The Sleepwalkers (56 page)

Unfortunately,
the
expected
death
of
Canon
Matthias
de
Launau,
Precentor
of
the
Frauenburg
Cathedral,
occurred
ten
days
too
early,
on
21
September.
Had
he
died
in
October,
Bishop
Lucas
could
have
made
Nicolas
a
Canon
without
further
ado;
but
in
all
uneven
months
of
the
year
the
privilege
of
filling
vacancies
in
the
Ermland
Chapter
belonged
not
to
the
Bishop,
but
to
the
Pope.
There
were
other
candidates,
and
complicated
intrigues
for
the
prebend;
Nicolas
was
defeated
and
complained
about
his
misfortune
in
several
letters
which
were
still
extant
in
the
seventeenth
century,
but
have
vanished
since.

Two
years
later,
however,
a
new
vacancy
occurred
in
the
Chapter,
this
time
conveniently
in
the
month
of
August,
and
Nicolas
Koppernigk
was
duly
appointed
a
Canon
of
Frauenburg
Cathedral;
whereupon
he
promptly
departed
for
Italy,
to
continue
his
studies.
He
drew
his
prebend,
but
he
neither
took
Holy
Orders,
nor
was
his
physical
presence
at
Frauenburg
required
for
the
next
fifteen
years.
During
this
period,
the
new
Canon's
name
only
appears
twice
on
the
Cathedral
records:
the
first
time
in
1499,
when
his
appointment
was
officially
confirmed,
the
second
time
in
1501,
when
his
original
leave
of
absence
of
three
years
was
extended
by
another
three
years.
A
Canonry
in
Ermland
seems
to
have
been,
in
the
vulgar
parlance
of
our
century,
a
cushy
job.

From
the
age
of
twenty-two
to
thirty-two,
the
young
Canon
studied
at
the
Universities
of
Bologna
and
Padua;
added
to
his
four
years
at
Cracow,
this
makes
altogether
fourteen
years
spent
at
various
universities.
According
to
the
Renaissance
ideal
of
l'uomo
universale
,
he
studied
a
little
of
everything:
Philosophy
and
Law,
Mathematics
and
Medicine,
Astronomy
and
Greek.
He
took
his
degree
as
a
doctor
of
Canon
Law
at
Ferrara
in
1503,
aged
thirty.
Apart
from
paying
his
immatriculation
fees
and
taking
his
degree,
he
left
no
trace,
either
of
distinction
or
scandal,
on
the
records
of
his
various
universities.

While
the
majority
of
the
young
men
from
Torun
went
for
their
preliminary
studies
to
the
German
university
of
Leipzig,
Koppernigk
went
to
Polish
Cracow;
but
at
the
next
stage,
in
Bologna,
he
joined
the
German,
not
the
Polish
natio
or
student
fraternity,
whose
list
of
new
members
enrolled
in
1496
shows
the
name
of
"Nicolaus
Kopperlingk
de
Thorn".
The
natio
Germanorum
was
the
most
powerful
in
Bologna,
both
in
the
frequent
street
brawls
and
inside
the
alma
mater
.
Its
roster
contained
the
names
of
many
illustrious
German
scholars,
among
them
Nicolas
of
Cusa.
Uncle
Lucas,
too,
had
first
studied
in
Cracow,
and
then
joined
the
German
natio
in
Bologna;
and
young
Nicolas
can
hardly
be
blamed
for
following
in
his
footsteps.
Besides,
nationalism
by
rigid
ethnic
divisions
was
still
a
plague
of
the
future;
thus
beside
the
natio
Germanorum
there
existed
independent
Swabian,
Bavarian,
etc.
natios.
Yet
for
the
last
four
hundred
years
a
bitter
and
silly
feud
has
been
raging
between
Polish
and
German
scholars,
both
claiming
Copernicus
as
a
true
son
of
their
nation.
¹⁰
All
one
can
say
is,
in
the
manner
of
Solomon,
that
his
forebears
came
from
the
proverbially
mixed
stock
of
the
border
provinces
between
the
Germanic
and
Slavonic
peoples;
that
he
lived
in
a
contested
territory;
that
the
language
he
mostly
wrote
was
Latin,
the
vernacular
of
his
childhood
German,
while
his
political
sympathies
were
on
the
side
of
the
Polish
King
against
the
Teutonic
Order,
and
on
the
side
of
his
German
Chapter
against
the
Polish
King;
lastly,
that
his
cultural
background
and
heritage
were
neither
German,
nor
Polish,
but
Latin
and
Greek.

Another
much
discussed
question
was
why,
having
completed
his
studies
in
Canon
Law
at
the
world-famous
university
of
Padua,
Copernicus
chose
to
take
his
degree
at
the
small
and
insignificant
University
at
Ferrara,
where
he
had
never
studied.
The
puzzle
was
solved
only
at
the
end
of
the
last
century,
when
an
Italian
scholar
¹¹
unearthed
the
fact
that
around
A.D.
1500,
degrees
could
be
obtained
in
Ferrara
not
only
more
easily,
but
also
considerably
cheaper.
A
newly
promoted
Doctor
at
Bologna
or
Padua
was
expected
to
provide
lavish
entertainment
to
celebrate
the
event;
by
slipping
away
from
his
teachers
and
friends
to
obscure
Ferrara,
Canon
Nicolas,
following
the
precedent
set
by
some
other
members
of
the
natio
Germanorum
,
successfully
avoided
the
burdens
of
hospitality.