[Medical studies and practice of Nicolaus Kopernik]

Nicolaus Kopernik, the outstanding scientist of Toruń, the author of the heliocentric system, was also a lawyer, mathematician, theologian and won some successes in the field of medicine. In the years 1497-1503, with a short break for the visit in Frombork (1501) he was studying in Italy, where, during his two years' stay in Padua, he also gained the science of therapy. Earlier he obtained the consent of the Church Chapter in Frombork to study medicine, so that he could be later this Chapter's physician. He was performing this duty from his return home until his death. At first he was the physician of his uncle Lukasz von Watzenrode in the bishop's residence in Lidzbark, and afterwards he was also treating other bishops. His medical fame reached far beyond Warmia, and the fact that he was helping not only the rich ones, but all who needed it, brought him common esteem. He consulted more difficult cases with outstanding physicians of this era. The portrait of Kopernik painted by Tobiasz Stimmer, on which he is holding a lily of the valley recorded his character as a physician.