[burgundia]

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

Here ya go,....Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473, in a house on St. Anne's Street (now Copernicus Street) in the city of Toruń (Thorn). Toruń, situated on the Vistula River, was a city in Royal Prussia, a region of the Kingdom of Poland.[1] [2]

Nicolaus was named after his father, who about 1458 had moved from Kraków. The father was a wealthy copper trader who had become a respected citizen of that city. Nicolaus' mother, Barbara Watzenrode (died after 1495), had been born into a wealthy merchant family that was part of the patrician class in Toruń.

Nicolaus' father died between 1483 and 1485. After that, his maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger (1447–1512), a church canon who would later become Prince-Bishop governor of the Archbishopric of Warmia, took young Nicolaus under his protection and saw to his education and future career.

Nicolaus was the youngest of four children. His brother Andreas became an Augustinian canon at Frombork (Frauenburg). His sister Barbara (named after her mother) became a Benedictine nun. His sister Katharina married Barthel Gertner, a businessman and city councilor.



Name
Numerous variants of Copernicus' name are documented.[3] Until the mid-1530s, he mostly signed himself Coppernic. Afterward, he followed the academic custom of his time and adopted a Latinized version of his name. Thus, on the title page of his epochal book, Nicolai Copernici Torinensis De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium Libri VI, the astronomer's name appears as Nicolaus Copernicus.

In 1776, Johann Gottfried Herder introduced the spelling Nikolaus Kopernikus, which replaced each c with k and changed pp to p. This spelling became popular in German writings, although scholars argued for Coppernicus. The Polish rendering is Mikołaj Kopernik; the surname means "one who works with copper".[4]

I'm impressed. Thank you for all that exhaustive information. If the French hadn't bought Corsica, Napoleon Would have been Italian.