the Titus Livius of Poland; and in 1800 a small monument was erected in honour of the illustrious discoverer of the true system of the heavens. The first work in which the labours of Copernicus were formally announced, in contradistinction to the notions which had hitherto prevailed, was a letter published by Rheticus, and entitled *Ad Clar. V. d. Schonerum de Libris Revolutionum eruditis, viri et Mathematici excellentis. Rev. Doctoris Nicolai Copernici Torunmori, Canonici Warmiensis, per quendam juvenem Mathematico studiosum, Narratio prima*, Dantzig, 1540, 4to; reprinted, with an eulogium, at Basil, 1541, 8vo. The works of Copernicus are, 1. *De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, libri VI.* Nuremberg, 1543, small folio; reprinted at Basil in 1566, with the letter of Rheticus, and also included in the *Astronomiae Instauratae* of Nicolas Muller, Amsterdam, 1617 and 1640, 4to; 2. A treatise on trigonometry, with tables of sines, entitled *De Locibus et Angulis Triangulorum*, Wittemberg, 1542, 4to; 3. *Theoplyctiaci Scholastici Simocattae Epistolae morales, rurales, et amatoriae, cum versione Latina*. In 1521, Copernicus presented to the states of his provinces a work on money; and several manuscript treatises of his are still preserved in the library of the bishopric of Warmia. His life has been written by Gassendi, and immediately follows that of Tycho Brahe.

*Chronique de Thorn, Berlin, 1727; Lalande, Bibliographie Astronomique, p. 63; Annales des Voyages, tome i. p. 361; Biographie Universelle, v. COPERNICUS.*

COPTI, Coptic, or Coptites, a name given to the Christians of Egypt, who belong to the sect of Jacobites, or rather Cobites, and are descended from the ancient native population of the country.

Critics are divided as to the origin and orthography of the word. Some write it Cophiti or Copti, others Cophites, Coptite, Copts, and so on. Scaliger derives the name from Coptos, the ancient metropolis of the Thebaid. Kircher, however, maintains that the word originally signifies "cut" or "circumscribed," and that it was given to these people because of their practice of circumcision; but this is evidently absurd, as circumcision could neither be a distinction nor a reproach in a country where the rite was generally practised. Scaliger afterwards changed his opinion, and derived the word from *Αγύρτος (quasi decas Α-ΤΟΠ-ΤΟΣ) Egypt, by retrenching the first syllable; and this is the true etymology, GOP or KOP being manifestly the basis or root of the word which the Greeks wrote *Αγύρτος, and probably at first *Αγύρτος. An account of the state of the Coptic population of Egypt is given under EGYPT.

COPTIC, or Coptic, the language of the Copts, being the language of the ancient Egyptians, mixed with a little Greek, and written in letters which are chiefly Greek, though fashioned on the model of the enchorial, demotic, or civil characters of the country. It has a form and construction peculiar to itself, having no inflections of the nouns or verbs, but expressing number, case, gender, person, mood, and tense, and forming the possessive pronouns by means of letters and particles prefixed.

Kircher was the first who published a grammar and vocabulary of the Coptic. More lately we have a "Compendious Grammar of the Egyptian Language," Lond. 1830; "Lexicon Egyptiac-Latinum," Oxon. 1826; "Lexicon Linguae Copticae," Turin, 1835. The only books extant in Coptic are translations of the Scriptures, or of ecclesiastical offices, and others that relate thereto, as grammars and dictionaries.

Coptic Liturgies. Of these there are three; one attributed to Basil, another to St Gregory, and a third to Cyril. They have been translated into Arabic, for the use of the priests and people.