$ 72] Life of Coppernicus 95 



a canonry at Frauenburg, and at some uncertain date 

 he also received a sinecure ecclesiastical appointment at 

 Breslau. 



72. On returning to Frauenburg from Italy Coppernicus 

 almost immediately obtained fresh leave of absence, and 

 joined his uncle at Heilsberg, ostensibly as his medical 

 adviser and really as his companion. 



It was probably during the quiet years spent at Heilsberg 

 that he first put into shape his new ideas about astronomy, 

 rind wrote the first draft of his book. He kept the 

 manuscript by him, revising and rewriting from time to 

 time, partly from a desire to make his work as perfect as 

 possible, partly from complete indifference to reputation, 

 coupled with dislike of the controversy to which the 

 publication of his book would almost certainly give rise. 

 In 1509 he published at Cracow his first book, a Latin 

 translation of a set of Greek letters by Theophylactus, 

 interesting as being probably the first translation from the 

 Greek ever published in Poland or the adjacent districts. 

 In 1512, on the death of his uncle, he finally settled in 

 Frauenburg, in a set of rooms which he occupied, with short 

 intervals, for the next 31 years. Once fairly in residence, 

 he took his share in conducting the business of the 

 Chapter: he acted, for example, more than once as their 

 representative in various quarrels with the King of Poland 

 and the Teutonic knights; in 1523 he was general 

 administrator of the diocese for a few months after the 

 death of the bishop ; and for two periods, amounting alto- 

 gether to six years (1516-1519 and 1520-1521), he lived at 

 the castle of Allenstein, administering some of the outlying 

 property of the Chapter. In 1521 he was commissioned to 

 draw up a statement of the grievances of the Chapter 

 against the Teutonic knights for presentation to the 

 Prussian Estates, and in the following year wrote a memo- 

 randum on the debased and confused state of the coinage 

 in the district, a paper which was also laid before the 

 Estates, and was afterwards rewritten in Latin at the special 

 request of the bishop. He also gave a certain amount 

 of medical advice to his friends as well as to the poor of 

 Frauenburg, though he never practised regularly as a 

 physician ; but notwithstanding these various occupations 



