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Secondary sourcePainting

Engraved Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (Herzog August Library)

Unbekannt

A later engraved portrait of Copernicus by an unknown artist, set within a decorative Latin-inscribed border.

Another posthumous engraved likeness of Copernicus, showing how his image was repeatedly reproduced in books after his death.

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Engraved oval portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus, a man with wavy shoulder-length hair and a fur-collared garment, inside a decorative border with Latin inscriptions and dates, on a book page photographed on a dark background with a gray scale.
Unknown engraver, Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus. Herzog August Library, Germany.

About this source

What it is

This engraved oval portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus was made by an unknown engraver and is held by the Herzog August Library in Germany. It appears on a printed book page with Latin inscriptions and dates around the image.

The portrait shows a man with wavy shoulder-length hair and a fur-collared garment.

Why it matters

Because the engraver is unknown and the work was made after Copernicus's lifetime, it is not a firsthand likeness. It instead reflects how printers and scholars across Europe kept reproducing and circulating images of Copernicus in books, spreading his fame as the astronomer who changed ideas about the universe.

Look closer

  • Why do you think the engraver's name was not recorded, while Copernicus's name was?
  • What might the Latin inscriptions around the portrait be telling the reader?
  • How does placing a portrait inside a book change how people learn about a historical figure?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Nicolaus Copernicus on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Nicolaus Copernicus sources

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Title page of Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, printed 1543 in Nuremberg by Johann Petreius. Large capitals read NICOLAI COPERNICI TORINENSIS, followed by the book title and an address to the reader in Latin. Handwritten ink marks read Bibliotheca and Univers, and a Greek motto appears below the text.Book

Primary source

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

Nicolaus Copernicus · 1543

Engraved portrait print of Nicolaus Copernicus in an octagonal frame with stippled background. A man with wavy shoulder-length hair wears a fur-trimmed garment and holds a small armillary-style sphere. Caption reads NICOLAUS COPERNICUS, with publisher line Zwickau, bei Gebr. Schumann below.Painting

Secondary source

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (Schumann print)

Gebrüder Schumann

Scanned page from a 1543 printed book titled Nicolai Copernici, showing a diagram of concentric circles with the Sun at the center, labeled planetary orbits including Mercury, Venus, Earth (terra) with the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the outer sphere of fixed stars. Latin text surrounds the diagram.Artifact

Primary source

Copernicus's Diagram of the Planetary System

Nicolaus Copernicus · 1543

Engraved portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus in an oval frame, shown on a book page with a page number 52 in the corner. The man has curly hair and wears a fur-trimmed garment. Latin inscription 'NICOLAUS COPERNICUS' appears at the bottom, with a verse text block below and a catalogue number beneath the page.Painting

Secondary source

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (Albertina Museum)

Handwritten manuscript page on aged paper, titled 'Nicolai Copernici de hypothesibus motuum coelestium a se constitutis commentariolus', with a decorated initial M and several lines of Latin script in brown ink. Page number 34 appears at top right.Document

Primary source

Commentariolus

Nicolaus Copernicus · by 1514

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