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TYCHO      BRAKE. 


OF  THE 

UK  1 7. ZR  SIT  7 


•TYCHO    BRAKE 


A  PICTURE  OF 

SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  THE 
SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 


BY 


J.  L.  E.  £>REYER,  PH.D.,  F.R.A.S. 

DIRECTOR   OF  THE   ARMAGH   OBSERVATORY 


THE 

UHIVERSIT7 


EDINBURGH 

ADAM    AND    CHARLES    BLACK 
1890 


TO 

RALPH      COPELAND, 

PH.D.,  F.R.S.E.,  &C., 
ASTRONOMER   ROYAL  FOR   SCOTLAND, 


JSoofc  ie  5)eDfcate& 

BY    HIS   FRIEND 

THE  AUTHOR. 


PBEFACE. 


ASTRONOMERS  are  so  frequently  obliged  to  recur  to  observa- 
tions made  during  former  ages  for  the  purpose  of  supporting 
the  results  of  the  observations  of  the  present  day,  that  there 
is  a  special  inducement  for  them  to  study  the  historical 
development  of  their  science.  Much  labour  has  accordingly 
been  spent  on  the  study  of  the  history  of  astronomy,  and  in 
particular  the  progress  of  the  science  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  has  of  late  years  formed  the  subject  of 
many  important  monographs.  The  life  of  Copernicus  has 
been  written  in  considerable  detail  by  Prowe,  Hipler,  and 
others.  Of  Kepler's  numerous  works  we  owe  a  complete 
edition  to  the  patient  industry  and  profound  learning  of  the 
late  Dr.  Frisch  of  Stuttgart,  while  the  life  of  Galileo,  and 
particularly  his  persecution  and  trial,  have  called  forth  quite 
a  library  of  books  and  essays.  In  the  present  volume  I 
have  attempted  to  add  another  link  to  the  chain  of  works 
illustrating  the  birth  of  modern  astronomy,  by  reviewing 
the  life  and  work  of  Tycho  Brahe,  the  reformer  of  observa- 
tional astronomy. 

Although  not  a  few  monographs  have  been  published 
from  time  to  time  to  elucidate  various  phases  in  the  career  of 
Tycho  Brahe,  while  several  popular  accounts  of  his  life  (by 
Helfrecht,  Brewster,  &c.)  have  appeared,  the  only  scientific 


viii  PREFACE. 

biography  hitherto  published  is  that  of  Gassendi.  This 
writer  obtained  valuable  materials  from  some  of  Tycho 
Brahe's  pupils,  and  from  the  Danish  savant  Worm,  but  he 
chiefly  derived  his  information  from  a  close  scrutiny  of 
Tycho's  own  writings,  never  failing  to  make  use  of  any 
particulars  of  a  biographical  nature  which  might  be  recorded 
in  passing  by  Tycho.  In  studying  Tycho's  works,  I  have 
repeatedly  come  across  small  historical  notes  in  places  where 
nobody  would  look  for  such,  only  to  find  that  Gassendi  had 
already  noticed  them.  In  1745  a  biography  was  published 
in  a  Danish  journal  (Bang's  Samlinger,  vol.  ii.),  the  contents 
of  which  are  chiefly  taken  from  Gassendi,  but  which  also 
contains  a  few  documents  of  interest.  Of  far  greater  im- 
portance is  a  collection  of  letters,  royal  decrees,  and  other 
documents,  published  in  1746  by  the  Danish  historian  Lan- 
gebek  in  the  Danske  Magazin,  vol.  ii.,  which  still  remains 
the  principal  source  for  Tycho's  life.  A  German  translation 
of  this  and  the  memoir  in  Bang's  Samlinger  was  published 
in  1 7  5  6  by  Mengel,  a  bookseller  in  Copenhagen,  who  wrote 
under  the  high-flown  pseudonym  Philander  von  der  Wei- 
stritz  ;  and  as  his  book  has  naturally  become  more  generally 
known  than  the  Danish  originals,  I  have,  when  quoting 
these,  added  references  to  Weistritz's  book.  During  the 
present  century  several  Danish  historians  have  brought  to 
light  many  details  bearing  on  Tycho's  life  which  will  be 
referred  to  in  this  volume;  and  in  1871  a  Danish  author, 
F.  R.  Friis,  published  a  popular  biography  in  which  were 
given  various  hitherto  unpublished  particulars,  especially 
of  Tycho's  beneficiary  grants  and  other  endowments.  The 
same  writer  has  also  published  a  number  of  letters  ex- 
changed between  Tycho  and  his  relations,  and  various  con- 
temporary astronomers.  Of  great  scientific  interest  is  the 
correspondence  between  Tycho  and  Magini,  published  and 


PREFACE.  ix 

commented  by  Professor  Favaro  of  Bologna  with  the  care 
and  learning  by  which  the  writings  of  this  author  are 
always  distinguished.  Some  other  letters  from  the  last 
years  of  Tycho's  life  have  recently  been  published  by  Pro- 
fessor Burckhardt  of  Basle.  Lastly,  we  must  mention  the 
meteorological  diary  kept  at  Uraniborg,  which  is  of  great 
historical  value  as  affording  many  interesting  glimpses  of 
Tycho  Brahe's  home  life.  It  was  published  in  1876  by 
the  Eoyal  Danish  Society  of  Science. 

Among  other  publications  of  importance  for  the  study 
of  Tycho  Brahe's  life  and  activity  must  be  mentioned  the 
biography  of  Kepler,  by  Frisch,  in  the  last  volume  of 
Kepler's  Opera  Omnia,  and  several  papers  by  Professor 
Kudolph  Wolf  of  Zurich  on  Landgrave  Wilhelm  of  Hesse- 
Cassel,  and  his  astronomers  Kothmann  and  Btirgi.  Though 
only  indirectly  bearing  on  Tycho  (of  whose  merits  Professor 
Wolf  on  every  occasion  speaks  somewhat  slightingly),  these 
valuable  papers  throw  much  light  on  the  state  of  science  at 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  will  often  be  found 
quoted  in  the  following  pages. 

Having  for  many  years  felt  specially  interested  in  Tycho 
Brahe,  it  appeared  to  me  that  it  would  be  a  useful  under- 
taking to  apply  the  considerable  biographical  materials 
scattered  in  many  different  places  to  the  preparation  of  a 
biography  which  should  not  only  narrate  the  various  inci- 
dents in  the  life  of  the  great  astronomer  in  some  detail,  but 
also  describe  his  relations  with  contemporary  men  of  science, 
and  review  his  scientific  labours  in  their  connection  with 
those  of  previous  astronomers.  The  historical  works  of 
Montucla,  Bailly,  Delambre,  and  Wolf  have  indeed  treated 
of  the  astronomical  researches  of  Tycho  Brahe,  but  as  the 
plans  of  these  valuable  works  were  different  from  that 
adopted  by  me,  I  believe  the  scientific  part  of  the  present 


x  PREFACE. 

volume  will  not  be  found  superfluous,  particularly  as  it  is 
founded  on  an  independent  study  of  Tycho's  bulky  works. 
To  these  I  have  given  full  references  for  every  subject,  so 
that  any  reader  may  find  further  particulars  for  himself 
without  a  laborious  search.  Many  details,  especially  as  to 
the  historical  sequence  of  Tycho's  researches,  have  been 
taken  from  his  original  MS.  observations  in  the  Royal 
Library  at  Copenhagen,  which  I  was  enabled  to  examine 
during  two  visits  to  Copenhagen  in  1888  and  1889.  On 
the  same  occasions  I  also  studied  three  astrological  MSS. 
of  Tycho's,  of  which  an  account  will  be  found  in  Chap- 
ter VI.  It  may  possibly  be  thought  by  some  readers  that 
I  have  devoted  too  much  space  to  the  consideration  of 
the  astrological  fancies  of  the  Middle  Ages.  But  my 
object  throughout  has  been  to  give  a  faithful  picture  of  the 
science  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  for  this  purpose  it  is 
impossible  to  gloss  over  or  shut  our  eyes  to  the  errors  of 
the  time,  just  as  it  would  be  absurd,  when  writing  the 
scientific  history  of  other  periods,  to  keep  silence  as-  to  the 
phlogistic  theory  of  combustion,  the  emission  theory  of 
light,  or  the  idea  of  the  sun  as  having  a  solid  nucleus.  If 
the  study  of  the  history  of  science  is  to  teach  us  anything, 
we  must  make  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  by-paths  and 
blind  alleys  into  which  our  forefathers  strayed  in  their 
search  for  truth,  as  well  as  with  the  tracks  by  which  they 
advanced  science  to  the  position  in  which  our  own  time 
finds  it. 

With  the  exception  of  the  astronomical  manuscripts  in 
the  Royal  Library  at  Copenhagen  (for  facilities  in  using 
which  I  was  indebted  to  Dr.  Bruun,  chief  librarian),  I  have 
not  made  use  of  any  unpublished  materials ;  but  the  scanty 
harvest  reaped  by  modern  searchers  makes  it  extremely 
unlikely  that  anything  of  importance  remains  to  be  found 


PREFACE.  xi 

among  unpublished  sources.  I  believe,  however,  that  certain 
periods  of  Tycho  Brahe's  life  in  this  volume  will  be  found 
to  appear  in  a  light  somewhat  different  from  that  in  which 
previous  writers  have  seen  it.  Especially  it  seems  difficult 
to  deny  that  Tycho's  exile  was  almost  entirely  due  to  him- 
self, and  that  there  was  no  absolute  necessity  for  his  leaving 
Hveen,  even  though  he  had  lost  most  of  his  endowments. 
As  an  amusing  instance  of  the  manner  in  which  many  inci- 
dents have  been  misunderstood  by  those  who  consider  Tycho 
a  martyr  of  science,  we  may  mention  that  the  trouble  into 
which  the  minister  of  Hveen  got  with  his  superiors  and 
with  his  parishioners  (for  his  unwarranted  interference  with 
the  Church  ritual),  has  been  described  as  a  riot  or  fight, 
instigated  by  a  wicked  statesman,  in  which  Tycho's  shepherd 
or  steward  (pastor !)  was  injured. 

I  should  scarcely  have  been  able  to  write  this  book  far 
from  great  libraries  if  I  had  not  for  many  years  taken  every 
opportunity  of  acquiring  books  or  pamphlets  bearing  in  any 
way  on  the  subject,  or  of  making  excerpts  from  such  as 
could  not  be  purchased.  I  have,  however,  been  under  great 
obligations  to  the  Astronomer  Royal  for  Scotland,  who  most 
kindly  allowed  me  to  consult  the  literary  treasures  on  the 
star  of  1572  in  the  Crawford  Library  of  the  Royal  Observa- 
tory, Edinburgh.  Hereby  I  have  been  enabled  to  examine 
even  some  writings  on  the  new  star  which  were  unknown 
to  Tycho  Brahe. 

That  I  have  adopted  the  Latin  form  of  the  astronomer's 
name,  by  which  he  is  universally  known,  instead  of  his  real 
baptismal  name  of  'Tyge,  scarcely  requires  an  apology.  It 
would  indeed  only  be  affectation  to  speak  of  Schwarzerd  or 
Koppernigk  instead  of  Melanchthon  or  Copernicus.  The 
portrait  of  Tycho  Brahe  in  this  volume  (about  which  see 
p.  264)  has  already  appeared  in  Woodburytype  in  the 


xii  PREFACE. 

Memoirs  of  the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  of 
Manchester,  vol.  vi.,  and  in  woodcut  in  Nature,  vol.  xv. 
Most  of  the  other  illustrations  are  taken  from  Tycho's  own 
works.  For  photographs,  from  which  the  illustrations  in 
Chapter  XI.  were  made,  I  am  indebted  to  Professor  Safarik 
of  Prague,  who  has  also  kindly  communicated  various  par- 
ticulars about  Tycho's  life  in  Bohemia. 


J.  L.  E.  DREYER 


THE  OBSERVATORY,  ARMAGH, 
September  1890. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  REVIVAL  OF  ASTRONOMY  IN  EUROPE. 

PAGE 

Revival  of  science  in  Germany  —  Purbach  —  Greek  astronomy 
studied  —  Regiomontanus  —  Ephemerides  —  Walther  —  Apianus 

—  Copernicus  —  New  system  of  the  'world  proposed  —  State  of 
astronomy  in  the  sixteenth  century        .         .        ,         .         .         i 

CHAPTER  II 

TYCHO  BRA  HE'S  YOUTH. 

Family  —  Childhood  —  At  Copenhagen  University  —  Becomes  in- 
terested in  astronomy  —  Sent  to  Leipzig  —  Commences  to 
take  observations  —  Returns  home  —  Stay  at  Wittenberg  — 
At  Rostock  —  At  Augsburg  —  Construction  of  a  large  quadrant 

—  Resides  at  Heridsvad  —  Chemical  studies     .         .         .         .10 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572. 

First  appearance  —  Tycho's  observations  —  His  book  on  the  star  — 
His  calendar  for  1573  —  Other  observations  of  the  star'  — 
Measurements  —  Moment  of  first  appearance  —  Opinion  as  to 
nature  of  star—  Alleged  earlier  appearances  of  new  stars  — 
Its  supposed  significance  .......  38 

CHAPTER  IV. 

TYCHO'S  ORATION  ON  ASTROLOGY  AND  HIS 
TRA  VELS  IN 


Tycho's  wife  and  children  —  Oration  on  astrology  —  Travels  in 
Germany  —  Landgrave  Wilhelm  IV.  —  King  Frederick  II.  — 
Island  of  Hveen  granted  to  Tycho  —  Pension  ....  70 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN  AND  TYCHO  BRA  HE'S  OBSER- 
VATORIES AND  OTHER  BUILDINGS  — HIS  ENDOW- 
MENTS. 

PAGE 

Description  of  Hveen — Local  traditions  —  Uraniborg  —  Instru- 
ments— Stjerneborg  Observatory — Grant  of  Kullagaard  manor 
— Prebend  of  Roskilde — Nordfjord  estate  in  Norway  .  .  88 

CHAPTER  VI. 

TYCHO'S  LIFE  AT  HVEEN  UNTIL  THE  DEATH  OF 
KING  FREDERICK  II. 

Home  life — Printing  press — Tenants  at  Hveen — Students  and 
assistants  —  Flemlose — Wittich  —  Elias  01  sen  —  Longomon- 
tanus  —  Chemical  researches  —  Correspondence  — Visitors — 
Relations  with  the  King — Horoscopes  of  Princes — Tycho's 
opinion  of  judicial  astrology — Death  of  the  King  .  .  .114 

CHAPTER  VII. 

TYCHO'S  BOOK  ON  THE  COMET  OF  7577,  AND  HIS 
SYSTEM  OF  THE  WORLD. 

Comet  of  1577 — Six  other  comets — Tycho's  book  on  cornet  of  1577 
— Comets  celestial  objects — Tychonic  system  of  the  world — 
System  of  Copernicus  yet  incomplete — Reymers  (Ursus)  and 
his  system .158 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

FURTHER  WORK  ON  THE  STAR  OF  1572. 

Tycho's  larger  book  on  the  star— Its  great  distance — Dimensions 

of  the  universe— Nature  of  star — Its  astrological  effect          .     186 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN,  1588-1597. 

New  Government — New  grant  to  Tycho — House  at  Copenhagen 

Sophia  Brahe — Visit  of  James  VI. — Visit  of  Rotlmiann — 
Correspondence  with  the  Landgrave  and  Magini — Visit  of 
the  young  King — Tycho's  quarrel  with  a  tenant — Neglects  to 
repair  chapel  of  his  prebend — Quarrel  with  Gellius— Volume 
of  Epistles — Accession  of  King  Christian  IV. — Tycho  de- 
prived of  Norwegian  fief — Valkendorf — Pension  stopped 

Tycho  leaves  Hveen — Troubles  about  clergyman  at  Hveen    .     198 


CONTENTS.  xv 

CHAPTER  X. 

TYCHO'S  LIFE  FROM  HIS  LEAVING  HVEEN  UNTIL 
HIS  ARRIVAL  AT  PRAGUE. 

PAGE 

Tycho  at  Copenhagen — Departs  for  Eostock — Letter  to  the  King 
— Lends  money  to  the  Dukes  of  Mecklenburg — The  King's 
reply — Tycho  at  Wandsbeck — Vain  attempts  to  reconcile  the 
King— Publishes  description  of  instruments — Star  catalogue 
— Calumnies  of  Eeymers — Invitation  from  the  Emperor — 
Tycho  winters  at  Wittenberg 239 


CHAPTER  XL 
TYCHO  BRAHE  IN  BOHEMIA— HIS  DEATH. 

Rudolph  II. — Tycho's  salary  —  Castle  of  Benatky  —  Financial 
difficulties — Work  resumed — Kepler's  youth — His  arrival  at 
Benatky  and  quarrel  with  Tycho — Reconciliation — Tycho 
settles  at  Prague — His  assistants — Solar  and  lunar  theory — 
Tycho's  death  and  funeral 277 

CHAPTER  XII. 
TYCHO  BRAHE' S  SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS. 

Zodiacal  and  equatorial  armillse — Meridian  quadrant — Altazi- 
muth quadrant — Time  determinations — Sextants  for  distance 
measures  —  Subdivision  of  arcs  —  Nonius  —  Transversal 
divisions — Improved  pinnules — Theory  of  sun's  motion — Re- 
fraction— Lunar  theory — Discovery  of  lunar  inequalities — 
Kepler  and  the  annual  equation — Motion  of  planets — Posi- 
tions of  fixed  stars — Absolute  longitude — Star  catalogue — 
Precession — Trepidation  disproved — Accuracy  of  observations 
— Alleged  error  of  Tycho's  meridian  —  Trigonometrical 
formulas 315 


APPENDIX. 

Fate  of  Tycho's  instruments — His  family  in  Bohemia — Publica- 
tion of  his  books — Tycho's  manuscript  observations — Hveen 
after  Tycho's  time  .  .  .  . ' 365 


xvi  CONTENTS. 


NOTES. 

PAGE 

Specimen  of  Tycho's  early  observations  with  the  cross-staff—  List 
of  Tycho  Brahe's  pupils  and  assistants— Tycho's  opinion 
about  astrological  forecasts — Kepler's  account  of  Tycho  Brahe's 
last  illness — Comparison  of  Tycho  Brahe's  positions  of  stan- 
dard stars  with  modern  results — On  the  alleged  error  of 
Tycho's  meridian  line — Huet's  account  of  the  state  of  Hveen 
in  1652— Catalogue  of  the  volumes  of  manuscript  observa- 
tions of  Tycho  Brahe  in  the  Koyal  Library,  Copenhagen — 
Bibliographical  Summary 381 


PLATES. 

PORTRAIT  OF  TYCHO  BRAHE        .                .        .        .  Frontispiece 

MURAL  QUADRANT To  face  p.  101 

CASTLE  OF  BENATKY .  ,,        282 

FERDINAND  I.'s  VILLA ,,298 

TYCHO'S  TOMBSTONE    . „        311 

(The  above  by  S.  B.  BOLAS  &  Co.,  London.) 


ERRATA. 

Page  54,  last  line,  for  "  Locus  in  Sagit.,"  read  "  Locus  ©  in  Sagit." 

„  66,  Footnote  2,  line  7  from  end,  add :  That  Hardeck  speaks  of  the 
comet  of  1264,  although  he  gives  the  year  1260,  may  be  seen 
from  his  references  to  Pope  Clement  IV.  (1265-1268)  and  the 
battle  of  Benevent  (1266).  According  to  Pingr^,  several  writers 
have  been  confused  with  regard  to  the  year  of  this  comet. 
„  127,  line  2,  for  "  Coll,"  read  "  Crol." 


^ 

UHIVERSITT 


TYOHO    BEAHE, 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  REVIVAL  OF  ASTRONOMY  IN  EUROPE. 

THE  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  must  always  rank 
among  the  most  remarkable  periods  in  the  history  of 
civilisation.  The  invention  of  printing  had  made  literature 
the  property  of  many  to  whom  it  had  hitherto  been  in- 
accessible, and  the  downfall  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  had 
scattered  over  Europe  a  number  of  fugitive  Greeks,  who 
carried  with  them  many  treasures  of  classical  literature 
hitherto  unknown  in  the  Western  world,  while  Raphael, 
Michael  Angelo,  and  other  contemporaries  of  Leo  X.  revived 
the  glory  of  the  ancients  in  the  realm  of  art.  The  narrow 
limits  of  the  old  world  had  vanished,  and  the  Portuguese 
and  Spanish  navigators  had  led  the  way  to  boundless  fields 
for  human  enterprise,  while  the  Reformation  revolutionised 
the  spirit  of  mankind  and  put  an  end  to  the  age  of  ignorance 
and  superstition. 

During  this  active  period  there  were  also  signs  of  renewed 
vigour  among  the  devotees  of  science,  and  the  time  was 
particularly  favourable  to  a  revival  of  astronomical  studies. 
Students  of  astronomy  were  now  enabled  to  study  the 
Greek  authors  in  the  original  language,  instead  of  having 
to  be  content  with  Latin  reproductions  of  Arabian  transla- 
tions from  the  Greek,  which,  through  the  Italian  Univer- 

1 


2  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

sities,  liad  been  introduced  into  Europe  during  the  Middle 
Ages.  Another  impulse  was  given  by  the  voyages  of 
discovery,  as  navigators  were  obliged  to  trust  entirely  to 
the  stars  and  the  compass,  and  therefore  required  as  perfect 
a  theory  as  possible  of  the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 
We  see  accordingly  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  considerable  stir  in  the 
camp  of  science,  but  as  yet  only  in  Germany — a  circumstance 
not  difficult  to  explain.  Though  divided  into  a  great 
number  of  semi-independent  states,  Germany  "bo/e  still  the 
proud  name  of  the  Holy  Eoman  Empire,  and  on  account  of 
the  claims  represented  by  this  name  the  Germans  had  for  a 
long  time  been  in  constant  intercourse  with  Italy,  the  land 
with  the  great  past,  and  still,  notwithstanding  its  political 
misery,  the  leader  of  civilisation.  It  was  an  intercourse  of  a 
peaceful  and  commercial  as  well  as  of  a  warlike  character ; 
but  in  both  ways  was  this  of  benefit  to  the  Germans,  pro- 
ducing among  them  much  knowledge  of  foreign  affairs,  and 
giving  them  greater  facilities  for  taking  up  the  scientific 
work  of  the  ancients  than  were  found  in  other  parts  of 
Europe. 

The  first  astronomer  of  note  was  Georg  Purbach  (1423— 
1461),  who  studied  at  the  University  of  Vienna,  and 
afterwards  for  some  time  in  Italy.  His  principal  work 
on  astronomy  (Theories  Novce  Planetarum)  attempted  to 
develop  the  old  hypothesis  of  material  celestial  spheres, 
and  was  but  a  mixture  of  Aristotelean  cosmology  and 
Ptolemean  geometry ;  but  he  was  the  first  European  to 
make  use  of  trigonometry,  the  principal  legacy  which 
astronomers  owe  to  the  Arabs.  Purbach  endeavoured  to 
get  beyond  the  rudiments  of  spherical  astronomy,  which 
hitherto  had  formed  the  only  subject  for  astronomical 
lectures,  and  had  been  taught  through  the  medium  of  a 
treatise  written  in  the  thirteenth  century  by  John  Holy- 


REVIVAL  OF  ASTRONOMY  IN  EUROPE.  3 

wood  (Johannes  de  Sacrobosco)  for  use  in  the  University  of 
Paris.  While  lecturing  at  Vienna,  Purbach's  attention  was 
drawn  to  a  young  disciple  of  great  promise,  Johann  Miiller, 
from  Konigsberg,  a  small  village  in  Franconia,  where  he 
had  been  born  in  1436.  He  is  generally  known  by  the 
name  of  Eegiomontanus,  though  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
used  this  name  himself,  but  always  that  of  Johannes  de 
Monteregio.  He  entered  heart  and  soul  into  his  teacher's 
studies  of  the  great  work  of  Ptolemy,  which  embodied  all 
the  results  of  Greek  astronomy,  and  the  talented  pupil  soon 
became  an  invaluable  co-operator  to  Purbach.  They  did 
not  confine  themselves  to  theoretical  studies,  but,  with  such 
crude  instruments  as  they  could  construct,  they  convinced 
themselves  of  the  fact  that  the  places  of  the  planets 
computed  from  the  astronomical  tables  of  King  Alphonso  X. 
of  Castile  differed  very  considerably  from  the  actual  posi- 
tions of  the  planets  in  the  sky.1  In  the  midst  of  these 
occupations  the  two  astronomers  had  the  good  luck  to 
become  acquainted  with  a  man  who  was  well  qualified 
to  help  them  to  carry  out  their  greatest  wishes.  This 
man  was  Cardinal  Bessarion,  a  Greek  by  birth,  who,  as 
Bishop  of  Nicaea,  had  accompanied  the  Byzantine  Emperor 
on  his  journey  to  the  Council  of  Ferrara  in  1438,  where 
he  tried  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between  the  Greek 
and  Roman  Churches.  Bessarion  remained  in  Italy  and 
joined  the  Roman  Church,  but  he  never  forgot  his  old 
country,  and  contributed  very  much  to  make  the  classical 
Greek  literature  known  in  the  West.  The  translation  of 
the  original  Almagest  (as  Ptolemy's  work  was  generally 
called,  from  a  corruption  of  the  Arabic  Al  megist,  in  its 

1  The  Tabulae  Alphonsinae  had  been  computed  in  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century  by  a  number  of  Arabian  and  Jewish  astronomers  under 
the  personal  .direction  of  King  Alphonso  el  Sabio.  They  were  founded  on 
the  theory  of  Ptolerny  and  the  observations  of  the  Arabs,  and  were  first 
printed  at  Venice  in  1483. 


TYCHO  BRAKE. 


turn  derived  from  fAeyia-rt]  crvvTafys)  was  a  subject  in  which 
he  was  particularly  interested,  and  during  his  stay  at 
Vienna  as  Papal  Nuncio  he  succeeded  in  communicating  to 
Purbach  his  own  anxiety  to  make  Ptolemy  better  known  in 
the  scientific  world.  Purbach  was  on  the  point  of  starting 
for  Italy  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  Greek  manuscripts, 
when  he  died  suddenly  in  1461,  but  Regiomontanus  suc- 
ceeded to  his  place  in  the  Cardinal's  friendship,  and  set  out 
for  Italy  with  Bessarion  in  the  following  year. 

Regiomontanus  stayed  about  seven  years  in  Italy,  visit- 
ing the  principal  cities,  and  losing  no  chance  of  studying 
the  Greek  language  and  collecting  Greek  manuscripts.  At 
Venice  he  wrote  a  treatise  on  trigonometry,  which  branch 
of  mathematics  he  also,  during  the  remainder  of  his  life, 
continued  to  develop,  so  that  he  constructed  a  table  of 
tangents  (tabula  fecunda),  and  probably  only  was  prevented 
by  his  early  death  from  completing  his  treatise  by  intro- 
ducing the  use  of  tangents  therein.1  After  his  return  to 
Germany,  he  settled,  in  1471,  at  Niirnberg.  This  city  was 
one  of  the  chief  centres  of  German  industry  and  literary 
life,  and  no  other  German  city  had  such  regular  commercial 
communication  with  Italy,  from  whence  the  produce  of  the 
East  was  brought  into  the  market,  and  nowhere  did  the 
higher  classes  of  citizens  use  their  wealth  so  willingly  in 
support  of  art  and  science.  The  new  art  of  printing  had 
recently  been  introduced  at  Niirnberg,  where  a  regular 
printing-press  was  now  working  —  a  circumstance  of  parti- 
cular importance  to  the  collector  of  Greek  writings.  A 
wealthy  citizen,  Bernhard  Walther  (born  1430,  died  1504), 
became  at  once  the  friend  and  disciple  of  Regiomontanus, 

1  The  treatise  De  Triangulis  Omnimodis,  libri  v.,  was  first  published  at 
Niirnberg  in  1533,  while  Regiomontanus  himself  printed  the  TabuLw  Dircc- 
tionum  in  1475,  containing  both  a  table  of  sines  for  every  minute,  and  the 
above-mentioned  table  of  tangents  for  every  degree,  extended  to  every 
minute  by  Reinhold  in  a  new  edition  in  1554. 


REVIVAL  OF  ASTRONOMY  IN  EUROPE.  5 

and  arranged  an  observatory  for  their  joint  use.  Instru- 
ments, as  fine  as  the  skilful  artisans  of  Niirnberg  could 
make  them,  adorned  the  earliest  of  European  observatories, 
and  the  two  friends  made  good  use  of  them  (they  observed 
already  the  comet  of  1472),  and  originated  several  new 
methods  of  observing.  But  Eegiomontanus  did  not  forget 
the  printing  operations,  and  published  not  only  Purbach's 
Theories  Novce  and  trigonometrical  tables,  but  also  his  own 
celebrated  Ephemerides,  the  first  of  their  kind,  which,  some 
years  afterwards,  were  made  known  to  the  navigators 
through  the  German  geographer  Martin  Behaim,  and 
guided  Diaz,  Columbus,  Yasco  de  Gama,  and  many  others 
safely  across  the  ocean.  Nothing  spread  the  fame  of  the 
astronomer  like  these  Ephemerides,  and  the  Pope  was  thus 
induced  to  invite  Eegiomontanus  to  Eome  to  reform  the 
confused  calendar.  The  invitation  was  obeyed  in  1475, 
but  Eegiomontanus  died  in  July  1476  very  suddenly 
at  Eome.  He  only  reached  the  age  of  forty,  and  no 
doubt  much  might  have  been  expected  from  him  if  death 
had  not  so  early  stopped  his  career;  but  he  had  rendered 
great  service  to  science,  not  only  by  his  endeavours  to  save 
the  Greek  authors  from  oblivion,1  but  by  his  Ephemerides, 
his  development  of  trigonometry,  and  his  observations. 
Walther  survived  him  twenty-eight  years,  and  continued 
his  observations,  which  were  published  in  1544. 

By  Purbach  and  Eegiomontanus  the  astronomy  of  the 
Alexandrian  school  had  been  introduced  at  the  German 
Universities,  and  the  increased  demands  which  navigators 
made  on  astronomers  continued  to  help  forward  the  study 
of  astronomy  in  Germany,  which  country,  by  having  a 
sovereign  in  common  with  Spain,  for  a  while  had  much 
intercourse  with  the  latter  country.  Of  the  astronomers 

1  The  Greek  text  of  Ptolemy's  work  from  the  MS.   brought  home   by 
Regiomontanus  was  published  at  Bale  in  1538. 


6  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

who  worked  during  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century 
we  shall  here  mention  Peter  Apianus  or  Bienewitz,  who 
taught  at  the  University  of  Ingolstadt.  Besides  other 
works,  he  published  in  1540  a  large  book,  Astronomicum 
Ccesareum,  dedicated  to  Charles  the  Fifth.  In  this  beau- 
tiful volume  the  author  represented,  by  means  of  movable 
circles  of  cardboard  of  various  colours,  the  epicyclical  motions 
of  the  planets  according  to  the  Ptolemean  system,  and  ex- 
pected to  be  able  in  this  way  to  find  their  positions  without 
computation.  The  book  was  received  with  much  applause, 
and  is  really  in  some  ways  to  be  admired,  though  one  cannot 
help  agreeing  with  Kepler  in  regretting  the  "miserable 
industry  "  of  Apianus,  which  after  all  only  produced  a  very 
rough  approximation  to  the  real  motions  of  the  stars,  but 
which  is  eminently  characteristic  of  the  low  state  of  science 
at  that  time.  Apianus  deserves  more  thanks  for  having 
paid  much  attention  to  comets,  and  for  having  discovered 
the  important  fact  that  the  tails  of  these  bodies  are  turned 
away  from  the  sun.  This  was  also  pointed  out  about  the 
same  time  by  Fracastoro  of  Verona  in  a  work  published  in 
15385  containing  an  elaborate  attempt  to  revive  the  theory 
of  concentric  spheres  of  Eudoxus,  which  had  been  pushed 
into  the  background  by  the  Ptolemean  system  of  the  world. 
Only  three  years  after  Apian's  volume  appeared  the  great 
work  of  Nicolaus  Copernicus,  De  Eevolutionibus  (1543), 
which  was  destined  to  become  the  corner-stone  of  modern 
astronomy.  We  shall  in  the  following  so  often  have  occasion 
to  refer  to  the  labours  of  this  great  man,  that  a  few  words 
will  suffice  in  this  place.  Copernicus,  who  not  only  dis- 
covered the  greatest  truth  in  astronomy,  but  who  even  by  his 
opponents  was  admitted  to  be  an  astronomer  worthy  of  being 
classed  with  Hipparchus  and  Ptolemy,  was  born  in  1473  at 
Thorn,  on  the  Vistula,  a  town  which  belonged  to  the  Hansa 
League,  and  a  few  years  before  had  come  under  the  suzerainty 


REVIVAL  OF  ASTRONOMY  IN  EUROPE.  7 

of  Poland.  He  studied  first  at  the  University  of  Krakau, 
where  astronomy  was  specially  cultivated,  and  at  the  age  of 
twenty-four  he  proceeded  to  Bologna,  where  he  enjoyed 
the  teaching  of  Domenico  Maria  Novara.  Thus  Copernicus 
not  only  became  acquainted  with  Ptolemy's  work,  but  also 
acquired  some  familiarity  with  the  astrolabe  or  astronomical 
circle,  one  of  the  few  crude  instruments  then  in  use.  From 
about  the  end  of  1505  till  his  death  in  1543,  Copernicus 
lived  in  the  diocese  of  Ermland,  in  Prussia,  most  of  the 
time  in  the  town  of  Frauenburg,  where  he  held  a  canonry 
at  the  cathedral.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  we  are 
utterly  unacquainted  with  the  manner  in  which  Copernicus 
came  to  design  the  new  system  of  astronomy  which  has 
made  his  name  immortal.  But  he  had  probably  early  per- 
ceived that,  however  valuable  the  labours  of  Eegiomontanus 
had  been,  they  had  not  improved  the  theory  of  celestial 
motion,  so  that  the  most  important  problem,  that  of  com- 
puting beforehand  the  positions  of  the  planets  and  account- 
ing for  their  apparently  intricate  movements,  was  practically 
untouched  since  the  days  of  Ptolemy.  That  great  mathe- 
matician had  completed  and  extended  the  planetary  system 
of  Hipparchus,  and  had  in  a  wonderfully  ingenious  manner 
represented  the  complicated  phenomena.  But  more  than 
1400  years  had  elapsed  since  his  time,  and  the  system, 
however  perfect  from  a  mathematical  point  of  view,  had 
long  been  felt  to  be  too  complicated,  and  not  agreeing 
closely  enough  with  the  observed  movements  of  the 
planets.  This  circumstance  led  Copernicus  to  attempt  the 
construction  of  a  new  system,  founded  on  the  idea  that  the 
sun,  and  not  the  earth,  is  the  ruler  of  the  planets.  But 
though  Copernicus  on  the  basis  of  this  idea  developed  a 
theory  of  the  planetary  movements  as  complete  as  that  of 
Ptolemy,  he  was  unable  to  do  more  than  to  demonstrate  the 
possibility  of  explaining  the  phenomena  by  starting  from 


8  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

the  heliocentric  idea.  Having  no  materials  from  which  to 
deduce  the  true  laws  of  the  motion  of  the  planets  in  elliptic 
orbits,  he  was  obliged  to  make  use  of  the  excentric  circles 
and  epicycles  of  the  ancients,  by  which  he  greatly  marred 
the  beauty  and  simplicity  of  his  system.1  He  did  not 
possess  accurate  instruments,  and  took  but  few  observations 
with  those  he  had.  The  idea  does  not  seem  to  have  struck 
him  that  it  was  indispensable  to  follow  the  planets  through 
a  number  of  years  with  carefully  constructed  instruments, 
and  that  only  in  that  way  could  the  true  theory  of  planetary 
motion  be  found. 

