AGH University Main Library

The AGH University Main Library invites you to an exhibition dedicated to Nicolaus Copernicus.

The year 2023 marks: 550th anniversary of his birth, 480th anniversary of his death and 480th anniversary of the publication of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.


The creators of the exhibition sought to answer the question of how it was possible that in a town on the edge of Europe, alone, isolated from the scientific world, conducting research in his moments free from the busyness of his duties, with instruments created back in antiquity, and therefore without a telescope, against all odds, Copernicus made an epochal discovery, changing the perception of the Earth in the Universe, and thus the place of man in the order of creation.

The exhibition presents a calendar of his life, the places where he lived and worked, the fields in which - in addition to astronomy - he was intensively involved (law, medicine, cartography, mathematics, economics). It shows what the scientific revolution caused by the discovery of the heliocentric theory was, as well as the fate of the work De revolutionibus.


The exhibition also shows the astronomer's ties to Krakow. It was at the University of Krakow that the less than 19-year-old Nicolaus began his academic education.


Copernicus became an inspiration for mass culture. The exhibition features, among others, comics  by Piotr Drzewiecki, as well as memes. You will also see postage stamps, banknotes and medals.

The exhibition was prepared in cooperation with the staff of the Faculty of Geo-Data Science, Geodesy and Environmental Engineering.               


The exhibition can be viewed to the end of October 2023.