Nicolaus Copernicus Monument, Toruń Nicolaus Copernicus Monument, Toruń The Nicolaus Copernicus Monument in the home town of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) was erected in 1853 by a "monument committee" of the city's residents. King Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712–1786) intended to erect a monument at Copernicus' grave in Frauenburg (Frombork), but the grave could not be located. Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) lived in Thorn (Toruń), then in the Kingdom of Poland, for many years. In the late 18th century, Poland was partitioned and the city of Thorn passed to Prussia. From 1807 to 1813, the city was part of the Duchy of Warsaw,
European science in the Middle Ages effect on European society: the facilitated dissemination of the printed word democratized learning and allowed a faster propagation of new ideas. When the Renaissance moved to Northern Europe that science would be revived, by figures as Copernicus, Francis Bacon, and Descartes (though Descartes is often described as an early Enlightenment thinker, rather than a late Renaissance one). Byzantine science played an important role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world and to Renaissance Italy, and also in the transmission of medieval Arabic knowledge to Renaissance Italy. Its rich historiographical tradition preserved ancient knowledge upon which splendid art,