character of the reasonings it introduced. The trigonometrical section of the book had been issued as a separate treatise (Wittenberg, 1542) under the care of Rheticus. The only work published by Copernicus on his own initiative was a Latin version of the Greek Epistles of Theophylact (Cracow, 1509). His treatise De monetae cudendae ratione, 1526 (first printed in 1816), written by order of King Sigismund I., is an exposition of the principles on which it was proposed to reform the currency of the Prussian provinces of Poland. It advocates unity of the monetary system throughout the entire state, with strict integrity in the quality of the coin, and the charge of a seigniorage sufficient to cover the expenses of mintage.
Authorities.—Rheticus was the only contemporary biographer of Copernicus, and his narrative perished irretrievably. Gassendi’s jejune Life (Paris, 1654) is thus the earliest extant of any note. It was supplemented, during the 19th century, by the various publications of J. Sniadecki (Warsaw, 1803–1818); of J. H. W. Westphal, J. Czynski, M. Curtze, H. A. Wolynski, F. Hipler, and others, but their efforts were overshadowed by Dr Leopold Prowe’s exhaustive Nicolaus Coppernicus (Berlin, 1883–1884), embodying the outcome of researches indefatigably prosecuted for over thirty years. The first volume (in two parts) is a detailed biography of the great astronomer; the second includes some of his minor writings and correspondence, family records, and historical documents of local interest. The effects of his Italian sojourn upon the nascent ideas of Copernicus may be profitably studied in Domenico Berti’s Copernico e le vicende del sistema Copernicano in Italia (Roma, 1876), and in G. V. Schiaparelli’s I Precursori del Copernico nell’ antichità (Milano, 1873). A centenary edition of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was issued at Thorn in 1873, and a German translation by C. L. Menzzer in 1879. (A. M. C.)
COPIAPÓ, a city of northern Chile, capital of the province of Atacama, about 35 m. from the coast on the Copiapó river, in lat. 27° 36′ S., long. 70° 23′ W. Pop. (1895) 9301. The Caldera & Copiapó railway (built 1848–1851 and one of the first in South America) extends beyond Copiapó to the Chañarcillo mines (50 m.) and other mining districts. Copiapó stands 1300 ft. above sea-level and has a mean temperature of about 67° in summer and 51° in winter. Its port, Caldera, 50 m. distant by rail, is situated on a well-sheltered bay with good shipping facilities about 6 m. N. of the mouth of the Copiapó river. Copiapó is perhaps the best built and most attractive of the desert region cities. The river brings down from the mountains enough water to supply the town and irrigate a considerable area in its vicinity. Beyond the small fertile valley in which it stands is the barren desert, on which rain rarely falls and which has no economic value apart from its minerals (especially saline compounds). Copiapó was founded in 1742 by José de Manso (afterwards Conde de Superunda, viceroy of Peru) and took its name from the Copayapu Indians who occupied that region. It was primarily a military station and transport post on the road to Peru, but after the discovery of the rich silver deposits near Chañarcillo by Juan Godoy in 1832 it became an important mining centre. It has a good mining school and reduction works, and is the supply station for an extensive mining district. For many years the Famatina mines of Argentina received supplies from this point by way of the Come-Caballo pass.
COPING (from “cope,” Lat. capa), in architecture, the capping or covering of a wall. This may be made of stone, brick, tile, slate, metal, wood or thatch. In all cases it should be weathered to throw off the wet. In Romanesque work it was plain and flat, and projected over the wall with a throating to form a drip. In later work a steep slope was given to the weathering (mainly on the outer side), and began at the top with an astragal; in the Decorated style there were two or three sets off; and in the later Perpendicular period these assumed a wavy section, and the coping mouldings were continued round the sides, as well as at top and bottom, mitreing at the angles, as in many of the colleges at Oxford. The cheapest type of coping is that which caps the ordinary 9 in. brick wall, and consists of brick on edge above a double tile creasing, all in cement; the creasing consisting of one or two rows of tiles laid horizontally on the wall and projecting on each side about 2 in. to throw off the water (see also Masonry).
