Speaker
Description
Not only Copernicus in Roma! This paper will be on the production of maps in the time of Copernicus. Copernicus was not the first. It starts with Brudzewski (ca. 1445 – ca. 1497) who was the teacher of Wapowski (1475 – 1535) and Copernicus (1473 – 1543) in Kraków. Of course, also Brudzewski relies on earlier ideas, in astronomy as well as in geography. Wapowski and Copernicus become lifelong friends and colleagues. Also Wapowski goes to Roma in 1505. He works on a new Ptolemy edition. Later he becomes the “father of Polish cartography”. Partially in cooperation with Copernicus and building on maps of Nicolaus Cusanus he produced his masterpiece in 1526, the first “realistic” map of Poland, nearly at the same time as comparable maps of Hungary, Bohemia, and Bavaria. In this talk the focus will be on Wapowski and his cartographic and astronomical achievements since he is the less known scholars. However, his relations to other scholars, contemporary and earlier ones, will be considered and discussed in order to shed further light into the development towards what is usually called the Copernican turn, but really is a much more complicated and detailed story of concepts and ideas transported from East to West where Roma played
a certain role but not the only role. At last, it lead to the “Motor Terrae” as which Copernicus is celebrated, in particular in the year 2023.
