known as Von Frue Kirke, rebuilt after the 

 tmmhardment of 1807, nonsenses statues of Christ 

 aiul the Apostles, anil a baptismal font, desi^nt-d 

 ami in part exerutrd \>\ Thorwaldsen. Trinitatw- 

 kirkc is remarkable for its round tower, which is 

 a-M-i-nded by a winding causeway instead of steps ; 

 and Hnl mens' Kirke contains interesting mmm 

 ments to the great naval heroes, Juel and Tonlcn- 

 .skjold. An Knglish church, built at a cost of 

 10,000, was consecrated in 1887. The royal 

 I'.il.ire, called Christiansborg, was rebuilt oe- 

 t \\ccn 17!>4 and 1828, but was never remarkable 

 for architectural beauty. The principal part of 

 the vast building was destroyed by fire in 1884, 

 \\hni iii.uiy precious works of art were destroyed. 

 Happily most of the pictures in its great art 

 gallery were saved. The castle of Rosenl>org 

 (1610-24), where the regalia are kept, contains 

 interesting collections of objects of art ; and 

 the palace of Charlottenborg (1624) is now used 

 as an academy of arts. The university was 

 founded by Christian I. in 1479, has five faculties, 

 40 professors, and is attended by 1200 students. 

 Connected with the university are a surgical aca- 

 demy, an observatory, a botanical garden, a zoo- 

 logical museum, a polytechnic institution, and a 

 library of 250,000 volumes, containing also a great 

 collection of ancient Persian MSS., and another of 

 ancient northern MSS. Copenhagen is the centre, 

 not only of Danish, but of northern literature and 

 art, ana is the seat of a number of societies for the 

 advancement of these in all their branches, amongst 

 which the most important are the Royal Society, 

 founded in 1742 ; and the Royal Society for North- 

 ern Antiquities, founded in 1825 ; as well as agri- 

 cultural, geographical, and other societies. The 

 royal library contains 500,000 volumes, besides 

 great treasures of Sanskrit and other MSS. The 

 Museum of Northern Antiquities in Prindsens 

 Palais, is unrivalled in its kind, having been made 

 what it is mainly by Worsaae. The Thorwaldsen 

 Museum, opened in 1846, consists of works of art 

 by that sculptor himself, and others left by him to 

 the Danish nation, for which a separate building 

 has been erected. Copenhagen contains also a 

 number of well -supported benevolent institutions, 

 banks, theatres, an exchange, &c. There are 

 statues of several of the Danish kings, of Tycho 

 I'.ralie, and of the poets. The chief exports of 

 Copenhagen are grain, rape-seed, butter, cheese, 

 beef, cattle, wool, hides, Lones, and grain -spirit. 

 Porcelain, pianos, clocks, watches, mathematical 

 instruments, chemicals, sugar, beer, and tobacco are 

 manufactured. 



About the middle of the 12th century, Copen- 

 hagen was but a fishing-village, in the neighbour- 

 hood of which Bishop Axel, or Absalon, imilt a 

 castle. In 1254 the village obtained the privileges 

 of a town, and in 1443 King Christopher made it 

 the capital of the kingdom. It was several times 

 attacked by the Hanseatic League ; was l>esieged by 

 the Swedes in the 17th century ; was bombarded by 

 the English, Dutch, and Swedes in 1700 ; suffered 

 grievously by fires in 1728, 1794, and 1795 ; wit- 

 nessed a great sea-fight in its roads on 2d April 

 1801, when the English, under Sir Hyde Parker, 

 with Nelson as his second in command, destroyed 

 the Danish fleet ; and (to prevent the Danish fleet 

 from falling into the power of Napoleon) was bom- 

 barded by the English from the 2d to the 5th of 

 September 1807, when great destruction was 

 wrought, both in houses and public buildings, 

 and hundreds of persons lost their lives (see DEN- 

 MARK). In 1888 an international exhibition was 

 held here. 