There  was  much  to  be  done  yet  ere  the  reform  of  astro- 
nomy could  be  accomplished.  The  pressing  want  of  new 
tables  to  take  the  place  of  the  antiquated  Alphonsine  tables 
was  supplied  a  few  years  after  the  death  of  Copernicus  by 
Erasmus  Keinhold,  but  though  the  positions  of  the  planets 
could  be  computed  from  them  with  greater  accuracy  than 
from  the  old  tables,  the  "  Prutenic  tables "  (published  in 
1551)  did  not  by  this  superiority  offer  any  proof  of  the 
actual  truth  of  the  Copernican  principle. 

A  century  had  now  elapsed  since  the  study  of  astronomy 
had  commenced  to  revive  in  Italy  and  Germany,  but  as 
yet  the  work  accomplished  had  chiefly  been  of  a  tentative 
and  preparatory  kind,  Copernicus  alone  having  attempted 
to  make  science  advance  along  a  new  path.  Still,  much 
useful  work  had  been  done.  The  labours  of  the  ancients 
had  now  become  accessible  in  the  originals ;  the  Arabs  and 
Regiomontanus  had  developed  trigonometry,  and  thereby 
greatly  facilitated  astronomical  computations;  Copernicus 
had  shaken  the  implicit  conviction  of  the  necessity  of 
clinging  .to  the  complicated  Ptolemean  system,  and  had 
offered  the  world  an  alternative  and  simpler  system,  while 
new  tables  had  been  computed  to  take  the  place  of  the 

1  We  shall  return  to  this  subject  in  Chapter  VII. 


REVIVAL  ajJjfaflSTROXOMY  IN  EUROPE.  9 

Alphonsine  table  sjM*  But  otherwise  the  astronomy  of  the 
ancients  reigned  undisturbed.  No  advance  had  been  made 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  positions  of  the  fixed  stars,  those 
stations  in  the  sky  by  means  of  which  the  motions  of  the 
planets  had  to  be  followed ;  the  value  of  almost  every 
astronomical  quantity  had  to  be  borrowed  from  Ptolemy, 
if  we  except  a  few  which  had  been  redetermined  by  the 
Arabs.  No  advance  had  been  made  in  the  knowledge  of 
the  moon's  motion,  so  important  for  navigation,  nor  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  planetary  orbits,  the  uniform 
circular  motion  being  still  thought  not  only  the  most  per- 
fect, but  also  the  only  possible  one  for  the  planets  to  pursue. 
Whether  people  believed  the  planets  to  move  round  the  earth 
or  round  the  sun,  the  complicated  machinery  of  the  ancients 
had  to  be  employed  in  computing  their  motions,  and  crude 
as  the  instruments  in  use  were,  they  were  more  than  suffi- 
cient to  show  that  the  best  planetary  tables  could  not  fore- 
tell the  positions  of  the  planets  with  anything  like  the 
desirable  accuracy. 

No  astronomer  had  yet  made  up  his  mind  to  take  nothing 
for  granted  on  the  authority  of  the  ancients,  but  to  deter- 
mine everything  himself.  Nobody  had  perceived  that  the 
answers  to  the  many  questions  which  were  perplexing 
astronomers  could  only  be  given  by  the  heavens,  but  that 
the  answers  would  be  forthcoming  only  if  the  heavens  were 
properly  interrogated  by  means  of  improved  instruments, 
capable  of  determining  every  astronomical  quantity  anew  by 
systematic  observations.  The  necessity  of  doing  this  was 
at  an  early  age  perceived  by  Tycho  Brahe,  whose  life  and 
work  we  shall  endeavour  to  sketch  in  the  following  pages. 
By  his  labours  he  supplied  a  sure  foundation  for  modern 
astronomy,  and  gave  his  great  successor,  Kepler,  the  means 
of  completing  the  work  commenced  by  Copernicus. 


CHAPTER  II. 
TYCHO  BRAHE'S  YOUTH. 

TYCHO  BRAHE  belonged  to  an  ancient  noble  family  which 
had  for  centuries  flourished  not  only  in  Denmark,  but  also 
in  Sweden,  to  which  country  it  had  spread  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  when  one  of  its  members,  Torkil  Brahe,  fled  thither 
from  Denmark  to  escape  punishment  for  manslaughter.  The 
family  still  exists  in  both  countries.  In  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury the  Danish  nobility  was  still  of  purely  national  origin, 
unmingled  with  the  foreign  blood  which  became  merged  in 
it  in  the  course  of  the  next  two  hundred  years,  when  every 
new  royal  bride  brought  with  her  a  train  of  needy  adven- 
turers, with  empty  purses  and  long  titles,  from  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire.  Like  their  foreign  fellow-nobles,  they  were 
descended  from  men  who  had  received  grants  of  land  on 
tenure  of  military  service,  and  until  about  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century  they  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  formed 
a  separate  class,  as  their  privileges  and  duties  were  not  yet 
of  necessity  hereditary.  They  were  untitled  (till  1671), 
but  all  the  same  they  were  as  proud  and  jealous  of  the 
privileges  of  their  order  as  any  Norman  count  or  baron,  and 
were  called  by  the  characteristic  names  of  "  free  and  well- 
born "  or  "  good  men."  In  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century  they  had  successfully  resisted  the  attempts  of  King 
Christiern  II.  to  curb  their  power,  and  had  driven  him  from 
his  throne ;  and  when  the  lower  orders  afterwards  had 
attempted  to  replace  him  on  the  throne  rendered  vacant 

10 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  11 

by  the  death  of  his  brother  and  successor,  the  nobles  had, 
after  a  hard  struggle,  crushed  their  opponents,  though  the 
latter  were  backed  by  the  powerful  Hansa  city  of  Liibeck. 
The  ^Reformation  had  broken  the  rival  power  of  the  Church, 
and  the  nobles  had  in  consequence  (though  not  to  the  same 
extent  as  in  Germany  and  England)  increased  in  wealth  and 
possessions.  And  during  the  next  fifty  years  they  did  not 
abuse  their  worldly  advantages,  but  were,  as  a  rule,  faithful 
servants  of  their  king  and  country,  generous  and  kind  to 
their  tenants,  fond  of  studies  and  learning.  Most  of  them 
had  in  their  youth  travelled  abroad,  frequently  for  years  at 
a  time,  and  studied  at  foreign  universities,  where  they 
acquired  knowledge  not  only  of  books,  but  also  of  the 
world.  At  their  country-seats  many  of  them  encouraged 
and  protected  men  of  learning,  and  kept  up  their  acquaint- 
ance with  classical  literature,  as  well  as  with  the  more 
humble  folk-lore  which,  in  the  shape  of  old  epics  and 
ballads  (Kjcempemser),  had  been  handed  down  from  one 
generation  to  another  among  the  humble  as  well  as 
among  the  high-born.  Almost  every  country-seat  pos- 
sessed what  was  at  that  time  considered  a  fine  library, 
so  that  it  was  quite  natural  that  hardly  a  pamphlet  or 
book  was  published  without  a  dedication  to  some  noble 
patron. 

The  father  of  the  great  astronomer  was  Otto  Brahe,  born 
in  1517,  from  1562  or  1563  a  Privy  Councillor,  and 
successively  lieutenant  of  various  counties,  finally  governor 
of  Helsingborg  Castle  (opposite  Elsinore),  where  he  died 
in  1571.  His  wife  was  Beate  Bille,  whom  he  had  mar- 
ried in  1544,  and  their  second  child  and  eldest  son,  Tyge, 
was  born  on  the  I4th  December  1546  at  the  family  seat 
of  Kuudstrup,  in  Scania  or  Skaane,  the  most  southern  pro- 
vince of  the  Scandinavian  peninsula,  which  at  that  time 
still  belonged  to  Denmark,  as  it  had  done  from  time 


12  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

immemorial.1  Tyge,  or  Tycho  (as  lie  afterwards  Latinised 
his  name),  had  a  still-born  twin-brother,  a  fact  alluded  to 
in  a  Latin  poem  which  he  wrote  and  had  printed  in  I  5/2.2 
Otto  Brahe  had  in  all  five  sons  and  five  daughters  (in 
addition  to  the  still-born  son),  the  youngest  being  Sophia, 
born  in  1556,  who  will  often  be  mentioned  in  the  sequel. 
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,  Jorgen  (George)  Brahe,  who  was  childless,  had  been 
promised  by  Otto,  that  if  the  latter  got  a  sou,  he  would  let 
Jorgen  bring  him  up  as  his  own.  The  fulfilment  of  the 
promise  was  claimed  in  vain ;  but  Jorgen  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.  The  parents 
of  Tycho  gave  way  when  the  thing  was  done,  knowing  that 
the  child  was  in  good  hands,  and  doubtless  expecting  that 
the  foster-parents  would  eventually  leave  their  adopted  son 
some  of  their  wealth,  which  they  also  seem  to  have  done. 

We  know  nothing  of  Tycho's  childhood  except  that  he 
was  brought  up  at  his  uncle's  seat  of  Tostrup,  and  was 
from  the  age  of  seven  taught  Latin  and  other  rudiments  of 
learning  by  a  tutor.3  He  acquired  the  necessary  familiarity 
with  the  only  language  which  was  then  properly  studied,  so 
that  he  was  afterwards  able  not  only  to  converse  in  and 
write  Latin,  but  also  to  write  poetry  in  this  language, 
which  was  then  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards  considered 
a  very  desirable  accomplishment  for  a  learned  man.  We 
shall  often  have  occasion  to  quote  his  poetry,  some  of  which 

1  In  several  places  in  his  writings  Tycho  alludes  to  the  I3th  December  as 
his  birthday,  but  this  is  astronomically  speaking,  counting  the  day  from  noon, 
as  he  was  born  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

2  Reprinted  in  Danskc  Magazin,  ii.  p.  1 70  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  23). 
8  Autobiographical  note,  Astron.  Inst.  Mechanica,  fol.  G. 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  13 

is  not  without  merit.  Thus  prepared,  he  was  sent  to 
Copenhagen  in  April  1559  to  study  at  the  University 
there.1  This  seat  of  learning  had  been  founded  in  the  year 
1479  by  permission  of  the  Pope,  but  it  had  languished  for 
a  number  of  years  for  want  of  money  and  good  teachers. 
The  confiscation  of  the  property  of  the  monasteries  enabled 
King  Christian  III.  to  commence  improving  it,  and  by  the 
statutes  of  1539  (which  were  still  in  force  in  Tycho 
Brahe's  time)  the  number  of  professors  was  fixed  at  fourteen, 
three  of  Divinity,  one  of  Law,  two  of  Medicine,  and  eight 
in  the  Faculty  of  Arts,  among  whom  were  several  whose 
names  were  honourably  known  outside  their  own  country. 
Tycho  now  commenced  his  studies  here,  devoting  himself 
specially  to  rhetorics  and  philosophy,  as  being  the  branches 
of  learning  most  necessary  to  the  career  of  a  statesman,  for 
which  he  was  destined  by  his  uncle,  and  probably  also  by 
his  father,  who  had  at  first  objected  to  his  receiving  a 
classical  education.2  But  astronomy  very  soon  claimed  his 
attention.  On  the  2 1  st  of  August  1 5  60  an  eclipse  of 
the  sun  took  place,  which  was  total  in  Portugal,  and  of\ 
which  Clavius  has  left  us  a  graphic  description.  Though 
it  was  only  a  small  eclipse  at  Copenhagen,  it  attracted  the 
special  attention  of  the  youthful  student,  who  had  already 
begun  to  take  some  interest  in  the  astrological  predictions 
or  horoscopes  which  in  those  days  formed  daily  topics  of 
conversation.  When  he  saw  the  eclipse  take  place  at  the 
predicted  time,  it  struck  him  "  as  something  divine  that 
men  could  know  the  motions  of  the  stars  so  accurately  that 

1  In  those  days  students  frequently  entered  a  university  at  a  very  early  age, 
and  with  an  exceedingly  slender  stock  of  knowledge.     At  Wittenberg  one  of 
the  professors  in  the  Faculty  of  Arts  was  bound  to  teach  the  junior  students 
Latin  grammar,  and  one  of  the  Wittenberg  professors  in  his  opening  address 
pointed  out  how  simple  the  rudiments  of  arithmetic  were,  and  how  even 
multiplication  and  division  might  be  learned  with  some  diligence.     Prowe, 
Nic.  Coppcrnicus,  i.  p.  116 

2  Gassendi,  p.  4. 


V 


14  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

they  could  long  before  foretell  their  places  and  relative 
positions." 1  He  therefore  lost  no  time  in  procuring  a  copy1 
of  the  Ephemerides  of  Sfcadius  in  order  to  satisfy  his 
curiosity  as  to  astronomical  matters ;  and  not  content  with 
/  \  the  meagre  information  he  could  get  from  this  book,  he 
very  soon  made  up  his  mind  to  go  to  the  fountain-head, 
and  at  the  end  of  November  in  the  same  year  he  invested 
two  Joachims-thaler  in  a  copy  of  the  works  of  Ptolemy, 
published  at  Basle  in  1551.  This  copy  is  still  in  existence, 
and  may  be  seen  in  the  University  Library  at  Prague  ;  there 
are  many  marginal  notes  in  it,  and  at  the  bottom  of  tho 
title-page  is  written  in  Tycho's  own  hand  that  he  had 
bought  the  book  at  Copenhagen  on  the  last  day  of  Novem- 
ber for  two  thaler.  This  book  contained  a  Latin  translation 
of  all  the  writings  of  Ptolemy  except  the  Geography,  the 
Almegist  being  in  the  translation  of  Georgios  from  Tre- 
bizond.  The  study  of  this  complete  compendium  of  the 
astronomy  of  the  day  must  have  given  the  youthful  student 
enough  to  do ;  indeed,  it  may  well  be  doubtful  whether  he 
was  at  that  time  able  to  master  it. 

Tycho  remained  at  Copenhagen  for  three  years,  chiefly 
occupying  himself  with  mathematical  and  astronomical 
studies.  We  are  not  acquainted  with  any  details  as  to 
this  period  of  his  life;  all  we  know  is  that  he  formed  an 
intimate  friendship  with  one  of  the  professors  of  medicine, 
Hans  Frandsen,  from  Ribe,  in  Jutland  (Johannes  Francisci 
Kipensis),  and  especially  with  Johannes  Pratensis,  a  young 
man  of  French  extraction,  who  also  afterwards  became 
professor  of  medicine.2  Jorgen  Brahe  now  thought  that 
the  time  had  come  to  send  his  nephew  to  a  foreign  uni- 

1  Gassendi,  p.  5. 

2  His  father  was  Philip  du  Pre,  from  Normandy,  who  had  come  to  Den- 
mark with  Queen  Isabella,  the  wife  of  Christiern  II.     He  afterwards  became 
a  Protestant  and  Canon  of  Aarhus  Cathedral.     N.  M.  Petersen,  Den  Danske 
Literaturs  Uisorie,  iii.  p.  190. 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  15 

versify,  as  was  then  customary.  He  probably  hoped  that, 
when  removed  from  his  friends  at  Copenhagen,  the  young 
worshipper  of  Urania  might  be  induced  to  give  up  his 
scientific  inclinations  and  devote  himself  more  to  studies 
which  would  in  after  years  enable  him  to  take  the  place 
in  his  native  land  to  which  his  birth  entitled  him.  The 
university  he  selected  for  his  nephew  was  that  of  Leipzig. 
During  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  Danish 
students  had  followed  the  universal  custom  of  the  age  and 
repaired  to  the  University  of  Paris,  where  several  of  them 
had  risen  to  great  distinction,  and  even  occupied  the 
rectorial  chair;1  but  gradually  as  the  German  universities 
improved  they  became  more  frequented  by  Danes  than 
Paris.  To  accompany  Tycho  as  tutor,  Jorgen  Brahe  chose  a 
young  man  of  great  promise,  who,  although  only  four  years 
older  than  his  pupil,  was  known  to  be  steady  enough  to  be 
intrusted  with  this  responsible  office.  Anders  Sorensen 
Vedel,  son  of  a  respected  citizen  of  Yeile,  in  Jutland,  had 
been  less  than  a  year  at  the  University,  where  he  attended 
lectures  on  divinity,  and  at  the  same  time  devoted  him- 
self to  the  study  of  history.  He  became  afterwards  Koyal 
Historiographer,  and  is  particularly  known  by  his  translation 
of  the  Latin  Chronicle  of  Saxo  Grammaticus,  an  important 
source  of  Danish  history  from  the  end  of  the  twelfth 
century,  and  also  by  his  edition  of  the  ancient  national 
ballads  or  Kjaempeviser.2  Yedel  was  only  too  happy  to 
accept  the  proposal  of  accompanying  the  young  nobleman 
abroad,  as  there  was  at  that  time  no  Professor  of  History 

1  There  were  four  times  in  the  fourteenth  century  Danish  Rectors  of  the 
University  of  Paris  (N.  M.  Petersen,  Den  DansTce  Literaturs   Historic,  i. 
p.  74).     Students  from  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway  (provincia  Daciae) 
belonged  to  Anglicana  Natio,  one  of  the  four  Nations  of  the  University. 

2  HistorisTce  Efterretninrjer  om  Anders  Sorensen  Vedel,  af  C.  F.  Wegener. 
Appendix  to  a  new  edition  of  Den  DansTce  KroniTce  af  Saxo  Grammaticus, 
translated  by  Vedel,  Copenhagen,  1851,  fol.     This  book  is  a  valuable  source 
for  Tycho' s  early  life. 


16  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

in  the  Copenhagen  University,  while  it  was  not  uncommon 
to  find  professors  in  German  universities  who  combined  the 
chair  of  History  with  some  other  one.1 

Yedel  and  his  pupil  left  Copenhagen  on  the  1 4th  February 
1562,  and  arrived  at  Leipzig  on  the  24th  March  following. 
They  were  at  once  installed  in  the  house  of  one  of  the  pro- 
fessors,2 possibly  on  the  recommendation  of  some  of  their 
learned  friends  in  Copenhagen,  several  of  whom  were  in 
constant  communication  with  their  colleagues  at  the  Leipzig 
University.  They  had  at  once  their  names  entered  in  the 
book  of  matriculation,  where  they  may  still  be  seen  as 
"Andreas  Severinus  Cimber"  and  "  Tyho  Brade  ex  Scan- 
dria."  There  is,  however,  no  sign  whatever  that  Tycho 
-devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  law,  while  we  know  that  he 
at  once  sought  the  acquaintance  of  the  professor  of  mathe- 
matics, Johannes  Homilius ;  of  his  disciple,  Bartholomasus 
Scultetus  (Schultz),  and  probably  also  of  the  "electoral 
mathematician,"  Valentine  Thau.3  Homilius  died  on  the 
5th  July,  a  little  over  three  months  after  Tycho's  arrival, 
but  we  shall  afterwards  see  that  he  had  even  in  that 
short  time  imparted  valuable  and  practical  knowledge  to 
the  young  student.  Yedel  did  his  best  to  carry  out  his 
instructions  by  trying  to  keep  Tycho  to  the  study  of  juris- 
prudence, but  Tycho  would  not  allow  himself  to  be  hindered 
in  his  favourite  pursuits,  and  spent  most  of  his  money  on 

1  Though  the  University  of  Leipzig  did  not  get  a  chair  of  History  till  1579, 
Camerarius  (about  whom  see  next  page)  was  to  some  extent  considered  as 
being  Professor  of  History,  and  is  even  once  styled  "  Historiarum  et  utriusque 
linguae  professor"  (Wegener,  I.e.,  p.  31). 

2  His  name  is  not  known.     Tycho  only  mentions   him   once  in   a   note 
among  his  observations  :  "  1564,  1 4th  Dec. — Sub  coenam  Pfeffigerus,  qui  apud 
doctorem  nostrum   hospitem    convivabatur,  dicebat  .  .  ."   (then   follows   an 
account  of  the  conversation  in  German). 

3  Thau  is  mentioned  by  Vedel  as  a  friend  of  his  own,  and  appeal's  to  have 
been  the  inventor  of  an  artificial  car  (rheda,  viameter  ?).     See  Wegener,  p. 
32.     Is   he   identical  with  Lucius  Valentinus  Otho,   who   edited  the   Opus 
Palatinum  de  Triangulis  of  Rhaticus  in  1596  ? 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  17 

astronomical  books  and  instruments,  though  lie  had  to  receive 
the  money  from  his  tutor  and  account  to  him  for  the  way  it 
was  spent.  He  made  use  of  the  Ephemerides  of  Stadius l  to 
find  the  places  of  the  planets,  having  first  learned  the  names 
of  the  constellations  by  means  of  a  small  celestial  globe  not 
larger  than  his  fist,  which  he  hid  from  Yedel,  and  could 
only  use  when  the  latter  was  asleep.  Though  this  state  of 
things  at  first  produced  some  coolness  between  tutor  and 
pupil,  it  appears  that  they  soon  renewed  their  friendly 
intercourse.  Tycho  could  not  but  see  that  Yedel  was  only 
doing  his  duty,  and  Vedel  gradually  had  to  acknowledge 
that  the  love  of  astronomy  had  become  so  deeply  rooted  in 
his  pupil  that  it  was  utterly  impossible  to  force  him  against 
his  will  to  devote  himself  to  a  study  he  disliked,  or  at  least 
looked  on  with  indifference.  Another  circumstance  which 
was  a  bond  of  union  between  them  was  that  the  learned 
men  whose  society  Yedel  sought  were  to  a  great  extent  the 
same  to  whom  Tycho  looked  for  instruction.  Thus  the 
above-mentioned  Yalentine  Thau  had  a  great  regard  for 
Yedel,  and  even  tried  to  get  him  to  enter  the  service  of  the 
Elector,  while  Homilius  was  a  son-in-law  of  Camerarius,  the 
most  renowned  of  the  professors  at  Leipzig,  and  a  man 
whom  Yedel  later  in  one  of  his  writings  mentions  as  his 
beloved  teacher.2  Drawn  together  through  their  intercourse 
with  these  and  other  men  of  learning,  Yedel  and  Tycho  laid 
the  foundation  of  a  warm  friendship  which  lasted  through 
life. 

1  Published  at  Cologne  in   1556  for  the  years  1554-70,  again  in  1559  and 
1560,  being  continued  to  the  year  1576.     Founded  on  the  Prutenic  tables. 

2  Joachim  Liebhard  (who  changed  his  name  to  Camerarius  because  there 
had  been  several  Kdmmerer  in  his  family),  born  at  Bamberg  in  1500,  died  at 
Leipzig  in  1574;  published  the  Commentary  of  Theon  as  an  appendix  to  the 
edition  of  Ptolemy  edited  by  Grynaeus  in  1538;  wrote  a  book  on  Greek  and 
Latin  arithmetic  (see  Kastner,  Gesch.  d.  Mathem.,  i.  p.  134),  and  published  in 
1559  a  book,  De  eorum  qvi  Cometce  appellantur,  Nominibus,  Natura,  Caussis, 
Significatione,  in  which  he  shows  from  history  that  comets  sometimes  announce 
evil,  sometimes  good  events. 

2 


18  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

Though  Tycho  was  during  the  greater  part  of  the  time 
he  spent  at  Leipzig  obliged  to  study  astronomy  in  secret,  he 
did  not  long  content  himself  with  the  use  of  the  Epheme- 
rides  of  Stadius,  but  procured  the  Alphonsine  tables  and 
the  Prutenic  tables.1  We  have  already  mentioned  that  the 
former  were  founded  on  the  Ptolemean  planetary  system  and 
the  observations  of  the  Arabs,  as  well  as  those  made  under 
the  direction  of  Alphonso  X.  of  Castile  in  the  thirteenth 
century ;  while  the  latter,  which  got  their  name  from  being 
dedicated  to  Duke  Albrecht  of  Prussia,  were  the  work  of 
Erasmus  Eeinhold,  a  disciple  and  follower  of  Copernicus. 
Tycho  soon  mastered  the  use  of  these  tables,  and  perceived 
that  the  computed  places  of  the  planets  differed  from  their 
actual  places  in  the  sky  (even  though  he  only  inferred  the 
latter  from  the  relative  positions  of  the  planets  and  adjacent 
stars),  the  errors  of  the  old  Alphonsine  tables  being  much 
more  considerable  than  those  of  their  new  rivals.  He  even 
found  out  that  Stadius  had  not  computed  his  places  correctly 
from  Reinhold's  tables.  And  already  at  that  time,  while 
Tycho  was  a  youth  only  sixteen  years  of  age,  his  eyes  were 
opened  to  the  great  fact,  which  seems  to  us  so  simple  to 
grasp,  but  which  had  escaped  the  attention  of  all  European 
astronomers  before  him,  that  only  through  a  steadily  pursued 
course  of  observations  would  it  be  possible  to  obtain  a  better 
insight  into  the  motions  of  the  planets,  and  decide  which 
system  of  the  world  was  the  true  one.  An  astronomical 
phenomenon  which  took  place  in  August  1563,  a  conjunc- 
tion of  Saturn  and  Jupiter,  which  in  those  days  was  looked 
on  as  a  very  important  one,  owing  to  the  astrological  signifi- 
cance it  was  supposed  to  have,  induced  him  to  begin  at  once 
to  record  his  observations,  even  though  they  were  taken 
with  the  crudest  implements  only.  A  pair  of  ordinary 

1  In  his  observations  from  1563-64  he  also  mentions  the  Ephemerides  of 
Carellus  (Venice,  1557). 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  19 

compasses  was  all  lie  had  to  begin  with;  by  holding  the 
centre  close  to  the  eye,  and  pointing  the  legs  to  two  stars 
or  a  planet  and  a  star,  he  was  able  to  find  their  angular 
distance  by  afterwards  applying  the  compasses  to  a  circle 
drawn  on  paper  and  divided  into  degrees  and  half  degrees. 
His  first  recorded  observation  was  made  on  the  i/th  August 
I  5 ^S,1  and  on  the  24th  of  August  in  the  morning  he  noted 
that  Saturn  and  Jupiter  were  so  close  together  that  the 
interval  between  them  was  scarcely  visible.2  The  Alphon- 
sine  tables  turned  out  to  be  a  whole  month  in  error,  while 
the  Prutenic  ones  were  only  a  few  days  wrong  as  to  the 
moment  of  nearest  approach.  Tycho  continued  his  obser- 
vations, partly  with  the  above-mentioned  tool,  partly  using 
eye -estimations  as  to  which  stars  formed  with  a  planet  a 
rectangular  triangle,  or  which  stars  were  in  a  right  line 
with  it.  But  in  the  following  year  he  provided  himself 
with  a  "radius,"  or  "cross-staff,"  as  it  used  to  be  called 
in  English,  one  of  the  few  instruments  employed  by  the 
intrepid  navigators  who  discovered  the  new  worlds  beyond 
the  ocean.3  It  consisted  of  a  light  graduated  rod  about  three 
feet  long  and  another  rod  of  about  half  that  length,  also 
graduated,  which  at  the  centre  could  slide  along  the  longer 

1  Die  17,  H.  13,  M.  15,  Erat  £  in  7  Gr.  8  lat.  Mer.  3  Gr.  ad  fixas. 

2  "  Intervallum  Tj  et  7|  matutino  teinpore  vix  observations  oculari  notari 
potuit  :    in  hac  nocte  enim  uteique  se  invicem  obumbrabat  suis  radiis  sed 
latitude  ipsorum  diversa  adhuc  erat,   \  enim  meridionalior  ipso  H  erat.     Die 
27  (astron.  26)  Mane  vidi  I/  cum  \  obtinere  eandein  alt.  ab  horizonte,  hinc 
licet  conjicere  eorum  6  jam  prseteriisse  sed  propius  erant  ab  invicem  dispositi 
quam  ante  triduum  :  quare  etiam  tempus  avfvyias  propinquius  huic  27  Aug. 
quam  priori  24  fuisse  manifestum  est.     In  utroque  autem  die  paulo  ante 
ortum  ©  distantiam  ipsorum  observavi." — MS.  volume  of  observations,  1-563- 
1581  incl.,  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Copenhagen  (Gamle  Kongelige  Samlinger, 
4to,  No.  1824).     The  early  observations  (up  to  1577)  only  exist  in  this  copy, 
the  originals  would  seem  to  be  lost,  at  least  they  are  not  at  Copenhagen. 

3  In  French  called  arbaUte  or  arbalestrille,  in  Spanish  ballestitta,  in  German 
Jacolsstab.     It  seems  to  have  been  invented  by  Regiomontanus,  and  is  de- 
scribed in  his  Prollemata  XVI.  de  Cometce  Longitudine,  written  in  1472.  and 
printed  in  1531  in  Schoner's  Descriptio  Cometce. 


20  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

one,  so  that  they  always  formed  a  right  angle.  The 
instrument  could  be  used  in  two  ways.  Two  sights  might 
be  fixed  at  the  ends  of  the  shorter  rod,  and  one  at  the 
end  of  the  longer  rod,  and  the  observer,  having  placed 
the  latter  close  before  his  eye,  moved  the  cross-rod  along 
until  he  saw  through  its  two  sights  the  two  objects  of 
which  he  wanted  to  measure  the  angular  distance.  Or 
one  of  the  sights  of  the  shorter  arm  might  be  movable,  and 
the  observer  first  arbitrarily  placed  the  shorter  arm  at  any 
of  the  graduations  on  the  longer  one,  and  then  shifted  the 
movable  sight  along  until  he  saw  the  two  objects  through 
it.  and  a  sight  fixed  at  the  centre  of  the  transversal  arm. 
In  either  case  the  graduations  and  a  table  of  tangents 
furnished  the  required  angle.  Tycho's  instrument  was  of 
the  latter  kind,  and  was  made  according  to  the  directions  of 
Gemma  Frisius.  He  got  his  friend  Bartholomaeus  Scultetus 
to  subdivide  it  by  means  of  transversals,  which  method  of 
subdividing  small  intervals  was  then  beginning  to  be  used, 
and  which  Tycho  ascribes  to  Homilius.  The  earliest  obser- 
vations stated  to  have  been  made  with  the  radius  are  from 
the  i  st  of  May  I  5  64,  and  Tycho  says  that  he  had  to  use  it 
while  his  tutor  was  asleep,  from  which  we  see  that  Yedel 
had  even  at  that  time  not  given  up  his  resistance  to  his 
pupil's  scientific  labours.  The  observer  soon  found  that  the 
divisions  did  not  give  the  angles  correctly,  and  as  he  could 
not  get  money  from  Yedel  for  a  new  instrument,  he  con- 
structed a  table  of  corrections  to  be  applied  to  the  results  of 
his  observations.1  This  is  deserving  of  notice  as  the  first 
indication  of  that  eminently  practical  talent  which  was  in 
the  course  of  years  to  guide  the  art  of  observing  into  the 
paths  in  which  modern  observers  have  followed.  Kepler, 
who  more  than  any  one  else  was  able  to  appreciate  his  great 

1  Astronomice  Instauratce  Mcchanica,  fol.   G.    2.     For  a  specimen  of  the 
observations  see  Appendix  A.  at  end  of  this  volume. 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  21 

predecessor,  justly  says  that  the  "  restoration  of  astronomy  " 
was  ' '  by  that  Phoenix  of  astronomers,  Tycho,  first  con- 
ceived and  determined  on  in  the  year  I  564."  l 

While  occupied  with  the  study  of  astronomy  and  occa- 
sional observations,  Tycho,  like  everybody  else  at  that  time, 
believed  in  judicial  astrology,  and  now  and  then  worked 
out  horoscopes  for  his  friends.  He  even  kept  a  book  in 
which  he  entered  these  "  themata  genethliaca."  He  men- 
tions in  a  letter,2  written  in  1588  to  the  mathematician 
Caspar  Peucer,  the  son-in-law  of  Melanchthon,  that  he 
had  during  his  stay  at  Leipzig  made  out  the  nativity  of 
Peucer,  and  found  that  he  was  to  meet  with  great 
misfortunes,  either  exile  or  imprisonment,  and  that  he 
should  become  free  when  about  sixty  years  of  age,  through 
the  agency  of  some  "martial"  person.  This  prediction 
chanced  to  turn  out  correct,  as  Peucer  in  I  574  was  deprived 
of  his  professorship  at  Wittenberg,  and  kept  in  a  rigorous 
imprisonment  till  1586,  being  suspected  of  a  leaning  to 
Calvinism.  From  a  lunar  eclipse  which  took  place  while 
he  was  at  Leipzig,  Tycho  foretold  wet  weather,  which  also 
turned  out  to  be  correct.3 

Tycho  left  Leipzig  on  the  1 7th  May  1565   with  Vedel 

1  Tab  alee  Rudolphince,  title-page. 

2  Printed  in  Resenii  Jnscriptiones  Hafnienses  (Hafniae,  1668),  pp.  392  et 
seq. ;  and  in  Weistritz,  LebensbescTireibung  dcs  T.  v.  Brake,  i.  pp.  239  et  seq. 
(the  matter  referred  to  occurs  on  p.  259). 

3  In  the  volume  of  observations,  1563-81,  there  follow,  after  April  19,  1565, 
sixteen  pages  headed  "Notationes  interiectge,"  of  various  contents.     On  a 
vacant  quarter  page  is  written  in  a  different  hand:  "Duobus  sequentibus 
annis  nulloe  extant  observationes  Brahei,  sed  earum  loco  sequebantur  anno- 
tationes  qualescunque  in  codice."     Also   in  another  hand  is  the  following: 
"Tycho  Brahe  Tomo  II.  Epistolarum  aliqvando  excuso  sed  non  edito  fol. 
54  scribit  se  hujus  eclipsis   tempore  adhuc   Lipsise    studiorum  causa   coin- 
moratum,   et   pluvium   tempus   cum    meteoris   humidis  ex  hac  eclipsi  prae- 
dixisse."     Among  the  notes  is  also   "Observatio  XII.   dierum  et  noctiurn 
statim  sequentium  natalem  Christi  in  Anno  1564  complete,  pro  constitution 
et  temperamento  12  mensium  Anni  1565  proxime  seqventis."     The  probable 
weather  for  January  is  concluded  from  the  weather  on  December  26th ;  that 
for  February  from  the  27th,  and  so  on. 


22  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

to  return  to  Denmark.  During  Ms  absence  from  home  war 
had  broken  out  between  Denmark  and  Sweden,  and  his 
uncle,  Jorgen  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 ;  but  the  two  relatives  did 
not  long  enjoy  each  other's  company,  as  Jorgen  Brahe,  who 
had  just  returned  from  a  naval  engagement  in  the  Baltic 
(near  the  coast  of  Mecklenburg),  died  on  the  2ist  June 
1565.  It  happened  that  King  Frederick  II.,  when  riding 
over  the  bridge  which  joined  the  castle  of  Copenhagen  and 
the  town,  fell  into  the  water.  Jorgen  Brahe  was  in  his 
suite,  and  hastened  to  help  .  the  king  out ;  but  a  severe 
cold  he  caught  in  consequence  developed  into  an  illness 
which  proved  fatal  in  a  few  days.  After  his  uncle's  death 
there  was  nothing  to  keep  Tycho  at  home.  Another  uncle, 
Steen  Bille,  maintained  that  he  should  be  left  to  follow  his 
own  inclinations ;  but,  with  this  exception,  all  his  relations 
and  other  nobles  looked  with  coldness  at  this  young  man 
with  his  odd  taste  for  star-gazing  and  his  dislike  to  what 
they  considered  sensible  occupations.  He  was,  therefore, 
glad  to  escape  from  these  surroundings  to  others  more 
congenial,  and  early  in  1566  he  left  Denmark  for  the 
second  time,  and  arrived  at  Wittenberg  on  the  I  5th  April. 
The  University  of  Wittenberg  had  been  founded  in  1502, 
and  had  then  for  nearly  fifty  years  been  one  of  the  most 
renowned  in  Europe,  possessing  great  attractions  for  Pro- 
testant students.  Here  Luther  had  lived,  and  from  this 
hitherto  insignificant  spot  had  shaken  the  spiritual  despotism 
under  which  the  world  had  suffered  so  long ;  and  a  few  years 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  23 

Lad  only  elapsed  since  the  death  of  Melanchthon  had 
deprived  the  University  of  an  accomplished  scholar  as  well 
as  a  faithful  and  indefatigable  worker  for  the  Reformed 
faith.  There  were  still  many  men  of  celebrity  following 
in  their  footsteps,  and  keeping  up  the  high  reputation  they 
had  made  for  the  University.  Mathematics  were  specially 
cultivated  at  Wittenberg,  because,  as  the  Statutes  stated, 
without  them  Aristotle,  "  that  nucleus  and  foundation  of  all 
science,"  could  not  be  properly  understood.  At  the  instance 
of  Melanchthon,  two  chairs  of  Mathematics  were  founded, 
"  Mathematum  superiorum "  and  u  inferiorum,"  the  holder 
of  the  former  having  to  lecture  on  astronomy — that  of 
the  latter  on  algebra  and  geometry.  To  Danish  students 
Wittenberg  had  since  the  Reformation  been  a  favourite 
resort,  and,  among  a  number  of  young  countrymen,  Tycho 
Brahe  also  found  his  former  tutor,  Yedel,  who  had  arrived  a 
few  months  before.  We  do  not  possess  any  information  as 
to  how  Tycho  spent  his  time  at  Wittenberg ;  all  we  know 
is  that  he  had  the  advantage  of  studying  under  the  above- 
mentioned  Caspar  Peucer,  Professor  of  Medicine  and  Phy- 
sician in  ordinary  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony.  This  man, 
who  was  distinguished  both  as  a  mathematician,  a  physician, 
and  a  historian,  had  been  invested  with  unusual  authority 
over  the  University.1  In  the  history  of  astronomy  Peucer 
is  known  as  the  author  of  a  few  treatises,  among  which 
is  one  on  spherical  astronomy.  Tycho,  however,  did  not 
profit  very  much  from  Peucer's  instruction,  as  the  plague 
broke  out  at  Wittenberg,  so  that  he  was  induced  to  leave 
it  on  the  1 6th  September,  after  a  stay  of  only  five  months,2 

1  As  Praeceptor  primarius  totius  Academiae.     We  have  already  mentioned 
Peucer's  subsequent  misfortune.     He  died  in  1602. 

