684 COSMOS. 



Waisselrode of Allen, bishop of Ermland, he was nominated, 

 in 1510, canon of Frauenburg, where he laboured for thirty- 

 three years on the completion of his work, entitled De Revo- 

 lutionibus orbium ccelestium* The first printed copy was 

 brought to him, when, shattered in mind and body, he was 

 preparing himself for death. He saw it and touched it, but 

 his thoughts were no longer fixed on earthly things, and he 

 died not as Gassendi says a few hours, but several days 

 afterwards (on the 24th of March, 1543f). Two years earlier 



* Westphal, in \AsBiograpJiie des Copernicus (1822, s. 33), dedicated 

 to the great astronomer of Kbnigsberg, Bessel, calls the Bishop of 

 Ermland Lucas Watzelrodt VOD Ulen, as does also Gassendi. According 

 to explanations which I have very recently obtained, through the kind- 

 ness of the learned historian of Prussia, Voigt, Director of the Archives, 

 "the family of the mother of Copernicus is called in original documents 

 Weiselrodt, Weisselrot, Weiselrodt, and most commonly Waisselrode. 

 His mother was undoubtedly of German descent, and the family of 

 Waisselrode, who were originally distinct from that of von Allen, 

 which had flourished at Thorn from the beginning of the 15th century, 

 probably took the latter name in addition to their own, through, 

 adoption, or from family connections." Sniadecki and Czynski, 

 (Kopernik et ses Travaux, 1847, p. 26) call the mother of the great 

 Copernicus Barbara W^asselrode, and state that she was married at 

 Thorn, in 1464, to his father, whose family they believe to be of 

 Bohemian origin. The name of the astronomer, which Gassendi writes 

 Tornasus Borussus, Westphal, and Czynksi write Kopernik, and 

 Krzyzianowski, Kopimig. In a letter of the Bishop of Ermland, 

 Martin Cromer of Heilsberg, dated Nov. 21, 1580, it is said, " Cum 

 Jo. (Nicolaus) Copernicus vivens ornamento fuerit, atque etiam nunc 

 post fata sit, non solum huic ecclesise, verum etiam toti Prussise patriae 

 BUDS, iniquam esse puto, eum post obitum carere honor esepulchri sive 

 monumenti." 



f Thus Gassendi, in Nicolai Copernici Vita, appended to his 

 biography of Tycho, (Tyclionis Brahei Vita, 1655, Hagee Comitum, 

 p. 320 : " eodem die et horis non multis priusquam animam efflaret." 

 It is only Schubert, in his Astronomy, th. i. s. 115, and Robert Small, 

 in the very learned Account of the Astronomical Discoveries of Kepler, 

 1804, p. 92, who maintain that Copernicus died " a few days after the 

 appearance of his work." This is also the opinion of Voigt the Director 

 of the Archive:! at Kb'nigsberg ; because, in a letter which George Donner, 

 canon of Ermland, wrote to the Duke of Prussia shortly after the death 

 of Copernicus, it is said, that "the estimable and worthy Doctor 

 Isicolaus Koppernick sent forth his work, like the sweet song of the 

 swan, a short time before his departure from this life of sorrows." 

 According to the ordinarily received opinion, (Westphal, Nikolaus 

 Kopernikus, 1822, g. 73 and s. 82,) the work was begun in 1507, and 



