Copernicus explaining his planetary system to Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) and artists of the Papal court. Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473 - May 24, 1543) was a Polish Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He feared persecution and delayed publication of this model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) just before his death in 1543. His book is considered a major event in the history of science and making an important contribution to the Scientific Revolution. The book was banned by the Roman Catholic church from 1616 until 1835. Copernicus was a polyglot and polymath who obtained a doctorate in canon law and also practiced as a physician, classics scholar, translator, governor, diplomat, and economist. Toward the close of 1542, Copernicus was seized with apoplexy and paralysis, and he died at the age of 70 in 1543. He is reputed to have awoken from a stroke-induced coma, looked at his book, and then died peacefully.