Episcopus Warmiensis,
Honoris, et ad Posteritatem
Memoriæ, Causâ, posuit;
M. D. L. X. X. X. I.
“Gassendi adds, that this Monument was not erected until thirty-six years after the death of Copernicus, which does not agree with this date of 1581.
“The good Canon informed Bernouilli, that he was lodged in the apartment of Copernicus, of which he was very proud; and invited the Prussian Philosopher to visit him in that place, which he accordingly did; and was shewn by the Canon another place, above the Dormitories, which had been used by Copernicus as his study and observatory, in which the Canon had a portrait of that eminent man, concerning the original of which he would not say. This little Observatory had an extensive view; but when Copernicus had occasion for one more extensive, he was wont to observe on the gallery of the steeple, which communicates with this place.
“Charmed with these classic footsteps, Bernouilli forgot to look at the Monument on the chapter-house, above mentioned. In a repository adjoining to the Cathedral, the Canon shewed Bernouilli the remains of a hydraulic machine said to have been invented and used by Copernicus. The construction seemed interesting, but in great disrepair; and Bernouilli had not leisure to examine it particularly. The use of the machine was to force and convey water into the most elevated apartments of the house of the Canons, who are now under the necessity of having it fetched from a distance, from the lower Town.”
“I remember to have seen (says Bernouilli), in some old German Journal, that the Library of the ancient town of Konigsberg contained some books, chiefly mathematical, which were part of the Library of Copernicus; and also his Portrait, which had been purchased at Thorn, where the remains of his family still possessed the house in which he was born, as late as the year 1720. In P. Freher’s Theatrum Virorum eruditorum, there is a Chronostick on the year of Copernicus’s death, 1543. p. 1447.
eX hoC eXCessIt trIstI CopernICVs eVo,
IngenIo astronVM et CognItIone potens.