Leopold Prowe
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Leopold Friedrich Prowe (1821 - 1887) was a German historian and gymnasium instructor. He compiled a comprehensive German language biography of Nicolaus Copernicus, titled Nicolaus Coppernicus.
Born as the son of a town councillor of Thorn (Toruń) in West Prussia, Prowe studied in Leipzig and then returned to become a teacher at the gymnasium of Thorn. The local Coppernicus society, Coppernicus-Verein für Wissenschaft und Kunst zu Thorn, had been founded with the intention to erect a monument, which was created by Friedrich Tieck of Berlin, and erected posthumously in 1853. It was titled Nicolaus Copernicus Thorunensis, terrae motor, solis caelique stator (Nicolaus Copernicus of Thorn, mover of the earth, stopper of the sun and the heavens). As a member of the Coppernicus-Verein, Prowe researched the archives of Copernicus' birthplace, as well as those of other towns in Prussia where the astronomer had worked and lived.
His biography of the astronomer is the most comprehensive in German, if not in any language. It is considered the best since the one compiled by Gassendi. Prowe also traveled abroad, e. g. to the places in Italy where Copernicus had studied - or not. Carlo Malagola, who had discovered that Dominus Nicolaus Kopperlingk de Thorn - IX grossetos[1][2][3][4] had enrolled in 1496 for 9 Groschen in the Acta nationis Germanorum[5][6] at Bologna, revealed that the librarian N. C. Papadopoli in Padua had falsely claimed in 1726 that he had seen an entry of Copernicus in the records of the "Polish nation" at the university. Yet, this claim had by then been widely published and "found a place in all subsequent biographies of Copernicus, but the decorative particulars added by the historian of the Patavian university have been shown to be wholly incorrect".[7] and utterly baseless.[8]
Since the 1970s, the Nicolaus Copernicus Gesamtausgabe (complete edition) expands on Prowe's work. It is published in several volumes by Akademie Verlag in Berlin.
[edit] External links
- ^ Marian Biskup Regesta Copernicana (calendar of Copernicus' Papers), 1973, Ossolineum [1]
- ^ Carlo Malagola: Della vita e delle opere di Antonio Urceo detto Codro: studi e ricerche,1878, [2] [3]
- ^ Arthur Koestler, The Sleepwalkers, 1959 [4]
- ^ Ernst Ludwig Wilhelm Maximilian Curtze: Nicolaus Coppernicus: Eine biographische Skizze, 1899 [5]
- ^ Der Aufenthalt des Coppernicus in Bologna, By Carlo Malagola, 1880
- ^ Carlo Malagola: I libri della Nazione tedesca presso lo Studio bolognese, note storico ... 1884 [6]
- ^ The fact was asserted by Papadopoli in 1726, and found a place in all subsequent biographies of Copernicus ; but the decorative particulars added by the historian of the Patavian university having having been shown wholly incorrect, it seemed unreasonable to rely on his discredited authority for the fundamental circumstance. - The Edinburgh Review: Or Critical Journal, By Sydney Smith et. al., Published 1883, A. and C. Black, [7]
- ^ As for the assertion that Copernicus was registered as a Pole at Padua, that was investigated, at the instance of Prince Boncompagni, by Favaro, and found utterly baseless. On the other hand, Carlo Malagola, in his admirable work on Urceo Codro showed that "Niccolo Kopperlingk di Thorn" had registered as a law student at Bologna in the album of the "Nazione Alemanna". This may not prove much, but it is, at least, not an invention. - Charles Sanders Peirce, Kenneth Laine Ketner, James E. Cook: Contributions to the Nation, Published 1982 Texas Tech University Press, 202 pages ISBN 089672154X (ISBN 0-89672-069-1 paper ISBN 0-89672-070-5 hardbound) [8]
- Works by Prowe at Google Books [9]
- Gedächtnisrede auf Professor Leopold Prowe 1887, M. Curtze
- On the Malagola/Papadopoli case [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
- Leopold Prowe in the German National Library catalogue
