Abstract
Profoundly influenced by the Annales School of historical scholarship and by Fernand Braudel in particular, Krzysztof Mikulski has written a book entitled Nicolaus Copernicus, the subtitle of which (Social Milieu, Background, and Youth) seems to stand in contradiction to the introduction by the president of Nicolaus Copernicus University and the Polish Republic’s declaration of 2023 as the Year of Copernicus. “Seems,” for this is an account not of an individual as such but of an individual whose achievements are incomprehensible without understanding the environment, social and economic, that shaped him. In a sense, then, this is a tribute to Toruń and its families, a study of the context that also reveals some new details about Nicolaus’s life in Toruń.
Like many European historians who focus on the late medieval and early modern periods, Mikulski has been deeply involved in local history and in keeping with his approach from the ground up, he begins with a statement of preliminaries instead of an introduction. That statement summarizes and dismisses the centuries-long discussions of Copernicus’s nationality, shifting instead talk of his identity to his social milieu, the personal connections, many related by blood or marriage to his mother’s family, the Watzenrodes, many of whom had links to Toruń. And by reviewing the literature on the Copernicus family, Mikulski also discovered some new clues about the origin of the Copernicus side of the family.
For readers of this journal I summarize briefly the contents of Mikulski’s study and focus on its relation to Copernicus. Chapt. 1 discusses the vast trading network in foodstuffs, copper, and cloth from the 13th to the mid-15th centuries and the origin of prominent patrician families in Toruń, stressing connections between the Watzenrodes and other patrician families. The author summarizes the trading history of Toruń in some detail, the consequences of its wars with the Teutonic Knights, the developments in the city in Copernicus’s time, and concludes the chapter with an account of intellectual life in Toruń and the impact of its residents on the cathedral chapters in Varmia and Chełmno. Chapt. 2 deals with the Watzenrode family, chapt. 3 with the Koperniks (the family of Copernicus’s father), chapt. 4 with connections among Silesia, Cracow, and Toruń, chapt. 5 with the astronomer’s youth in Toruń. The book ends with a summary that literally enumerates the conclusions from each chapter.
Mikulski shows us, in effect, how the Watzenrode and Kopernik families came together in Toruń to produce Nicolaus the astronomer. The author adopts as his basic framework the patterns of migration mostly from west (Westphalia) to east (in the case of the Watzenrodes to Toruń) and from Silesia (Nysa) to Cracow thence to Toruń (in the case of the Copernicus family). The migrations were related to commercial trade in products such as copper, lead, and furs. Relying on 73 documentary sources (in Polish, German, and Latin) and the critical use of about 170 published studies, 22 of which are by Mikulski, the author contributes an English account that summarizes, assembles, and interprets the origin of Nicolaus of Toruń, the future Frombork canon and astronomer.
The reliance on documentary sources does not absolve Mikulski from speculation—documents, after all, do not interpret themselves—but they do allow him to construct a highly plausible account that resolves questions about Nicolaus’s German or Polish “national,” ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identities. At the most general level, the “national” is dismissed as anachronistic, allowing Mikulski to argue for Nicolaus’s dual identity as German and Polish. The Watzenrode family was of German origin, may have married with a family of Ruthenian origin, the astronomer’s mother Barbara Watzenrode was the product by marriage with another German family and she spoke German at home. The name “Kopernik” is most likely a hybrid of German and Polish, and the Copernicus family was of Polish origin deriving from Silesian coppersmiths based in Nysa, so Nicolaus of Toruń was the product of several cultures but most immediately of German and Polish descent. In an Annex after the bibliography there are three genealogical tables.
As we begin reading the fifth chapter on Nicolaus’s youth, however, the contrast with the previous chapters is striking. The first four chapters overwhelm the reader with facts based on documents with some speculation, but in the fifth chapter the sources do not document precisely the facts that Mikulski wants to establish, leaving us with alternative possibilities, about which the author draws conclusions based on inferences of greater or lesser probability. On several disputed points Mikulski draws the following conclusions.
Concerning the exact time of Nicolaus’s birth recorded in his horoscope (4:48 a.m.), Mikulski expresses some skepticism, pointing out that most mechanical clocks of the period lacked a minute hand. He also urges a little caution about the date of the astronomer’s birth (pp. 204–205).
Nicolaus was older than his brother Andrew (pp. 192–194), which contradicts Leopold Prowe and Karol Górski, among others, but agrees with the documents where the names of both brothers appear together—Nicolaus’s name always precedes Andrew’s.
In Toruń the Copernicus family lived initially at 189 Świętej Anny Street (now 15, not 17, Kopernika Street), but almost certainly moved to a townhouse located at 36 Market Square, where Mikulski argues (pp. 198–204), in agreement with Antoni Czacharowski, Nicolaus was born and lived.
Nicolaus attended the school of St. John, but that school, contrary to some previous assumptions, did not regularly prepare students for university (its aim was to prepare them for commerce); over a period of about 100 years, an average of only two or three of about 50 graduating students annually entered a university. Such a circumstance along with his advanced age (18 in 1491 when he went to Cracow) supports earlier Copernican scholars’ speculation that Nicolaus also attended the school at Chełmno administered by the Brothers of the Common Life. Mikulski refers to them as “monks,” but they were neither monks nor friars, although they are referred to in English as “brothers” (Latin fratres), and there were also communities of sisters. Nicolaus is thought to have been influenced by their teaching on ethics and their views on reformation may also explain his toleration of Protestants among his acquaintances.
Mikulski adds, however, that the immediate reason for Nicolaus’s delay in attending the University of Cracow was a conflict between his uncle Lucas Watzenrode and King Casimir over the bishopric of Varmia (p. 231).
The school of St. John, on the other hand, may have played an indirect role in Nicolaus’s interest in astronomy. An earlier rector of the school with connections to the Watzenrode family, Konrad Geselen, had a copy of the Alfonsine Tables, collected some observational data, and owned other astronomical/astrological treatises that Copernicus might have seen in the library of one of his uncles (pp. 209–210).
It is obvious that the documents do not settle these disputes. Mikulski’s inferences are, of course, sensible, but Polish scholars have not reached a consensus on them, so prudence dictates that we continue to report the alternatives.
Finally, some words on the English text. Except for occasional typographical errors, grammatical mistakes, and stylistic slips (e.g. p. 157: “Identification Jak Kopernik’s principals” rather than “Identification of . . .”), the text is eminently readable with most minor mistakes easily corrected. We owe Mikulski a great debt of gratitude for his summaries of the documents and scholarship, especially of Polish provenance. For far too long, non-Polish scholars have largely ignored Polish scholarship, understandable but regrettable nonetheless, a situation we would hardly tolerate in the case of other major historical figures.