Nicolaus Copernicus is known that Copernicus knew Polish on a par with German and Latin. Historian Michael Burleigh describes the nationality debate as a "totally insignificant battle" between German and Polish scholars during the interwar period. Polish astronomer Konrad Rudnicki calls the discussion a "fierce scholarly quarrel in ... times of nationalism" and describes Copernicus as an inhabitant of a German-speaking territory that belonged to Poland, himself being of mixed Polish-German extraction. Czesław Miłosz describes the debate as an "absurd" projection of a modern understanding of nationality onto Renaissance people, who identified with their home territories rather than with a nation. Similarly,
Nicolas Rapin "La Douche"), and at times idealized and Neoplatonic ("L'Amour philosophe"). He also wrote eclogues praising the country life, as in Horace ("Les Plaisirs du gentilhomme champestre", 1575 and "Elegie Patorale pour un Adieu", 1581-3), epitaphs on war ("Le Siège de Poitiers") and occasional verse of consolation, victory and other matters. His satirical vein is most apparent in his contributions to the Satire Ménippée (1593/1594) which railed against the Holy League. Finally, his will and the 30 letters by Rapin that have survived are important documents of late-Renaissance humanism in France. Nicolas Rapin Nicolas Rapin (1535 – 16 February 1608) was