Tycho Brahe

“ As a practical astronomer, Tycho Brahé has not been excelled by any other observer of the heavens. The magnificence of his observatory at Huen, upon the equipment and embellishment of which it is stated he expended a ton of gold; the splendour and variety of his instruments, and his ingenuity in inventing new ones, would alone have made him famous. But it was by the skill and assiduity with which he carried out his numerous and important observations that he has earned for himself a position of the most honourable distinction among astronomers. ”

“ This man, who was naturally inclined to hail with pleasure a rising star in a science closely allied to his own, happened to be at Augsburg in 1570, and became acquainted with Tycho Brahe through Hieronymus Wolf, a man of great learning, especially in the classical languages, and himself drawn to Tycho by his love of astrology. Having been invited by Hainzel to inspect the great quadrant, Ramus expressed his admiration of this important undertaking, so successfully carried out by a young man only twenty-three years of age, and begged him to publish a description of it. ”

“ In addition to being an astronomer, Tycho was a skilled mechanic, mathematician, and architect: he wrote verses which were much admired and was a great lover of music. It was only natural in such an age that a man who devoted himself to astronomy and chemistry should believe in astrology and alchemy; and it is not to be wondered at that Tycho Brahe should have attempted to find some connection between the movements of the stars and the course of events in the lives of men. ”

“ As yet he had not any astronomer to assist him, and the work at his observatory had for a long time made little or no progress, when Tycho Brahe arrived at Cassel in the beginning of April 1575. The Landgrave was well pleased to receive the young astronomer as his guest, and they conversed by day about their favourite science, and observed the heavens by night together, the Landgrave with his own quadrants and unwieldy torqueta, Tycho with some portable instruments, among which was probably his sextant. Among other observations they determined the position of Spica Virginis. ”

“ His health would also seem to have become shaken, if we may judge from Kepler's remark that the feebleness of old age was approaching, since he would hardly have said so of a healthy man only fifty-three years of age.
But the die was cast, and Tycho Brahe could only try to make himself as much at home in Bohemia as possible. On the 9th February 1601 the Emperor wrote to the Bohemian Estates that Tycho Brahe and his sons desired to be naturalised, and to have their names entered on the roll of the nobility. ”

“ In the meantime the plague had appeared at Rostock, but Tycho still lingered there, awaiting the reply to his letter to the king. If, before he took the decisive step of removing his family, his great treasure of observations, and nearly all his instruments out of the Danish dominions, Tycho had addressed himself to the king, who was of an open, generous nature, it is not unlikely that he might have been treated very differently ”

“ It was perhaps well for Tycho Brahe that his career in Bohemia was cut short, for he would sooner or later have been bitterly disappointed in the faith he had placed in the Emperor's promises. His greatest wish had always been that the observatory work should not cease at his death, but that some competent person might be appointed to carry it on; but though Kepler, two days after Tycho's death, was informed by Barwitz that he was to be the new Imperial mathematician, the observations with Tycho's instru- ments were not continued very long. ”

“ While Tycho Brahe was still at Rostock awaiting the result of his own and the Duke's letters to the king, he occupied himself in investing the ready money which he had brought with him from Denmark. As he repeatedly states that he had been obliged to part with his hereditary estate on account of the great outlay on buildings and instruments, which all his endowments did not cover, it would almost seem certain that his aunt and foster-mother, Inger Oxe, who died in 1591, must have left him a very considerable sum of money. ”

“ Tycho Brahé stands out as the most romantic and prominent figure in the history of astronomy. His independence of character, his ardent attachments, his strong hatreds, and his love of splendour, are characteristics which distinguish him from all other men of his age. This remarkable man was an astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist; but in his latter years he renounced astrology, and believed [Pg 21] that the stars exercised no influence over the destinies of mankind. ”

“ Tycho Brahe is therefore not (as supposed by some writers) the inventor of the mural quadrant, an instrument which up to the end of the eighteenth century was the most important one in astronomical observatories. Of course he cannot have known anything of the Arabian quadrants, but the description of Ptolemy must have been familiar to him. The advantage of meridian observations for many purposes was also well known before his time, particularly for finding the declination of the sun, which gave its place in the zodiac by the tables. ”

“ Though he was the eldest son and heir to the family estate of Knudstrup, Tycho did not remain under his father's care for more than about a year, as his father's brother, Jörgen (George) Brahe, who was childless, had been promised by Otto, that if the latter got a son, he would let Jörgen bring him up as his own. The fulfilment of the promise was claimed in vain; but Jörgen Brahe was not to be put off so easily, and as soon as a second boy had been born to Otto, the uncle coolly carried off his eldest nephew by stealth as soon as he got an opportunity. ”

“ Though harsh and unjust towards Tycho Brahe—who, however, was not sufficiently respectful towards his sovereign—Christian was the patron of science and literature, and did much to promote their cultivation in his dominions. He was the founder of the royal library of Copenhagen, which deservedly ranks as one of the best in Europe.
Two centuries ago, the progress of literature everywhere depended more on the patronage of the great than on the voice of the people ”

“ The German Emperor, Rudolph the Second, whose service Tycho Brahe was now about to enter, was a man deeply interested in science and art, personally of a most amiable disposition, but most singularly unfit for the exalted and difficult position he had to fill. ”

“ Passing through Copenhagen, Huet paid a visit to Hveen, and found scarcely a trace of the buildings. In his autobiography, which he did not draw up till more than sixty years later, when he says himself that both his senses and his memory were impaired after a serious illness, Huet adds the very absurd statement that neither the clergyman nor the other inhabitants of Hveen had ever heard the name of Tycho Brahe, except one old man, who did not give a flattering account of him. ”

