Papież Paweł III a Mikołaj Kopernik. Przedmowa Mikołaja Kopernika w De revolutionibus dedykowana papieżowi Pawłowi III

• Autorzy: Małłek Janusz

Warianty tytułu

DE

Papst Paul III. und Nikolaus Kopernikus

Pope Paul III and Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolaus Copernicus’ preface in De Revolutionbus dedicated to Pope Paul III

• Języki publikacji: PL

Abstrakty

EN

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) prefaced his epoch-making work De Revolutionbus (1543) with a preface dedicated to Pope Paul III (1468–1549), in which he formulated the heliocentric system of the planetary system, in place of Ptolemy’s geocentric system. The author posed several questions in the article and tried to give answers to them. Thus, to the question, “Could Copernicus had met Cardinal Alexander Farnese (Pope Paul III since 1534) during his studies in Italy, and especially during his stay in Rome in 1500–1501?”. The author answered that such a fact could have taken place during Copernicus’ legal practice in the Papal Curia, but in the preface Copernicus did not mention such a meeting. In turn, to the question, “Could Pope Paul III have had knowledge of the appearance of the heliocentric theory in astronomy in the 1530s ?”, The answer is in the affirmative, since we have information that the new heliocentric theory was discussed in the Vatican gardens as early as 1533. The next question: “Did Copernicus obtain permission from the Holy See to supply De Revolutionbus with a letter of dedication addressed to Pope Paul III?” was difficult for the author of the article to answer unequivocally; if this was indeed the case, it happened through third parties working in the Papal Curia. Finally, to the next questions: “Who could have sent the pope a copy of De Revolutionbus?, Did the pope familiarize himself with it?, What was the reaction of the Holy See to the content of the work?” the article provided partial answers. A friend of Copernicus, Tiedemann Giese, Bishop of Chełmno, sought to send a copy of De Revolutionbus to Paul III. Today there are 3 copies of the 1st edition of De Revolutionbus in the Vatican collection. It is not known if the pope, busy with disputes with Lutheranism and despite his well-established humanistic knowledge, ever had time to even superficially read the De Revolutionbus. The reaction of the pope’s closest circle was unfavorable to Copernicus’ work because when the passages of Scripture were interpreted literally, they were found to be incompatible with the heliocentric theory. The article closes with a summary of the main themes found in Copernicus’ very preface dedicated to Pope Paul III.

• Wydawca: Muzeum w Grudziądzu
• Czasopismo: Rocznik Grudziądzki
• Rocznik: 2023
• Tom: 31
• Strony: 39-45

Daty

wydano

2023

Twórcy

autor

Małłek Janusz