Based on the Torun portrait of Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473--1543)


Copernicus is, of course, the person who introduced the heliocentric view of the solar system. The original edition of his book is

Sites

  1. Copernicus iconography site of Robert Derome, University de Quebec a Montreal. Extremely useful site, except that no mention of the status of the on-web image is given: copyrighted, public domain, unknown?
  2. Copernicus The St. Andrews History of Mathematics Archive.


Images

Some of the images are now broken links. I've come to the conclusion that without some clear statement of permission to use or of public domain status, I've no clear right to show those images. Historical originals are uncopyrighted, of course, but reproduced images may be copyrighted and even if not, someone might feel agrieved that they circulate on the web. The images linked by thumbnails are legitimate to use for personal educational purposes with credit or are public domain. The thumbnail link gives the credit and link to the source if needed.


  1. Based on the Torun portrait of Copernicus Based on the Torun portrait of Copernicus.


  2. Copernicus' Problem Copernicus' problem.


  3. Early Copernicans Early Copernicans. Not exhaustive or authentic likenesses.


  4. Venus at maximum elongation

    Venus at Maximum Elongation. Given the heliocentric hypothesis for all the planets, including Earth as a planet, it follows that you can determine the relative distances of the solar system. The inner planet radii are determined as in this figure. The outer planet radii take a bit more trigonometry, but they can be found easily enough (Ze-47).


  5. Copernicus astronomer Obviously a composite picture of the Torun portrait and a Copernican diagram. Credit: ????; download site: ????
  6. Copernicus pious Portrait from the ephitaphium in st. John basilique in Torun, cira 1580. Download site: Copernicus iconography site of Robert Derome.
  7. Copernicus physician It is a portrait (woodcut) from before 1584 by Tobias Stimmer. Download site: St. Andrews Copernicus biography.
  8. Portrait from the Jan Matejko's painting It comes from the end of the 19th century. Download site: St. Andrews Copernicus biography.