Nikolaus von Schönberg

Nikolaus Cardinal von Schönberg ( born August 11, 1472 Rothschönberg; † September 7, 1537 in Rome) has traveled throughout Europe as Archbishop of Capua and envoy of the Pope.

As a descendant of those of Schoenberg also joined Nicholas a career in the church. He was a member of the Pontifical College of Cardinals in Rome and stood twice for election of a pope.

In 1533 his secretary Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter held a series of lectures in Rome, in which he explained the theories of Nicolaus Copernicus, probably mainly on the basis of Commentariolus, Copernicus probably from about 1509 some acquaintances made ​​accessible. The lectures were met with Cardinals and Clement VII with great interest, friends and colleagues have long urged the now 60 -year-olds for publication.

On November 1, 1536 and the now retired Cardinal von Schönberg wrote a letter to Copernicus, in which he urged these to publish his theory. He offered to pay the cost of printing. Schoenberg had to Dietrich von Rheden commissioned to write off everything at his cost and to deliver. Copernicus made ​​his major work De revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium published only in 1543, after Schoenberg's death or shortly before his own death, and gave in the introduction of Schoenberg's letter in the text again.

In the Copernicus Biography of Pierre Gassendi 1654 Schoenberg is given as an early supporter of his worldview.