COPLAND, ROBERT (fl. 1515), English printer and author, is said to have been a servant of William Caxton, and certainly worked for Wynkyn de Worde. The first book to which his name is affixed as a printer is The Boke of Justices of Peace (1515), at the sign of the Rose Garland, in Fleet Street, London. Anthony à Wood supposed, on the ground that he was more educated than was usual in his trade, that he had been a poor scholar of Oxford. His best known works are The hye way to the Spyttell hous, a dialogue in verse between Copland and the porter of St Bartholomew’s hospital, containing much information about the vagabonds who found their way there; and Jyl of Breyntfords Testament, dismissed in Athenae Oxonienses (ed. Bliss) as “a poem devoid of wit or decency, and totally unworthy of further notice.” He translated from the French the romances of Kynge Appolyne of Thyre (W. de Worde, 1510), The History of Helyas Knyght of the Swanne (W. de Worde, 1513), and The Life of Ipomydon (Hue of Rotelande), not dated. Among his other works is The Complaynte of them that ben too late maryed, an undated tract printed by W. de Worde.
William Copland, the printer, supposed to have been his brother, published three editions of Howleglas, perhaps by Robert, which in any case represent the earliest English version of Till Eulenspiegel.
The Knyght of the Swanne was reprinted in Thom’s Early Prose Romances, vol. iii., and by the Grolier Club (1901); the Hye Way in W. C. Hazlitt’s Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, vol. iv. (1866). See further the “Forewords” to Dr F. J. Furnivall’s reprint of Jyl of Breyntford (for private circulation, 1871) and J. P. Collier, Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language, vol. i. p. 153 (1865). For the books issued from his press see Hand-Lists of English Printers (1501–1556), printed for the Bibliographical Society in 1896.
COPLESTON, EDWARD (1776–1849), English bishop, was born at Offwell in Devonshire, and educated at Oxford. He was elected to a tutorship at Oriel College in 1797, and in 1800 was appointed vicar of St Mary’s, Oxford. As university professor of poetry (1802–1812) he gained a considerable reputation by his clever literary criticism and sound latinity. After holding the office of dean at Oriel for some years, he succeeded to the provostship in 1814, and owing largely to his influence the college reached a remarkable degree of prosperity during the first quarter of the 19th century. In 1826 he was appointed dean of Chester, and in the next year he was consecrated bishop of Llandaff. Here he gave his support to the new movement for church restoration in Wales, and during his occupation of the see more than twenty new churches were built in the diocese. The political problems of the time interested him greatly, and his writings include two able letters to Sir Robert Peel, one dealing with the Variable Standard of Value, the other with the Increase of Pauperism (Oxford, 1819).
COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON (1737–1815), English historical painter, was born of Irish parents at Boston, Massachusetts. He was self-educated, and commenced his career as a portrait-painter in his native city. The germ of his reputation in England was a little picture of a boy and squirrel, exhibited at the Society of Arts in 1760. In 1774 he went to Rome, and thence in 1775 came to England. In 1777 he was admitted associate of the Royal Academy; in 1783 he was made Academician on the exhibition of his most famous picture, the “Death of Chatham,” popularized immediately by Bartolozzi’s elaborate engraving; and in 1790 he was commissioned to paint a portrait picture of the defence of Gibraltar. The “Death of Major Pierson,” in the National Gallery, also deserves mention. Copley’s powers appear to greatest advantage in his portraits. He was the father of Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst.
COPPÉE, FRANÇOIS ÉDOUARD JOACHIM (1842–1908), French poet and novelist, was born in Paris on the 12th of January 1842. His father held a small post in the civil service, and he owed much to the care of an admirable mother. After passing through the Lycée Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war, and soon sprang into public favour as a poet of the young “Parnassian” school. His first printed verses date from 1864. They were republished with others in 1866 in