2  Tycho  probably  remembered  that  the  well-known  astronomer  Erasmus 
Reinhold,  author  of  the  Prutenic  tables  and  professor  at  Wittenberg,  had 
'n   I553   vainly  tried  to  escape  the  plague  by  flying   from  Wittenberg  to 
Saalfeld,  where  he  died. 


24  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

and  to  go  to  Rostock,  where  he  arrived  on  the  24th 
September,  and  was  matriculated  at  the  University  a  few 
weeks  later.1 

Though  not  as  celebrated  as  the  University  of  Wittenberg, 
Eostock  was  also  much  frequented  by  Scandinavian  students, 
a  natural  consequence  of  its  being  situated  close  to  the  shore 
of  the  Baltic,  and  within  easy  reach  from  the  Northern 
countries.  It  can  hardly  have  been  the  wish  of  studying 
astronomy  under  any  of  the  professors  at  Rostock  which 
induced  Tycho  to  take  up  his  abode  there,  for  there  was 
not  at  that  time  any  savant  attached  to  the  University  of 
Rostock  who  occupied  himself  specially  with  astronomy ; 
and  only  one,  David  Chytrseus,  otherwise  well  known  as  a 
theological  author,  is  very  slightly  known  in  the  history  of 
astronomy  as  one  of  the  numerous  writers  on  the  new  star 
of  1572.  But  if  there  were  no  astronomers  at  Rostock 
(and,  indeed,  they  were  not  numerous  anywhere),  there 
were  several  men  who  devoted  themselves  to  astrology  and 
alchemy,  in  addition  to  mathematics  or  medicine.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  it  was  at  that  time  easy  enough  to 
be  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  little  that  was  known 
in  several  sciences,  and  men  frequently  exchanged  a  pro- 
fessorship of  medicine  for  one  of  astronomy  or  divinity. 
The  connection  of  medicine  in  particular  with  astronomy 
was  supposed  to  be  a  very  intimate  one,  and  as  physicians, 
if  they  kept  to  what  we  should  call  their  proper  sphere, 
could  do  little  but  grope  in  the  dark,  they  were  only  too 
glad  to  call  in  the  aid  of  astrology  to  make  up  for  the 
deficiency  of  their  medical  knowledge.  The  idea  of  a 
connection  between  the  celestial  bodies  and  the  vital  action 
of  the  human  frame  was  a  natural  consequence  of  the 

i  As  "  Tycho  Brahe,  natus  ex  nobili  familia  in  ea  parte  regni  Danici  quse 
dicitur  Scania."  See  G.  C.  F.  Lisch,  Tycho  Brake  und  seine  Verhaltnisse  zu 
Mecklenburg,  in  Jalir'bucher  des  Vereins  fur  Mecklenburgische  Geschichte, 
xxxiv.,  1869  (Reprint,  p.  2). 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  25 

Aristotelean  and  scholastic  views  of  the  kosmos  and  of  the 
dependence  of  the  four  elements  of  the  sublunary  region 
on  the  movements  in  the  sethereal  part  of  the  universe. 
The  dependence  of  vegetable  life  on  the  motion  of  the 
sun  in  the  ecliptic,  and  the  similarity  of  the  period  of  the 
moon's  orbital  motion  to  that  of  certain  phenomena  of 
human  life,  were  looked  upon  as  proofs  of  the  connection 
between  the  sublunary  and  the  aethereal  worlds ;  and  as  the 
human  body  was  composed  of  the  elements,  it  would,  like 
these,  be  influenced  by  the  forces,  chiefly  the  planets,  by 
which  the  celestial  part  of  the  kosmos  exercised  its  power. 
Thus  it  was  supposed  that  the  state  of  the  body  was  de- 
pendent on  the  positions  of  the  planets  among  the  signs  of 
the  zodiac,  and  that  the  power  of  the  Deity  over  the  fate  of 
man  was  also  exercised  by  the  medium  of  the  stars.1  Galileo 
had  not  yet  overthrown  the  Aristotelean  system  of  Natural 
Philosophy,  and  Bacon  had  not  yet  taught  us  to  look  for 
the  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  nature  by  seeking  for 
the  mechanically  acting  causes  through  observation  and  in- 
duction, instead  of  through  metaphysical  speculation.  Until 
this  was  done,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  greatest 
minds  believed  in  astrology ;  and  it  only  shows  the  narrow- 
mindedness  of  some  modern  writers,  and  their  ignorance 
of  the  historical  development  of  man's  conception  of  nature, 
when  they,  on  every  occasion,  sneer  at  the  greatest  men  of 
former  ages  for  their  belief  in  astrology. 

Among  the  professors  at  Rostock  was  Levinus  Battus, 
Professor  of  Medicine,  born  in  the  Netherlands,  and  origi- 
nally a  mathematician.  He  has  left  writings  on  alchemy, 
and  was  a  follower  of  Paracelsus  ;  so  that  it  is  likely  enough 
that  Tycho,  who  afterwards  paid  a  good  deal  of  attention 
to  chemistry,  attended  his  lectures.  Tycho  does  not  seem 
to  have  taken  observations  regularly  at  that  time ;  at 

1  "  Astra  regunt  hominem,  sed  regit  astra  Deus." 


26  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

least  we  do  not  possess  any  made  at  Rostock  earlier  than 
January  1568.  But  shortly  after  his  arrival,  on  the 
28th  October  1566,  a  lunar  eclipse  took  place,  and  Tycho 
posted  up  in  the  college  some  Latin  verses,  in  which  he 
announced  that  the  eclipse  foretold  the  death  of  the  Tur- 
kish Sultan.  It  was  natural  to  think  of  him,  as  Soliman, 
who  was  about  eighty  years  of  age,  had  the  year  before 
startled  Christendom  by  his  formidable  attack  on  Malta, 
which  was  heroically  and  successfully  defended  by  the 
Knights  of  St.  John.  A  few  weeks  later  news  was  received 
of  the  Sultan's  death ;  but  unluckily  he  had  died  before  the 
eclipse,  so  that  the  praise  Tycho  received  for  the  prophecy 
was  not  unmingled  with  sneers,  while  he  defended  himself 
by  explaining  the  horoscope  of  Soliman,  from  which  he  had 
drawn  his  conclusions  as  to  the  Sultan's  death.1 

An  event  took  place  at  Rostock  soon  after  this,  which 
was  a  good  deal  more  unfortunate  for  Brahe,  and  which  has 
become  more  widely  known  than  many  other  and  much 
more  important  incidents  in  his  life.  On  the  I  oth  Decem- 
ber I  566  there  was  a  dance  at  Professor  Bachmeister's  house 
to  celebrate  a  betrothal,  and  among  the  guests  were  Brahe 
and  another  Danish  nobleman,  Manderup  Parsbjerg.  These 
two  got  into  a  quarrel,  which  was  renewed  at  a  Christmas 
party  on  the  27th,  and  finally  they  met  (whether  acciden- 
tally or  not  is  not  stated)  on  the  29th,  at  seven  o'clock  in 
the  evening,  "  in  perfect  darkness,"  and  settled  the  dispute 
with  their  swords.  The  result  was  that  Tycho  lost  part 
of  his  nose,  and  in  order  to  conceal  the  disfigurement,  he 

1  In  a  marginal  note  in  the  volume  of  observations,  1563-81  (printed  in 
Danslce  Magazin,  ii.  p.  177),  Tycho  states  that  Soliman  died  a  few  days 
before  the  eclipse.  In  reality  he  died  on  6th  September,  while  besieging  the 
Hungarian  fortress  Szigeth,  though  his  death  was  kept  secret  for  more  than  a 
fortnight.  There  is  a  written  pamphlet  by  Tycho,  apparently  intended  to  be 
printed,  in  the  Hofbibliothek  at  Vienna,  De  Eclipsi  I/unari,  1573,  Mense 
Decembri,  in  which  the  eclipse  of  1566  and  the  prediction  of  the  Sultan's 
death  are  also  treated  of.  Friis,  in  DansTce  Samlinr/er,  1869,  iv.  p.  255. 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  27 

replaced  the  lost  piece  by  another  made  of  a  composition 
of  gold  and  silver.  Gassendi,  who  recounts  all  these 
details,  adds  that  Willem  Jansson  Blaev,  who  spent  two 
years  with  Tycho  at  Hveen,  had  told  him  that  Tycho 
always  carried  in  his  pocket  a  small  box  with  some  kind 
of  ointment  or  glutinous  composition,  which  he  frequently 
rubbed  on  his  nose.1  The  various  portraits  which  we  pos- 
sess of  Tycho  show  distinctly  that  there  was  something 
strange  about  the  appearance  of  his  nose,  but  one  cannot 
see  with  certainty  whether  it  was  the  tip  or  the  bridge  that 
was  injured,  though  it  seems  to  be  the  latter.  A  very 
venomous  enemy  of  his,  Eeymers  Bar,  of  whom  we  shall 
hear  more  farther  on,  says  that  it  was  the  upper  part  of 
the  nose  which  Tycho  had  lost.2 

As  already  remarked  above,  Tycho  does  not  seem  to  have 
taken  many  observations  about  this  time,  but  on  the  Qth 
April  1567  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  took  place  which  he 
observed.  At  Eostock  the  eclipse  was  of  about  seven  digits, 
but  at  Eome  it  was  total,  and  the  solar  corona  was  seen  by 
Clavius.  In  the  summer  of  1567  Tycho  paid  a  visit  to 
his  native  country,  but  he  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
altogether  pleased  with  his  reception  there,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  year  he  returned  to  Eostock,  where  he  arrived  on  the 
1st  January  1568.  Already,  at  six  o'clock  on  the  following 
morning,  he  commenced  to  take  observations,  though  he  had 
not  an  instrument  at  hand,  and  therefore  had  to  content 
himself  with  noting  down  the  positions  of  Jupiter  and 
Saturn  among  the  stars.  On  the  1 4th  he  wrote  a  letter  to 

1  Gassendi  (p.  10)  adds,  that  according  to  the  Epistles  of  Job.  Bapt.  Laurus 
(Protonotarius  Apostolicus  of  Pope  Urban  VIII.),  the  dispute  between  Brahe 
and  Parsbjerg  was  as  to  which  of  them  was  the  best  mathematician.     But 
this  is  probably  only  gossip.     They  are  said  to  have  been  very  good  friends 
afterwards.     Towards  the  end  of  this  book  we  shall  see  that  Parsbjerg  com- 
plained of  the  fight  being  referred  to  in  Tycho's  funeral  oration. 

2  Delambre,  Astr.  Modcrne,  i.  p.  297 ;  Kastner,  Qeschichte  der  Afatkematik, 
in.  p.  475. 


28  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

a  countryman  Johannes  Aalborg  (whose  acquaintance  he  had 
probably  made  at  Rostock  the  previous  winter),  that  he  had 
since  his  arrival  been  staying  at  the  house  of  Professor 
Levinus  Battus,  but  that  he  hoped  the  same  day  to  take 
up  his  residence  in  the  College  of  the  Jurists,  where  he 
would  have  a  convenient  place  for  observing.  (We  find 
that  he  commenced  to  use  the  radius  or  cross-staff  there 
on  the  I  pth.)  In  this  letter,  which  is  printed  by  Gassendi,1 
Tycho  says  that  he  intends  remaining  over  the  winter  in  his 
new  abode,  and  adds :  "  But  you,  my  dear  Johannes,  must 
keep  perfect  silence  with  regard  to  those  reasons  for  my 
departure  which  I  have  confided  to  you,  lest  anybody  should 
suspect  that  I  complain  of  anything,  or  that  there  was  some- 
thing in  my  native  land  which  obliged  me  to  leave  it.  For 
I  am  very  anxious  that  nobody  should  think  that  I  am  com- 
plaining of  anything,  as  in  truth  I  have  not  much  to  com- 
plain of.  I  was  indeed  received  better  in  my  native  land  by 
my  relations  and  friends  than  I  deserved  ;  only  one  thing 
was  wanting,  that  my  studies  should  please  everybody,  and 
even  that  may  be  excused.  There  are  many  denunciators 
everywhere." 

But  though  Tycho  was  dissatisfied  with  the  want  of 
sympathy  which  his  countrymen  showed  for  his  love  of  the 
stars,  it  appears  that  there  must  have  been  those  in  Den- 
mark who  appreciated  the  steady  perseverance  with  which 
the  young  nobleman  devoted  himself  to  study,  and  the  first 
sign  of  this  appeared  soon  after.  On  the  1 4th  May  1568, 
King  Frederick  II.  granted  him  under  his  hand  a  formal 
promise  of  the  first  canonry  which  might  become  vacant  in 
the  Chapter  of  the  Cathedral  of  Eoskilde  in  Seeland.2  To 
understand  this,  we  must  mention  that  the  Danish  cathedral 

1  Page  II,  and  reprinted  in  Tychonis  Brahei  et  ad  eum  doctor  urn  Virorum 
Epistolce,  Havniae,  1876-86,  p.  I. 

2  The  letter  may  be  seen  in  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  180  (Weistritz,  ii. 
P-  45)- 


TYCIIO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  29 

chapters  were  not  abolished  at  the  Eef ormation  (1536), 
but  that  their  incomes  for  more  than  a  century  were  spent 
to  support  men  of  merit  (or  who  were  supposed  to  be  such), 
and  especially  men  of  learning.  The  members  were  still 
called  canons,  and  if  they  lived  about  the  cathedral,  they 
formed  a  corporate  body  and  managed  the  temporalities  of 
the  cathedral  and  its  associated  foundations.  Gradually 
the  canonries  became  perfect  sinecures,  and  the  kings 
assumed  the  right  to  fill  them,  until  their  property,  in 
the  course  of  the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
was  taken  possession  of  by  the  Crown.  One  of  these 
sinecures  was  thus  by  royal  letter  promised  to  Tycho  Brahe, 
who  now  might  feel  certain  that  means  of  following  his 
favourite  pursuit  would  not  be  wanting.  He  was  possibly 
still  at  Rostock  when  this  letter  was  issued,  and  it  is  not 
known  when  he  left  this  town  (his  last  recorded  observation 
there  is  of  the  gib.  February),  but  it  must  have  been  early 
in  the  year,  as  he  was  at  Wittenberg  some  time  in  I568,1 
and  went  to  Basle  in  the  course  of  the  same  year,  where  he 
was  matriculated  at  the  University.2  He  must  have  stayed 
at  Basle  till  the  beginning  of  the  following  year,  when  we 
find  him  at  Augsburg,  where  he  began  to  observe  on  the 
1 4th  April.  On  the  way  he  had  paid  a  visit  to  Cyprianus 
Leovitius  (Livowski),  a  well-known  astronomer,  who  lived 
at  Lauingen,  in  Suabia,3  who  had  published  an  edition 
of  the  trigonometrical  tables  of  Regiomontanus  (Tabula 
Directionum,  1552),  various  Ephemerides,  and  an  astro- 
logical book  on  the  signification  of  conjunctions  of  planets, 
eclipses,  &c.4  Leovitius  thought  the  world  was  likely  to 

1  Mechanica,  fol.  G.  2. 

2  R.  Wolf,  Geschichte  der  Astronomie,  p.  271. 

3  Born  in  1524  in  Bohemia,  died  at  Lauingen  in  1574. 

4  The  original  edition  (of  1564)  is  in  German  (see  Pulkova  Library  Cat., 
p.  382),  and  not  in  Latin,  as  stated  by  Lalande.     The  London  edition  of  1573 
(of  which  more  below)  is  in  Latin,  and  has  the  title  given  by  Lalande. 


30  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

come  to  an  end  in  1584,  after  the  next  great  conjunction, 
and  he  was,  on  the  whole,  more  of  an  astrologer  than  of 
an  astronomer.  Tycho  asked  him,  among  other  things, 
whether  he  ever  took  observations,  as  he  might  thereby 
see  that  the  Ephemerides,  which  he  had  with  some  trouble 
computed  from  the  Alphonsine  tables,  did  not  agree  with 
the  heavens.  To  this  Leovitius  answered  that  he  had  no 
instruments,  but  that  he  sometimes  "by  means  of  clocks" 
observed  solar  and  lunar  eclipses,  and  found  that  the  former 
agreed  better  with  the  Copernican  (Prutenic)  tables,  the 
latter  better  with  the  Alphonsine,  while  the  motion  of  the 
three  outer  planets  agreed  best  with  the  Copernican,  the 
inner  ones  with  the  Alphonsine  tables.1  It  does  not  seem 
to  have  struck  him,  nor,  indeed,  any  one  before  Tycho,  that 
the  only  way  to  produce  correct  tables  of  the  motions  of  the 
planets  was  by  a  prolonged  series  of  observations;  and  not  by 
taking  an  odd  observation  now  and  then. 

In  the  ancient  free  city  of  Augsburg  Tycho  seems  to 
have  felt  perfectly  at  home.  Dear  to  all  Protestants  as 
being  the  place  where  the  fearless  Reformers  had  declared 
their  faith,  and  where  the  Protestant  princes  and  cities  of 
Germany  had  signed  the  "  Confession  of  Augsburg,"  the 
city  possessed  the  further  attraction  of  having  many  hand- 
some public  and  private  buildings  and  spacious  thorough- 
fares, while  the  society  of  many  men  of  cultured  tastes  and 
princely  wealth  (such  as  the  celebrated  Fugger  family), 
made  it  an  agreeable  place  of  residence.  Among  the  men 
with  whom  Tycho  associated  here  were  two  brothers,  Johann 
Baptist  and  Paul  Hainzel,  the  former  burgomaster,  the 
latter  an  alderman  (septemvir).  Both  were  fond  of  astro- 
nomy, but  Paul  particularly  so,  and  they  were  anxious  to 
procure  some  good  instrument  with  which  to  make  observa- 
tions at  their  country-seat  at  Gb'ggingen,  a  village  about  an 

1  Astr.  lust.  Progymnasmata,  p.  708. 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  31 

English  mile  south  of  Augsburg.1  Tycho  tells  us  in  his 
principal  work,  Astronomies  Instauratce  Progymnasmata,  at 
some  length,  that  he  was  in  the  act  of  making  out  how  large 
an  instrument  would  have  to  be  in  order  to  have  the  single 
minutes  marked  on  the  graduated  arc,  when  Paul  Hainzel 
came  in  and  a  discussion  arose  between  them  on  the  subject. 
Tycho  was  convinced  that  no  good  would  result  to  science 
from  using  "  those  puerile  tools"  with  which  astronomers 
then  observed,  and  he  concluded  that  it  was  necessary  to 
construct  a  very  large  quadrant,  so  large  that  every  minute 
could  readily  be  distinguished,  and  fractions  of  a  minute 
estimated ;  "  for  he  did  not  then  know  the  method  of  sub- 
dividing by  transversals."  This  last  remark  is  curious,  as 
we  have  already  seen  that  he  attributed  his  acquaintance 
with  the  method  to  Scultetus,  but  he  evidently  means  that 
it  had  not  yet  occurred  to  him  to  use  this  plan  on  an  arc 
as  well  as  on  a  rectilinear  scale.  He  spoke  in  favour  of  con- 
structing a  quadrant,  as  he  had  already  made  several  of 
three  or  four  cubits  radius  (this  is  the  only  evidence  we 
have  of  this  fact),  and  was  sufficiently  familiar  with  the 
cross-staff  to  know  that  no  accurate  results  were  to  be 
expected  from  it.  The  outcome  of  this  discussion  was  that 
Paul  Hainzel  undertook  to  defray  the  expense  of  a  quadrant 
with  a  radius  of  14  cubits  (or  about  19  feet).  The  most 
skilful  workmen  were  engaged,  and  within  one  month  the 
huge  instrument  was  completed.  Twenty  men  were  scarcely 
able  to  erect  it  on  a  hill  in  Hainzel's  garden  at  Goggingen ; 
it  was  made  of  well-seasoned  oak ;  the  two  radii  and  the  arc 
were  joined  together  by  a  framework  of  wood,  and  a  slip  of 
brass  along  the  arc  had  the  divisions  marked  on  it.  Unlike 
all  Tycho's  later  quadrants,  it  was  suspended  by  the  centre, 

i  The  latitude  of  Goggingen  is  48°  20'  28",  and  that  of  St.  Ulrich's  Church, 
Augsburg  =  48°  21'  41"  (Bode's  Jahrbuch,  Dritter  Supplcmcntland,  pp.  166- 
167).  Hainzel  found,  in  1572-73,  the  latitude  of  Goggingen  =  48°  22'  with 
the  great  quadrant  (Proyymnasmata,  p.  361). 


32  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

and  was  movable  round  it,  the  two  sights  being  fixed  on 
one  of  the  radii,  and  the  measured  altitude  being  marked 
by  a  plumb-line.  The  weighty  mass  was  attached  to  a 
massive  beam,  vertically  placed  in  a  cubical  framework  of 
oak,  and  capable  of  being  turned  round  by  four  handles,  so 
as  to  place  the  quadrant  in  any  vertical  plane.  The  frame- 
work or  base  was  strongly  attached  to  beams  sunk  in  the 
ground.  There  was  no  permanent  roof  over  it,  but  some 
kind  of  removable  cover.  The  instrument  stood  there  for 
five  years,  until  it  was  destroyed  in  a  great  storm  in 
December  15/4,  and  some  observations  made  with  it  of 
the  new  star  of  1572  and  other  fixed  stars  are  pub- 
lished in  Tycho's  Progymnasmata.1  He  does  not  himself 
appear  to  have  observed  with  it,  although  we  possess  his 
observations  made  at  Augsburg,  with  few  interruptions, 
from  April  1569  to  April  1 5  70.  Some  of  these  are,  as 
formerly,  mere  descriptions  of  the  positions  of  the  planets, 
stating  with  which  stars  they  were  in  a  straight  line  or  in 
the  same  vertical ;  others  are  made  with  the  cross-staff;  others 
again  with  a  "  sextant"  or  instrument  for  measuring  angles 
in  any  plane  whatever,  which  he  had  designed  about  this 
time.  This  instrument,  which  he  presented  to  Paul  Hainzel, 
consisted  of  two  arms  joined  by  a  hinge  like  a  pair  of  com- 
passes, with  an  arc  of  30°  attached  to  the  end  of  one  arm, 
while  the  other  arm  could  be  slowly  moved  along  the  arc 
by  means  of  a  screw.2  We  shall  farther  on  describe  this 
instrument  in  detail. 

In  addition  to  these  instruments,  Tycho  while  at  Augsburg 
arranged  for  the  construction  of  a  large  celestial  globe  five 
feet  in  diameter,  made  of  wooden  plates  with  strong  rings 
inside  to  strengthen  it.  It  was  afterwards  covered  with 

1  Pages  360-367.     The  quadrant  is  figured  ibid.,  p.  356;  also  in  Astron. 
Inst.  Mechanica,  fol.  E.  5,  and  in  Barretti  Historia  Coslcstis,  p.  cvii.     About 
its  destruction,  see  T.  B.  et  ad  eum  Doct.  Vir.  Epistolce,  p.  17. 

2  Figured  in  Mechanica,  fol.  E.  2. 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  33 

thin  gilt  brass  plates,  on  which  the  stars  and  the  equator 
and  colures  were  marked.  It  was  not  finished  when  Tycho 
left  Augsburg  ;  but  Paul  Hainzel,  who  was  under  great 
obligations  to  him  for  having  designed  the  quadrant  and 
given  him  the  newly-constructed  sextant,  readily  undertook 
to  superintend  the  completion  of  it. 

At  Augsburg  Tycho  made  the  acquaintance  of  Pierre  de 
la  Eamee,  or  Petrus  Eamus,  Professor  of  Philosophy  and 
Ehetoric  at  the  College  Royal  at  Paris,  who  had  been 
obliged  to  leave  France  several  times  owing  to  his  adherence 
to  the  Huguenot  party,  and  the  odium  he  had  drawn  on 
himself  by  his  opposition  to  the  then  all-powerful  Aristotelean 
philosophy.  He  wanted  to  discourage  the  exclusive  study 
of  this  time-honoured  system  of  philosophy,  now  worn  to 
a  shadow,  which  had  become  a  mere  cloak  for  stagnation, 
bigotry,  and  ignorance,  and  to  introduce  in  its  place  the 
study  of  mathematics  in  the  University  of  Paris.  But  his 
zeal  only  procured  him  much  enmity  and  persecution ;  he 
had  to  apologise  for  his  abuse  of  the  Peripatetic  philosophy 
before  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  and  by  sentence  of  special 
royal  commissioners  appointed  to  investigate  the  matter, 
Aristotle  was  reinstated  as  the  infallible  guide  to  learning. 
Eamus  had  therefore  for  a  while  withdrawn  from  France, 
but,  unluckily  for  himself,  he  returned  in  1571,  and  perished 
the  following  year  in  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew. 
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,  Eamus 
expressed  his  admiration  of  this  important  undertaking,  so 
successfully  carried  out  by  a  young  man  only  twenty-three 

3 


34  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

years  of  age,  and  begged  him  to  publish  a  description  of 
it.  In  his  work  Scholar um  Mathematicarum  Libri  XXXL, 
published  at  Basle  in  1569  (only  a  few  months  before  his 
conversation  with  Tycho),  Ramus  had  advocated  the  building 
up  of  a  new  astronomy  solely  by  logic  and  mathematics,  and 
entirely  without  any  hypothesis,  and  had  referred  to  the 
ancient  Chaldeans  and  Egyptians  as  having  had  a  science 
of  this  kind,  which  had  gradually  by  Eudoxus  and  that 
terrible  Aristotle  been  made  absurd  through  the  introduc- 
tion of  solid  spheres  and  endless  systems  of  epicycles. 
Ramus  explained  his  views  to  Tycho  (who  has  left  us 
an  account  of  this  conversation  *) ;  but  he  answered  that 
astronomy  without  an  hypothesis  was  an  impossibility,  for 
though  the  science  must  depend  on  numerical  data  and 
measures,  the  apparent  motions  of  the  stars  could  only 
be  represented  by  circles  and  other  figures.  But  though 
Ramus  could  not  bring  over  the  young  astronomer  to  his 
views,  they  could  cordially  agree  in  the  desire  of  seeing 
the  science  of  astronomy  renovated  by  new  and  accurate 
observations,  before  a  true  explanation  of  the  celestial 
motions  was  attempted ;  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that 
the  conversation  of  this  rational,  clear  thinker  (so  different 
from  a  Leovitius,  with  his  brain  crammed  full  of  astrology 
and  other  hazy  and  fanciful  ideas)  took  root  in  the  thought- 
ful mind  of  the  young  astronomer,  and  bore  fruit  in  after 
years  in  that  reformation  of  his  science  for  which  Ramus 
had  hoped. 

Tycho  Brahe  left  Augsburg  in  1570,  but  the  exact 
month  is  not  known,  nor  the  route  by  which  he  travelled. 
We  only  know  that  he  passed  through  Ingolstadt,  and 
called  on  Philip  Apianus,2  a  son  of  Peter  Apianus  (or  Biene- 
witz),  whose  name  is  well  known  both  by  his  having  pointed 

1  In  a  letter  to  Rothmann,  Epist.  Astron.,  p.  60  ;  see  also  Progymn.,  p.  359. 
2  Prwjymn.,  p.  643. 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  35 

out  that  the  tails  of  comets  are  turned  away  from  the  sun,  and 
also  by  his  work  Astronomicum  Ccesareum,  to  which  we  have 
already  alluded.  He  was  probably  called  back  to  Denmark 
by  the  illness  of  his  father,  Otto  Brahe,  for  the  first  sign  of 
his  having  returned  is  an  observation  made  on  the  3Oth 
December  1570  at  Helsingborg  Castle,  where  his  father 
was  governor,1  and  it  is  known  that  his  brother,  Steen 
Brahe,  who  was  also  abroad  at  that  time,  was  called  home 
by  the  alarming  state  of  his  father's  health.2  Otto  Brahe  died 
at  Helsingborg  on  the  Qth  May  I  5  7 1 ,  only  fifty-three  years 
of  age,  surrounded  by  his  wife  and  family.  Tycho  has  in 
a  letter  to  Vedel  given  a  touching  description  of  his  last 
moments.3  His  property  of  Knudstrup  seems  to  have  been 
inherited  jointly  by  his  eldest  two  sons,  Tycho  and  Steen, 
the  latter  of  whom  was  already  the  following  year  in  a  still 
existing  document  styled  "of  Knudstrup."4 

Tycho  remained  at  home  after  his  father's  death,  paying 
occasional  visits  to  Copenhagen,  but  spending  most  of  his 
time  in  Scania.  He  seems  to  have  found  it  too  lonely  at 
Knudstrup,  and  soon  took  up  his  abode  with  his  mother's 
brother,  Steen  Bille,  at  Heridsvad  Abbey,  about  twenty 
English  miles  east  of  Helsingborg,  and  not  very  far  from 
Knudstrup.  Formerly  there  had  been  here  a  Benedictine 
monastery,  which,  like  several  others  in  Denmark,  was  not 
at  once  abolished  at  the  Reformation ;  but  in  1565  Steen 
Bille  had  been  ordered  to  take  possession  of  the  Abbey, 
"  because  ungodly  life  was  going  on  there,"  and  to  maintain 

1  It  can  hardly  be  called  an  observation  :  "  £  Hor.  quasi  post  occasum  0 
vidi  quod  d  limbi  illuminati  extremitate  distabat  a  11  per  duplicem  diametrum 
sui  corporis,  habebatque  eandem  prsecise  cum  11  latitudinem  visam." 

2  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  182  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  50). 

3  T.  B.  et  ad  eum  Doct.  Virorum  Epistolce,  pp.  1-3.     In  this  letter  Tycho, 
at  Vedel's  request,  gives  him  a  prescription  against  fever,  and  adds  that  he 
could  give  him  others,  but  will  wait  till  he  sees  him,  as  he  does  not  like  to 
put  them  in  writing. 

4  Danske  Magazin,  4th  Series,  vol.  ii.  pp.  324-325. 


36  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

the  Abbot,  and  to  keep  up  divine  service  according  to  the 
Lutheran  ritual,  while  he  was  to  drive  out  "  all  superfluous 
learned  and  useless  people."  The  Abbey  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  granted  to  him  formally  in  fee  till  I5/6.1 
We  have  already  mentioned  Steen  Bille  as  the  only  one  of 
Tycho's  relations  who  appreciated  his  scientific  tastes,  and 
he  seems  indeed  to  have  been  a  man  of  considerable  culture, 
who  took  an  interest  in  more  than  one  branch  of  learning 
or  industry.  Tycho  says  that  he  was  the  first  to  start  a 
paper-mill  and  glass-works  in  Denmark.  Whether  it  was 
from  living  with  this  uncle,  or  from  some  other  cause,  that 
Tycho  for  a  while  devoted  himself  more  to  chemistry  than, 
to  astronomy,  is  uncertain,  but  from  the  3Oth  December 
I  570  till  November  1572  we  do  not  possess  a  single  astro- 
nomical observation  made  by  him,  while  during  this  time  he 
worked  with  great  energy  at  chemical  experiments,  to  which 
he  had  already  paid  some  attention  at  Augsburg.  His 
uncle  gave  him  leave  to  arrange  a  laboratory  in  an  outhouse 
of  the  Abbey,  and  was  evidently  himself  much  interested  in 
the  work  carried  on  there.2  Whether  the  object  of  this 
work  was  to  make  gold,  as  was  most  frequently  the  case 
with  chemical  experiments  made  in  those  days,  there  is  no 
evidence  to  show ;  but  even  if  this  was  not  the  case,  there 
is  nothing  surprising  in  seeing  an  astronomer  in  the  six- 
teenth century  turn  aside  from  the  contemplation  of  the 
stars  to  investigate  the  properties  of  the  metals  and  their 
combinations.  We  have  already  alluded  to  the  idea  of  the 
universe  as  a  whole,  of  which  the  single  parts  were  in 
mystical  mutual  dependence  on  each  other — an  idea  which 
had  arisen  among  Oriental  nations  in  the  infancy  of  time, 
had  thriven  well  owing  to  the  mystical  tendency  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  had  been  gradually  developed  and  formed 
into  a  complicated  system  by  the  speculations  of  philosophers 

1  Friis,  Tyge  Brake,  p.  31.  2  Progymn.,  p.  298. 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  YOUTH.  37 

of  successive  periods.  The  planets  were  the  rulers  of  the 
elementary  world  and  of  the  microcosmos,  the  moon  being 
represented  among  the  metals  by  silver,  Mercury  by  quick- 
silver, Venus  by  silver,  the  sun  by  gold,  Mars  by  iron, 
Jupiter  by  gold  or  tin,  and  Saturn  by  lead.  It  is  therefore 
very  probable  that  Tycho  while  working  in  the  laboratory 
considered  himself  as  merely  for  a  while  pursuing  a  special 
branch  of  the  one  great  science,  to  the  main  branch  of 
which  he  had  hitherto  felt  specially  attracted.  But  if  these 
mystical  speculations  had  as  yet  some  power  over  his  mind, 
they  would  seem  gradually  to  have  been  pushed  into  the 
background,  while  cool  and  clear  reasoning  took  their  place, 
and  guided  him  safely  to  his  great  goal — the  reformation  of 
practical  astronomy. 

We  have  now  followed  Tycho  through  what  may  be  con- 
sidered the  first  period  of  his  life.  By  study  and  intercourse 
with  learned  men  he  had  mastered  the  results  of  the  science 
of  antiquity  and  the  Middle  Ages.  But  though  he  had  to 
some  extent  already,  as  a  youth  seventeen  or  eighteen  years 
of  age,  perceived  the  necessity  of  a  vast  series  of  systematic 
observations  on  which  to  found  a  new  science,  he  had  hitherto 
shrunk  from  carrying  out  this  serious  undertaking  himself, 
or  had  perhaps  despaired  of  getting  the  means  of  doing  so. 
But  a  most  unusual  and  startling  celestial  phenomenon  was 
now  to  occur,  to  rouse  him  to  renewed  exertion,  and  firmly 
fix  in  his  mind  the  determination  to  carry  out  the  plans  he 
had  so  long  entertained. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572. 

