Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in the Kingdom of Poland in the city of Torún. His father was a wealthy businessman and he died when Nicolaus was 10 years old. Not much is know about his mother (her name was Barbara Watzenrode) except the fact that she was born into a rich merchant family. When his parents died, his uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, took care of him and his three brother and sisters. He first started being interested in astronomy when in 1491 he was enrolled in the Kraków Academy.
He started a library on the subject which was eventually carried away as war booty. His uncle wanted him to become a bishop but Nicolaus, while studying canon and civil law at bologna, met an astronomer named Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara. After attending many of his lectures, he became one of Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara's assistants. His uncle became Bishop of Warmia and Nicolaus became a canon at the Frombork Cathedral. In 1500, Nicolaus went to Rome to see a lunar eclipse and give lectures about astronomy. In 1503, he saw some passages that Cicero and Plato wrote about the movement of Earth. He began to start his own ideas in 1504.
After his studies, he received a position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Wroclaw. He only resigned when he had health problems before his death. Throughout the rest of his life, he pursued astronomy but never in a professional capacity. Some things he accomplished in his life are: he formulated an early theory of the Gresham's Law, he created a version of the quantity theory of money, and he became governor of Warmia. He was strong of faith and believed in God. Nicolaus died on May 24, 1543.