Copenhagen Fields * n North London, noted 

 as the meeting-place of an immense gathering of 

 labour unionists on 21st April 1834, with the object 



of overawing the ministry. But the crowd, Bee- 

 ing the military and other preparations made to 

 receive them, dispersed quietly without attempting 

 to carry out any of tin- \ iol<-nt dewigns with which 

 tlii-v were credited. Since 1885 the site has been 

 occupied by the Metropolitan Cattle Market. 



Cope'poda, an order of minute marine and 

 fresh-water crustaceans, belonging to the Entomos- 

 traca (q.v.). 



Coper'nious NICOLAS, founder of the modern 

 astronomy, was born 19th February 1473, at Thorn, 

 in West Prussia, lately belonging to the order of 

 the Teutonic Knights (q.v.), but then a part of 

 Poland. His father, a Polish subject, was appar- 

 ently a Germanised Slav, and his mother of pure 

 German extraction. Copernicus seems to have 

 spoken German as his mother-tongue ; but Poland 

 and Germany still dispute with each other the 

 honour of producing him. Brought up under the 

 guardianship of his uncle Lucas, prince-bishop of 

 the great Prussian diocese of Ermland, he matricu- 

 lated at Cracow 1491, and there studied mathe- 

 matics, optics, and perspective. Leaving without 

 taking- a degree, he enrolled himself in 1496 in the 

 ' Natio-Germanorum ' of Bologna University as a 

 student of canon law, and was next year appointed 

 canon of Frauenburg, the cathedral city of the 

 diocese of Ermland, standing on the shores of 

 the Frisches Haff. The year 1500 he spent at 

 Rome, where he lectured on astronomy, and (6th 

 November ) ' observed an eclipse of the moon. ' The 

 following year he began the study of medicine at 

 Padua, medicine in that age being essentially 

 dependent on astronomy, and was at Ferrara, in 

 1503, invested with the doctorship of canon law. 

 In 1505 he left Italy never to return to it, and 

 settled in his native Prussia. ' Scholasticus ' of 

 Breslau till 1538, and canon of Frauenburg, yet 

 Copernicus never became a priest. Appointed per- 

 manent medical attendant on his uncle, he lived 

 with him from 1507 till 1512 in the princely castle 

 of Heilsberg, 46 miles from the town of Frauen- 

 burg, where, besides thinking out his new astro- 

 nomy, he had toilsome administrative and other 

 duties to perform, involving him in frequent jour- 

 neys. After his uncle's death in 1512, ne lived at 

 Frauenburg with an income as canon calculated at 

 about 450 of present money, not merely to study 

 the stars in his tower Curia Copernicana, but to 

 execute difficult and multifarious offices as bailiff, 

 military governor, judge, tax-collector, vicar- 

 general, and physician. These offices he fulfilled 

 with vigour and success, even while his difficulties 

 were increased by the intrigues and wars which 

 ultimately led to the restoration of West Prussia 

 to the Teutonic Knights, and its incorporation with 

 the Protestant state of Brandenburg. The coinage 

 having been grossly debased by the Teutonic 

 Knights and the three leading commercial towns 

 of Prussia, Copernicus set himself strenuously to 

 the task of its reform, and advocated the establish- 

 ment of a single mint for the whole of Prussia. In 

 1523 he was appointed administrator-general of the 

 diocese. The De Revoiutionibua he completed in 

 1530, but could not be prevailed on to give it to 

 the press till just before the end of his life. In 



1542 he was seized with apoplexy, accompanied 

 by paralysis on the right side. On the 24th May 



1543 the first printed copy of the work arrived at 

 Frauenburg, and was tout-lied by bis dying hands 

 only a few hours before he expired. His memory 

 gone, and his faculties all obscured, it could only 

 be said he seemed to know what it was he touched. 



Besides the DC Hcvolutionibus, Copernicus wrote 

 and published at Cracow a Latin translation of the 

 Epistles of the Byzantine author Theophylactus 

 Simocatta, and a treatise on trigonometry. His 