ON  the  evening  of  the  I  ith  November  1572,  Tycho  Brahe 
had  spent  some  time  in  the  laboratory,  and  was  returning 
to  the  house  for  supper,  when  he  happened  to  throw  his 
eyes  up  to  the  sky,  and  was  startled  by  perceiving  an 
exceedingly  bright  star  in  the  constellation  of  Cassiopea, 
near  the  zenith,  and  in  a  place  which  he  was  well  aware 
had  not  before  been  occupied  by  any  star.  Doubtful 
whether  he  was  to  believe  his  own  eyes,  he  turned  round 
to  some  servants  who  accompanied  him  and  asked  whether 
they  saw  the  star ;  and  though  they  answered  in  the 
affirmative,  he  called  out  to  some  peasants  who  happened 
to  be  driving  by,  and  asked  the  same  question  from  them. 
When  they  also  answered  that  they  saw  a  very  bright  star 
in  the  place  he  indicated,  Tycho  could  no  longer  doubt  his 
senses,  so  he  at  once  prepared  to  determine  the  position  of 
the  new  star.  He  had  just  finished  the  making  of  a  new 
instrument,  a  sextant  similar  to  the  one  he  had  made  for 
Paul  Hainzel,  and  he  was  therefore  able  to  measure  the 
distance  of  the  new  star  from  the  principal  stars  in  Cas- 
siopea with  greater  accuracy  than  the  cross-staff  would 
have  enabled  him  to  attain.1  In  order  to  lessen  the 
weight,  the  instrument  was  not  made  of  metal,  but  of 
well-seasoned  walnut-wood,  the  arms  being  joined  by  a 
bronze  hinge,  and  the  metallic  arc  only  30°  in  extent,  and 

1  The   sextant  is  figured  and   described   in   Astr.   Inst.   Progymnasmata, 
p.  337  et  seq. 

38 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  39 

graduated  to  single  minutes.  The  arms  were  four  cubits, 
or  about  five  and  a  half  feet  long,1  three  inches  broad,  and 
two  inches  thick ;  and  to  steady  the  instrument  an  un- 
divided arc  was  attached  to  the  arm  which  held  the 
graduated  arc,  about  eighteen  inches  from  the  centre,  and 
passing  loosely  through  a  hole  in  the  other  arm,  where  it 
could  be  clamped  by  a  small  screw.  This  undivided  arc 
and  the  long  screw  which  served  to  separate  the  arms 
steadied  the  instrument,  and  kept  its  various  parts  in  one 
plane.  The  graduated  arc  was  not,  as  in  his  later  instru- 
ments, subdivided  by  transversals,  and  the  two  sights  were 
still  of  the  usual  kind,  which  he  afterwards  discarded,  viz., 
two  square  metallic  plates  with  a  hole  in  the  centre.  The 
error  of  excentricity,  caused  by  the  unavoidable  position  of 
the  observer's  eye  slightly  behind  the  centre  of  the  arc, 
was  duly  tabulated  and  taken  into  account. 

With  this  instrument  Tycho  measured  the  distance  of 
the  star  from  the  nine  principal  stars  of  Cassiopea.  We 
can  easily  picture  to  ourselves  the  impatience  with  which 
he  must  have  awaited  the  next  clear  night,  in  order  to  see 
whether  this  most  unusual  phenomenon  would  still  appear, 
or  whether  the  star  should  have  vanished  again  as  suddenly 
as  it  had  revealed  itself.  But  there  the  star  was,  and  con- 
tinued to  be  for  about  eighteen  months,  north  of  the  three 
stars  (now  called  /3,  a,  <y  Cassiopeas)  which  form  the  pre- 
ceding part  of  the  well-known  W  of  this  constellation,  and 
forming  a  parallelogram  with  them.  It  was  only  a  degree 
and  a  half  distant  from  a  star  (K)  of  the  4^-  magnitude. 
Tycho  continued,  while  the  star  was  visible,  to  measure  its 
distance  from  the  other  stars  of  Cassiopea ;  and  in  order  to 
find  whether  it  had  any  parallax,  he  repeated  these  measures 
from  time  to  time  during  the  night,  and  even  left  the 

1  One  Tychonic  cubit  is=i6.i   English  inches   (D'Arrest,  Astr.  Nachr., 
No.  1718,  p.  219). 


40  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

sextant  clamped  in  the  interval  between  two  observations, 
to  make  sure  that  no  change  had  taken  place  in  the  instru- 
ment in  the  meantime.  The  star  being  circumpolar  for 
his  latitude,  he  was  able  to  follow  it  right  round  the  pole, 
and  he  took  advantage  of  this  circumstance  to  observe  its 
altitude  at  the  lower  culmination  by  the  sextant,  as  he  did 
not  at  that  time  possess  a  quadrant.  He  placed  it  in  the 
plane  of  the  meridian  with  the  one  arm,  which  we  may  call 
the  fixed  one,  and  to  which  he  had  now  attached  an  arc 
of  60°,  resting  horizontally  on  a  window-sill  and  a  short 
column  inside  the  room.1  To  ensure  the  horizontal  posi- 
tion of  the  arm,  it  was  moved  until  a  plumb-line  suspended 
from  the  end  of  the  graduated  arc  touched  a  mark  exactly 
at  the  middle  of  the  arm,2  and  as  the  instrument  might 
happen  to  be  slightly  moved  while  the  observation  was 
being  made,  a  short  graduated  arc  was  traced  at  the  middle 
of  the  arm,  on  which  the  plumb-line  would  immediately 
mark  the  small  correction  to  be  applied  to  the  observed 
altitude.  This  simple  but  neat  contrivance  is  highly 
characteristic  of  Tycho ;  we  recognise  here  the  modern 
principle  of  acknowledging  an  instrument  to  be  faulty, 
and  applying  corrections  for  its  imperfections  to  the  results 
determined  by  it,  a  principle  which  we  shall  see  he  followed 
in  the  construction  of  all  his  instruments.  From  repeated 
observations  he  found  the  smallest  altitude  of  the  new  star 
to  be  27°  45',  and  consequently,  as  he  assumed  the  latitude 
of  Heridsvad  to  be  55°  5  8',  the  declination  of  the  star  was 
61°  47'.  He  remarks  that  the  declination  was  as  constant 
as  the  distances  from  the  neighbouring  stars,  and  that  the 

1  The   sextant   in   this   position   is   figured  in    Progymnasmata,   p.    348 ; 
Mechanic^  fol.  E.  3  verso. 

2  Tycho  considers  it  necessary  to  quote  Euclid  iv.  15  and  i.  12  in  explana- 
tion of  this  (Progymn.,  p.  349).     Euclid  was  apparently  still  considered  an 
author  with  whose  work  but  few  were  familiar  (see  H.  Hankel,  Zur  Geschichte 
der  Mathematik  im  Alterthum  und  Mittdalter,  p.  355). 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  41 

instrument  was  not  perfect  enough  to  show  the  change  of 
about  a  third  of  a  minute  which  the  precession  of  the 
equinoxes  made  in  the  decimation  while  the  star  was 
visible,  an  amount  which  even  his  later  and  more  perfect 
instruments  would  hardly  have  been  able  to  point  out.1 

With  the  sextant  Tycho  was  not  able  to  observe  the 
upper  culmination  of  the  star,  at  which  it  was  only  6°  from 
the  zenith.  As  a  supplement  to  his  own  results,  he  there- 
fore gives  in  his  later  work2  the  observations  made  with 
the  great  quadrant  at  Augsburg  by  Paul  Hainzel,  which 
give  a  value  of  the  declination  agreeing  within,  a  fraction 
of  a  minute  with  his  own. 

The  observations  with  the  sextant  must  have  occupied 
Tycho  during  the  winter  of  157  2—7  3 ,  during  which  time 
the  brightness  of  the  new  star  had  already  commenced  to 
decline  considerably.  When  he  first  saw  it,  on  the  1 1  th 
November,  it  was  as  bright  as  Venus  at  its  maximum 
brightness,  and  remained  so  during  the  month  of  Novem- 
ber, so  that  sharp-sighted  people  could  even  see  it  in  the 
middle  of  the  day,  and  it  could  be  perceived  at  night 
through  fairly  dense  clouds.  In  December  it  was  some- 
what fainter,  about  equal  to  Jupiter ;  in  January,  a  little 
brighter  than  stars  of  the  first  magnitude ;  and  in  Feb- 
ruary and  March,  equal  to  them.  In  April  and  May  it 
was  like  a  star  of  the  second  magnitude ;  in  June,  July, 
and  August,  equal  to  one  of  the  third,  so  that  it  was  very 

1  Progymn.,  p.  351.     Individual  results  of  observations  are  not  given,  and, 
unluckily,  the  original  observations  of  Nova  are  lost ;  at  least  they  are  not  in 
the  volume  of  observations  from   1563-81,   repeatedly   quoted.     This   only 
contains  the  following  observations  of  Nova: — "  1573  Die  pentecostis   10 
Maji  inter  flexuram  Cassiopese  et  novam  stellam  588',  5«o'.     Inter  supremam 
cathedrae  et  novam  stellam   5^28',  5^20'.     Inter  Schedir  et  novam  stellam 
8g5'5  7SS2'-    Confide  his  observationibus  subtracta  tamen  instrument!  parallaxi 
(5  gradus  habent  parallaxin  8  minutorum,  8  gradus  habent  13).— Augusti  die 
14  inter  novam  stellam  et  Polarem  2529'." 

2  Progymn,,  p.  360. 


42  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

like  the  principal  stars  in  Cassiopea.  It  continued  to 
decrease  during  September,  so  that  it  reached  the  fourth 
magnitude  in  October,  and  was  exactly  equal  to  K  Cassiopese 
in  November.  At  the  end  of  the  year  and  in  January 
I  574  it  hardly  exceeded  the  fifth  magnitude;  in  February 
it  came  down  to  the  sixth  magnitude,  and  about  the  end  of 
March  it  ceased  to  be  visible.  At  the  same  time  the  colour 
gradually  changed;  at  first  it  was  white,  and  by  degrees 
became  yellow,  and,  in  the  spring  of  1573,  reddish,  like 
Betelgeuze  or  Aldebaran.  About  May  1573  it  became  like 
lead,  or  somewhat  like  Saturn,  and  seemed  to  remain  so 
while  the  star  was  visible.1 

About  the  time  when  the  new  star  appeared  Tycho  Brahe 
had  prepared  an  astrological  and  meteorological  diary  for 
the  following  year,  giving  the  time  of  rising  and  setting  of 
the  principal  stars,  the  aspects  of  the  planets,  and  the  phases 
of  the  moon,  together  with  their  probable  influence  on  the 
weather.  To  this  diary  he  added  an  account  of  his  obser- 
vations on  the  new  star  and  its  probable  astrological  signi- 
fication. Early  in  1573  he  went  to  Copenhagen  on  a  visit 
to  his  friend  Professor  Johannes  Pratensis,  and  brought  the 
manuscript  with  him.  Pratensis  had  not  yet  heard  of  the 
new  star,  and  would  scarcely  believe  Tycho  when  he  told 
him  about  it.  Equally  incredulous  was  another  friend, 
Charles  Dancey,  French  envoy  at  the  Danish  court,  who 
invited  Tycho  and  Pratensis  to  dinner  as  soon  as  he  heard 
of  the  arrival  of  the  former.  During  the  dinner  Tycho 
happened  to  mention  the  star,  but  Dancey  thought  he  was 
joking  and  intending  to  sneer  at  the  ignorance  of  Danish 
savants  in  astronomy,  while  Tycho  only  smiled,  and  hoped 
that  the  evening  would  be  clear,  so  that  they  could  see  the 
star  with  their  own  eyes.  The  evening  was  favourable,  and 

1  Progymnasmata,  pp.  300-302,  and  p.  591,  the  latter  place  being  a  reprint 
of  the  preliminary  account  printed  in  1573. 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  43 

Pratensis  and  Dancey  were  as  surprised  as  Tycho  had  been 
when  they  saw  this  new  star,  so  utterly  different  from  a 
comet  (the  only  class  of  celestial  bodies  with  which  anybody 
thought  of  comparing  it),  and  yet,  according  to  Tycho's 
observations,  more  distant  than  the  planets,  and  probably 
belonging  to  "  the  eighth  sphere,"  which  had  always  hitherto 
been  considered  the  very  picture  of  immutability.  Pratensis 
at  once  recollected  the  statement  made  by  Pliny  in  the 
second  book  of  his  Natural  History  (on  which  he  happened 
to  be  then  lecturing  at  the  University),  that  Hipparchus  is 
said  to  have  observed  a  new  star ;  and  perceiving  the  im- 
portance of  the  manuscript  essay  which  Tycho  had  given 
him  to  read,  he  urged  him  to  have  it  printed.  But  Tycho 
declined,  on  the  pretence  that  the  essay  had  not  received 
the  final  touches  from  his  hand,  but  really  because  he  was 
not  quite  free  from  the  prejudice  of  some  of  his  fellow- 
nobles,  that  it  was  not  proper  for  a  nobleman  to  write , 
books.1 

Tycho  therefore  returned  to  Scania  with  his  manuscript. 
But  when  the  spring  came,  and  communication  with  Ger- 
many was  reopened,  he  received  from  thence  through  Pra- 
tensis so  many  accounts  of  the  star,  both  written  and 
printed,  containing  a  vast  amount  of  nonsense,  that  he 
became  inclined  to  let  his  own  book  be  published,  as  it 
might  serve  to  refute  the  erroneous  statements  circulated 
about  the  star.  During  a  second  visit  to  Copenhagen  he 
was  entreated  to  publish  the  book,  not  only  by  Pratensis, 
but  also  by  his  kinsman,  Peter  Oxe,  high  treasurer  of  Den- 
mark, whose  sister  had  been  the  wife  of  Jorgen  Brahe,  and 
consequently  had  been  a  second  mother  to  Tycho.  Shaken 
in  his  resolution  by  the  persuasions  of  this  intelligent  man, 
who  even  suggested  that  he  might  hide  his  name  under  an 
anagram  if  he  did  not  wish  to  put  it  on  the  title-page, 

1  Progymnasmata,  p.  579. 


44  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

Tycho  finally  yielded  so  far  as  to  allow  Pratensis  to  let  the 
account  of  the  star  and  the  plan  of  the  meteorological  diary 
be  printed,  omitting  the  details  of  the  latter.  The  book 
was  therefore  printed  at  Copenhagen  in  the  year  1573,  but 
very  few  copies  appear  to  have  been  distributed  or  sent 
abroad,  so  that  it  afterwards  became  necessary  to  reprint  the 
more  important  parts  of  it  in  the  greater  work,  Astronomice 
Instauratce  Progymnasmata,  on  which  Tycho  was  engaged 
during  the  last  fourteen  years  of  his  life,  and  which  was 
published  after  his  death.  The  little  book,  De  Nova  Stella, 
is  now  extremely  scarce,  and  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
seen  by  any  modern  writer  on  the  history  of  astronomy.  It 
will  therefore  not  appear  inopportune  if  I  give  a  somewhat 
detailed  account  of  its  contents  in  this  place.1 

On  the  back  of  the  title-page  is  a  versified  address  to  the 
author  from  Professor  Joh.  Francisci  Kipensis,  one  of  his 
earliest  friends.  Then  follows  a  letter  from  Pratensis, 
dated  3rd  May  IS/3,2  begging  Tycho  to  print  the  book, 
at  least  the  part  relating  to  the  star,  the  plan  of  the  diary 
(if  he  should  think  the  diary  itself  too  long),  and  the  fore- 
cast of  the  lunar  eclipse.  Tycho's  answer  comes  next, 
dated  "  Knusdorp,"  5th  May.  In  this  he  remarks  that 

1  The  title  given  in  Lalande's  Bibliographic  is  erroneous.     The  complete 
title  is  :  "  Tychonis  Brahe,  Dani,  De  Nova  et  Nullius  Aevi  Memoria  Prius 
Visa  Stella  iam  pridem  Anno  a  nato  Christo  1572  mense  Nouembrj  primum 
Conspecta,  Contemplatio  Mathematica.    Cui,  prseter  exactam  Eclipsis  Lunaris, 
hujus  Anni,  pragmatian,  Et  elegantem  in  Vraniam  Elegiam,  Epistola  quoque 
Dedicatoria  accessit :  in  qua,  nova  et  erudita  conscribendi  Diaria  Metheoro- 
logica  Methodus,  utriusque  Astrologies  Studiosis,  eodem  Autore,  proponitur. 
Cuius,  ad  hunc  labentem  annum,  Exemplar,  singular!  industria  elaboratum 
conscripsit,  quod  tamen,  multiplicium  Schematum  exprimendorum,  quo  totum 
ferine  constat,  difficultate,  edi,  hac  vice,  temporis  angustia  non  patiebatur." 
Hafnige  Impressit  Lavrentius  Benedict],  1573.     Printed  in  small  4to,  106  pp. 

2  Evidently  written  expressly  for  the  book,  as  there  is  a  previous  letter 
from  Pratensis  in  existence  dated  i6th  April  (T.  B.  et  ad  eum  Doct.   Vir. 
Epist.,  p.  8),  in  which  he  says  that  the  figures  are  being  cut,  but  that  there 
is  some  difficulty  about  the  paper;  also  that  the  word  lucubrationes  is  not 
a  good   one  for   the  title.      Tycho  must  therefore  have   consented  to  the 
publication  long  before  the  3rd  of  May. 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  45 

the  intricate  diagrams  and  figures  of  the  diary  would  be 
very  troublesome  to  reproduce,  and  the  year  is  nearly  half 
over,  so  that  it  would  not  be  worth  while  printing  the 
diary.  As  to  the  star,  he  fears  that  the  account  of  it  is  a 
very  immature  one ;  still  he  will  let  it  be  published,  partly 
because  his  friend  wishes  it,  partly  because  some  of  the 
German  accounts  of  the  star  place  it  at  a  distance  of  only 
twelve  or  fifteen  semi-diameters  of  the  earth,  while  his  own 
observations  of  its  distance  from  Schedir  (a  Cassiopeae) 
show  that  it  is  situated  in  ipso  codo.  He  has  made  his 
observations  with  a  new  and  exquisite  instrument,  much 
better  than  a  radius  or  any  similar  instrument,  and  the 
horizontal  parallax  of  three  or  four  degrees,  which  the  star 
would  have  if  it  were  as  close  to  us  as  stated  by  the 
German  writers,  would  have  been  easily  detected.  "  0 
ccecos  coeli  spectatores ! "  Somebody  had  thought  that  it 
was  a  comet  with  the  tail  turned  away  from  the  earth,  but 
that  writer  has  forgotten  what  Apianus  and  Gemma  Frisius 
have  taught  us,  that  the  tails  of  comets  are  turned  away 
from  the  sun,  and  not  from  the  earth.  Others  thought  the 
star  was  one  of  the  tailless  comets  which  the  ancients 
called  Crinitce ;  others  again  that  it  belonged  to  the  class 
called  Eosce,  with  a  disc  gradually  fainter  towards  the  edges. 
But  it  looks  exactly  like  other  stars,  and  nothing  like  it 
has  been  seen  since  the  time  of  Hipparchus.  It  does  not 
seem  likely  that  it  will  last  beyond  September,  or  at  most 
October  (1573),  and  it  would  be  far  more  marvellous  if 
it  remained,  for  things  which  appear  in  the  world  after 
the  creation  of  the  universe  ought  certainly  to  cease  again 
before  the  end  of  the  world.  As  his  own  conclusions  thus 
differ  so  much  from  those  of  the  German  writers,  he  con- 
sents to  let  his  book  be  printed,  and  sends  it  herewith,1 

1  As  mentioned  above,  the  book  was  actually  in  the  printer's  hands  when 
this  was  written. 


46  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

leaving  him  to  settle  the  title,  and  only  begging  him  to 
suppress  the  author's  name  or  to  hide  it  in  an  anagram,  as 
many  people  are  perverse  enough  to  think  it  an  ing  ens 
'  indecus  for  a  nobleman  to  work  in  the  free  and  sublime 
sciences.  He  has  not  had  time  to  revise  the  manuscript 
owing  to  domestic  affairs,1  other  studies,  and  social  intercourse 
with  friends.  He  next  proceeds  in  some  poetical  lines 2  to 
declare  his  intention  of  seeing  more  of  the  world  in  order 
to  increase  his  knowledge,  as  it  will  be  time  enough  later 
on  to  return  to  the  frigid  North,  and,  like  other  nobles, 
waste  his  time  on  horses,  dogs,  and  luxury,  unless  God 
should  reserve  him  for  something  better.  Having  (in 
prose)  assured  Pratensis  of  his  lasting  friendship  wherever 
they  both  may  be,  and  reminded  him  that  they  shall  at  all 
events  be  contemplating  the  same  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  he 
gives  vent  to  his  feelings  in  the  following  lines,  which  may 
serve  as  a  specimen  of  Tycho's  poetical  effusions : — 

"  Et  quia  disiunctis,  Radios  coniungere  in  unum 

Non  licet,  et  nosmet  posse  videre  simul, 
Jungemus  radios  radiis  radiantis  Olympi, 

Quando  micant  claro,  sydera  clara,  Polo. 
Tune  ego,  quam  specto,  figens  mea  lumina  coelo 

Est  quoque  luminibus,  Stella  videnda,  tuis. 
Sic  oculos  pariter  Ccelum  coniunget  in  unum, 

Nostra  licet  iungi  corpora  Terra  vetet." 

Finally,  he  ends  this  lengthy  introduction  by  asking 
Pratensis  to  urge  the  workmen  who  are  making  him  a 
celestial  globe  and  other  instruments,  so  that  they  can  all 
be  ready  when  he  comes  over  again.3 

Next  comes  the  account  of  the  star,  exactly  as  afterwards 

1  Perhaps  this  is  an  allusion  to  his  having  fallen  in  love  about  this  time, 
as  we  shall  see  farther  on. 

2  Reprinted  in  DansJce  Ufagazin,  ii.  p.  186  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  59). 

3  This  globe  is  mentioned  at  some  length  in  the  above-mentioned  letter 
from  Pratensis  of  April  16,  1573.     It  must  have  been  a  beautiful  piece  of 
work,  the  surface  silvered  with  gilt  stars,  &c. 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  47 

reprinted  in  his  greater  work,  filling  a  little  more  than 
twenty-seven  pages  (A  to  second  page  of  D2).  As  this 
is  more  generally  accessible  than  the  other  parts  of  the 
book,  a  short  abstract  will  suffice  here.  Having  described 
how  he  first  saw  the  star,  he  quotes  the  words  of  Pliny 
relating  to  the  star  of  Hipparchus,  which  many  had  taken 
to  be  a  comet ;  but  as  it  would  be  absurd  to  fancy  that  a 
great  astronomer  like  Hipparchus  should  not  have  known 
the  difference  between  a  star  of  the  asthereal  region  and  a 
fiery  meteor  of  the  air  which  is  called  a  comet,1  it  must  have 
been  a  star  like  the  present  one  which  he  saw.  Since  that 
time  no  similar  star  has  been  seen  till  now,  for  the  star  of 
the  Magi  was  not  a  celestial  object,  but  something  relating 
exclusively  to  them,  and  only  seen  and  understood  by  them. 
How  it  was  created  he  does  not  profess  to  offer  an  opinion 
about,  but  proceeds  to  treat  of  its  position  among  the  stars. 
This  is  illustrated  by  a  diagram  of  the  stars  in  Cassiopea, 
and  the  measured  distances  of  the  new  star  from  a,  ft,  and 
j  Cassiopeae  are  given,2  after  which  he  shows  how  the  rules 
of  spherical  trigonometry  of  Eegiomontanus  give  the  longi- 
tude and  latitude  of  the  star  from  these  data.  He  adds 
that  the  accuracy  of  the  co-ordinates  deduced  will,  of  course, 
depend  on  that  of  the  positions  of  the  fixed  stars  he  has 
used  ;  but  as  he  has  not  any  observations  of  his  own  to 
depend  on,  he  is  obliged  to  use  the  positions  given  by 
Copernicus,  trusting  that  God  will  spare  him  and  enable  him 
to  correct  the  accepted  places  of  the  fixed  stars  by  new  obser- 
vations. In  order  to  find  the  distance  of  the  star  from  the 
earth,  he  has  measured  its  angular  distance  from  Schedir, 

1  The  expression  is  remarkable,  as  it  shows  that  Tycho  had  not  yet  shaken 
himself  free  from  the  old  Aristotelean  opinion  of  the  comets  as  atmospheric 
phenomena. 

2  Respectively  7°  55',  5°  21,  and  5°  i' ;  while  Progymnasmata,  p.  344,  gives 
7°  5°'-5>   5°  J9'>  and   5°  2'.     Tycho  remarks  (ibid.,   p.  593)  that  the  latter 
results  are  corrected  for  the  error  of  excentricity,  and  were  made  with  the 
improved  pinnules  which  he  afterwards  adopted. 


48  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

which  passed  the  meridian  nearly  at  the  same  time,  both  at 
upper  and  lower  culmination,  and  found  no  difference  what- 
ever ;  whereas  he  shows  that  there  would  have  been  a 
parallax  at  lower  culmination  equal  to  58^'  if  the  star  had 
been  as  near  to  us  as  the  moon  is.1  Therefore  the  star 
could  not  be  situated  in  the  elementary  region  below  the 
moon,  nor  could  it  be  attached  to  any  of  the  planetary 
spheres,  as  it  would  have  been  moved  along  with  the 
sphere  in  question  in  a  direction  contrary  to  that  of  the 
daily  revolution  of  the  heavens,  while  his  observations 
show  that  it  has  since  its  first  appearance  remained  im- 
movable. Consequently,  it  must  belong  to  the  eighth 
sphere,  that  of  the  fixed  stars ;  and  it  cannot  be  a  comet 
or  other  fiery  meteor,  as  these  are  not  generated  in  the 
heavens,  but  below  the  moon,  in  the  upper  regions  of 
the  air,  upon  which  all  philosophers  agree,  unless  we  are  to 
believe  Albumassar,  who  is  credited  with  the  statement 
that  he  had  observed  a  comet  farther  off  than  the  moon, 
in  the  sphere  of  Venus.  Here  again  Tycho  expresses  the 
hope  that  he  will  some  time  get  a  chance  of  deciding  this 
matter  (as  to  the  distance  of  comets) ;  but  anyhow,  he 
adds,  this  star  cannot  have  been  a  comet,  as  it  had  neither 
the  appearance  of  one  nor  the  proper  motion  which  a  comet 
would  have  been  endowed  with. 

The  third  paragraph  deals  with  the  magnitude  and  colour 
of  the  star.  The  volume  of  a  star  is  very  considerable ;  the 
smallest  are  eighteen  times  as  great  as  the  earth,  those 
of  the  first  magnitude  105  times  as  great.  Therefore  the 
new  star  must  have  been  of  immense  size.  He  then 
describes  its  gradual  decline,  until  it  "  now,  at  the  beginning 
of  May,  does  not  exceed  the  second  magnitude."  It  must, 

1  He  assumed  that  the  parallax  would  be  =  o  at  the  upper  culmination, 
but  in  his  later  work  he  remarks  that  this  is  a  mistake,  and  that  it  would  be 
nearly  7'. 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  49 

therefore,  at  first  have  been  much  more  than  a  hundred 
times  as  large  as  the  earth,  but  it  has  decreased  in  size. 
It  twinkles  like  other  stars,  while  the  planets  do  not 
twinkle,  which  is  another  proof  of  its  belonging  to  the 
eighth  sphere.  Having  mentioned  the  change  in  colour, 
he  finishes  the  astronomical  part  of  the  treatise  on  the  star 
by  remarking  that  the  change  in  colour  and  magnitude 
does  not  prove  it  to  be  a  comet  or  a  similar  phenomenon, 
for  if  it  is  possible  that  a  new  body  can  be  generated  in 
the  aethereal  region,  as  he  has  proved  to  be  the  case  in 
opposition  to  the  opinions  of  all  philosophers,  it  must  be 
considered  far  less  impossible  and  absurd  that  this  new  star 
should  change  in  brightness  and  colour.  And  if  it  could 
ever,  beyond  the  ordinary  laws  of  nature,  have  been  seen  in  / 
the  heavens,  it  would  not  be  more  absurd  if  it  should  again 
cease  altogether  to  be  visible,  though  again  in  opposition  to 
those  laws. 

Tycho  now  proceeds  to  give  his  opinion  about  the  astro- 
logical effects  of  the  new  star.1  These  cannot  be  estimated 
by  the  usual  methods,  because  the  appearance  of  the  star  is 
a  most  unusual  phenomenon.  The  only  known  precedent 
is  the  star  said  to  have  appeared  at  the  time  of  Hipparchus, 
about  B.C.  125.  It  was  followed  by  great  commotions 
both  among  the  Jewish  people  and  among  the  Gentiles, 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  similar  fatal  times  may  be  ex- 
pected now,  particularly  as  the  star  in  Cassiopea  appeared 
nearly  at  the  conclusion  of  a  complete  period  of  all  the 
Trigoni.2  For  in  about  ten  years  the  watery  Trigon  will 


1  Fol.  D.  2  verso  to  E.  3. 

2  As  some  readers  may  not  be  familiar  with  the  phraseology  of  astrology, 
it  may  be  well  to  mention  here  that  each  Trigonus  consists  of  three  signs  of 
the  Ecliptic,  120°  from  each  other;  the  four  Trigoni  correspond  to  the  four 
elements,  and  each  of  them  is  in  turn  the  ruling  one,  until  a  conjunction  of 
planets  has  taken  place  within  one  of  its  signs.     In  about  800  years  the  four 
Trigoni  will  all  have  had  their  turn,  and  a  cycle  is  completed.     See,  e.g., 

4 


50  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

end  with  a  conjunction  of  the  outer  planets  in  the  end  of 
the  sign  of  Pisces,  and  a  new  period  will  commence  with 
a  fiery  Trigon.  Referred  to  the  pole  (i.e.,  according  to 
right  ascension),  the  new  star  belongs  to  the  sign  of 
Aries,  where  the  new  Trigon  will  also  begin,  and  there  will 
therefore  be  great  changes  in  the  world,  both  religious  and 
political.  The  star  was  at  first  like  Venus  and  Jupiter, 
and  its  effects  will  therefore  first  be  pleasant ;  but  as  it  then 
became  like  Mars,  there  will  next  come  a  period  of  wars, 
seditions,  captivity,  and  death  of  princes  and  destruction 
of  cities,  together  with  dryness  and  fiery  meteors  in  the 
air,  pestilence,  and  venomous  snakes.  Lastly,  the  star 
became  like  Saturn,  and  there  will  therefore,  finally,  come 
a  time  of  want,  death,  imprisonment,  and  all  kinds  of  sad 
things.  As  it  is  not  exactly  known  when  the  star  first 
appeared,  he  follows  the  example  of  Halus,  a  commentator 
of  Ptolemy  (on  the  occasion  of  the  appearance  of  a  comet), 
and  assumes  that  it  appeared  at  the  time  of  new  moon, 
the  5th  of  November,1  at  jh.  55m.,  for  which  moment  he 
finds  that  Mars  was  the  ruling  planet.  The  places  most 
affected  by  the  star  will  be  those  in  latitude  62°  (in  the 
zenith  of  which  the  star  could  be) ;  but  as  the  star  belongs 
to  Aries,  its  influence  will  be  felt  nearly  over  the  whole  of 
Europe,  and  particularly  after  the  great  conjunction  (of 
April  1583)  has  added  its  great  power  to  that  of  the 
star. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  prediction  is  only  expressed  in 
very  vague  terms,  and  we  shall  find,  when  we  come  to  analyse 

Cyprianus  Leovitius,  De  Conjunctionibus  Magnis,  London,  1573  ;  Kepler,  DC 
Stella  Noiu,  1606,  p.  13  (Opera  Omnia,  ii.  p.  623) ;  Ideler,  Ilandbuch  dcr 
Chronologic,  ii.  p.  401.  More  about  this  in  Chapter  VIII. 

1  No  doubt  he  was  right,  as  this  would  be  a  capital  day  for  a  celestial 
explosion  to  take  place!     The  date  and  time  of  the  first  appearance  was 
-  /..    i       required  to  prepare  the  horoscope  of  the  star  in  the  usual  manner  (see  below, 
Chapter  VI.). 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  51 

Tycho's  later  writings,  that  lie  afterwards  modified  and  ex- 
tended it.  When  he  wrote  his  preliminary  treatise  on  the 
new  star,  he  was  evidently  chiefly  inclined  to  ascribe  a  direct 
physical  and  meteorological  influence  to  the  celestial  bodies, 
though  he  was  by  no  means  blind  to  the  difficulty  of  fore- 
telling the  results  of  this  influence,  but  he  became  gradually 
more  inclined  to  disregard  the  physical  effect  (dryness,  pesti- 
lence, &c.),  and  solely  to  look  to  the  effect  of  the  stars  on 
the  human  mind,  and  through  that  on  the  human  actions. 
That  an  unusual  celestial  phenomenon  occurring  at  that 
particular  moment  should  have  been  considered  as  indicating 
troublous  times,  is  extremely  natural  when  we  consider  the 
state  of  Europe  in  1573.  The  tremendous  rebellion  against 
the  Papal  supremacy,  which  for  a  long  time  had  seemed 
destined  to  end  in  the  complete  overthrow  of  the  latter, 
appeared  now  to  have  reached  its  limit,  and  many  people 
thought  that  the  tide  had  already  commenced  to  turn.  In 
the  south  of  Germany  and  in  Austria  the  altered  tactics  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  due  to  the  influence  of  the  fast  rising 
Society  of  Jesus,  were  stamping  out  the  feeble  attempts  of 
Reformers ;  in  France,  the  Huguenots  were  fighting  their 
unequal  battle  with  the  fury  of  despair  against  an  enemy 
who  a  year  ago  had  attempted  to  end  the  strife  by  the 
infamous  butchery  of  St.  Bartholomew ; l  in  the  Nether- 
lands, hundreds  had  suffered  for  their  faith,  while  the  country 
was  being  devastated  with  fire  and  sword  in  the  vain  efforts 
of  the  Spanish  Government  to  make  a  free  nation  submit 
to  their  own  sanguinary  religion ;  in  England,  the  hopes  of 
Protestants  might  at  any  moment  be  seriously  threatened  if 
the  dagger  of  an  assassin  should  find  way  to  the  heart  of 
their  queen,  or  if  her  most  formidable  and  venomous  enemy 
should  turn  his  dreaded  power  against  her.  Who  could 

1  The  year  1572  was,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  age,  remembered  by 
the  line  "  LVtetla  Mater  sVos  natos  DeVoraVIt." 


52  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

doubt  that  fearful  disturbances  were  in  store  for  the  genera- 
tion that  beheld  the  new  star  as  well  as  for  the  following 
one  ?  The  moderation  of  Tycho's  astrological  predictions  is 
therefore  remarkable,  and  becomes  more  conspicuous  if  we 
compare  his  opinions  with  the  many  silly  ones  expressed  by 
contemporary  writers. 

