Nicolaus Copernicus was a 15-16th century astronomer and mathematician. Copernicus was a true "Renaissance man"; in addition to being proficient in mathematics and astronomy, he was fluent in multiple languages, studied and translated ancient works, practiced church law and medicine, and served as a political diplomat.
Copernicus' greatest accomplishment was his famed work, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. In this work, Copernicus proposed a heliocentric (sun-centered) model of the universe, which contrasted with the prevailing geocentric (earth-centered) view. Unlike Galileo, Copernicus did not mandate the scientific community accept his system as truth; rather, he merely presented it as a system which could successfully account for observable physical phenomena.
Copernicus' theory was slow to catch on, but it began to gain notoriety after Galileo asserted that the earth and the other planets revolved around the sun. This theory is credited with helping to spark the Scientific Revolution.
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