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 Denisot Nicolas Denisot Nicolas Denisot, also Nicholas Denizot, (1515–1559) was a French Renaissance poet and painter. Denisot was born in Le Mans where his family, described as an "ancient and illustrious family of Perche" fixed a long time in Nogent-le-Rotrou, lived. They were noble and wore "three ears of corn in a field of blue". His father Jehan Denisot the Elder was a lawyer. Jehan's eldest son John was born with his first wife Simone Moreau who died soon after. Nicolas was the product of his father's second marriage. His older brother Francis, born of the second marriage and the eldest