Before  we  say  a  few  words  about  these,  we  shall,  how- 
ever, finish  the  review  of  the  contents  of  Tycho's  book. 
We  have  already  mentioned  that  he  did  not  think  it  worth 
while  to  print  the  astrological  calendar  for  the  year  1573, 
of  which  the  treatise  on  the  new  star  originally  formed  a 
part,  but  that  he  contented  himself  with  publishing  the 
introduction,  setting  forth  the  principles  on  which  the 
calendar,  or  diary,  as  he  calls  it,  had  been  constructed. 
This  fills  sixteen  and  a  half  pages.  It  begins  with  a  good 
deal  of  abuse  of  the  ordinary  prognostications,  the  absurdi- 
ties of  which  he  intends  to  expose  in  a  book  to  be  called 
Contra  Astrologos  pro  Astrologia.  This  intention  he  does 
not  seem  to  have  carried  into  effect,  and  two  other  treatises, 
which  he  says  were  already  written,  seem  not  to  have 
been  preserved.1  He  remarks  that  both  the  Alphonsine 
and  the  Prutenic  Tables  are  several  hours  wrong  with  regard 
to  the  time  of  the  equinoxes  and  solstices,  and  it  is  use- 
less to  give  the  time  of  entry  of  the  sun  into  any  part  of 
the  Zodiac  to  a  minute,  as  the  sun  in  an  hour  moves 
less  than  3',  a  quantity  which  cannot  be  observed  with 
any  instrument.  Some  writers  are  foolish  enough  to  give 
minutes  and  seconds  when  stating  the  time  of  any  particular 
position  of  a  planet,  although  at  the  conjunction  of  Saturn 
and  Jupiter  in  1563  the  Alphonsine  Tables  were  a  whole 

1  One  of  these  was  DC  rariis  Astrologorum  in  Ccelestium  Domorum  Divisione 
Opinionibus,  earumque  Insujficientia,  in  which  he  proposed  a  new  plan  of 
dividing  the  heavens  into  "  houses "  by  circles  through  the  points  of  inter- 
section of  the  meridian  and  horizon.  The  other  treatise  was  De  .Horis 
Zodiaci  incequalibus,  quas  Planetarias  vacant. 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  53 

month  in  error,  while  even  the  Prutenic  Tables  could  hardly 
fix  the  day  correctly,  not  to  speak  of  minutes  or  seconds.1 
A  calendar  should  contain  the  usual  information  as  to  the 
aspects,  time  of  sunrise  and  sunset,  time  of  rising  and 
setting  of  the  moon  and  planets,  and  the  names  of  the 
principal  stars  rising  and  setting  at  the  same  time.  The 
moon  is  of  particular  importance  as  it  is  nearest  to  the 
elementary  world,  but  even  the  planets  must  influence  the 
weather.  Lastly,  a  calendar  should  give  the  probable 
weather  for  every  day,  concluded  from  the  configurations  of 
the  celestial  bodies.  He  would  warn  the  reader  not  to  expect 
too  much  from  the  weather  predictions,  partly  because  much 
remains  yet  to  be  done  in  exploring  the  motions  of  the 
stars  and  their  effect,  partly  on  account  of  the  fluidity  of 
the  inferior  matter,  which  sometimes  delays,  sometimes 
hastens  the  effect  produced  by  the  stars.  But  any  blame 
should  rest  on  him  and  not  on  the  art.  Besides  terrestrial 
influences  must  act  differently  in  different  parts  of  the  earth, 
so  that  one  configuration  of  the  stars  cannot  have  the  same 
effect  in  several  localities.  Therefore  he  has  undertaken 
this  work  principally  in  order  by  observation  to  learn  the 
effect  of  the  stars  on  this  part  of  the  earth,  so  that  our 
posterity  may  profit  thereby,  and  in  order  to  secure  this 
object  he  exhorts  all  meteorologists  to  take  observations  of 
the  weather. 

The  only  part  of  the  diary  given  in  the  book  is  that 
relating  to  the  total  eclipse  of  the  moon  on  December  8, 
1573.  It  fills  twenty-four  pages,  including  two  full-page 
woodcuts — one  of  the  progress  of  the  eclipse,  the  other  of 
the  earth,  moon,  and  planets  at  that  time.  He  gives  first 
the  calculation  of  the  eclipse  by  the  Prutenic  Tables,  with  all 

1  O  audaces  astronomos,  O  exquisites  &  subtiles  calculators,  qui  Astro- 
nomiam  in  Tuguriis  &  popinis,  vel  post  fornacem,  in  libris  &  chartis,  non 
in  ipso  coslo  (quod  par  erat)  exercent.  Plerique  enim  ipsa  sidera  (pudet  dicere) 
ignorant.  Sic  itur  ad  astra  "  (fol.  G.). 


54 


TYCHO  BRAKE. 


the  details  step  by  step,  and  for  the  sake  of  comparison, 
the  resulting  time  of  the  various  phases  (without  details  of 
calculation)  by  the  Alphonsine  Tables  and  Purbach's  Tables  ; 
also  the  same  data  after  correcting  the  places  of  the  sun  and 
moon  by  his  own  observations.1  He  adopts  the  meridian 
35°  ab  occasu,  by  which  he  probably  means  35°  east  of 
the  peak  of  Teneriffe.  He  recommends  observers  to  discard 
clocks  of  any  kind,  but  to  fix  the  time  by  observing  alti- 
tudes of  some  stars  not  too  far  from  the  east  or  west 
horizon,  but  which,  when  on  the  meridian,  would  have  a 
considerable  altitude,  and  he  gives  the  altitudes  of  a  few 
stars  for  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  eclipse  and  of 
totality.  The  astrological  significance  he  computes  by  the 
rules  given  by  Ptolemy  in  the  second  book  of  his  Tetrabiblion. 
Mercury,  and  in  the  second  place  Saturn,  are  the  ruling 
planets.  The  former  means  robbery,  stealing,  and  piracy ;  the 
latter  want,  exile,  and  grief.  The  regions  chiefly  affected 
by  the  eclipse  are  those  which  Ptolemy  specially  connected 
with  the  sign  of  Gemini,  where  the  moon  is.  These  are 
Hircania,  Armenia,  Gyrene,  Marrnaria,  and  Lower  Egypt, 
to  which  later  astrologers  have  added  Sardinia,  Lombardy, 
Flanders,  Brabant,  and  Wlirtemberg.  It  has  been  observed 
that  the  sign  of  Gemini  has  a  special  significance  for 
Nurnberg  whenever  an  eclipse  or  a  conjunction  took  place 
in  it,  and  the  Niirnbergers  may  therefore  expect  some- 
thing, possibly  pestilence,  as  Gemini  is  a  "  human  sign," 

1  It  may  not  be  without  interest  to  insert  these  data  here  :— 


Tabulae  Prut. 

Ex  propria 
Motuum  ratione. 

Initium  primse  obscurationis 
Initium  totius  obscurationis 

H.     M.      S. 

5    55    4i 
6    59    5° 
7    51     29 

H.       M. 

6       15 
7      20 
8       10 

Finis  totius  obscurationis  . 
Finis  ultimse  obscurationis 
Locus  in  Sagit.          .         .                  . 

8    43      8 

9    47     17 

26°    29' 

9        o 

10        5 
26°     40' 

THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  55 

and  also  on  account  of  the  positions  of  Mercury  and  Mars. 
Countries  whose  rulers  were  born  when  Gemini  was  cul- 
minating may  also  be  on  the  look-out,  and  generally  speak- 
ing kings  and  princes  are  more  affected  by  eclipses  than 
private  people  ("as  I  have  observed  myself"),  because  the 
sun  and  the  moon  are  the  princes  among  the  planets.  The 
effect  will  last  as  many  months  as  the  eclipse  lasted  hours, 
and  the  beginning  of  it  depends  on  the  moon's  distance 
from  the  horizon  at  the  commencement  of  the  eclipse. 
This  eclipse  will  take  effect  from  March  till  July  1574  (for 
latitude  56°).  As  examples  of  this  kind  of  prognostica- 
tions he  quotes  several  recent  eclipses.  First,  the  lunar 
eclipse  of  April  3 ,  1558,  after  which  Charles  Y.  died  ;  then 
the  solar  eclipse  of  April  18,  1558,  which  did  not  begin 
to  take  effect  till  the  end  of  the  year,  and  then  Christian 
III.  of  Denmark  and  Norway  died ;  and  shortly  afterward 
the  deposed  king,  Christiern  II.,  a  captive  for  many  years, 
died  also;  and  Tycho  shows  how  beautifully  this  agreed 
with  their  horoscopes.  On  November  7,  1565,  a  lunar 
eclipse  took  place  near  the  Plejades,  a  group  of  stars  with 
a  moist  and  rainy  influence,  and  consequently  rainy  weather 
came  on,  as  he  had  at  the  time  predicted  at  Leipzig. 
Similarly  a  lunar  eclipse  occurred  on  the  28th  October 
1566  close  to  Orion,  and  the  effect  should,  according  to 
Ptolemy,  begin  at  once ;  and  so  it  did,  and  the  whole  winter 
turned  out  wet,  as  he  predicted  himself  at  Eostock.  He 
does  not  say  a  word  about  the  old  Sultan ! 

The  book  is  wound  up  with  In  Vraniain  Elegia,  Autoris, 
filling  more  than  eight  pages,  and  a  page  of  verses  by 
Vedel.  In  the  Elegy,  Tycho  promises  soon  to  produce 
something  better,  as  neither  the  sneers  of  idle  people  nor 
the  hardships  of  study  shall  deter  him ;  let  others  boast  of 
their  achievements  in  war  or  of  their  ancient  family,  let 
others  seek  the  favour  of  princes  or  hunt  for  riches,  or  waste 


56  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

their  time  gambling  and  hunting,  he  does  not  envy  them, 
for  though  sprung  from  ancient  races  both  on  the  father's 
and  on  the  mother's  side,  he  does  not  value  it,  and  calls 
nothing  his  but  what  has  originated  with  himself.1  But 
his  mind  is  planning  great  things,  and  happy  above  all  men 
is  he  who  thinks  more  of  celestial  than  of  earthly  things. 

I  have  given  a  very  full  account  of  the  contents  of  Tycho's 
little  book,  not  only  because  it  is  now  extremely  scarce,  but 
also  because  it  is  very  characteristic  of  him,  and  presents 
us  with  a  perfect  picture  of  the  young  author,  his  plans  and 
his  difficulties.  We  see  him  thoroughly  aware  of  the  great 
desideratum  of  astronomy,  a  stock  of  accurate  observations, 
without  which  it  could  not  possibly  advance  a  single  step 
further,  and  hoping  that  life  and  means  might  be  granted 
him  to  supply  this  deficiency ;  we  see  in  him  at  the  same 
time  a  perfect  son  of  the  sixteenth  century,  believing  the 
universe  to  be  woven  together  by  mysterious  connecting 
threads  which  the  contemplation  of  the  stars  or  of  the 
elements  of  nature  might  unravel,  and  thereby  lift  the 
veil  of  the  future ;  we  see  that  he  is  still,  like  most  of 
his  contemporaries,  a  believer  in  the  solid  spheres  and 
the  atmospherical  origin  of  comets,  to  which  errors  of  the 
Aristotelean  physics  he  was  destined  a  few  years  later  to 
give  the  death-blow  by  his  researches  on  comets ;  we  see 
him  also  thoroughly  discontented  with  his  surroundings,  and 
looking  abroad  in  the  hope  of  finding  somewhere  else  the 
place  and  the  means  for  carrying  out  his  plans.  At  the 
same  time  the  book  bears  witness  to  the  soberness  of  mind 
which  distinguishes  him  from  most  of  the  other  writers  on 
the  subject  of  the  star.  His  account  of  it  is  very  short,  but 
it  says  all  there  could  be  said  about  it — that  it  had  no 
parallax,  that  it  remained  immovable  in  the  same  place, 

1  "Nil  tamen  his  moveor.     Nam  qvse  non  feciraus  ipsi 
Et  genus  et  proavos,  non  ego  nostra  voco." 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  57 

that  it  looked  like  an  ordinary  star — and  it  describes  the 
star's  place  in  the  heavens  accurately,  and  its  variations  in 
light  and  colour.  Even  though  Tycho  made  solne  remarks 
about  the  astrological  significance  of  the  star,  he  did  so  in 
a  way  which  shows  that  he  did  not  himself  consider  this 
the  most  valuable  portion  of  his  work.  To  appreciate  his 
little  book  perfectly,  it  is  desirable  to  glance  at  some  of  the 
other  numerous  books  and  pamphlets  which  were  written 
about  the  star,  and  of  most  of  which  Tycho  himself  has  in 
his  later  work  (Progymnasmata)  given  a  very  detailed  analysis, 
devoting  nearly  300  pages  to  the  task.  It  would  lead  us 
too  far  if  we  were  to  follow  him  through  them  all,  but  it 
will  not  be  without  interest  briefly  to  describe  what  some  of 
the  more  rational  of  his  contemporaries  published  about  the 
star,  and  to  what  absurdities  a  fervid  imagination  led  some 
of  the  common  herd  of  scribblers. 

At  Cassel  the  star  was  observed  by  Landgrave  Wilhelm 
IV.,  an  ardent  lover  of  astronomy,  of  whom  we  shall  hear 
more  in  the  sequel.  He  did  not  hear  of  the  star  till  the 
3rd  December,  and  took  observations  of  its  altitude  in 
various  azimuths  from  that  date  and  up  to  the  1 4th  March 
following.  From  the  greatest  and  smallest  altitude  Tycho 
found  afterwards  a  value  of  the  declination  differing  less  than 
a  minute  from  that  found  by  himself.  From  the  azimuths 
and  altitudes  observed  at  Cassel  Tycho  deduced  the  right 
ascension  and  declination :  the  single  results  for  the  latter 
are  in  good  accordance  inter  se,  while  those  for  right  ascen- 
sion differ  considerably,  the  greatest  difference  being  more 
than  2°.  Tycho  justly  concludes  that  this  must  be  caused 
by  the  bad  quality  of  the  clock  employed  by  the  Landgrave, 
who  merely  gave  the  time  of  observation  in  true  solar  time, 
without  furnishing  the  means  of  correcting  for  the  error  of 
his  clock.  In  a  letter  to  Caspar  Peucer,  the  Landgrave 
stated  that  the  star  might  have  a  parallax  not  exceeding  3', 


58  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

as  there  was  that  difference  between  the  polar  distances 
above  and  below  the  pole ;  but  his  instruments  had  at  that 
time  not  reached  the  degree  of  accuracy  which  they  did  ten 
years  later,  and  the  difference  is  not  surprising.  Peucer 
and  Wolfgang  Schuler  at  Wittenberg  found  a  parallax  of 
1 9',  which  Tycho  believed  was  a  consequence  of  their  having 
used  an  old  wooden  quadrant ;  and,  in  fact,  when  he  learned 
that  the  Landgrave  had  found  little  or  no  parallax,  Schuler 
had  a  large  triquetrum  constructed,  and  also  found  that  the 
star  had  no  parallax,  or  at  most  a  very  small  one.1  Many 
observers  measured  the  distance  of  the  new  star  from  the 
neighbouring  ones,  but  the  results  found  were  generally 
considerably  in  error.  Thus  the  Bohemian,  Thaddaeus 
Hagecius,  physician  to  the  Emperor,  in  an  otherwise  sensible 
book,2  gives  a  number  of  observed  distances,  some  of  which 
are  7'  to  I2f  (one  is  even  16')  wrong,  and  even  the  English 
mathematician,  Thomas  Diggs  (or  Digges),  who  had  made 
a  special  study  of  the  cross  staff,  and  had  his  instrument 
furnished  with  transversal  divisions,  differed  ij-'  to  4'  from 
Tycho, — possibly,  as  the  latter  thinks,  because  he  did  not 
allow  sufficiently  for  the  error  of  excentricity.3  Cornelius 
Gemma,  a  son  of  the  well-known  astronomer,  Gemma 
Frisius,  and  professor  of  medicine  at  Louvain,  had  a  great 

1  The  triquetrum  had  been  much  in  use  from  the  time  of  Ptolemy.     It  con- 
sisted of  two  arms  of  equal  length  and  movable  round  a  hinge,  while  a  third 
and  carefully  graduated  arm  gave  the  means  of  measuring  the  angle  between 
the  two  former  by  the  aid  of  a  table  of  chords. 

2  "Dialexis  de  novae  et  prius  incognitae  Stellas  invsitatae  Magnitudinis  et 
splendissimi  Luminis  Apparitione  et  de  eiusdem  Stellas  vero  loco  constituendo. 
Per  Thaddaeum  Hagecium  ab  Hayek."     Francofurti,  a.  M.  1574.     176  pp.  4to. 
In  an  appendix  are  two  papers  on  the  star  by  Paul   Fabricius   and   Corn. 
Gemma.     Some  years  after  Hagecius  sent  Tycho  a  copy  with  many  MS. 
corrections  and  additions,  which  Tycho  quotes  extensively  in  his  Proyymnas- 
mata  (p.  505  et  seq.).     In  this  corrected  copy  the  most  erroneous  measures  had 
been  improved  or  struck  out,  whereby  the  greatest  differences  from  Tycho's 
results  were  reduced  to  4'  or  6'. 

3  "Alae  sen  Scalse  Mathematicae,  quibus  visibilium  remotissima  Coslorum 
Theatra  conscendi,  et  Planetarum  omnia  itinera  novis  et  inauditis  methodis 
explorari  .  .  .  Thoma  Diggeseo  authore."     Londini,  1573.     4to. 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  59 

deal  to  say  about  the  star,  but  most  of  his  distance  measures 
are  upwards  of  a  degree  wrong.  On  the  other  hand, 
Michael  Mcestlinj  the  teacher  of  Kepler,  though  he  possessed 
no  instruments,  determined  the  place  of  the  star  with  fair 
accuracy  simply  by  picking  out  four  stars  so  placed  that  the 
new  star  was  in  the  point  of  intersection  of  two  lines  drawn 
through  two  and  two  of  them.  As  the  star  did  not  move 
relatively  to  these  four  stars  during  the  daily  revolution  of 
the  heavens  (of  which  he  assured  himself  by  holding  a 
thread  before  the  eye,  so  that  it  passed  through  the  three 
stars),  Mcestlin  concluded  that  it  had  no  parallax,  and  that 
it  was  situated  among  the  fixed  stars,  whose  distance  Co- 
pernicus, of  whom  he  was  a  follower,  had  shown  to  be 
extremely  great.  Digges  tried  the  same  method,  using  a 
straight  ruler  six  feet  long,  which  he  first  suspended  verti- 
cally until  he  found  two  stars  which  were  in  the  same 
vertical  as  the  new  star;  six  hours  afterwards  he  tried 
again,  holding  the  ruler  in  his  hand,  whether  the  three 
stars  were  still  in  a  straight  line.  He  found  the  star  to  be 
exactly  in  the  point  of  intersection  of  the  line  joining  j3 
Cephei  and  y  Cassiopese,  and  the  line  joining  i  Cephei  and 
$  Cassiopese,  and  concluded  that  it  could  not  have  a  parallax 
amounting  to  2r.  Tycho  afterwards  computed  the  place  of 
the  star  from  these  data,  using  his  own  accurate  positions  of 
the  four  stars,  and  found  the  longitude  only  2r  greater  and 
the  latitude  J;  greater  than  what  he  had  deduced  from  his 
own  observations.1  Digges  had  hoped  to  test  the  Coper- 
nican  theory  of  the  motion  of  the  earth  by  trying  whether 
the  star  had  an  annual  parallax,  but  he  could  find  none. 

1  Digges,  I.e.,  chapter  x.,  fol.  K  3.  By  a  mistake  he  says  that  the  two  lines 
join  5  Cassiopeje,  /3  Cephei,  and  i  Cephei,  7  Cassiopese.  Tycho  remarks  that 
one  can  see  at  a  glance  that  these  two  lines  do  not  intersect  each  other  between 
the  stars,  but  pretending  not  to  see  that  it  is  merely  a  lapsus  calami,  he  gravely 
calculates  places  from  these  data,  using  his  own  distances,  and  of  course  gets 
absurd  results  (Progymn.,  p.  681),  after  which  he  interchanges  the  stars,  and 
gets  the  correct  result  given  above. 


60  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

The  question  of  the  star's  distance  from  the  earth  being  one 
of  special  interest,  all  observers  tried  to  determine  the  daily 
parallax,  but  the  results  varied  immensely  according  to  the 
skill  of  the  observer.  While  several  writers,  in  addition  to 
those  already  mentioned,  state  that  they  could  find  no  per- 
ceptible parallax,1  others  found  a  large  one.  Thus  Elias 
Camerarius  at  Frankfurt  on  the  Oder  had  at  first  thought 
that  he  had  found  a  parallax  of  12',  but  in  January  1573 
he  could  only  find  one  of  4^',  from  which  he  concluded  that 
the  star  had  in  the  meantime  receded  from  us  in  a  straight 
line  (so  that  its  apparent  place  was  not  altered),  and  that 
this  was  the  cause  of  its  diminished  brightness.  A  German 
writer  of  the  name  of  Nolthius  tried  to  find  the  parallax  by 
a  method  suggested  by  Regiomontanus  from  the  hour  angle, 
the  azimuth  and  the  latitude  of  the  observing  station,  com- 
paring the  altitude  computed  from  these  with  the  observed 
one.  He  chose,  however,  a  bad  time  for  the  experiment, 
when  the  altitude  was  very  great  (77°),  and  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  he  found  an  absurd  result — 39'  for  the 
parallax — and  it  does  not  seem  to  have  struck  him  that  this 
would  correspond  to  a  parallax  equal  to  2°  42'  at  the  lowest 
altitude  of  the  star,  which  could  not  have  escaped  even 
casual  observers,  as  pointed  out  by  Tycho.2 

Of  greater  interest  than  these  crude  attempts  are  the 
statements  of  the  various  writers  as  to  the  time  when  the 
star  first  became  visible.  Some  writers  say  that  the  star 
was  already  seen  early  in  October,  but  none  of  them  are 
entitled  to  much  credit.  The  above-named  Elias  Camerarius 
at  Frankfurt  on  the  Oder  says  that  it  appeared  "  in  principio 
Octobris  Anni  1572  uesperi  circa  horam  I  o  prope  Meridi- 

1  Thus  Paul  Fabricius  at  Vienna,  Hainzel  (using  the  great  quadrant  at 
Augsburg),  Reisacher  at  Vienna,  Corn.  Gemma  (not  stating  how  found), 
Hieronimus  Munosius  at  Valencia,  Valesius  from  Covarruvias  (physician  to 
Philip  II.  of  Spain),  and  Johan  Prsetorius  (Richter),  professor  at  Wittenberg. 

z  Progymn.,  i.  p.  760. 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  61 

anum ; "  but  as  lie  appears  to  be  utterly  unknown  in  the 
history  of  science,  too  much  weight  ought  not  to  be  attached 
to  his  unsupported  statement.1  Annibal  Raimundus  of 
Verona  (of  whom  we  shall  hear  more  presently)  tells  us  that 
the  star  was  seen  "circa  principium  Octobris,  a  plurimis 
Nobilibus  et  Ignobilibus,  eruditis  atque  indoctis,"  but  further 
on  he  contradicts  himself,  saying  that  the  star  has  now  been 
visible  three  months,  and  as  he  wrote  at  the  end  of  January 
1573,  this  would  make  the  appearance  of  the  star  date 
from  the  end  of  October  or  the  beginning  of  November.2 
A  little  French  book,  published  in  1590,  states  that  the 
star  was  seen  "  aii  mois  d'Octobre  "  in  Spain  by  shepherds 
keeping  watch  over  their  flocks,  but  this  reminds  one  too 
much  of  the  words  used  by  St.  Luke,  and  is  contradicted  by 
other  testimony.3  According  to  Paul  Fabricius  at  Vienna 
it  appeared  "sub  Octobris  finem."4  All  these  statements 
are  contradicted  by  Munosius,  professor  in  the  University  of 
Valencia,  who  maintained  that  he  was  certain  the  star  had 
not  yet  appeared  on  the  2nd  November,  as  he  was  showing 
his  pupils  the  constellations  on  that  night,  and  could  not 
have  failed  to  see  it,  and  Spanish  shepherds  agreed  with 
him  therein.  As  Munosius  took  very  fair  distance  measures 
of  ihe  star,  and  wrote  in  a  sensible  strain,  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  him.5  The  first  trustworthy  observation 

1  Ibid.,  p.  692.     Tycho  never  saw  the  book,  and  only  knew  it  from  a  MS. 
abstract  made  for  him  by  Hagecius.     It  is   in   the   Poulkova  Library,  and 
W.  Struve   mentions,   that   the  writer   states  in  two  places  that  he  saw  it 
"principle  Octobris."     Astron.  Nachr.,  xix.  p.  334.     Elias  Camerarius  is  not 
mentioned  in  Jocher's  Gelehrten  Lexicon,  nor  in  any  other  historical  work 
that  I  have  at  hand. 

2  Progym.,  i.  pp.  721-723.     Tycho  remarks  that  Raimundus  has  forgotten 
the  proverb  that  liars  should  have  a  good  memory. 

3  La  novvelle  Estoille  apparve  svr  tons  les  Climats  dv  Monde :  Et  de  ses  effects. 
Paris,  1590.     28  pp.  small  8vo.     This  book  was  not  known  to  Tycho  Brahe. 

4  Hagecii  Dialexis,  p.  129.     Tycho  remarks  (Progym.,  p.  548)  that  if  it  had 
been  visible  in  October,  Mcestlin  (who  saw  it "  the  first  week  in  November  ") 
would  probably  have  noticed  it. 

5  Progymn.,  i.  pp.  565,  566. 


62  TYCHO  BRA  HE. 

seems  to  have  been  made  by  Wolfgang  Schuler  at  Witten- 
berg, who  says  that  he  saw  it  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning 
on  the  6th  November.1  On  the  7th  at  6  P.M.  it  was  seen 
by  Paul  Hainzel,2  and  the  same  evening  by  Bernhard 
Lindauer,  minister  at  Winterthur  in  Switzerland.3  Mau- 
rolycus,  the  well-known  astronomer  at  Messina,  and  David 
Chytreeus  at  Rostock,  saw  it  on  the  8th.4  Many  writers 
have  quoted  the  words  of  Cornelius  Gemma,  stating  that  the 
star  appeared  first  on  the  pth  November,  and  that  it  had 
not  been  visible  on  the  previous  evening  in  clear  weather,5 
but  they  have  overlooked  the  fact  that  Gemma,  in  his 
book  De  Naturae  Divinis  Cliaracterismis,  seu  raris  &  admi- 
randis  Spectaculis,  Libri  ii.  (Antwerp,  1575,  2  vols.  8vo), 
tells  quite  a  different  story,  viz.,  that  some  people  had 
already  seen  it  before  the  end  of  October.  He  does  not 
say  when  he  first  saw  it  himself,  but  he  did  not  begin  to 
observe  its  position  till  the  2  6th  November,  as  he  thought 
it  idle  talk  when  he  first  heard  of  a  new  star.6  Gemma's 

1  Progymn.,  i.  p.  621.  2  Ibid.,  p.  536. 

3  Rudolf  Wolf  in  Astr.  Nachr.,  Ixv.  p.  63. 

4  About  the  observation  of  Maurolycus,  see  Nature,  xxxii.  p.  162  (June  18, 
1885).     About  Chytraeus,  see  R.  Wolf,  Geschichte  der  Astronomic,  p.  415. 

5  "Nona  Nouembris,  die  Dominico  vesperi,  cum  tamen  obseruantibus  proxi- 
mum  cceli  locum  die  octauo,  etiam  sereno  fethere  non  apparuerit"  (Hagecii 
Dialcxis,   p.    137),   also   in   his   separate   pamphlet,   "Stella  Peregrinse  iam 
primum  exortse  et  Coelo  constanter  hserentis  (fiaivdfJLevov  ....  per  D.  Cor- 
nelium  Gemmam."     Lovanij,  1573.     13  pp.  4to  (fol.  A2).     There  is  one  re- 
print (s.a.e.l.)  of  this,  with  some  omissions,  and  coupled  with    a   paper   by 
Postellus,  and  another  coupled  with  a  reprint  of  a  paper  by  Cyprianus  Leo- 
vitius.     Among  writers  who  have  quoted  Gemma  may  be  mentioned  Newton 
(Principia,  iii.,  ed.  Le  Seur  and  Jacquier,  p.  670),  who  thought  that  Gemma 
himself  had  looked  at  the  sky  on  the  8th  without  seeing  it ;  but  this  was  a 
mistake,  as  we  have  just  shown  above. 

6  Gemma's  book  is  a  very  curious  one.     The  first  volume  is  about  terrestrial 
curiosities,  Siamese  twins,  and  much  queerer  beings  (well  illustrated) ;  vol.  ii. 
is   about   celestial  wonders,  comets,  &c.,  chapter   iii.  being  "De   prodigioso 
Phaenomeno  syderis  noui"  (pp.  111-155).     Page  113  :  "Sed  qui  se  primos  ob- 
seruasse  voluerunt,  nonum  diem  pro  initio  tradiderunt :    cum  tamen  interea 
conuenerim   plures,    quorum   alij    diem   secundum   aut    tertium   annotarint, 
plerique  vel  ante  Octobris  finem  ferant  etiain  a  vulgaribus  obseruatum.  .  .  . 
Primum  observationis  tempus  fuit  nobis  die  Nou.  26." 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  63 

testimony  is  therefore  worth  nothing,  and  it  may  safely  be 
assumed  that  the  star  became  visible  between  the  2nd  and 
the  6th  of  November,  and  was  seen  by  an  apparently  trust- 
worthy observer  on  the  morning  of  the  6th. 

That  many  different  attempts  should  be  made  to  explain 
the  nature  of  the  new  star  and  the  cause  of  its  sudden 
appearance  is  very  natural.  Most  writers  contented  them- 
selves by  saying  that  it  was  some  sort  of  a  comet,  though 
not  of  the  usual  kind,  as  these,  according  to  Aristotle, 
were  sublunary,  while  the  star  was  far  beyond  the  moon. 
That  it  did  not  in  the  least  look  like  a  comet  was  generally 
not  considered  an  objection  to  this  theory,  as  instances 
could  be  quoted  of  comets  having  appeared  without  tails ; 1 
a  greater  difficulty  was  the  absence  of  motion  relatively  to 
the  other  stars  in  Cassiopea,  as  only  very  few  writers  had  the 
hardihood  to  maintain  that  it  had  actually  moved  before  it 
disappeared.2  Gemma  sought  to  explain  this  by  supposing, 
with  Elias  Camerarius,  that  the  star  was  moving  in  a 
straight  line  away  from  us,3  but  this  could  not  account 
for  the  sudden  appearance  of  the  star  with  its  maximum 
brightness.  Others  thought  it  more  probable  that  the  star 
was  not  a  new  one,  but  merely  an  old  and  faint  star,  which 
had  become  brighter  through  some  sudden  transformation 

1  In  a  pamphlet,  "La   Declaration   d'vn   comete   ou   estoille  prodigieuse 
laqvelle  a  commence"  a  nous  apparoistre  a  Paris,  en  la  partie  Septentrionale 
du  ciel,  au  mois  de  Nouembre  dernier  en  1'an  present  1572,  &  se  monstre 
encores  auiourd'huy.     Par  I.  G.  D.  V.,"  Paris,  1572,  4to,  8pp.,  it  is  said  that 
people  who  had  good  sight  could  see  several  rays,  of  which  the  longest,  which 
might  be  called  the  tail  of  the  comet,  was  always  turned  to  the  east !     Its 
distance  from  the  pole-star,  when  above  the  pole,  was  "le  plus  souv^nt  " 
25°  30',  but  afterwards  it  became  24°  40',  and  below  the  pole  24°  30',  which 
the  author  takes  to  be  the  effect  of  parallax !     The  author  was  probably  Jean 
Gosselin  de  Vize,  librarian  to  the  King.     The  pamphlet  was  not  known  to 
Tycho  ;  it  is  not  in  Lalande's  Billiographie. 

2  Leovitius,  writing  in  February  1573,  says  it  seems  to  him  that  the  star 
had  during  the  last  month  moved  three  degrees  towards  the  north  ! 

3  The  English  astronomer,  John  Dee,  was  of  the  same  opinion  (Progymn., 
p.  691). 


64  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

of  the  air  between  it  and  the  earth,  or  a  condensation  of 
part  of  one  of  the  spheres  through  which  its  light  had  to 
pass.  The  principal  reason  why  some  writers  (e.g.,  Reisacher 
and  Vallesius)  adopted  this  explanation  was,  that  God  had 
ceased  creating  on  the  sixth  day,  and  nothing  new  had  been 
made  since  then.  Reisacher  had  at  first  thought  that  the 
star  was  identical  with  K  Cassiopeas,  which  had  merely 
become  brighter,  but  when  the  light  of  the  star  had  become 
less  dazzling  he  perceived  that  K  was  still  in  the  heavens, 
and  that  he  had  merely  failed  to  see  it  hitherto  owing  to 
the  overpowering  light  of  the  new  star.  More  obstinate 
was  Raimundus  of  Verona,  who  in  two  publications  main- 
tained that  it  was  nothing  but  K.  He  seems  to  have  done 
so  with  unnecessary  heat,  and  using  contemptuous  expres- 
sions about  people  who  thought  differently,  as  Tycho  in 
reviewing  his  writings  uses  stronger  language  than  usual, 
and  Hagecius  thought  it  necessary  to  publish  a  refutation 
full  of  the  most  violent  invectives  and  written  in  a  very 
slashing  style.1  Another  Italian,  Frangipani,  also  took  the 
star  to  be  K  Cassiopese,  and  as  its  place  did  not  agree  with 
that  assigned  to  the  latter  by  Ptolemy,  he  calmly  assumed 
that  the  old  star  must  have  moved.  He  quotes  the  old 
story  about  the  seventh  star  of  the  Plejades  (Electra)  hav- 
ing disappeared  after  the  destruction  of  Troy,  and  asserts 
that  the  pole-star  did  the  same  for  a  while  after  the  taking 
of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks.2  All  this  is,  however,  very 
tame  compared  with  the  fancies  of  a  German  painter,  Georg 
Busch,  of  Erfurt,  who  wrote  two  pamphlets  "Von  dem 
Cometen."  According  to  him  it  was  a  comet,  and  these 
bodies  were  formed  by  the  ascending  from  the  earth  of 
human  sins  and  wickedness,  formed  into  a  kind  of  gas, 

1  "  Thaddaei  Hagecij  ab  Hayek,  Aulas  Cesarese  Medici,  Responsio  ad  viru- 
lentum  et  maledicum  Hannibalis  Rayirmndi  Scriptum,"  &c.      Pragoe,   1576. 
4to. 

2  Progymnasmata,  p.  743- 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  65 

and  ignited  by  the  anger  of  God.  This  poisonous  stuff 
falls  down  again  on  people's  heads,  and  causes  all  kinds  of 
mischief,  such  as  pestilence,  Frenchmen  (!),  sudden  death, 
bad  weather,  &c.  Perhaps  it  was  the  night  of  St.  Bartho- 
lomew which  made  Busch  think  of  Frenchmen  in  this 
connection. 

The  question  as  to  whether  new  stars  had  ever  appeared 
before  was  touched  on  by  several  writers,  who  referred  to 
the  star  of  Hipparchus  and  the  star  of  Bethlehem.  Land- 
grave Wilhelm  IV.,  in  his  letter  to  Peucer,  also  alludes  to 
the  star  stated  by  Marcellinus  to  have  appeared  A.D.  389.* 
Cyprianus  Leovitius  states  that  similar  stars  appeared  in 
the  same  part  of  the  heavens  in  the  years  945  and  1264, 
the  "  comet "  of  the  latter  year  being  without  a  tail  and 
having  no  motion,  and  says  that  this  information  was  taken 
from  an  old  manuscript.2  It  is  certainly  a  very  suspicious 
circumstance  that  real  comets  appeared  both  in  945  and 
in  1264,  and  the  absence  of  tail  and  motion  might  merely 
be  subsequent  embellishments  by  the  writer  of  the  manu- 
script referred  to  by  Leovitius ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
quite  possible  that  new  stars  may  have  appeared  in  those 

1  About  this  star  see  Calvisii  Opus  Chronologicum,  p.  413  (second  edit., 
1620),  and  The  Observatory,  vii.  p.  75. 

2  "  De  Nova  Stella.    Judicium  Cypriani  Leovitii  a  Leonicia,  Mathematici,  de 
nova  stella  sine  cometa,  viso  mense  Nouembri  ac  Decembri  A.D.  I572-     Item 
mense  Januario  &  Februario  A.D.  1573.     Lavingse  ad  Danubium,  1573."     4to, 
8  fol.  : — "Histories  perhibent  tempore  Ottonis   primi  Imperatoris,   similem 
stellam  in  eodem  fere  loco  Coeli  arsisse,  A.D.  945.     Vbi  magnse  mutationes 
plurimaque  mala,  uarias  Prouincias  Europae  peruaserunt,  potissitnum  propter 
peregrinas  gentes  infusas  in   Germaniam.     Verum   multo   locupletius  testi- 
monium  in  historijs  extat  de  A.D   1264,  quo  Stella  magna  &  lucida  in  parte 
Coeli  Septentrional!  circa  Sydus  Cassiopeae  apparuit,  carens  similiter  crinibus, 
ac  destituta  motu  suo  proprio."     In  the  margin,  opposite  the  date  1264,  is  : 
"Descriptio  huius  Cometae  desumpta  est  ex  antiquo  codice,   manu  scripto. 
Euentus   hi   congruent   cum   significationibus   stellse  propositee :    quod   bene 
notandum  est :  videoque  hie  aliquid  insigne. "     Tycho  has  reprinted  the  whole 
pamphlet  (pp.  705-706),  leaving  out  the  "Judicium  breve"  at  the  end,  and 
also  the  marginal  notes.     The  latter  are  also  omitted  from  a  reprint  pub- 
lished (s.  1.)  in  1573,  together  with  a  reprint  of  Gemma's  pamphlet. 

