1. Tiedemann Giese, was Bishop of Kulm first canon, later Prince-Bishop of Warmia whose interest in mathematics, astronomy, and theology led him to mentor a number of important young scholars, including Copernicus.
19 Facts About Tiedemann Giese
1. 2.
Tiedemann Giese was a prolific writer and correspondent, publishing a number of works on the reformation of the church.
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Tiedemann Giese's father was Albrecht Giese and his younger brother, the Hanseatic League merchant Georg Giese.
4.
Tiedemann Giese was the fifth child of Albrecht Tiedemann Giese and his wife, Elisabeth Langenbeck, both members of wealthy merchant families.
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Tiedemann Giese was one of the best educated scholars in Prussia, well versed in both theology and the sciences.
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Tiedemann Giese was secretary to the King of Poland, and later appointed canon of Frauenburg, where he remained for 30 years.
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Tiedemann Giese was a humanist and a liberal in the Erasmian mould.
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Tiedemann Giese made himself the spokesperson for a group of liberal and tolerant men who wanted to mediate between the "old-believers" and "the new-believers".
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Bishop Tiedemann Giese was a lifelong friend and frequent companion of the astronomer and proponent of heliocentrism Nicolaus Copernicus and shared his interest in astronomy.
10.
Tiedemann Giese bought his friend an ingenious sundial, and gave him an instrument with which he could observe the equinoxes.
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Tiedemann Giese actively encouraged his friend, Copernicus, to publish his findings in relation to the movement of the planets in the Solar System.
12.
In 1516, Tiedemann Giese was the co-author, with Copernicus, of a letter to the Polish King Sigismund I the Old asking for the King's protection of Prussia against the Teutonic Knights, and generally supported the interests of the Polish Crown against that of the Teutonic Order.
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Tiedemann Giese worked on updating the Kulm law while a canon in Ermland.
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Tiedemann Giese was described by his contemporaries as a very pious man, an extremely learned man, a loyal friend, generous and a man who supported those in need.
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Tiedemann Giese regularly corresponded with young, ambitious scholars, encouraging them and following their careers with interest.
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Tiedemann Giese carried out active correspondence with the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Lutheran reformer Philip Melanchthon, and the humanist philosopher Damiao de Gois.
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Tiedemann Giese wrote De Regno Christi in which he envisions a reformed, reunited and reinvigorated church, but which now only survives in fragments.
18.
Tiedemann Giese wrote a treatise defending Copernicus's theory of planetary motions.
19.
Bishop Tiedemann Giese died in Heilsberg and was laid to rest next to Copernicus at the Frauenburg cathedral.