“ Though Tycho Brahe had been unsuccessful in his application to the king and in his attempt to use the influence of Duke Ulrich of Mecklenburg, he still tried to bring all the influence he could to bear on him. In December 1597 he went on a visit to Rantzov at Bramstedt in Holstein, where he met Margrave Joachim Frederic, who shortly afterwards became Elector of Brandenburg, and his consort, who were on their way home after attending the wedding of their daughter and King Christian at Haderslev in Slesvig, on the 27th November. ”

“ But he would ask the Margrave to write to the king that he would, though abroad, continue to do all he could for the honour of his country, and it might perhaps elsewhere be done as well, if not better, and much more conveniently and quietly than in Denmark. If the king would carry out his father's intention, and would permanently endow Uraniborg, Tycho would see that the work should be carried on well, if not by himself, at least by one of his [family] , and he would let the four great instruments remain there, and supply others as well. ”

“ The astronomical work in Tycho Brahe's observatory must have involved a considerable amount of computing, even though the great globe, no doubt, was very often used for the solution of spherical triangles. Trigonometry had made considerable advances in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and Tycho could build on the labours of Purbach, Regiomontanus, Copernicus, and others, both as regards the solution of triangles and tables of sines and tangents. ”

“ At the time of Tycho Brahe the inhabitants lived in a village called Tuna (i.e., town, Scottice, "the toun") , towards the north coast; there were about forty farms, and the land was tilled in common. From the map in Blaev's Grand Atlas it appears that most of the land in the south-eastern half of the island was only used for grazing. We give here a reduced copy of Blaev's map, which agrees well with
Hveen at the Time of Tycho Brahe. ”

“ His romantic career as a philosopher, and his taste for splendour as a Danish noble, his ardent friendships and his furious quarrels, make him an ideal subject for a biographer, while the magnificent astronomical work which he accomplished, has given him imperishable fame.
The history of Tycho Brahe has been admirably told by Dr. Dreyer, the accomplished astronomer who now directs the observatory at Armagh, though himself a countryman of Tycho. Every student of the career of the great Dane must necessarily look on Dr. ”

“ Tycho's conduct in these various transactions could not but undermine his position in Denmark, and there was doubtless more than one of his fellow-nobles who took the opportunity of fanning the flame of discontent with the self-willed and highly-paid astronomer which gradually sprang up among the rulers in Denmark. Among these, Tycho had hitherto had a very powerful friend in the Chancellor, Niels Kaas, but he died in June 1594, and after his death Tycho must have felt himself less secure in the enjoyment of his several endowments. ”

“ In those days, when most people of note had their nativities worked out for them, it must have been a comfort to the king that he could get this done for the infant by so great an authority as his renowned star-gazer was already considered. Tycho Brahe was accordingly directed to prepare the horoscope of the prince, and on the 1st July following he handed in a detailed report of his investigations. The original document does not appear to have been preserved, but there are two copies (apparently of a somewhat later date) in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. ”

“ But when the dogs came, one was much finer and larger than the other, and the king, who was asked to arbitrate between them, gave the large one to Valkendorf, which roused Tycho's ire and caused the enmity between them. But all this probably
rests on no other foundation than rumour only; and though Valkendorf as Treasurer may have been instrumental in depriving Tycho of some of his income, he can hardly have been his declared enemy, and a letter which Tycho wrote to him in May 1598 does not look as if there was any hostility or even coldness between them. ”

“ This was one of the most important instruments at Uraniborg, and was much used. It is, therefore, no wonder that Tycho (who claimed it as his own invention) wished to fill the empty space on the wall inside the arc with a picture of himself and the interior of his dwelling. Tycho is represented as pointing up to the opening in the wall, and he says the portrait was considered a very good likeness; at his feet lies a dog, "an emblem of sagacity and fidelity." ”

“ In Denmark he continued to prosecute his astronomical studies, and incurred the displeasure of his friends, who blamed him for neglecting his intended profession and wasting his time on astronomy, which they regarded as useless and unprofitable.
Not caring to remain among his relatives, Tycho Brahé returned to Germany, and arrived at Wittenberg in 1566. Whilst residing here he had an altercation with a Danish gentleman over some question in mathematics. The quarrel led to a duel with swords, which terminated rather unfortunately for Tycho, who had a portion of his nose cut off. ”

“ Tycho left Leipzig on the 17th May 1565 with Vedel to return to Denmark. During his absence from home war had broken out between Denmark and Sweden, and his uncle, Jörgen Brahe, who held the post of vice-admiral, probably considered that his nephew's proper place at such a time was in his native country. Travelling by way of Wittenberg, they reached Rostock on the 25th May, and succeeded in crossing to Copenhagen without meeting any hostile cruisers. Whether the uncle had become reconciled to the substitution of the study of astronomy for that of law, is not known with certainty ”

“ Among the causes which finally induced Tycho to leave Denmark, the quarrel with his former pupil, Gellius Sascerides, is supposed to have been an important one. We have mentioned that Gellius spent about two years in Italy. On the return journey he was at Basle for some time (1592–93) , where he became a Doctor of Medicine, and he reached Denmark some time in 1593. He soon after began to visit Uraniborg, and eventually became engaged to Tycho's eldest daughter, Magdalene, at that time about nineteen years of age. ”

“ He returned to his old country in 1571; while there, Frederick II., King of Denmark, requested him to deliver a course of lectures on astronomy and astrology and became his most liberal patron. The King granted to Tycho Brahe for life the island of Huen, lying between Denmark and Sweden, and built there a magnificent observatory and apartments for Tycho, his assistants and servants. The main building was sixty feet square, with observing towers on the north and south, and a library and museum. Tycho called this Uraniberg—the city of the heavens ”