5 


66  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

years  without  being  noticed  by  other  chroniclers,  as  science 
was  then  at  it  its  lowest  ebb  in  Europe,  and  a  new  star  of 
perhaps  less  than  the  first  magnitude  and  of  short  dura- 
tion (like  the  stars  of  1866  and  1876)  could  easily  escape 
detection.1  The  only  other  contemporary  author  who 
alludes  to  the  years  945  and  1264  is  Count  Hardeck,  who 
in  1573  was  Rector  of  the  University  of  Wittenberg ;  but 
as  his  little  book  is  dated  the  I  st  May  1573,  and  that  of 
Leovitius  the  2Oth  February,  he  would  have  had  time  to 
copy  from  Leovitius,  and  in  any  case  it  is  certain  that  he 
speaks  of  a  real  comet  of  the  year  1264,  as  he  mentions 
its  tail,  while  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  means  a  comet  or  a 
star  when  speaking  of  94  5. 2  It  has  been  repeatedly  sug- 
gested that  the  star  of  Cassiopea  might  be  a  variable  star, 
with  a  period  of  about  three  hundred  years,  in  which  case 
it  should  again  become  visible  about  the  present  time,  but 
it  is  needless  to  say  that  the  vague  assertions  of  Leovitius 
form  a  very  slender  foundation  on  which  to  build  such  a 

1  According  to  Klein,  Der  Fixsternhimmel,  p.  102,  the  Chronicle  of  Albertus 
Stadensis  (Oldenburg)  mentions  a  bright  star  in  Capricornus  in  1245  (not 
alluded  to  elsewhere),  as  bright  as  Venus,  but  more  red,  and  which  lasted  for 
two  months. 

2  "  Orationes  duae.     Vna   de   legibus   et   disciplina.     Altera  de   Cometa 
inter  Sidera  lucente  in  mensem  septimum,  continens  commonefactionem  de 
impendentibus  periculis.     A  Joh.  Comite  Hardeci.     Wittenberg,  1573."     8vo. 
Fol.  C.,  p.  2  : — "Reperimus  Cometas  qui  ante  heec  tempora  in  eodem  octaui 
orbis    loco   fulserunt,   fere   gentes    concitasse   Boreas,  suis   excitas   sedibus, 
ad  quaerendas  nouas.     Qui  Honorij  principatu  conspectus  est,  cuius  meminit 
Claudianus,  baud  dubie  finem  Imperio  occidentis  cum  tristi  ac  horribili  ruina 
attulit  .  .  .  Qui  Ottone  primo  imperante  ad  eandem  Cassiopaeam  flagrauit 
Cometa,  Vngaros  in  Germaniam,  Ottonem  in  Italiam  impulit  .  .  .  Qui  anno  a 
nato  Christo  sexagesimo  supra  millesimum  ducentesimum  ibidem  luxit  inter- 
regni  tempore,  coma  ad  coeli  medium  usque  dispersa,  Carolum  Andegauensem 
e  Gallia,  per  furiosa  &  scelerata  consilia    dementis   Pontificis  attraxit   in 
Italiam."     This  book  is  not  mentioned  by  Tycho  Brahe.     In  his   Cometo- 
grapkia,  p.  817,  Hevelius  quotes  Christianus  as  mentioning  the  star  of  945. 
This  may  seem  to  some  readers  to  refer  to  the  Chronicle  of  Christianus  of 
1472  (Pulkova  Cat.,  p.  76),  but,  as  Professor  Copelaud  has  pointed  out  to  me, 
it  is  merely  a  quotation  of  D.  Christiani  Tractatus  de  Cometarurn,  Essentia, 
1653,  and  therefore  it  does  not  prove  anything  as  to  the  correctness  of  the 
statement  of  Cyprianus. 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  67 

theory.  All  the  same,  it  is  desirable  that  the  place  where 
the  star  of  1572  appeared  should  be  examined  from  time 
to  time.  Argelander  has,  from  a  discussion  of  all  Tycho's 
distance-measures,  found  the  most  probable  position  of  the 
star  for  the  equinox  of  1865  to  be :  KA  =  oh.  i/m.  2OS., 
Decl.  =  +63°  2 3'. 9.  This  position  agrees  remarkably  well 
with  that  of  a  small  star  of  the  10.1 1  magnitude,  No.  129 
of  D' Arrest's  list  of  stars  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Tycho's 
Nova,  which  is  for  1865  :  oh.  17:01.  193.4-63°  23'. I. 

Whether  this  small  star  is  variable  or  not  must  be  left 
for  the  future  to  decide.  Argelander  stated  in  1864 
(speaking  from  memory)  that  he  had  about  forty  years  pre- 
viously failed  to  see  any  star  in  the  place  with  the  transit 
instrument  at  Abo  (of  5^  inches  aperture),  and  that  he  had 
also  later — probably  in  1849 — been  unable  to  see  anything 
with  the  transit  circle  at  Bonn.1  There  is  thus  a  possibility 
that  D'Arrest's  star  may  have  increased  in  light  of  late  years, 
and  observations  made  at  Twickenham  by  Hind  and  W. 
E.  Plumrner  in  1872—73,  and  at  Prague  by  Safarik 
in  1888—89,  seem  to  indicate  that  it  is  subject  to  very 
slight  fluctuations  of  light.2  The  map  of  all  the  stars  in 
the  neighbourhood,  prepared  by  D'Arrest  (which  is  com- 
plete down  to  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  magnitude,  within 
a  radius  of  I  o'  from  the  place  of  the  Nova)  may  in  future 
be  compared  with  photographs  of  this  interesting  spot, 
which  deserves  to  be  watched  from  time  to  time. 


1  D'Arrest,  Oversigt  over  det  Icgl.  Danske  VidensTc.  Selskabs  Forhandlinger, 
1864,  p.  I,  where  a  list  of  stars  near  the  place  and  a  map  are  given.     Micro- 
metric  observation  of   the  star  No.   129  in  Astr.   Nachr.,   vol.   Ixiv.  p.  75. 
Argelander,    Ueber   den    neuen   Stern   vom   Jahre    1572,   Astr.    Nachr.,    vol. 
Ixii.  p.  273. 

2  Monthly   Notices,    It.   Astr.    Soc.,   xxxiv.,    p.    168 ;    Astr.   Nachr.,    vol. 
cxxiii.   p.  365,     D'Arrest  in  1863-64  found   no  variability.     The  place  was 
already  examined  by  Edward  Pigott  between   1782  and   1786,  but  without 
finding  any  variable  star  (Phil.  Trans.,  1786);  it  was  first  photographed  by 
Mr.  Roberts  in  1890  (Monthly  Notices,  L.  p.  359). 


68  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

I  shall  not  here  enter  into  a  lengthy  examination  of  the 
various  prognostications  and  more  or  less  wild  speculations 
to  which  the  new  star  gave  rise  in  1572.  As  remarked 
by  Tycho,  the  usual  methods  of  astrology  were  of  no  avail 
in  this  exceptional  case,  and  there  is  therefore  little  to  be 
gained  even  to  the  student  of  the  history  of  astrology  (a 
subject  of  considerable  interest)  by  an  examination  of  the 
literature  on  the  star.  I  shall  only  point  out  a  few  curious 
particulars.  That  the  star  portended  great  events,  possibly 
of  an  evil  character,  seemed  evident  to  most  writers,  and 
the  star  of  Bethlehem  was  frequently  referred  to  as  a 
phenomenon  of  a  similar  nature.  As  the  star  seen  by  the 
wise  men  foretold  the  birth  of  Christ,  the  new  one  was 
generally  supposed  to  announce  His  last  coming  and  the  end 
of  the  world.  This  was  already  suggested  by  Wilhelm  IV. 
in  his  above-mentioned  letter  to  Peucer,  and  among  others 
who  declared  their  belief  in  this  idea  was  the  successor  of 
Calvin  at  Geneva,  Theodore  Beza,  who  announced  it  in  a 
short  Latin  poem.1  He  even  says  that  it  is  the  very  same 
star  which  was  seen  by  the  Magi ;  but,  as  Tycho  remarks, 
perhaps  that  was  only  said  "poetica  quadam  festivitate." 
Gemma,  in  his  book  on  the  comet  of  1577,  points  out  the 
great  disturbances  which  followed  the  star  seen  by  Hip- 
parchus,  and  expects  similar  ones  to  occur  now ;  Tycho 
justly  remarks  that  it  looks  as  if  Gemma  had  copied  all 
this  from  his  own  little  book.2  Catholic  authors  naturally 
thought  that  the  star  foretold  the  victory  of  their  Church  ; 
among  these  is  Theodore  Graminseus,  Professor  of  Mathe- 

1  Published  in  the  above-mentioned  reprint "  De  Nova  Stella  Judicia  Dvorum 
Prsestantium  Mathematicorum,  D.  Cypriani  Leovitii  et  D.  Cornelii  Gemmse," 
1573,  s.l.  ;  perhaps  also  elsewhere.     Reprinted  by  Tycho,  Progymn.,  p.  327. 

2  "De  Prodigiosa  Specie  Naturaque  Cometse  .  .  .  1577.     Per  D.  Cornelium 
Gemmam,  Antwerp,  1578,"  Svo,  p.  42  (compare  Progymnasmata,  p.  565).    There 
is  a  curious  picture  in  this  book  of  Belgica  weeping  amidst  the  burning  ruins 
of  a  city,  while  the  paternal  government  of  Philip  II.  is  represented  by  gibbets 
and  wheels  in  the  background,  and  the  comet  is  blazing  overhead. 


THE  NEW  STAR  OF  1572.  69 

matics  at  Cologne,  author  of  a  book  in  which  there  is 
nothing  astronomical,  but  a  great  deal  about  old  prophecies.1 
According  to  one  of  these,  dating  from  1488  and  founded 
on  the  conjunction  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn  in  1484,  a  false 
prophet  was  soon  to  arise,  who,  of  course,  turned  out  to  be 
Luther,  and  a  picture  is  given  of  the  prophet  dressed  like 
a  monk,  with  a  shrivelled  little  devil  sitting  astride  on  his 
neck,  and  followed  by  a  small  monk  or  choir-boy.  Un- 
luckily Luther  was  not  born  in  1484,  but  in  1483,  and 
not  on  the  22nd  October,  as  assumed  by  the  mathema- 
tician Cardan,  who  worked  out  his  horoscope  (in  what  spirit 
may  easily  be  conceived),  but  nineteen  days  later.  The 
above-mentioned  French  pamphlet  of  1590,  printed  at  a 
time  when  Henry  IV.  had  not  yet  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  "  Paris  vaut  bien  une  messe,"  also  declares  that  the 
star  meant  the  victory  of  the  Church  and  the  King,  but 
the  latter  must  not  be  a  heretic,  but  fide  plenus.  The 
author  also  states  that  the  star  disappeared  the  1 8th 
February  1574,  "  qui  fut  le  propre  iour  que  le  feu  Eoy 
Henry  de  Yalois  feist  son  entree  en  Cracouie."  2  Doubtless 
the  star  expired  from  grief  at  seeing  this  charming  creature 
bury  himself  so  far  from  his  admiring  country.  Strange  that 
it  did  not  light  up  again  with  joy  when  he  bolted  from  his 
Polish  kingdom  a  few  months  later ! 

After  this  digression  we  shall  now  return  to  Tycho,  de- 
ferring to  a  later  chapter  an  account  of  the  researches  and 
speculations  on  the  subject  of  the  new  star  which  he  made 
in  after-years,  and  which  it  would  not  be  possible  to  describe 
in  this  place  without  a  serious  break  in  the  continuity  of 
our  narrative. 

1  "Erklerung  oder  Auslegung  ernes  Cometen.    .    .    .    Durch   Theodorum 
Graminseum  Ruremundanum.    Collen  am  Rhein,  1573,  4to."    Tycho  mentions 
him  as  "Autor  Stramineus,  Graminseus  volebam  dicere"  (Prog.,  p.  77^). 

2  This  beautiful  remark  is   also  made   in  Gosselin's   Historia  Imaginum 
Coelestium,  Paris,  1577,  4to,  p.  u. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

TYCHO'S  ORATION  ON  ASTROLOGY  AND  HIS 
TRA  VELS  IN  1575. 

AFTER  the  publication  of  the  book  on  the  new  star  Tycho 
Brahe  had  intended  to  go  abroad  for  some  time,  and  it  appears, 
even,  that  he  was  inclined  to  leave  his  native  land  for  ever, 
but  the  journey  had  to  be  put  off  owing  to  an  attack  of 
ague,  which  continued  during  the  greater  part  of  the  summer 
of  1573.  Another  circumstance  which  doubtless  contri- 
buted to  keep  him  at  home,  was  that  he  had  formed  an 
attachment  to  a  young  girl  some  months  before.  Her 
name  was  Christine,  but  otherwise  nothing  is  known  about 
her ;  some  authors  say  she  was  the  daughter  of  a  farmer  on 
the  Knudstrup  property,  others  that  she  was  a  servant-girl ; 
others,  again,  believed  her  to  have  been  the  daughter  of  a 
clergyman.  At  any  rate,  it  is  certain  that  she  was  not  of 
gentle  blood,  and  this  contributed  greatly  to  estrange  his 
proud  relations  from  him,  as  they,  of  course,  considered  the 
connection  a  disgrace.  Tycho  had  no  scruples  in  this 
respect,  and  probably  considered  that  a  quiet  and  domestic 
woman  was  more  likely  to  be  a  suitable  companion  for  him 
through  life  than  a  high-born  lady  to  whom  his  scientific 
occupations,  perhaps,  might  be  distasteful.  It  is  nowhere 
expressly  stated  that  he  and  she  were  united  by  a  Church 
marriage,  and  it  is  almost  certain  that  this  was  not  the 
case,  as  it  is  stated  in  several  contemporary  genealogies 

that  Tycho  was  not  married,  but  that  he  had  children  by 

70 


ORATION  ON  ASTROLOGY.  71 

an  "  unfree  woman." l  Twenty-nine  years  after  his  death 
his  sister  Sophia  and  several  others  of  his  relations  signed 
a  declaration  stating  that  Tycho's  children  were  legitimate, 
and  that  their  mother  (though  his  inferior  in  rank)  had  been 
his  wife,  adding  that  he  would  not  have  been  allowed  to 
live  with  an  unmarried  woman  in  Denmark  for  twenty- six 
years.  Cut  this  does  not  in  the  least  prove  that  Christine 
had  been  formally  married  to  Tycho.  According  to  the 
ancient  Danish  law,  a  woman  who  publicly  lived  with  a  man 
and  kept  his  keys  and  ate  at  his  table  was  after  three 
winters  to  be  considered  as  his  wife.  In  this  rule  the 
Reformation  made  no  change,  as  Luther  and  his  followers 
did  not  consider  a  Church  ceremony  necessary  to  legalise  a 
marriage,  but  adopted  the  old  rule  of  canonical  law,  that 
the  consent  of  the  parties  made  the  marriage,  which,  there- 
fore, really  dated  from  the  betrothal  (matrimonium  in- 
ckoatuiri)j  though  the  full  consequences  only  began  when 
the  parties  went  to  live  together  or  were  married  (matri- 
monium consummatum).  A  natural  result  of  these  views 
was,  that  the  parties  frequently  began  to  live  together 
immediately  after  the  betrothal,  as  they  did  not  see  the 
necessity  of  the  Church  ceremony,  which  could  make  no 
difference  as  to  the  legal  effects  of  the  connexion.  Gradu- 
ally a  change  took  place  in  these  views,  as  the  Church 
could  not  look  with  indifference  at  this  setting  aside  of  its 
authority;  but  though  in  Denmark  betrothed  people  about 

1  Danslce  Magazin,  ii.  p.  192  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  70).  The  English  traveller, 
Fynes  Moryson,  tells  us  that  Tycho  was  said  "to  liue  vnmarried,  but  keeping 
a  Concubine,  of  whom  he  had  many  children,  &  the  reason  of  his  so  liuing 
was  thought  to  be  this  ;  because  his  nose  hauing  been  cut  off  in  a  quarrell, 
when  he  studied  in  a  Vniversity  of  Germany,  he  knew  himselfe  thereby  dis- 
abled to  marry  any  Gentlewoman  of  his  own  quality.  It  was  also  said  that 
the  Gentlemen  lesse  respected  him  for  liuing  in  that  sort,  and  did  not  acknow- 
ledge his  sonnes  for  Gentlemen."  Moryson  heard  this  at  Elsinore  in  1593; 
see  his  "  Itinerary  of  his  ten  Yeeres  Travell  through  the  twelve  Domjnions  of 
Germany,  Bohmerland,  &c."  London,  1617,  p.  59. 


72  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

the  year  1566  began  to  be  punished  if  they  commenced 
living  together  before  the  wedding,  and  an  ordinance  of 
1582  declares  that  a  formal  betrothal  before  a  minister  and 
witnesses  shall  precede  a  wedding,  it  was  not  yet  expressly 
ordered  that  a  Church  ceremony  was  the  only  way  of 
legalising  a  marriage,  and,  in  fact,  this  was  not  done  till 
a  hundred  years  later.1  Tycho  Brahe  lived  just  at  a  time 
when  the  law  of  the  land  was  still  formally  unaltered,  and 
it  is  therefore  intelligible  how  his  children  might  be  con- 
sidered legitimate,  and  the  companion  of  his  life  have 
been  looked  upon  as  his  lawful  wife.  Doubtless  the  only 
fault  anybody  had  to  find  with  her  was  her  low  origin,  and 
if  she  had  been  his  equal  in  rank  nobody  would  have  thought 
that  she  was  anything  but  his  wife.2 

Tycho's  eldest  child,  a  daughter  of  the  name  of  Christine, 
was  born  in  October  1573,  but  died  in  September  1576. 
His  other  children  were  Magdalene  (born  in  1574), 
Claudius  (born  in  January  1577,  died  six  days  after), 
Tyge  (born  in  August  1581),  Jorgen  (born  1583),  and 
three  other  daughters,  Elizabeth,  Sophia,  and  Cecily,  as  to 
the  dates  of  whose  birth  nothing  is  known.8 

The  ague  seems  to  have  left  Tycho  in  August  1573,  as 

1  By  the  Danske  Lov  of   1683  and  the  Church  ritual  of    1685.     See  an 
article  in  the  Historisk  TidssJcrift,  fifth  series,  vol.  i.   1879,  by  the  Danish 
Minister  of  Justice,  J.  Nellemann. 

2  Early  in  the  sixteenth  century  a  Danish  nobleman,  Mogens  Lb'venbalk, 
brought  a  young  Scotch  lady,  Janet  Craigengelt  (on  the  female  side  said  to 
have  been  related  to  the  Grahams  of  Montrose),  home  to  his  castle,  Tjele,  in 
Jutland,  where  she  lived  for  many  years  and  bore  him  two  children.     Her 
son  tried  in  vain  to  obtain  recognition  as  his  father's  legitimate  heir,  and  his 
claims  were  set  aside  chiefly  because  his  mother  had  clearly  not  been  treated 
as  the  mistress  of  the  house,  but  rather  as  a  dependent.     On  the  other  hand, 
the  University  of  Wittenberg  declared  in  favour  of  the  legitimate  birth  of  the 
children,  evidently  guided  by  the  then  ruling  principle  of  canonical  law,  that 
a  long  intercourse  with  all  the  outer  resemblance  of  wedlock  had  the  same 
legal  weight  as  a  formal  marriage. 

3  The  eldest  daughter  was  buried  in  Helsingborg  church.     In  the  epitaph 
she  is  called  filiola  naturalis,  which  has  made  Langebek  doubt  whether  she 
had  the  same  mother  as  the  other  children  (D.  Magazin,  ii.  p.  194) ;  but  this 


ORATION  ON  ASTROLOGY.  73 

we  still  possess  a  couple  of  observations  from  the  I4th 
of  that  month.  The  lunar  eclipse  of  the  8th  December, 
which  he  had  computed  in  the  book  on  the  new  star,  was 
duly  observed,  and  he  was  on  that  occasion  assisted  by  his 
youngest  sister  Sophia,  at  that  time  a  girl  seventeen  years 
of  age,  highly  educated,  and  not  only  conversant  with  classi- 
cal literature,  but  also  well  acquainted  with  astrology  and 
alchemy,  and  therefore  in  every  way  fit  to  assist  her  great 
brother.  She  was  the  only  one  of  his  relations  who  showed 
any  sympathy  with  his  pursuits,  and  was  a  frequent  visitor 
in  his  home.  In  March,  April,  and  May  1574  Tycho 
observed  at  Heridsvad,  but  the  remaining  part  of  the  year 
he  chiefly  spent  at  Copenhagen,  where  his  daughter  Mag- 
dalene was  born.1  In  the  capital  his  rising  fame  had  now 
attracted  considerable  attention,  and  some  young  nobles 
who  were  studying  at  the  University  requested  him  to 
deliver  a  course  of  lectures  on  some  mathematical  subject 
on  which  there  were  no  lectures  being  given  at  that  time. 
His  friends  Dancey  and  Pratensis  urged  him  to  consent  to 
this  proposal,  but  Tycho  was  not  inclined  to  do  so,  until 
the  King  had  also  requested  him  to  gratify  the  wishes  of 
the  students,  and  at  the  same  time  to  give  the  University 
a  helping  hand.  He  then  yielded,  and  the  lectures  were 
commenced  on  the  23rd  September  1574,  with  an  oration 
on  the  antiquity  and  importance  of  the  mathematical 
sciences.  This  was  printed  after  his  death,  but  has  long 
ago  become  very  scarce,  for  which  reason  we  shall  give  an 
abstract  of  the  contents.2 

very  expression,  which  originated  in  the  Roman  'jurisprudence,  shows  that 
the  humble  companion  of  Tycho's  life  was  her  mother  (see  Gibbon's  Decline 
and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  chapter  xliv.). 

1  He  had  also  observed  at  Copenhagen  on  the  24th  April.     Nearly  all  these 
observations  are  distance-measures  of  planets  from  fixed  stars,  doubtless  with 
the  sextant,  "  satis  exquisite,  subtracta  instrumenti  parallax! ; "  but  a  small 
quadrant  is  also  mentioned. 

2  "  Tychonis  Brahei  de  Disciplinis  mathematicis  oratio  publice  recitata  in 


74  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

The  oration  begins  with  an  allusion  to  his  having  been 
requested  to  lecture,  not  only  by  his  friends,  but  also  by 
the  King,  and  then  goes  on  to  describe  the  various  branches 
of  mathematics  cultivated  by  the  ancients.  Geometry  has 
a  higher  purpose  than  merely  measuring  land,  and  the 
divine  Plato  turned  all  those  away  from  his  teaching  who 
were  ignorant  of  geometry,  as  being  unfit  to  devote  them- 
selves to  other  branches  of  philosophy.  To  this  he  attri- 
butes the  high  degree  of  learning  reached  by  the  ancient 
philosophers,  as  they  were  imbued  with  geometry  from  their 
childhood,  "  while  we,  unfortunately,  have  to  spend  the  best 
years  of  our  youth  on  the  study  of  languages  and  grammar, 
which  those  acquired  in  infancy  without  trouble."  Astronomy 
is  a  very  ancient  science,  and,  according  to  Josephus,  it  can 
be  traced  back  to  the  time  of  Seth,  while  Abraham  from  the 
motions  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  perceived  that  there 
was  but  one  God,  by  whose  will  all  was  governed.  It  was 
next  studied  by  the  Egyptians ;  while  we  owe  our  knowledge, 
above  all,  to  Hipparchus,  Ptolemy,  and  more  recently  to  Nico- 
laus  Copernicus,  who  not  without  reason  has  been  called  a 
second  Ptolemy,  and  who,  having  by  his  own  observations 
found  both  the  Ptolemean  and  the  Alphonsine  theories  in- 
sufficient to  explain  the  celestial  motions,  by  new  hypotheses 
deduced  by  the  admirable  skill  of  his  genius,  restored  the 
science  to  such  an  extent,  that  nobody  before  him  had  a 
more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  motions  of  the  stars.  And 
though  his  theory  was  somewhat  contrary  to  physical 
principles,  it  admitted  nothing  contrary  to  mathematical 
axioms,  such  as  the  ancients  did  in  assuming  the  motions 

Academia  Haffniensi  anno  1574,  et  nunc  primum  edita  .  .  .  studio  et  opera 
Cunradi  Aslaci  Bergensis.  Hafnise,  1610,  4to."  Dedicated  to  Tycho's  brother, 
Sten  Brahe  of  Knudstrup,  and  the  editor  has  added  some  of  his  own  speeches. 
Second  edition,  Hamburg,  1621,  to  the  title  is  added  "in  qua  simul  Astrologia 
defenditur  et  ab  objectionibus  dissentientium  vindicatur.  Cum  Prseloquio 
Joach.  Curtii."  Both  editions  are  very  scarce. 


OEATION  ON  ASTROLOGY.  75 

of  the  stars  in  the  epicycles  and  eccentrics  to  be  irregular 
with  regard  to  the  centres  of  these  circles,  "  which  was 
absurd."  The  lecturer  next  alludes  to  the  beauty  of  the 
celestial  phenomena,  and  shows  that  we  must  distinguish 
between  the  casual  contemplation  of  the  heavens  and  their 
scientific  examination,  as  only  the  latter  will  detect  the 
variation  in  the  moon's  distance  from  us,  the  revolutions  of 
the  planets,  &c.  The  utility  of  astronomy  is  easy  to  per- 
ceive, as  no  nation  could  exist  without  means  of  properly 
dividing  and  fixing  time,  while  the  science  exalts  the 
human  mind  from  earthly  and  trivial  things  to  heavenly 
ones.  A  special  use  of  astronomy  is,  that  it  enables  us  to 
draw  conclusions  from  the  movements  in  the  celestial  regions 
as  to  human  fate.  The  remainder  of  the  lecture  is  devoted 
to  considerations  on  the  importance  and  value  of  astrology, 
and  tries  to  answer  the  objections  which  philosophers  and 
theologians  had  made  against  it.  It  is  evident,  from  the 
detailed  manner  in  which  this  is  done,  how  important 
Tycho  considered  this  subject  to  be.  We  cannot,  he  says, 
deny  the  influence  of  the  stars  without  disbelieving  in  the 
wisdom  of  God.  The  importance  of  the  sun  and  moon  is 
easy  to  perceive,  but  the  five  planets  and  the  eighth  sphere 
have  also  their  destination,  as  they  cannot  have  been 
created  without  a  purpose,  but  were  placed  in  the  sky  and 
given  regular  motions  to  show  the  wisdom  and  goodness 
of  the  Creator.  The  sun  causes  the  four  seasons,  while 
during  the  increase  and  decrease  of  the  moon  all  things 
which  are  analogous  to  it,  such  as  the  brain  and  marrow  of 
animals,  increase  and  decrease  similarly.  The  moon  also 
causes  the  tides,  and  its  influence  on  these  becomes  greatest 
when  that  of  the  sun  is  joined  to  it  at  new-moon  and 
full-moon.  Sailors  and  cultivators  of  the  soil  have  noticed 
that  the  rising  and  setting  of  certain  stars  cause  stormy 
weather,  and  more  experienced  observers  know  that  the 


76  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

configurations  of  the  planets  have  also  great  influence  on 
the  weather.  Conjunctions  of  Mars  and  Venus  in  certain 
parts  of  the  sky  cause  rain  and  thunder,  those  of  Jupiter 
and  Mercury  storms,  those  of  the  sun  and  Saturn  turbid 
and  disagreeable  air.  The  most  ancient  writers  on  agricul- 
ture, as  well  as  poets  and  astrologers,  have  observed  that 
the  rising  and  setting  of  the  more  conspicuous  stars 
simultaneously  with  the  sun  produced  rain,  wind,  and  other 
atmospheric  changes,  particularly  when  the  planets  joined 
their  effect  to  that  of  the  stars.1  The  sun  and  stars  move 
in  the  same  manner  from  year  to  year,  but  this  is  not  the 
case  with  the  planets,  and  the  weather  of  one  year  cannot, 
therefore,  be  like  that  of  another.  Among  planetary  con- 
junctions, he  mentions  that  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn  in  1563, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  sign  of  Leo  near  the  hazy  stars  of 
Cancer  (Prassepe),  which  Ptolemy  already  considered  pesti- 
lential. This  conjunction  was  in  a  few  years  followed  by 
an  outbreak  of  the  plague.  While  many  people  admitted 
the  influence  of  the  stars  on  nature,  they  denied  it  where 
mankind  were  concerned.  But  man  is  made  from  the 
elements,  and  absorbs  them  just  as  much  as  food  and  drink, 
from  which  it  follows  that  man  must  also,  like  the  elements, 
be  subject  to  the  influence  of  the  planets  ;  and  there  is, 
besides,  a  great  analogy  between  the  parts  of  the  human 
body  and  the  seven  planets.  The  heart,  being  the  seat  of 
the  breath  of  life,  corresponds  to  the  sun,  and  the  brain  to 
the  moon.  As  the  heart  and  brain  are  the  most  important 
parts  of  the  body,  so  the  sun  and  moon  are  the  most  power- 
ful celestial  bodies ;  and  as  there  is  much  reciprocal  action 
between  the  former,  so  is  there  much  mutual  dependence 
between  the  latter.  In  the  same  way  the  liver  corresponds 

i  "  Habent  se  enim  stellae  fixse  in  coelo  veluti  matres,  quae  nisi  a  septem 
errantibus  stellis  stimulentur  et  impregnentur,  steriles  sunt  et  nihil  in  hac 
inferior!  natura  progignunt "  (Oratio,  p.  20). 


ORATION  ON  AST110LOGY.  77 

to  Jupiter,  the  kidneys  to  Venus,  the  milt  to  Saturn,  the 
gall  to  Mars,  and  the  lungs  to  Mercury,  and  the  resem- 
blance of  the  functions  of  these  various  organs  to  the 
assumed  astrological  character  of  the  planets  is  pointed  out 
in  a  manner  similar  to  that  followed  by  other  astrological 
writers.  He  believes  experience  to  have  shown  that  those 
who  are  born  when  the  moon  is  affected  by  the  evil  planets 
(Saturn  and  Mars)  and  is  unluckily  placed,  have  a  weak 
brain  and  are  under  the  influence  of  passions,  while  those 
in  whose  case  the  sun  was  influenced  by  those  planets 
suffered  from  palpitation  of  the  heart.  But  if  both  lumi- 
naries are  in  unlucky  aspects,  those  born  at  that  time  are  of 
weak  health  and  intellect.  Those  people  at  whose  birth 
Saturn,  the  highest  planet,  was  favourable,  are  inclined  to 
sublime  studies,  while  those  whom  Jupiter  has  influenced 
are  attracted  to  politics.  The  solar  influence  makes  people 
desire  honour,  dignities,  and  power;  that  of  Venus  makes 
them  devote  themselves  to  love,  pleasures,  and  music ;  while 
Mercury  encourages  people  to  mercantile  pursuits,  and  the 
moon  to  travelling. 

Many  philosophers  and  theologians,  continued  Tycho  in 
his  lecture,  have  contended  that  astrology  was  not  to  be 
counted  among  the  sciences,  because  the  moment  of  birth 
was  difficult  to  fix,  because  many  are  born  at  the  same 
moment  whose  fates  differ  vastly,  because  twins  often  meet 
with  very  different  fortunes,  while  many  die  simultaneously 
in  war  or  pestilence  whose  horoscopes  by  no  means  foretold 
such  a  fate.  It  had  also  been  maintained  that  a  knowledge 
of  the  future  was  useless  or  undesirable,  and  theologians 
added  that  the  art  was  forbidden  in  God's  Word  and  drew 
men  away  from  God.  To  these  objections  Tycho  answered, 
that  even  if  there  was  an  error  of  an  hour  in  the  assumed 
time  of  birth,  it  would  be  possible  from  subsequent  events  to 
calculate  it  accurately.  With  regard  to  war  or  pestilence, 


78  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

prudent  astrologers  always  made  a  reservation  as  to  public 
calamities  which  proceed  from  universal  causes.  Difference 
of  education,  mode  of  life,  and  similar  circumstances  ex- 
plained the  different  fates  which  people  born  at  the  same 
time  met  with ;  and  as  to  twins,  they  were  not  born  exactly 
at  the  same  moment,  and  one  was  always  naturally 
weaker  than  the  other,  and  this  the  stars  could  not  correct. 
Astrology  was  not  forbidden  in  the  Bible,  but  sorcery 
only. 

So  far  Tycho's  astrological  ideas  are  in  accordance  with 
those  of  contemporary  and  previous  writers  on  such  sub- 
jects, but  towards  the  end  of  his  discourse  he  shows  more 
distinctly  than  most  of  these,  that  he  did  not  consider  the 
fate  of  man  to  be  absolutely  settled  by  the  aspect  of  the 
stars,  but  that  God  could  alter  it  as  He  willed.  Nor  was 
man  altogether  bound  by  the  influence  of  the  stars,  but  God 
had  so  made  him  that  he  might  conquer  that  influence,  as 
there  was  something  in  man  superior  to  it.  The  objection 
to" astrology,  that  it  was  a  useless  art,  as  knowledge  of  the 
future  was  undesirable,  would  only  hold  good  if  it  were 
impossible  to  resist  the  influence  of  the  stars;  but  being 
forewarned,  we  might  try  to  avert  the  threatening  evils,  and 
in  this  way  astrology  was  of  great  use. 

In  conclusion,  Tycho  stated  that  as  the  doctrine  of  the 
primum  mobile  (spherical  astronomy)  was  very  easy,  and 
was  frequently  lectured  on  in  the  University,  he  had  thought 
it  more  advisable  to  take  for  his  subject  the  motions  of 
secundum  mobile,  explain  the  method  of  calculating  the 
motions  of  the  seven  planets  by  the  Prutenic  tables,  which 
were  the  most  accurate  ones,  and  describe  the  circles  by 
means  of  which  the  tables  had  been  computed. 

Early  in  1575  these  lectures  were  finished,  and  Tycho 
Brahe  shortly  afterwards  started  on  the  long-deferred 


TRAVELS  IN  1575.  79 

journey.1  Leaving  his  family  at  home  until  lie  had  decided 
where  he  would  finally  settle  down,  he  went  first  to  Cassel 
to  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  distinguished  astronomer, 
Landgrave  Wilhelm  IV.  of  Hesse.  Wilhelm  was  born  in 
1532,  and  was  the  son  of  Landgrave  Philip  the  Magnani- 
mous, one  of  the  most  determined  champions  of  the  Kefor- 
mation,  who,  after  the  disastrous  battle  of  Mlihlberg  (1547), 
had  surrendered  to  the  Emperor,  and  had  been  kept  a  close 
prisoner  for  five  years,  during  which  anxious  time  his 
dominions  had  been  governed  by  Wilhelm.  When  Philip 
became  free  in  1552,  Wilhelm  gladly  turned  back  to  the 
learned  occupations,  to  which  he  had  already  for  some  years 
been  devoted.  By  accident  he  came  across  the  curious  work 
of  Peter  Apianus,  Astronomicum  Ccesareum,  in  which  the 
orbits  of  the  planets  are  represented  by  movable  circles  of 
cardboard,  and  he  became  so  much  interested  in  the  subject, 
that  he  had  circles  of  copper  made  for  the  same  purpose. 
Having  afterwards  studied  Purbach's  planetary  theory  and 
the  other  principal  works  of  the  time,  he  became,  like  Tycho, 
convinced  of  the  necessity  of  making  systematic  observations, 
as  he  found  considerable  errors  in  the  existing  star  cata- 
logues. In  1561  he  built  a  tower  on  the  Zwehrer  Thor  at 
Cassel,  of  which  the  top  could  be  turned  round  to  any  part 
of  the  sky,  and  here  he  observed  regularly  up  to  1567,  when 
the  death  of  his  father  and  his  own  consequent  accession  to 
the  government  of  his  dominions  gave  him  less  leisure  for 
scientific  occupations.  As  yet  he  had  not  any  astronomer 

1  Shortly  before  starting  he  had  occasion  to  show  his  friendship  for  his 
former  tutor  Vedel  and  his  patriotism.  Vedel  was  just  in  the  act  of  finishing 
his  translation  of  the  Danish  Chronicle  of  Saxo  Grammaticus  (from  the  end 
of  the  twelfth  century),  but  the  cost. of  the  paper  necessary  for  so  large  a  work 
was  so  great,  that  Vedel's  friends  feared  that  the  work  might  remain  un- 
printed.  Tycho  wrote  a  Latin  poem  to  encourage  his  friend,  calling  on  the 
Danish  women  to  sacrifice  some  of  their  linen,  and  to  send  it  to  the  paper- 
mill  in  Scania,  lest  the  deeds  of  their  ancestors  should  be  buried  in  oblivion 
(Wegener's  Life  of  Vedel,  p.  83). 


