The Sleepwalkers (60 page)

A
fifteenth
century
"Ordonance
of
the
Castle
of
Heilsberg"
¹⁷
describes
in
minute
detail
the
personnel
of
the
Bishop's
Court,
their
order
of
precedence,
and
the
table
etiquette.
At
the
sound
of
the
dinner
bell,
all
the
residents
and
guests
have
to
wait
at
the
doors
of
their
apartments
till
the
Bishop
enters
the
paved
court,
announced
by
the
baying
of
his
hounds
which
are
released
at
that
moment.
When
the
Bishop,
with
mitre,
staff
and
purple
gloves,
appears
in
the
court,
a
procession
is
formed
which
follows
him
into
the
Hall
of
Knights.
The
servants
hand
round
wash-basins
and
towels,
and
after
grace
has
been
said,
the
Bishop
ascends
the
raised
dais
to
the
principal
table,
reserved
for
the
highest
ranking
dignitaries
and
guests.
There
are
altogether
nine
tables:
the
second
is
reserved
for
the
higher,
the
third
for
the
lower
officials,
the
fourth
for
the
principal
servants,
the
fifth
for
feeding
the
poor,
the
sixth,
seventh
and
eighth
for
the
lower
servants
and
the
servants'
servants,
the
ninth
for
the
jugglers,
jesters
and
mountebanks
who
entertain
the
company.

It
is
not
recorded
to
which
of
the
tables
Canon
Nicolas
was
assigned;
presumably
to
the
second.
He
was
now
getting
on
to
forty.
His
duties
included
accompanying
Uncle
Lucas
on
his
journeys
and
diplomatic
missions
to
Cracow
and
Torun,
to
the
Prussian
and
Polish
diets,
to
King
Sigismund's
Coronation
and
wedding;
also
the
drafting
of
letters
and
political
documents.
He
presumably
assisted
the
Bishop
with
two
of
the
latter's
pet
projects:
to
get
rid
of
the
Teutonic
Knights
by
sending
them
on
a
crusade
against
the
Turks,
and
to
found
a
Prussian
university
at
Elbing;
both
of
which
came
to
naught.

Yet
the
pulse
of
time
in
Ermland
was
of
a
leisurely
rhythm,
and
his
duties
left
Canon.
Koppernigk
sufficient
freedom
to
pursue
his
personal
interests.
Observing
the
sky
was
not
one
of
them
–
during
his
six
years
at
Heilsberg
he
did
not
record
a
single
observation.
But
he
was
preparing
two
manuscripts:
one
a
Latin
translation,
the
other
an
outline
of
the
Copernican
system
of
the
universe.
The
first
he
had
printed,
the
second
not.

The
unpublished
astronomical
manuscript
is
known
as
the
Commentariolus
¹⁸
or
Brief
Outline
;
it
will
be
discussed
later.
The
other
manuscript
was
printed
in
Cracow
A.D.
1509,
when
Copernicus
was
thirty-six,
and
is,
apart
from
the
Revolutions
,
the
only
book
he
published
in
his
life.
It
also
represents
his
only
excursion
into
the
field
of
belles
lettres
,
and
as
such
sheds
a
light
on
his
personality
and
tastes.

The
booklet
is
Canon
Koppernigk's
translation
into
Latin
of
the
Greek
epistles
of
one
Theophylactus
Simocatta.
Theophylactus
was
a
Byzantine
historian
of
the
seventh
century,
whose
best-known
work
is
a
History
of
the
reign
of
Emperor
Mauritius.
Of
his
literary
merits,
Gibbon
says
that
he
was
voluble
on
trifles,
short
on
essentials;
¹⁹
and
Bernhardy
remarks
that
"
Theophylactus'
style,
shallow
yet
inflated
by
meaningless
flourishes
...
reveals,
earlier
and
more
completely
than
one
would
have
imagined,
the
emptiness
and
effete
nature
of
his
time."
²⁰
He
also
published
a
volume
of
eighty-five
Epistles
in
the
form
of
fictitious
letters
exchanged
between
various
Greek
characters;
it
was
this
work
which
Copernicus
chose
to
translate
into
Latin,
as
his
contribution
to
the
literature
of
the
Renaissance.

Simocatta's
Epistles
are
classified
under
three
headings:
"moral",
"pastoral"
and
"amorous".
The
following
samples
(unabridged)
of
each
of
the
three
genres
are
re-translations
from
Copernicus'
Latin
version.
²¹
1They
are
the
last
three
of
the
collection:

The
83rd
Epistle
–
Anthinus
to
Ampelinas
(pastoral)

"The
grape
harvest
is
close
and
the
grapes
are
full
of
sweet
juice.
Guard,
then,
closely
the
road,
and
take
as
a
companion
an
able
dog
from
Crete.
For
the
vagrant's
hands
are
only
too
willing
to
grab,
and
to
deprive
the
farmer
of
the
fruits
of
his
sweat."