Renaissance in Poland late 18th century. The period of Polish Renaissance, supportive of intellectual pursuits, produced many outstanding artists and scientists. Among them were Nicolaus Copernicus who in his "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" presented the heliocentric theory of the universe, Maciej of Miechów, author of "Tractatus de duabus Sarmatis..." – the most accurate up to date geographical and ethnographical account of Eastern Europe; Bernard Wapowski, a cartographer whose maps of that region appeared in Ptolemy's "Geography"; Marcin Kromer who in his "De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum libri..." described both the history and geography of Poland; Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, a philosopher concerned with
History of science in the Renaissance This "New "Theorica"" replaced the older "theorica" as the textbook of advanced astronomy. Purbach also began to prepare a summary and commentary on the "Almagest". He died after completing only six books, however, and Regiomontanus continued the task, consulting a Greek manuscript brought from Constantinople by Cardinal Bessarion. When it was published in 1496, the "Epitome of the Almagest" made the highest levels of Ptolemaic astronomy widely accessible to many European astronomers for the first time. The last major event in Renaissance astronomy is the work of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543). He was among the first generation of astronomers to be