80  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

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  deter- 
mined the  position  of  Spica  Virginis.1  Naturally  they  dis- 
cussed the  nature  and  position  of  the  new  star,  and  the 
Landgrave  told  Tycho  how  he  had  once  been  so  intent  on 
determining  the  greatest  altitude  of  the  star,  that  he  had 
not  even  desisted  when  he  was  told  that  part  of  the  house 
was  on  fire,  but  had  calmly  finished  the  observation  before 
leaving  the  observatory.  Tycho  was  also  interested  to  learn 
that  the  Landgrave  had  remarked  how  the  motion  of  the  sun 
became  retarded  when  it  approached  the  horizon  at  sunset, 
which  might  be  seen  by  watching  a  sun-dial.  Tycho  recol- 
lected having  read  the  same  in  the  observations  of  Bernhard 
Walther  (before  whom,  however,  Alhazen  had  recognised  in 
this  phenomenon  an  effect  of  refraction),  and  he  determined 
to  follow  up  the  matter  by-and-by,  so  as  to  be  able  to  cor- 
rect observations  made  at  low  altitudes  for  refraction.2 

More  than  a  week  had  elapsed  in  thus  exchanging  ideas 
and  opinions,  when  a  little  daughter  of  the  Landgrave  died, 
and  Tycho,  who  did  not  wish  to  intrude  his  company  on  the 

1  Tychonis  Epi*t.  Astron.,  Dedication.     In  his  Progymn.,  p.  616,  Tycho 
states  that  the  Landgrave  on  this  occasion  gave  him  a  copy  of  his  own  cata- 
logue of  improved  star-places.     Tycho  prints  as  specimens  the  places  of  Alde- 
baran,  Betelgeux,  and  Sirius ;  but  though  superior  to  the  positions  given  by 
Alphonsus  and  Copernicus,  those  of  the  Landgrave  were  as  yet  very  inferior 
to  Tycho's.     We  shall,  farther  on,  see  how  the  observations  made  at  Cassel 
afterwards  became  much  more  accurate  than  they  were  at  the  time  of  Tycho's 
visit. 

2  Gassendi,  p.  29. 


TRAVELS  IN  1575.  81 

afflicted  father,  took  his  departure.  He  never  saw  the  Land- 
grave again,  but  the  visit  of  the  young  enthusiast  had  re- 
newed the  wavering  scientific  ardour  of  his  host,  and  the 
friendship  thus  commenced  was  revived  in  after-years 
by  frequent  correspondence  and  the  interchange  of  obser- 
vations. 

From  Cassel,  Tycho  went  to  Frankfurt -on -the -Main, 
where  he  purchased  some  books  at  the  half-yearly  mart, 
particularly  some  of  the  numerous  pamphlets  on  the  new 
star.  He  went  thence  to  Basle,  where  he  had  already  spent 
some  time  in  the  winter  of  1568—69,  and  where  he  now 
found  his  stay  so  agreeable  that  he  thought  seriously  of 
settling  down  there.  The  University  of  Basle  was  one  of 
the  most  important  centres  of  learning  in  Europe,  and  Tycho 
might  hope  to  find  the  same  refined  tastes  and  culture 
among  the  scientific  men  living  there  which,  some  sixty 
years  before,  had  decided  Erasmus  to  take  up  his  residence 
at  Basle.  The  central  situation  of  the  city,  between  Ger- 
many and  France  and  not  far  from  Italy,  seemed  also  very 
convenient.1  Deferring,  however,  for  the  present  the  final 
step  of  returning  home  for  his  family,  Tycho  went  through 
Switzerland  to  Venice,  and  spent  some  days  there,  after 
which  he  retraced  his  steps  back  to  Germany,  and  went  in 
the  first  instance  to  Augsburg.  The  friendships  with  the 
brothers  Hainzel  and  Hieronimus  Wolf  formed  during  his 
former  visit  had  in  the  meantime  not  been  forgotten,  and 
several  letters  had  been  exchanged  between  them.  Thus, 
Paul  Hainzel  had  in  March  1574  written  to  express  his 
warmest  thanks  for  a  copy  of  Tycho's  book  on  the  new  star, 
and  in  March  1575  both  he  and  Wolf  had  written  to  tell 
Tycho  that  they  had  succeeded  in  procuring  for  him  from 
Schreckenfuchs  of  Freiburg  a  zodiacal  sphere  constructed 
according  to  the  description  of  Ptolemy  as  formulated  by 

1  Astr.  Inst.  Mechanica,  fol.  G.  2. 


82  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

Copernicus.1  The  money  sent  by  Tycho  had  been  stolen  by 
the  carrier,  who  had  never  since  been  heard  of,  but  the 
instrument  had  now  arrived,  and  would  be  forwarded.2  Tycho 
can  hardly  have  received  these  letters  before  starting  from 
home,  and  was  therefore  possibly  still  ignorant  of  another 
piece  of  news  contained  in  them,  namely,  that  the  great 
quadrant  at  Goggingen,  which  he  had  designed  six  years 
before,  had  in  the  previous  December  been  blown  down  and 
destroyed  in  a  great  storm.3  The  great  globe  which  he  had 
ordered  to  be  made  during  his  former  visit  was  now  nearly 
completed,  and  was  the  following  year  brought  to  Denmark 
with  great  trouble.  At  Augsburg,  Tycho  on  this  occasion 
made  the  acquaintance  of  a  painter,  Tobias  Gemperlin,  and 
induced  him  to  go  to  Denmark,  where  he  afterwards  painted 
a  number  of  pictures  for  Uraniborg  and  the  royal  castles. 

At  Eatisbon  great  numbers  of  princes  and  nobles  from 
all  parts  of  the  empire  were  just  then  gathering  to  witness 
the  coronation  as  King  of  the  Romans  of  Rudolph  the  Second, 
King  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  on  the  1st  November. 
Tycho  also  betook  himself  thither  in  the  hope  of  meeting 
the  Landgrave,  and  perhaps  some  other  scientific  men.  He 
was,  however,  disappointed  as  to  the  Landgrave,  who  did 
not  appear ;  but  he  had  the  consolation  of  meeting,  among 
others,  the  physician-in-ordinary  to  the  Emperor,  Thadda3us 
Hagecius  or  Hayek,  a  Bohemian,  whose  name  we  have 
already  met  with  among  the  writers  on  the  new  star.  He  gave 

1  Erasmus  Oswald  Schreckenfuchs  (1511— 1579)>  Professor  of  Mathematics, 
Rhetorics,  and  Hebrew,  first  at  Tubingen,  afterwards  at  Freiburg  in  Breisgau  ; 
editor  of  the  works  of  Ptolemy  (Basle,  1551),  and  author  of  commentaries  on 
the  writings  of  Sacrobosco,  Purbach,  and  Regiomontanus. 

2  By  Petrus  Aurifaber,  "cum  supellectile  sua"  (Was  he  the  maker  of  the 
globe  ?)     These  letters  are  published  in  T.  Brake  et  ad  eum  doct.  vir.  Epist. , 
pp.  1 1  seq.     Whether  Tycho  ever  got  the  sphere  is  not  known. 

3  It  may  have  been  re-erected  later,  as  Joh.  Major  wrote  to  Tycho  Brahe  in 
1577  that  it  was  still  in  use  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  P.  Hainzel  wrote  in  1579 
that  he  had  not  observed  the  comet  of  1577  for  want  of  convenient  instru- 
ments (T.  B.  et  doct.  vir.  Epist.,  pp.  42  and  46). 


TRAVELS  IN  1575.  83 

Tycho  a  copy  of  a  letter  he  had  received  from  Hieronimus 
Munosius  of  Valencia  on  this  subject,  and  Tycho  tried  in 
vain  to  dissuade  him  from  publishing  an  answer  to  the 
scurrilous  and  absurd  assertions  of  Raimundus  of  Verona.1 
Another  and  most  precious  gift  which  Hagecius  bestowed 
on  Tycho  on  this  occasion  was  a  copy  of  a  MS.  by  Coperni- 
cus, De  Hypothesibus  Motuum  Ccelestium  Commentariolus,  an 
account  of  the  new  system  of  the  world,  which  its  author 
had  written  for  circulation  among  friends  some  ten  years 
before  the  publication  of  his  book,  De  Revolutionilus,  but 
which  had  never  been  printed.2  In  after  years  Tycho 
communicated  copies  of  this  literary  relic  to  various 
German  astronomers.  Probably  he  presented  to  Hagecius 
in  return  a  copy  of  his  own  paper  on  the  star,  as  the  latter 
is  quoted  in  Hagecius'  reply  to  Raimundus.3 

From  Eatisbon  Tycho  returned  home  via  Saalfeld  and 
Wittenberg.  At  the  former  place  he  visited  Erasmus  Rein- 
hold,  the  younger,  a  son  of  the  author  of  the  "  Prutenic 
Tables,"  who  showed  him  his  father's  manuscripts,  among 
which  were  extended  tables  of  the  equations  of  centre  of 
the  planets  for  every  10'  of  the  anomaly.4  At  Wittenberg 
he  inspected  the  wooden  triquetrum  with  which  Wolfgang 

1  Profjymn.,  pp.  567  and  734;  see  also  above,  p.  64. 

2  Progymn.,  p.  479.     Though  the  description  there  given  of  the  MS.  ought 
to  have  attracted  attention,  and  have  led  to  a  search  for  copies  of  it,  the  Com- 
mentariolus  remained  perfectly  unknown  till  the  year  1878,  when  it  was  noticed 
that  there  was  a  copy  of  it  in  the  Hof-Bibliothek  at  Vienna,  and  immediately 
afterwards  another  copy  was  found  at  the  Stockholm  Observatory.      The 
Vienna  MS.  had  been  presented  by  Longomontanus  on  his  departure  from 
Prague  in  1600  to  another  of  Tycho  Brahe's  disciples,  Job.  Eriksen,  and  it  is 
therefore  doubtless  a  copy  of   the  MS.  belonging  to  Tycho.     See  Prowe, 
Nicolaus  Coppcrnicus,  i.  part  ii.  p.  286. 

3  Danske  JMayazin,   ii.   p.    196,   quotes   Thomasini   Elog.    Viror.   Jllustr., 
according  to  which,  Tycho,   in  his  younger  days,  received  an  offer  of   an 
appointment  at  the  Emperor's  court.     There  is  no  confirmation  anywhere  of 
this  statement ;  but  if  the  offer  was  ever  made,  it  was  probably  done  .at  Ratis- 
bon  in  1575. 

4  Progymn.,  p.  699. 


84  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

Schuler   and   Johannes   Praetorius    had    observed   the   new 
star.1 

About  the  end  of  the  year  Tycho  returned  home,  appa- 
rently intending  very  soon  to  leave  his  native  land  for  ever 
in  order  to  reside  at  Basle.  He  had,  however,  not  yet  con- 
fided his  intentions  to  anybody,  but  luckily  King  Frederick 
II.  had  his  attention  specially  drawn  to  Tycho  through  an 
embassy  to  Landgrave  Wilhelm,  which  happened  to  return 
to  Denmark  from  Cassel  about  that  time.  The  Landgrave 
had  requested  the  members  of  the  embassy  to  urge  the  king 
to  do  something  for  Tycho,  so  as  to  enable  him  to  devote 
himself  to  his  astronomical  studies  at  home ;  as  these  would 
do  much  credit  to  his  king  and  country,  and  be  of  great 
value  for  the  advancement  of  science.2  When  Tycho  paid 
his  respects  to  the  king,  the  latter  offered  him  various 
castles  for  a  residence,  but  Tycho  declined  these  offers. 
King  Frederick  was,  however,  fond  of  learning,  and  anxious 
to  retain  in  the  kingdom  so  promising  a  man;  and  he 
shortly  afterwards  sent  off  a  messenger  with  orders  to 
travel  day  and  night,  until  he  could  deliver  into  Tycho's 
own  hands  the  letter  of  which  he  was  the  bearer.  On  the 
I  ith  of  February,  early  in  the  morning,  as  Tycho  was 
lying  in  bed  at  Knudstrup,  turning  over  in  his  mind  his 
plan  of  emigrating,  the  royal  messenger,  a  youth  of  noble 
family  and  a  connection  of  Tycho's,  was  announced,  and 
was  at  once  brought  to  his  bedside  to  deliver  the  king's 
letter.  In  this  Tycho  was  commanded  immediately  to  come 
over  to  Seeland  to  wait  on  the  king.  He  started  the  same 
day,  and  arrived  in  the  evening  at  the  king's  hunting-lodge 
at  Ibstrup,  near  Copenhagen.8  The  king  now  told  him  that 

1  Progymn.,  p.  636 ;  see  also  above,  p.  58. 

2  Epist.  Astron.,  Dedication,  fol.  2. 

3  Afterwards  called  Jaegersborg,  about  five  English  miles  north  of  Copen- 
hagen ;  it  was  demolished  long  ago.     The  present  king's  summer  residence, 
Bernstorff,  is  close  to  the  place. 


TRAVELS  IN  1575.  85 

one  of  his  courtiers  had  understood  from  Tycho's  uncle,  Sten 
Bille,  that  Tycho  was  thinking  of  returning  to  Germany, 
and  asked  him  whether  he  had  perhaps  refused  to  accept  a 
royal  castle  because  he  feared  to  be  disturbed  in  his  studies 
by  affairs  of  court  and  state.  The  king  next  told  him  how 
he  had  lately  been  at  Elsinore,  where  he  was  building  the 
castle  of  Kronborg,  and  that  his  eye  had  fallen  on  the  little 
island  of  Hveen,  situated  in  the  Sound,  between  Elsinore 
and  Landskrona  in  Scania,  and  that  it  had  occurred  to  him 
that  this  lonely  little  spot,  which  had  not  been  granted  in 
fee  to  any  nobleman,  might  be  a  suitable  residence  for  the 
astronomer,  where  he  might  live  perfectly  undisturbed ; 
adding,  that  he  believed  he  had  heard  from  Sten  Bille 
before  Tycho  went  to  Germany  that  he  liked  the  situation. 
The  king  offered  him  the  island  and  promised  to  supply  him 
with  means  to  build  a  house  there.  He  finally  told  Tycho 
to  think  the  matter  over  for  a  few  days,  and  give  his  final 
answer  at  the  castle  of  Frederiksborg  ;  if  he  accepted  the 
offer,  the  king  would  immediately  give  the  necessary  orders 
for  payment  of  a  sum  of  money  for  the  building. 

Having  returned  home,  Tycho  at  once  wrote  a  long 
letter  to  his  friend  Pratensis,  telling  him  in  detail  all  that 
had  happened,  and  confessing  his  former  intention  of 
leaving  Denmark.  He  asked  Pratensis  to  show  the  letter 
only  to  Dancey,  and  requested  them  both  to  advise  him  in 
the  matter.1  They  both  strongly  urged  him  to  accept  the 
king's  offer,  which  he  accordingly  did,  and  already  on  the 
1 8th  of  February  the  king  by  letter  granted  Tycho  "five 
hundred  good  old  daler "  annually  until  further  orders.2 

1  T.  B.  et  Doct.  Vir.  Epist.,  p.  21  et  seq.     In  the  letter  of  February   14, 
Tycho  asks  Pratensis  to  tear  up  or  burn  the  letter  as  soon  as  Dancey  had  seen 
it,  and  in  his  reply  next  day,  Pratensis  writes  that  he  had  destroyed  it.     Tycho 
must  therefore  have  kept  a  copy. 

2  About  £114,  but  of  course  this  represented  at  that  time  a  much  greater 
sum.     In  Denmark  the  first  Joachimsthaler  had  been  coined  in  1523,  exactly 
of  the  same  value  as  those  first  issued  in  North  Germany  in  1519,  which  value 


86  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

Four  days  after,  on  the  22nd  February  1576,  Tycho  paid 
his  first  visit  (at  least  as  far  as  we  know)  to  the  little 
island  which  was  destined  to  become  famous  through  him, 
and  the  same  evening  took  his  first  observation  there  of  a 
conjunction  of  Mars  and  the  moon.1  If  he  could  have 
foreseen  that  he  was  destined  to  furnish  the  means  of  cir- 
cumventing the  tricks  of  the  inobservable  Sidus  (as  Pliny 
called  Mars), 'and  himself  to  add  more  to  our  knowledge  of 
the  moon's  motion  than  any  one  had  done  since  Ptolemy, 
he  would  certainly  by  this  coincidence  have  been  confirmed 
in  his  belief  in  astrology.  On  the  23rd  May  a  document 
was  signed  by  the  king  of  which  the  following  is  an  exact 
translation : 2 — 

11  We,  Frederick  the  Second,  &c.,  make  known  to  all  men, 
that  we  of  our  special  favour  and  grace  have  conferred  and 
granted  in  fee,  and  now  by  this  our  open  letter  confer  and 
grant  in  fee,  to  our  beloved  Tyge  Brahe,  Otte's  son,  of 
Knudstrup,  our  man  and  servant,  our  land  of  Hveen,  with 
all  our  and  the  crown's  tenants  and  servants  who  thereon 
live,  with  all  rent  and  duty  which  comes  from  that,  and  is 

the  Danish  daler  retained  nearly  unaltered,  though  the  name  changed,  first 
to  species  (from  in  specie,  or  in  one  piece),  then  to  rigsdaler  species.  The 
coinage  had  greatly  deteriorated  during  the  war  with  Sweden,  hence  doubtless 
the  expression  "  good  old  daler." 

1  Februarii  die  22.     Existente  in  M.  C.  ultima  in  capite  Hydrse  quse  est 
versus  ortum,  et  sola  juxta  collum,  apparebat  visibilis  conjunctio  d  et  £  ad- 
modum  partilis,  adeo  ut  d  inferiore  et  meridionaliore  cornu  fere  attingeret 
corpus   £  clistans  saltern  ab  eo  parte  sexta  sui  diametri  accipiendo  distantiam 
hanc  ab  inferior!  cornu  limbi.     Erat  autem  circa  idem  teinpus  per  observa- 
tionem  alt.  lucidiss.  in  pede  Orionis  II  g.  2O  m. — H.  9  M.  30.     Infimus  vero  d 
limbus  circa  quern  <$  conspiciebatur  elevari  visus  est  10  g.  50  m.     Observatio 
haec  facta  i.  Huennse.     Langebek  in  Danske  Mag.,  ii.  p.  194  (Weistritz,  ii.  p. 
73),  refers  to  this  visit  to  Hveen  as  made  in  the  year  1574.     In  the  original 
the  year  is  not  given,  and  the  observation  follows  after  one  of  May  19,  1574. 
But  on  February  22,  1574,  the  moon  was  only  a  few  days  old,  and  Mars  was 
at  the  other  side  of  the  heavens,  while  they  were  very  close  together  on  the 
same  date  in  1576. 

2  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  198. 


TRAVELS  IN  1575.  87 

given  to  us  and  to  the  crown,  to  have,  enjoy,  use  and  hold, 
quit  and  free,  without  any  rent,  all  the  days  of  his  life,  and 
as  long  as  he  lives  and  likes  to  continue  and  follow  his 
studia  mathematices,  but  so  that  he  shall  keep  the  tenants 
who  live  there  under  law  and  right,  and  injure  none  of  them 
against  the  law  or  by  any  new  impost  or  other  unusual  tax, 
and  in  all  ways  be  faithful  to  us  and  the  kingdom,  and 
attend  to  our  welfare  in  every  way  and  guard  against 
and  prevent  danger  and  injury  to  the  kingdom.  Actum 
Frederiksborg  the  23rd  day  of  May,  anno  1576. 

"  FREDERICK." 

The  same  day  the  chief  of  the  exchequer,  Christopher 
Valkendorf,  was  instructed  to  pay  to  Tycho  Brahe  400 
daler  towards  building  a  house  on  the  island  of  Hveen,  for 
which  Tycho  was  himself  to  provide  building  materials. 
This  money  was  paid  on  the  27th  May.1  Just  at  the 
moment  when  everything  was  settled  and  Tycho's  prospects 
in  life  were  most  brilliant,  he  had  the  grief  to  lose  his 
friend  Johannes  Pratensis,  who  died  suddenly  on  the  1st 
June  from  a  bleeding  of  the  lungs  while  lecturing  in  the 
University.  He  was  only  thirty-three  years  of  age,  and 
had  been  professor  of  medicine  since  1571.  Tycho  had 
promised  to  write  a  Latin  epitaph  over  his  friend  in  case 
he  should  survive  him,  and  he  had  it  printed  in  1584  at 
his  own  printing  office  at  Uraniborg.  He  also  caused  a 
monument  to  be  erected  to  the  memory  of  Pratensis  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Copenhagen.2 

1  Friis,  Tyge  Brahe,  p.  58. 

2  The  epitaph  is  reprinted  in  Danske  Magazin,  p.  199  (Weistritz,  ii.  84),  and 
in  T.  B.  et  ad  eum  Doct.  Vir.  Epist.,  p.  28. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN  AND  TYCHO  BRA  HE'S 
OBSERVATORIES  AND  OTHER  BUILDINGS  —  HIS 
ENDOWMENTS. 

IN  the  beautiful  scenery  along  the  coast  of  the  Sound 
between  Copenhagen  and  Elsinore,  the  isle  of  Hveen  with 
its  white  cliffs,  rising  steeply  out  of  the  sea,  forms  a  very 
conspicuous  feature.  It  is  about  fourteen  English  miles 
north  of  Copenhagen,  and  about  nine  miles  south  of  Elsi- 
nore, rather  nearer  to  the  coast  of  Scania  than  to  that  of 
Seel  and.  The  surface  is  a  nearly  flat  tableland  of  about 
two  thousand  acres,  sloping  slightly  towards  the  east,  and  of 
an  irregularly  oblong  outline,  the  longest  diameter  extending 
from  north-west  to  south-east  and  being  about  three  miles 
long.  From  time  immemorial  it  was  considered  an  append- 
age to  Seeland,  but  in  1634  it  was  placed  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  court  of  justice  at  Lund  in  Scania,  because  the 
inhabitants  had  complained  of  the  long  distance  to  their 
former  court  of  appeal  in  Seeland.1  In  consequence  of 
this  change  the  island  was  ceded  to  Sweden  in  1658,  when 
the  Danish  provinces  east  of  the  Sound  were  conquered  by 
the  king  of  Sweden.  Though  there  are  no  considerable 
woods  on  the  island  and  the  surface  is  but  slightly  un- 
dulated, the  almost  constant  view  of  the  sea  in  all  directions, 
studded  with  ships  and  bounded  by  the  well- wooded  coasts 

1  There  is  still  extant  a  Latin  poem  written  by  T.  Brahe  in  1592,  "In 
itinere  a  Ringstadio  domum,"  in  which  he  charges  the  judge  who  had  tried 
some  lawsuit  of  his  with  injustice.  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  279.  About  the 
change  of  jurisdiction  see  Bang's  Samlinger,  ii.  p.  265  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  226, 

and  i.  p.  56). 

88 


of  Se 
attra 


:j 


MURAL   QUADRANT. 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEK  89 

of  Seeland  and  Scania  in  the  distance,  helps  to  form  very 
attractive  scenery,  which  adds  to  the  peculiar  charm  the 
island  has  for  any  one  who  is  interested  in  the  great 
memories  connected  with  it.  One  can  understand  why 
Tycho  calls  it  "  Insula  Venusia,  vulgo  Hvenna,"  as  if  it 
were  worthy  of  being  called  after  the  goddess  of  beauty. 
Another  name,  which  Tycho  mentions  as  sometimes  applied 
to  the  island  by  foreigners,  is  "Insula  Scarlatina,"  and 
with  this  name  a  curious  and  probably  apocryphal  story 
is  connected,  which  is  told  by  the  English  traveller,  Fynes 
Moryson  (who  was  in  Denmark  in  1593),  in  the  following 
words  :  "  The  Danes  think  this  Hand  of  Wheen  to  be  of 
such  importance,  as  they  have  an  idle  fable,  that  a  King  of 
England  should  offer  for  the  possession  of  it,  as  much 
scarlet  cloth  as  would  cover  the  same,  with  a  Kose -noble 
at  the  corner  of  each  cloth.  Others  tell  a  fable  of  like 
credit,  that  it  was  once  sold  to  a  Merchant,  whom  they 
scoffed  when  he  came  to  take  possession,  bidding  him  take 
away  the  earth  he  had  bought."  * 

The  island  forms  one  parish,  and  the  church,  which  is 
the  only  building  to  be  seen  with  the  naked  eye  from  the 
Danish  coast,  is  situated  at  the  north-west  corner  of  the 
island,  close  to  the  edge  of  the  cliff.  As  already  men- 
tioned, the  island  is  a  table-land,  with  steep  cliffs  round 
nearly  the  whole  circumference,  through  which  narrow  glens 
in  several  places  form  the  beds  of  small  rivulets,  the  pret- 
tiest one  being  Bakvik,  on  the  south-east  coast.  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 

i  An  Itinerary  written  by  Fynes  Moryson,  &c.,  London,  1617,  fol.,  p.  60. 
The  story  also  occurs  in  P.D.  Huetii  Commentarius  de  Rebus  ad  eum  pertinenti- 
bus,  Amsterdam,  1718,  8vo,  p.  85.  Tycho  merely  mentions  the  name  Scarlatina, 
Astr.  Inst.  Mech.,  fol.  G.  2,  and  De  Mundi  Aeth.  Rec.  Phaen.  ii.  Preface. 


90 


TYCHO  BRAKE. 


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  TlME   OP  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

EXPLANATION  OP  THE  MAP. 


A.  Uraniborg. 

B.  Stjerneborg  Observatory. 

C.  Farm. 

D.  Workshop. 

E.  Windmill. 

F.  Village. 

G.  Paper-mill. 


H.  Church. 

I.    Hill  where  Petty  Sessions  were  held. 

K,  L,  M.  Fish-ponds. 

N.  Grove  of  nut-trees. 

0.   Morass  with  alder  trees. 

P,  Q,  E,  S.  Ruins  of  old  forts. 

T.  A  small  wood. 


Tycho's  own  map,1  except  that  we  have  slightly  altered  the 
contour  of  the  island,  in  accordance  with  modern  maps. 

1  Astr.  Inst.  Mcchanica,  fol.  I.  2,  and  Epist.  Astron.,  p.  264.     There  is  a 
small  copy  of  it  on  the  frontispiece  of  Kepler's  Tabulce  Rudolpliince. 

2  I  possess  another  large  map  (18  in.  by  13  in.),  with  one  page  letterpress 
on  the  back,  "  Topographia  Insulse  Huense  in  Celebri  Porthmo  Rcgni  Danise 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN.  91 

Neither  before  Tycho's  time  nor  afterwards  has  this 
little  island  played  any  part  in  the  history  of  Denmark, 
and  yet  tradition  points  to  a  time  long  ago  when  even  this 
little  spot  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  scene  of  heroic 
deeds.  On  the  map  appear  the  ruins  of  four  castles  or 
forts,  which  are  supposed  to  have  been  destroyed  in  1288, 
when  the  Norwegian  king,  Erik  the  Priesthater,  ravaged 
the  coasts  of  the  Sound.  Nowadays  a  few  stones  and  a 
slight  rise  of  the  ground  scarcely  marks  the  site  of  each 
fort,  but  in  Tycho's  time  there  were  more  distinct  traces  of 
them  left.1  Their  names  were  Nordborg,  on  the  north 
coast ;  Sonderborg,  on  the  south-west  coast ;  Hammer,  at 
the  north-east,  and  Carlshoga,  at  the  south-east  corner. 
Tycho's  friend  and  former  tutor,  Yedel,  published  a  collec- 
lection  of  ancient  Danish  popular  ballads  and  romances, 

quern  vulgo  Oersunt  uocant.  Effigiata  Colonise,  1586."  I  believe  it  belongs 
to  Braunii  Theatrum  Urbium.  There  are  very  few  details  on  it,  and  the 
coast-line  is  very  incorrect,  but  the  plans  and  views  of  Uraniborg  in  the 
corners  of  the  map,  and  the  descriptive  letterpress  on  the  back,  are  of  value, 
as  they  contain  some  particulars  not  to  be  found  elsewhere,  and  the  author 
has  evidently  got  reliable  information,  probably  from  A.  S.  Vedel,  who  is 
known  to  have  contributed  to  the  work.  Willem  Janszoon  Blaev  (1571- 
1638)  had  himself  lived  at  Hveen  with  Tycho.  The  following  particulars  from 
the  description  of  the  island  in  his  son's  Grand  Atlas,  ou  Cosmographie  Blaviane 
(Amsterdam,  1663,  vol.  i.  p.  61),  are  of  interest : — "Elle  est  fertile  en  bons 
fruits  et  n'a  aucune  partie  qui  soit  sterile,  elle  abonde  en  toutes  sortes  de  gros 
bestail,  nourrit  des  daims,  lievres,  lapins  et  perdrix  en  quantitd  La  pesche  y 
est  de  tous  costez :  elle  a  un  petit  bois  de  couldriers,  noisettiers,  dont  jamais 
les  noix  ne  sont  mangees  des  vers  ny  vermolues.  II  ne  s'y  trouve  aucun  loir 
ny  taulpe.  .  .  .  Cette  isle  n'a  point  de  riviere,  mais  quantity  des  ruisseaux  et 
fontaines  d'eau  douce.  Vne  entre  autres  qui  ne  gele  jamais,  ce  qui  est  tres- 
rare  en  ces  quartiers."  A  similar  account  is  given  in  Wolf's  Encomion  Regni 
Danice,  Copenhagen,  1654,  p.  525. 

1  The  Swedish  antiquarian,  Sjoborg,  who  visited  the  island  in  1814,  men- 
tions a  place  close  north  of  the  south-east  ruin,  called  Lady  Grimhild's  grave, 
of  which  he  could  find  no  trace.  On  the  north-east  coast  there  was  another 
ruin,  apparently  a  quadrangular  building,  So  feet  by  24,  with  a  walled-in 
enclosure  in  front.  It  was  called  the  Monks'  Kirk,  but  nothing  is  known 
about  it,  and  it  is  not  mentioned  by  Tycho.  See  Sjoborg,  Samlinyar  for 
Nordens  FornalsJcare,  T.  iii.,  Stockholm,  1830,  pp.  71-82.  About  the  four 
castles  see  also  Braun's  map,  where  it  is  stated  that  there  were  (in  1586)  no 
ruins  left,  but  only  traces  of  the  foundations. 


92  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

among  which  are  three  which  give  the   following  account 
of  the  traditions  about  these  ruins.1 

Lady  Grimhild,  who  owned  the  whole  island,  made  a 
festival  at  Nordborg,  to  which  she,  among  others,  invited 
her  brothers,  Helled  Haagen  and  Folker,  the  minstrel,  both 
well-known  figures  in  Danish  mediaeval  ballads.  She  in- 
tended, however,  to  slay  the  two  brothers,  with  whom  she 
was  at  enmity,  but  they  accepted  her  invitation,  though 
they  were  warned  while  crossing  the  Sound,  first  by  a 
mermaid  and  next  by  the  ferryman,  both  of  whom  were 
beheaded  by  Helled  Haagen  as  a  punishment  for  the  evil 
omen.  On  arriving  at  Nordborg  they  were  well  received 
by  Grimhild,  who,  however,  soon  persuaded  her  men  to 
challenge  the  brothers  to  mortal  combat.  She  was  specially 
infuriated  against  Helled  Haagen,  and  enticed  him  into 
promising  that  he  would  confess  himself  defeated  if  he 
should  merely  stumble.  To  bring  about  this  result,  she 
had  the  lists  covered  with  hides,  on  which  peas  were  strewn, 
and  of  course  Helled  Haagen  slipped  on  these,  and,  true 
to  his  vow,  remained  lying  and  was  slain.  His  brother, 
Folker,  was  likewise  killed.  But  one  of  Grimhild's  maids, 
Hvenild,  after  whom  the  island  got  its  name,  bore  a  son 
who  was  called  Kanke,  and  who  afterwards  avenged  the 
death  of  his  father  Helled  Haagen.  The  poems  merely 
mention  the  revenge,  without  going  into  details,  but  in  his 
introduction  Yedel  tells  how  Eanke  enticed  Grimhild  into  a 
place  in  Hammer  Castle,  where  he  said  his  grandfather, 
Niflung  or  Niding,  had  hidden  his  treasure,  but  when  she 
had  gone  inside,  he  ran  out  and  bolted  the  door,  leaving 
her  to  die  of  hunger.  The  resemblance  of  this  story  to 
the  principal  events  of  the  Niebelungenlied  is  striking, 
and  doubtless  the  story  is,  both  in  the  German  epic  and 

1  I  take  the  following  account  from  the  Danish  poet  Heiberg's  delightful 
article  on  Hveen  and  its  state  in  1845,  in  his  year-book,  Urania,  for  1846. 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN.  93 

in    the    Scandinavian    tradition,   derived    from   a   common 


source.1 


Nearly  in  the  centre  of  the  island,  160  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea,2  Tycho  selected  a  site  for  his  new  residence 
and  observatory,  which  he  very  appropriately  called  Urani- 
burgum  or  Uraniborg,  as  it  was  to  be  devoted  to  the  study 
of  the  heavens.  The  work  was  at  once  commenced,  and 
on  the  8th  August  1576  the  foundation-stone  was  laid. 
The  French  minister  Dancey  had  asked  to  be  allowed  to 
perform  this  ceremony,  and  had  provided  a  handsome  stone 
of  porphyry  with  a  Latin  inscription,  stating  that  the 
house  was  to  be  devoted  to  philosophy,  and  especially  to 
the  contemplation  of  the  stars.  Some  friends  and  other 
men  of  rank  or  learning  assembled  early  in  the  morning, 
*'  when  the  sun  was  rising  together  with  Jupiter  near 
Eegulus,  while  the  moon  in  Aquarius  was  setting;  liba- 
tions were  solemnly  made  with  various  wines,  success  was 
wished  to  the  undertaking,  and  the  stone  was  put  in  its 
place  at  the  south-east  corner  of  the  house  at  the  level  of 
the  ground."  3  The  building  operations  were  now  steadily 
proceeded  with  under  the  direction  of  the  architect,  Hans 
van  Stenwinchel  from  Emden,  but  Tycho  doubtless  super- 
intended the  work  himself,  as  he  seems  to  have  almost 
constantly  resided  in  the  island.  We  find,  at  least,  that 


1  According  to  another  tradition  mentioned  by  Sjoborg  (1.  c.,  p.  74),  Ranke 
threw  the  keys  of  Hammer  Castle  into  the  sea,  and  bewitched  the  castle  so 
that  it  sank  into  the  earth  or  into  the  sea ;  but  if  there  shall  ever  be  three 
posthumous  men  in  the  island  at  the  same  time,  each  called  after  his  father, 
then  Hammer  Castle  shall  again  stand  in  its  old  place,  and  the  keys  be  found. 
Other  traditions  say  that  Hvenild  was  a  giantess  (Jettekvinde),  who  carried 
pieces  of  Seeland  in  her  apron  over  to  Scania,  where  they  formed  the  hills  of 
Runeberga,  but  as  her  apron-strings  burst  on  the  way,  she  dropped  a  piece  in 
the  sea,  which  formed  the  island  of  Hveen.     The  hill  close  to  Uraniborg, 
Hellehog,  where  in  Tycho's  time  the  local  court  was  held,  is  evidently  called 
after  Helled  Haagen. 

