You’d be hard pushed to find a more recognisable symbol of Polish ingenuity than Nicolaus Copernicus.
Kinga Dawidowicz
Kraków Culture
Our collective consciousness associates him with the advent of modern science and a revolution in how we perceive our universe; with the famous painting by Matejko, and – on a more pedestrian level – with delicious gingerbread. “Copernicus’s legacy can be seen in two different lights. On one hand, Copernicus has become a kind of meme, feeding mass culture. Naturally that’s a highly simplified Copernicus, reduced down to the one who ‘stopped the Sun and moved the Earth’. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing: even this way of seeing him is important, because it reminds us of the importance of science as part of culture. The other, more ‘contemporary’ Copernicus is simply one of the most important individuals in the history of science,” says Prof. Bartosz Brożek, president of the Polish instalment of the World Copernican Congress.
The Polish Senate proclaimed 2023 to be Year of Nicolaus Copernicus, marking the 550th anniversary of the astronomer’s birth and 480th anniversary of his passing. The most important focal points of the celebrations will be Toruń, Olsztyn and Kraków. Cracovian events focus on Copernicus’s scientific and academic achievements, and stress his links with our city. It’s almost certainly here that he started his adventure with astronomy, and the Jagiellonian University – his former alma mater – hosts events dedicated to Copernican thought.
The university welcomes scientists and experts from all over the globe. “The Cracovian instalment of the congress examines two aspects of Copernicus’s work. We look at the significance of his achievement in the history of science from the perspective of philosophy and contemporary cosmology, as well as asking fundamental questions inspired by his work: Do revolutions really happen in science? How do they occur? What is the future of science? But that’s not all: we should also remember that Copernicus was far more than an astronomer. In today’s parlance, we’d describe him as a hobbyist astronomer, but he concerned himself with myriad other topics. For example, he studied the theory of money, and the economists assembled in Kraków will discuss the revolutions and crises in the economy,” adds Prof. Brożek.
With his economist’s hat on, Copernicus attempted to describe various mathematical models concerning the economy. We may see them as obvious today, but during his day his methods were aeons ahead of their time. His thoughts resonate through lectures on current topics, including The digital revolution and its impact on the financial spheres and the real economy and Benefits of stabilisation and opening Poland’s economy to exchange – and that’s just some of the subjects explored during the congress held between 24 and 26 May.
If you can’t wait for the main event, the Jagiellonian University has prepared a cycle of YouTube debates as part of the project Great Questions in Kraków, with speakers including Wojciech Orliński, Tomasz Rożek and Michał Heller discussing space.
Also the events of the 10th Copernicus Festival, held under the banner “Cosmos”, fall in perfect harmony with the university-led celebrations. As usual, the festival encourages participants to explore ties between science and culture, at times obvious and at others completely unexpected.
The festival and the Copernican Congress will show that Copernicus’s thought and intellectual courage continue to resonate in the contemporary world and encourage the exchange of new ideas. And if you’re hoping to get closer to the days when Copernicus was gazing up at the sky, you won’t be disappointed! The Jagiellonian Library presents collections of rarely-shown memorabilia. There will be a rare opportunity to see the manuscript of Copernicus’s most famous work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (and its first three editions: Nuremberg 1543, Basel 1566, Amsterdam 1617), kept in a fireproof safe at the Jagiellonian Library to protect it from light, moisture and changing temperature and pressure. It will be on show between 11 and 13 and 24 and 26 May at the exhibition Nicolaus Copernicus. Innovator of Astronomy. The remainder of the exhibition will be available from 11 May until 30 June, presenting the principles of pre-Copernican astronomy through manuscripts, treatises, commentaries, tables and astronomical sketches by Wojciech from Budzew, Marcin Król from Żórawica and Marcin Bylica from Olkusz. The exhibition also features works by supporters and critics of the heliocentric theory, including Galileo’s Systema cosmicum from 1635 and Johannes Kepler’s Prodromus dissertationum cosmographicarum published in Tübingen in 1596.
The Princes Czartoryski Museum presents a collection of autographs, letters and first editions of Copernicus’s works, as well as publications dedicated to the astronomer and the reception of the heliocentric theory.
The permanent exhibition of the Jagiellonian Museum at Collegium Maius, Copernicus’s Treasure Trove, presents reconstructed astronomical instruments such as triquetra, quadrants and astrolabes, facsimiles of De revolutionibus and the document confirming Nicolaus Copernicus’s enlistment as a student at the Jagiellonian University, a collection of sundials, and painted and sculpted likenesses of the astronomer. And the main hall of Collegium Novum showcases Jan Matejko’s famous painting Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God.
Copernicus is also the patron of numerous music, theatre and dance events held throughout the year. Space themes feature at the Krakow Film Music Festival, presenting soundtracks from Solaris, E.T. and Dune. In the autumn, the Kraków Opera stages the musical Copernicus, which premieres in Frombork on 20 and 21 May. The libretto by Ałbena Grabowska, music by Tomasz Szymuś and texts by Daniel Wyszogrodzki directed by Jakub Szydłowski come together to tell the story of Copernicus – a great scholar but also a passionate man of flesh and blood.
It would be impossible to list all Cracovian projects focusing on Copernicus, but we mustn’t forget the workshops, meetings and lectures held at the C.K. Norwid Cultural Centre as part of the Astro-Huta cycle (March – August), the spectacle Planets Moved by Dance by Cracovia Danza, and the conference dedicated to mining in space organised by the AGH University of Science and Technology.
So what does Copernicus tell us today? “We should keep learning from him – not necessarily about astronomy, which has come on leaps and bounds since his days, but about posing questions and finding creative answers,” sums up Prof. Brożek.