2  According  to  Picard  2J  toises  (Ouvmges  de  Mathematique,  p.  71). 

3  Astron.  Inst.  Mcchanica,  fol.  H.  6. 


94  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

he  took  observations  pretty  regularly  from  December  1576. 
On  his  birthday,  the  I4th  December,  he  commenced  a 
series  of  observations  of  the  sun,  which  were  steadily  con- 
tinued for  more  than  twenty  years.1  Having  now  plenty 
of  occupation,  Tycho  thought  it  best  to  decline  an  offer 
made  to  him  the  following  year  by  the  professors  of  the 
University,  who  on  the  1 8th  May  1577  unanimously  paid 
him  the  compliment  of  electing  him  Kector  of  the  Uni- 
versity for  the  ensuing  year,  although  it  had  not,  since  the 
Reformation,  been  customary  to  elect  anybody  to  this  post 
who  was  not  a  professor.  Tycho  replied  on  the  2 1  st  May, 
expressing  his  appreciation  of  the  proffered  honour  and  his 
regrets  that  the  building  operations  and  other  business 
obliged  him  to  decline  the  post  offered  him.2 

Although  the  house  was  probably  soon  sufficiently  ad- 
vanced to  enable  Tycho  to  take  up  his  residence  in  it,  it 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  completed  till  the  year  1580. 
Uraniborg  was  situated  in  the  centre  of  a  square  enclosure, 
of  which  the  corners  pointed  to  the  four  points  of  the  com- 
pass. The  enclosure  was  formed  by  earthen  walls,  of  which 
the  sides  were  covered  with  stones,  about  1 8  feet  high,  1 6 
feet  thick  at  the  base,  and  248  feet  from  corner  to  corner.3 
At  the  middle  of  each  wall  was  a  semicircular  bend,  7  3  feet 
in  diameter,  and  each  enclosing  an  arbour.4  At  the  east 


1  "Die  14  qui  mihi  est  natalis  feci  primam  observationem  H  venae  ad  Solera 
circa  ipsum  Solstitium  hybernum  et  inveni  alt.  ©  meridianam  minimam  quae 
illic  potest  10°  43'."    Previous  to  this  date  there  is  only  an  observation  of  Mars 
on  the  22nd  October. 

2  Tycho's  answer  is  printed  in  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  202,  see  also  Rordain, 
Kjcibenliavns  Universitets  Historic,  Copenhagen,  1872,  vol.  ii.  p.  174. 

3  Here  and  in  the  following,  English  measures  are  always  used.     Tycho 
expresses  all  his  measures  in  feet,  of  which  one  is  —  0.765  French  foot  =  0.815 
English  foot,  or  in  cubits  of  1 6.1  English  inches.     See  D'Arrest's  paper  on  the 
ruins  of  Uraniborg  in  Astron.  Nachrichten,  No.  1718. 

4  On  the  figure  on  Braun's  map  (see  above,  p.  90  note)  the  four  walls  are 
perfectlystraight,  and  the  four  arbours  are  in  the  middle  of  the  flower-gardens. 
The  semicircular  bends  were  therefore  later  improvements. 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEX. 


95 


and  west  angles  gates  gave  access  to  the  interior  of  the 
enclosure,  and  in  small  rooms  over  the  gateways  English 
mastiffs  were  kept,  in  order  that  they  might  announce  the 
arrival  of  strangers  by  their  barking.  At  the  south  and 
north  angles  were  small  buildings  in  the  same  style  as  the 
main  edifice,  and  affording  room  respectively  for  the  printing 


URANIBORG  AND  GROUNDS. 

office  and  for  the  domestics.  Under  the  latter  building  was 
the  castle-prison,  probably  used  for  refractory  tenants.1  In- 
side the  walls  were  first  orchards  with  about  three  hundred 
trees,  and  inside  these,  separated  from  them  by  a  wooden 

1  See  letterpress  on  Braun's  map.     This  cellar  is  one  of  the  very  few  rem- 
nants now  left  of  Tycho's  buildings. 


96  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

paling,  flower-gardens.  Four  roads  ran  through  the  orchards 
and  gardens  from  the  four  angles  of  the  enclosure  to  the 
open  circular  space  in  the  middle,  where  the  principal  build- 
ing was  situated  on  a  slightly  higher  level  than  the  sur- 
rounding grounds.  Uraniborg  was  built  (apparently  of  red 
I  bricks  with  sandstone  ornaments)  in  the  Gothic  Eenaissance 
style,  which  towards  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  was 
becoming  more  generally  adopted  in  the  North  of  Europe, 
where  the  heavier  mediaeval  style  had  hitherto  still  been 
the  ruling  one,  so  that  Tycho  Brahe's  residence  became 
epoch-making  in  the  history  of  Scandinavian  architecture. 
The  slender  spires  and  tastefully  decorated  gables  and 
cornices  were  indeed  in  better  harmony  with  the  peaceful 
and  harmonious  life  of  a  student  of  the  heavens  than  the 
more  severe  and  dry  Gothic  style  which  the  Renaissance  was 
superseding ;  and  the  pictures,  inscriptions,  and  ornaments 
of  various  kinds  profusely  scattered  through  the  interior 
reminded  the  visitor  at  every  step  of  the  pursuits  and  tastes 
of  the  owner. 

The  woodcut  below  (which,  like  the  previous  and  follow- 
ing ones,  is  a  reduced  copy  of  a  figure  in  Tycho's  own 
description)  gives  a  general  idea  of  the  aspect  of  the  edifice 
from  the  east,  and  by  comparison  with  the  plan  of  the 
ground-floor  on  the  next  page,  the  reader  will  get  a  clear 
idea  of  this  remarkable  structure.1  The  base  of  the 
principal  and  central  part  was  a  square,  of  which  each  side 
was  49  feet  long,  and  to  the  north  and  south  sides  of  this 
there  were  round  towers  1 8  feet  in  diameter,  surrounded 
by  lower  outhouses  for  fuel,  &c.,  while  narrow  towers  on  the 
east  and  west  sides  contained  the  entrances.  Including  the 
towers,  the  entire  length  of  the  building  from  north  to  south 

1  The  buildings  and  instruments  are  described  in  Epist.  Astron.,  p.  218  et 
seq.,  and  Astron.  Inst.  Mech.,  fol.  H.  4  et  scq.  Some  short  Latin  inscriptions, 
with  which  various  places  in  the  house  were  ornamented,  are  given  in  Resenii 
Inscriptions  Hafnienses  (1668),  p.  334,  reprinted  in  Weistritz,  i.  p.  225. 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN. 


97 


was  about  100  feet.  The  central  part  was  surmounted  by 
an  octagonal  pavilion,  with  a  dome  with  clock-dials  east  and 
west,  and  a  spire  with  a  gilt  vane  in  the  shape  of  a  Pegasus. 
In  the  pavilion  there  was  an  octagonal  room  with  a  dial  in 
the  ceiling,  showing  both  the  time  and  the  direction  of  the 
wind,  and  round  the  pavilion  ran  an  octagonal  gallery,  north 
and  south  of  which  were  two  smaller  domes  with  allegorical 

ORTHOGRAPHIA 

PRAECIPVAE    DOMVS  ^        ARCIS  VRANTBVBGI   IN 

INSVLA  PQPTHMI    DANKTI         v\      HV^NNA  Astnmomtffinjiauran- 

»   TftHoNE    B  &  A  H* 

ftuua 


UEANIBORG  FROM  THE  EAST. 

figures  on  the  top.  The  height  of  the  walls  of  the  central 
building  was  37  feet,  and  the  Pegasus  was  62  feet  above 
the  ground.  The  two  towers  north  and  south  were  about  1 8 
feet  high,  and  had  each  a  platform  on  the  top  surmounted  by 
a  pyramidal  roof  made  of  triangular  boards,  which  could  be 
removed  to  give  a  view  of  any  part  of  the  sky.  North  and 
south  of  these  observatories  were  two  smaller  ones,  each 
standing  on  a  single  pillar,  and  communicating  with  the 

7 


TYCHO  BRAKE. 


larger  ones  ;  they  were  also  covered  with  pyramidal  roofs, 
and  were  not  built  till  after  the  completion  of  the  house. 
Galleries  around  the  towers  gave  the  means  of  observing 
with  small  instruments  in  the  open  air,  and  on  the  east  and 
west  side  of  each  gallery  there  was  a  large  globe  to  serve  as 
a  support  for  a  sextant.  When  not  in  use  these  globes 
were  protected  by  pointed  covers,  of  which  the  two  eastern 
ones  are  visible  on  the  figure.  This  also  shows  the  founda- 


PLAN  OF  THE  GROUND  FLOOR  OF  URANIBORG. 


A.  East  entrance. 

B.  Fountain. 

C.  West  entrance. 


D.  Sitting-room  in  winter. 

E,  F,  G.  Guest-rooms. 
H.  Kitchen. 

K.  Well. 

L.  Stairs  to  upper  storey. 


P.  Stairs  to  laboratory. 

R,  0.  Aviaries. 

T.  Library. 

W.  Great  globe. 

S.  Cellar  for  charcoal  for  the  laboratory. 

Z.  Wood  cellar  for  kitchen. 

V.  Tables. 

Y.  Beds. 

4.   Chimneys. 


tion-stone  in  the   south-east  corner,  and  next  to  it  a  door 
leading  down  to  the  basement. 

The  south-east  room  on  the  ground-floor  was  the  sitting- 
room  of  the  family  in  winter ;  later  on  it  was  enlarged  by 
pulling  down  the  wall  between  it  and  the  passage  west  of 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN.  99 

it.  The  three  other  rooms  were  guest-rooms,  but  the  south- 
west room,  in  which  a  large  quadrant  was  attached  to  the 
west  wall,  was  probably  also  used  as  a  study.  In  the  storey 
above  there  were  the  red  room  to  the  north  east,  the  blue 
room  to  the  south-east,  the  yellow  room  (a  small  octagonal 
one)  over  the  porch  on  the  east  side,  and  on  the  west  side 
one  long  room,  the  green  one,  with  the  ceiling  covered  with 
pictures  of  flowers  and  plants.  Tycho  specially  mentions 
the  beautiful  view  from  this  room  of  the  Sound,  with  its 
numerous  sails,  particularly  in  summer.  Above  the  second 
storey  there  were  eight  little  rooms  or  garrets  for  students 
and  observers.  The  south  tower  contained  in  the  basement 
a  chemical  laboratory  with  furnaces,  &c.,  above  that  on  the 
ground  floor  was  the  library,  and  above  that  the  larger 
southern  observatory.  In  the  north  tower  the  centre  of  the 
basement  was  occupied  by  a  deep  well  built  round  with 
masonry,  which  reached  to  the  kitchen  above.1  Over  the 
kitchen  was  the  larger  northern  observatory. 

In  the  library  the  great  globe  from  Augsburg  was  mounted. 
It  was  five  feet  in  diameter,  the  inside  made  of  wooden 
rings  and  staves  firmly  held  together.  When  returning  to 
Augsburg  in  1575,  Tycho  found  that  it  was  not  perfectly 
spherical  and  showed  some  cracks,  but  after  it  had  in  the 
following  year  been  brought  to  Denmark,  the  cracks  were 
stopped  and  the  sphericity  made  perfect  by  covering  it  with 
numerous  layers  of  parchment.  It  was  then  left  to  dry 
for  two  years,  and  as  the  figure  remained  perfect,  it  was 
covered  with  brass  plates,  on  which  two  great  circles  were 
engraved  to  represent  the  equator  and  the  zodiac,  divided 
into  single  degrees,  and  by  transversals  into  minutes. 
Gradually  the  stars  and  constellations  were  laid  down  on 
it  as  their  positions  resulted  from  the  observations,  and  not 

1  This  well,  from  which  the  water  could  be  pumped  up  and  sent  to  the 
various  rooms  by  concealed  pipes,  is  still  in  existence. 


100  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

till  about  twenty-five  years  after  tlie  construction  of  the 
globe  had  been  commenced  was  it  completely  finished.1 
It  was  mounted  on  a  solid  stand,  with  graduated  circles 
for  meridian  and  horizon,  and  a  movable  graduated  quad- 
rant for  measuring  altitudes.  On  the  horizon  was  the 
unavoidable  inscription  stating  how  the  great  work  of  art 
was  made.  A  hemispherical  cover  of  silk  could  be  lowered 
over  it  from  the  ceiling  to  protect  it  from  dust.  In  addi- 
tion to  this  great  globe,  the  library  or  museum  contained 
four  tables  for  Tycho's  assistants  to  work  at,  also  his  collec- 
tion of  books  and  various  smaller  knicknacks,  portraits  of 
astronomers  and  philosophers,  among  whom  Hipparchus, 
Ptolemy,  Albattani,  Copernicus,  and  the  Landgrave  figured 
conspicuously.  There  was  also  a  portrait  of  George 
Buchanan,  who  played  so  important  a  part  in  the  religious 
and  political  revolutions  in  Scotland,  and  whose  acquaint- 
ance Tycho  had  probably  made  in  1571  when  Buchanan 
was  in  Denmark.  This  portrait  had  been  presented  to 
Tycho  by  Peter  Young.2  Under  the  pictures  were  versified 
inscriptions  composed  by  Tycho.3 

We  may  form  some  idea  of  the  elegance  and  taste  which 
pervaded  Tycho's  residence  by  examining  the  large  picture 
which  adorned  his  great  mural  quadrant.  This  instrument 
was,  as  already  mentioned,  mounted  on  the  wall  in  the 
south-west  room  on  the  ground-floor,  and  consisted  of  a 

1  Astr.  Inst.  Mechanica,  fol.  G.     The  globe  must  have  been  quite  finished 
about  1595  ;  it  is  said  to  have  cost  Tycho  about  5000  daler  (Gassendi,  p. 

135). 

2  Young  had  been  the  first  tutor  to  James  VI.,  and  became  afterwards  his 
almoner.     He  was  several  times  in  Denmark.     Tycho  had  sent  his  little  book 
about  the  new  star  to  Buchanan,  who  thanked  him  for  it  in  a  letter  dated 
Stirling,  the  4th  April  1575.     In  this  letter  Buchanan  (who  was  then  Lord 
Privy  Seal)  expresses  his  regret  that  he  has  not  had  leisure  to  finish  his 
poem  on  the  sphere  (it  was  published  after  his  death),  and  praises  Tycho's 
book  for  having  refuted  popular  errors.     T.  Brahei  et  ad  eum  Doct.  Vir.  Epist., 
p.  1 8. 

3  As  specimens  Tycho  prints  the  poems  on  Ptolemy  and  Copernicus.    Epist. 
Astron.,  pp.  239-240. 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN.  101 

brass  arc  of  6|  feet  radius,  5  inches  broad  and  2  inches 
thick,  fastened  to  the  wall  with  strong  screws,  and  divided 
in  his  usual  manner  by  transversals ;  it  was  furnished  with 
two  sights,  which  could  slide  up  and  down  the  arc.  At  the 
centre  of  the  arc  there  was  a  hole  in  the  south  wall,  in 
which  a  cylinder  of  'gilt  brass  projected  at  right  angles  to 
the  wall,  and  along  the  sides  of  which  the  observer .  sighted 
with  one  of  the  sliding  sights.  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  con- 
sidered a  very  good  likeness;  at  his  feet  lies  a  dog,  "an 
emblem  of  sagacity  and  fidelity."  In  the  middle  of  the 
picture  is  a  view  of  his  laboratory,  library,  and  observatory, 
and  on  the  wall  behind  him  are  shown  two  small  portraits 
of  his  benefactor,  King  Frederick  II.,  and  Queen  Sophia,  and 
between  them  in  a  niche  a  small  globe.  This  was  an 
automaton  designed  by  Tycho,  and  showing  the  daily 
motions  of  the  sun  and  moon  and  the  phases  of  the  latter. 
The  portrait  was  painted  by  Tobias  Gemperlin  of  Augsburg, 
whom  Tycho  had  encouraged  to  come  to  Denmark ;  the 
views  of  the  interior  of  Uraniborg  by  its  architect,  Sten- 
winchel ;  and  the  landscape  and  the  setting  sun  by  Hans 
Knieper  of  Antwerp,  the  King's  painter  at  Kronborg.  The 
picture  bears  the  date  1587,  but  the  quadrant  itself  had 
been  in  constant  use  since  June  I582.1 

Another  instrument  on  which  Tycho  found  room  for  a 
picture  was  his  smallest  quadrant,  one  of  the  earliest  in- 
struments constructed  at  Uraniborg.  The  radius  of  the 

1  There  are  a  few  meridian  altitudes  of  Spica  observed  in  April  1581,  "per 
magnum  instrumentum,"  which  probably  were  also  made  with  this  quadrant. 


102  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

quadrant  was  only  1 6  inches  (one  cubitus) ;  the  divided  arc 
was  turned  upwards,  and  within  it  were  forty-four  concentric 
arcs  of  90°  to  subdivide  the  single  degrees  according  to  the 
plan  proposed  by  Pedro  Nunez.  On  the  empty  space  be- 
tween the  centre  and  the  smallest  of  these  arcs  was  a  small 
circular  painting,  representing  a  tree,  which  on  the  left  side 
is  full  of  green  leaves  and  has  fresh  grass  under  it,  while  on 
the  right  side  it  has  dead  roots  and  withered  branches. 
Under  the  green  part  of  the  tree  a  youth  is  seated,  wearing 
a  laurel  wreath  on  his  head  and  holding  a  star-globe  and  a 
book  in  his  hands.  Under  the  withered  part  of  the  tree 
is  a  table  covered  with  money-boxes,  sceptres,  crowns,  coats 
of  arms,  finery,  goblets,  dice,  and  cards,  all  of  which  a 
skeleton  tries  to  grasp  in  its  outstretched  arms.  Above  is 
the  pentameter,  "  Vivimus  ingenio,  csetera  mortis  erunt," 
pointing  out  the  vanity  of  worldly  things,  while  only  earnest 
study  confers  immortality.  The  first  part  of  the  sentence 
is  over  the  green  part,  the  second  over  the  withered  part  of 
the  tree.  In  another  place  *  Tycho  had  a  similar  picture, 
in  which  there  appeared  among  the  green  leaves  symbols 
of  the  life  and  doctrine  of  Christ,  while  the  symbols  of 
philosophy  are  moved  over  to  the  withered  side  under  the 
dominion  of  Death,  and  the  inscription  is  changed  to 
' '  Vivimus  in  Christo,  csetera  mortis  erunt,"  so  that  the  two 
pictures  showed  the  superiority  of  the  noble  efforts  of  the 
human  mind  over  trivial  occupations,  and  yet  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  either  except  man  turns  to  the  Redeemer. 

This  small  instrument  does  not  seem  to  have  had  any 
fixed  place,  and  was  afterwards  removed  to  the  subterranean 
observatory,  but  the  larger  ones  were  all  erected  in  the 
observatories  at  the  north  and  south  ends  of  Uraniborg. 

1  It  is  not  stated  where.  I  conclude  from  the  description  in  Epistolce 
Astron.,  p.  254,  that  these  were  two  different  pictures,  and  not  one  picture 
seen  from  two  points  of  view,  as  one  might  almost  conclude  from  As'.r.  Inst. 
Meek.,  fol.  A. 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN.  103 

In  each  of  the  two  small  observatories  there  was  an  equa- 
torial armillary  sphere,  of  which  the  northern  one  was 
ornamented  with  pictures  of  Copernicus  and  Tycho  himself.1 
In  the  large  southern  observatory  were  the  following  in- 
struments. A  vertical  semicircle  (eight  feet  in  diameter) 
turning  round  a  vertical  axis,  and  furnished  with  a  hori- 
zontal circle  for  measuring  azimuths  (fol.  B.  5);  a  tri- 
quetrum, or,  as  Tycho  calls  it,  "  instrumentum  parallacticum 
sive  regularum  "  (fol.  C.)  ;  a  sextant  for  measuring  altitudes 
with  a  radius  of  5-^  feet  (fol.  A.  5) ;  and  a  quadrant  of  two 
feet  radius  with  an  azimuth  circle  (fol.  A.  4).  In  the  large 
northern  observatory  were  another  triquetrum  of  peculiar 
construction,  with  an  azimuth  circle  1 6  feet  in  diameter, 
resting  on  the  top  of  the  wall  of  the  tower  (fol.  0.  2) ;  a 
sextant  of  4  feet  radius  for  measuring  distances  (fol.  E.) ; 
and  a  double  arc  for  measuring  smaller  distances.  Probably 
the  last  two  instruments  were  removed  or  used  on  the  open 
gallery  when  the  triquetrum  was  erected,  as  the  latter  must 
have  been  large  enough  to  nil  the  whole  room,  and,  indeed, 
even  in  the  southern  observatory  there  cannot  have  been 
much  elbow-room  for  the  observers.  In  the  northern 
observatory  was  also  preserved  an  interesting  astronomical 
relic,  the  triquetrum  used  by  Copernicus,  and  made  with 
his  own  hands. 

By  degrees,  as  Tycho's  plans  for  collecting  observations 
became  extended  and  a  greater  number  of  young  men 
desired  to  assist  him,  he  felt  the  want  of  more  instruments 
and  of  more  observing  rooms,  in  which  several  observers 
could  be  engaged  at  the  same  time  without  comparing 
notes.  In  1584  he  therefore  built  an  observatory  on  a 
small  hill  about  a  hundred  feet  south  of  the  south  angle  of 
the  enclosure  of  Uraniborg,  and  slightly  to  the  east.  In 

1  Astr.  Inst.  Meckanica,  fol.  C.  5  (north  one)  and  D.  (south  one).  The  first 
observations,  "per  armillas  astrolabicas,"  are  from  1581.  References  to  the 
descriptions  and  figures  of  the  other  instruments  are  given  above  in  the  text. 


104 


TYCHO  BRAKE. 


this  observatory,  which  he  called  Stelleeburgum  (Danish, 
Stjerneborg),  the  instruments  were  placed  in  subterranean 
rooms,  of  which  only  the  roofs  rose  above  the  ground,  so 
that  they  were  well  protected  from  the  wind.  As  shown 
by  the  view  and  plan  on  p.  106,  there  were  five  instrument 
rooms,  with  a  study  in  the  centre,  and  the  entrance  to  the 
north.  The  north-east  and  north-west  rooms  were  built 
somewhat  later  than  the  others,  and  were  nearly  at  the 


STJERNEBORG,  SEEN  FROM  THE  WEST. 

level  on  the  ground.1  The  whole  was  surrounded  by  a  low 
wooden  paling,  forming  a  square  with  semicircular  bends  at 
the  middle  of  each  side,  and  the  sides  facing  north,  south, 

1  This  appears  from  the  stone  steps  leading  up  to  the  crypt  E.,  found  in 
1823,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  Appendix.  The  above  figure  also  shows  that  not 
only  the  roofs,  but  most  of  the  walls  of  crypts  D..and  E.  were  above  ground. 
The  quadrant  in  the  crypt  D.  was  erected  in  December  1585,  twelve  months 
after  Tycho  had  placed  in  position  the  stone  on  which  the  lower  end  of  the 
axis  of  the  instrument  in  crypt  C.  was  supported.  When  he  had  built  the 
three  crypts,  he  perhaps  regretted  having  sunk  them  in  the  earth,  and  there- 
fore  built  the  two  new  ones  higher. 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN.  105 

east,  and  west.  The  enclosure  was  5  7  feet  square,  and  the 
diameter  of  the  semicircles  was  20  feet.  The  entrance 
was  on  the  north  side,  and  a  door  and  some  stone  steps  led 
down  to  the  study.  Over  the  portal  were  three  crowned 
lions  hewn  in  stone,  with  the  appropriate  inscription — 

"NEC  FASCES  NEC  OPES 

SOLA  ARTIS 
SCEPTRA  PERENNANT." 

Below  this  and  over  the  door  was  the  coat  of  arms  of  the 
Brahe  family,  and  some  other  allegorical  figures. 

On  the  back  of  the  portal,  towards  the  south  was  a  large 
tablet  of  porphyry,  with  a  long  inscription  in  prose,  stating 
that  these  crypts  had,  like  the  adjoining  Uraniborg,  been 
constructed  for  the  advancement  of  astronomy,  at  incredible 
labour,  diligence,  and  expense,  and  charging  posterity  to 
preserve  the  building  for  the  glory  of  God,  the  propagation 
of  the  divine  art,  and  the  honour  of  the  country.  Going 
down  the  steps  to  the  "  Hypocaustum,"  another  slab1  over 
the  door  exhibited  a  versified  inscription,  expressing  the 
surprise  of  Urania  at  finding  this  cave,  and  promising  even 
here,  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  to  show  the  way  to  the  stars. 
The  study  was  about  10  feet  square,  and  only  the  vaulted 
roof  and  the  top  of  the  walls  were  above  the  ground.  The 
vault  was  sodded  over  to  look  like  a  little  hill,  "  represent- 
ing Parnassus,  the  mount  of  the  Muses,"  and  on  the  middle 
of  it  stood  a  small  statue  of  Mercury  in  brass,  cast  from  a 
Roman  model,  and  turning  round  by  a  mechanism  in  the 
pedestal.1  The  study  was  lighted  by  four  small  windows 
just  above  the  ground,  and  contained  a  long  table,  some 
clocks,  &c.,  and  on  the  wall  hung  a  semicircle  in  brass,  8 
feet  in  diameter,  for  measuring  distances  of  stars,  and  which, 

1  In  addition  to  this,  Tycho  possessed  several  other  automata,  which  startled 
the  peasants  of  the  island,  and  made  them  believe  him  to  be  a  sorcerer. 
Gassendi,  p.  196. 


1.06 


TYCHO  BKAHE. 


wlien  required,  could  be  placed  on  a  stand  outside,  similar 
to  those  which  Tycho  used  for  his  sextants.  On  the  ceiling 
was  represented  the  Tychonian  system  of  the  world,  and  on 
the  walls  were  portraits  of  eight  astronomers,  all  in  a  re- 
clining posture,  namely,  Timocharis,  Hipparchus3  Ptolemy, 


PLAN  OF  STJERNEBORG. 


A.  Entrance. 

B.  Study. 

C.  Crypt  with  large  armillse. 

D.  ,,        ,,     azimuthal  quadrant. 

E.  ,,         „     zodiacal  armillse. 

F.  ,,         „     azimuthal  quadrant. 

G.  ,,        ,,     sextant. 

H,  I.  Stone  piers  for  portable  armillse. 


K,  L,  N,  T.  Globular  stands  for  sextants. 
M.  Stone  table. 
0.  Tycho  Brahe's  bed. 
P.  Fireplace. 
V.  Table. 

Q.  Bedroom  for  assistant. 
S.  Unfinished  subterranean  passage  to- 
wards Uraniborg. 


Albattani,  King  Alphonso,  Copernicus,  Tycho,  and  lastly 
Tychonides,  an  astronomer  who  is  still  unborn.  Under 
each  portrait  was  the  name,  approximate  date,  and  a  distich 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN.  107 

setting  forth  the  merits  of  each.  While  that  under  Tycho's 
picture  leaves  posterity  to  judge  his  work,  the  lines  under 
the  picture  of  his  hoped-for  descendant  are  less  modest, 
expressing  the  hope  that  the  latter  might  be  worthy  of  his 
great  ancestor.  Tycho  was  represented  as  pointing  up  to 
his  system  of  the  world,  while  his  other  hand  held  a  slip  of 
paper  with  the  query,  "  Quid  si  sic?" 

In  the  centre  of  each  crypt  was  a  large  instrument,  the 
floor  rising  gradually  by  circular  stone  steps  up  to  the 
walls.1  The  instruments  were  an  azimuthal  quadrant 
(quadrans  whibilis)  of  5-^  feet  radius,  with  an  azimuth 
circle  at  the  top  of  the  wall  (Mfchanica,  fol.  B.  2),  a  zodiacal 
armillary  sphere  (C.  4),  a  large  quadrant  of  brass  (radius  7 
feet)  enclosed  in  a  square  of  steel,  and  likewise  furnished 
with  an  azimuth  circle  on  the  wall  (B.  4)  ;  a  sextant  of  5^ 
feet  radius  for  measuring  distances  (D.  5),  and  in  the  largest 
southern  crypt  a  large  equatorial  instrument,  consisting  of 
a  declination  circle  of  9!  feet  diameter,  revolving  round  a 
polar  axis,  and  a  semicircle  of  1 2  feet  diameter,  supported 
on  stone  piers,  and  representing  the  northern  half  of  the 
Equator  (D.  2).  In  addition  to  these  fixed  instruments, 
there  were  various  smaller  portable  ones  kept  at  Stjerne- 
borg,  which  could  be  mounted  on  the  pillars  and  stands  out- 
side or  held  in  the  hand ;  namely,  a  portable  armilla  4  feet 
in  diameter,2  a  triquetrum,  a  small  astrolabium  or  plani- 
sphere, the  small  quadrant  described  above,  and  two  small 
instruments  made  by  Gemma  Frisius,  namely,  a  cross-staff 
and  a  circle  (annulus  astronomicus),  both  of  brass.  With 
the  exception  of  these  two  and  the  triquetrum  of  Copernicus, 
all  the  instruments  in  Tycho's  possession  were  made  in  his 

1  The  number  of  steps  in  each  crypt  may  be  seen  on  the  plan  above.     The 
floor  of  the  crypt  G  (where  the  sextant  was  placed)  was  flat. 

2  This  was  placed  either  at  H  or  at  /,  and  served  to  measure  declinations  of 
stars  near  the  horizon  which  could  not  be  got  at  with  the  subterranean  in- 
struments.    See  Epist.  Astron.,  p.  229. 


108  TYCHO  BRAKE 

own  workshop,   which  was  situated  close  to  the  servants' 
house,  about  I OO  feet  to  the  west.1 

Tycho  would  scarcely  have  been  able  to  construct  these 
magnificent  instruments  if  he  had  not  continually  been  pro- 
vided with  new  sources  of  income  through  the  liberality  of 
his  royal  patron.  We  have  seen  that  Tycho,  from  February 
I  5765  enjoyed  an  annual  pension  of  500  daler  (£i 14).  In 
addition  to  this,  the  king  granted  him  on  the  28th  August 
I  577  the  manor  of  Kullagaard,  in  Scania,  to  be  held  by  him 
during  the  king's  pleasure.  Kullagaard  is  situated  near 
the  north-western  extremity  of  Scania,  on  the  mountain  of 
Kullen,  which  forms  a  steep  promontory  in  the  Kattegat. 
The  king's  letter  stated  expressly  that  Tycho  Brahe  should 
not,  like  his  predecessor,  be  bound  to  keep  the  lighthouse 
of  Kullen  in  order ;  but  apparently  the  king  soon  found 
that  this  exemption  was  a  mistake,  and  already  on  the  1 8th 
October  I  5  7  7  a  second  royal  letter  was  issued,  in  which  it 
was  stated  that  as  the  late  holder  of  the  benefice  had  received 
it  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  light  going,  in  order  that 
seafaring  men  should  have  no  cause  for  complaint,  the  same 
should  be  done  by  Tycho,  if  he  wished  to  continue  to  hold 
the  manor.2  This  obligation  was  apparently  not  to  the  taste 
of  Tycho ;  at  least  he  must  have  been  negligent  in  seeing 
that  the  light  was  regularly  attended  to,  for  already  in  the 
autumn  of  1579  the  governor  of  Helsingborg  Castle  was 
ordered  to  take  possession  of  Kullagaard  manor,  in  order  to 
keep  the  lighthouse  properly  attended  to,  as  complaints  had 
frequently  been  made  about  it.  As  Tycho,  however,  begged 
to  be  allowed  to  keep  the  manor,  on  the  plea  that  he  had  no 
other  place  from  which  to  get  fuel  for  Uraniborg,  the  king 
again  granted  him  the  manor  on  the  I  3th  November  1579, 
on  condition  that  the  light  was  regularly  lighted.3  In  May 

1  In  1577  Tycho  had  employed  a  smith  at  Heridsvad,  but  he  was  not  able 
for  the  work.     T.  B.  et  Doct.  Vir.  Epist.,  p.  42. 

2  Friis,  Tyye  Brahe,  pp.  80-81.  3  Ibid.,  p.  96. 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN.  109 

1578  he  had  also  been  granted  the  use  of  eleven  farms  in 
the  county  .of  Helsingborg,  free  of  rent,  to  be  held  during 
the  king's  pleasure.  These  and  the  Kullen  manor  he  lost 
again  for  a  while  in  August  1580,  probably  because  he  had 
in  the  meantime  been  granted  other  sources  of  income ;  but 
he  received  them  again  in  June  of  the  following  year,  "  to 
enjoy  and  keep,  free  of  rent,  as  long  as  he  shall  continue  to 
live  at  Hveen,"  with  the  repeated  injunction  to  keep  the 
light  at  Kullen  in  order.  On  the  27th  October  1581  the 
customs  officers  at  Elsinore  were  instructed,  that  whereas  the 
light  was  in  future  to  be  kept  burning  in  winter  as  well  as 
in  summer,  they  were  out  of  the  increased  lighthouse  fees 
received  from  navigators  to  pay  Tycho  Brahe  300  daler  a 
year  for  the  increase  of  trouble.  This  seems,  however,  to 
have  been  more  than  the  additional  fees  amounted  to,  and 
on  the  pth  July  1582  the  order  about  the  300  daler  was 
cancelled  by  a  royal  decree,  in  which  it  was  stated  that 
Tycho  was  already  in  receipt  of  sufficient  payment  for  keep- 
ing the  lighthouse.1  In  1584  the  governor  of  Helsingborg 
Castle  and  the  chief  magistrate  of  Scania  were  ordered  to 
proceed  to  Kullen,  together  with  Tycho,  to  examine  the  light- 
house, which  was  said  to  be  very  dilapidated.  The  tower  was 
ordered  to  be  rebuilt  in  August  1585  at  the  public  expense, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  indefatigable  generosity  of  the  king 
dictated  a  letter  to  the  customs  officers  at  Elsinore,  com- 
manding them  until  further  orders  to  pay  Tycho  200  dalers 
annually,  in  order  that  the  light  might  be  kept  burning  sum- 
mer and  winter  as  long  as  navigation  lasted.2 

We  have  seen  that  Tycho  Brahe  already  in  1568  received 
the  king's  promise  of  the  first  vacant  canonry  in  the 
cathedral  of  Roskilde.  In  1578  this  promise  was  more 
distinctly  renewed,  as  by  royal  letter,  dated  Frederiksborg 
the  1 8th  May,  Tycho  was  appointed  to  succeed  to  the  pre- 

1  Friis,  Tyge  Brahe,  pp.  116-117.  2  Ibid.,  p.  148. 


110  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

bend  attached  to  the  chapel  of  the  Holy  Three  Kings 1  in  the 
said  cathedral  whenever  the  holder  of  it  should  die.  In  the 
meantime  he  was  to  enjoy  the  income  of  the  Crown  estate 
of  Nordf jord  in  Norway,  with  all  rent  and  duty  derived  from 
it.2  He  had  not  to  wait  very  long  for  the  prebend,  as 
Henrik  Hoik,  who  had  held  it  since  the  Eeformation,  died 
in  1579,  on  the  5th  June  of  which  year  the  canonry  was 
conferred  on  Tycho.  In  the  patent  all  the  temporalities  of 
the  above-mentioned  chapel  were  granted  to  Tycho  during 
pleasure,  including  the  canon's  residence,  farms,  and  other 
property  belonging  thereto,  on  the  condition  that  hymns 
were  daily  to  be  sung  in  the  chapel  to  the  praise  of  God, 
and  that  for  this  purpose  two  poor  schoolboys  were  to  be 
kept  in  food  and  clothes  in  order  to  assist  the  vicars-choral 
in  the  daily  service.  Furthermore,  he  was  to  maintain  two 
poor  students  at  the  University  of  Copenhagen,  and  to  see 
that  these,  as  well  as  the  two  choir-boys,  were  diligent,  and 
fit  to  devote  themselves  to  learned  pursuits.  The  chapel 
and  residence  were  to  be  kept  in  proper  repair,  and  the 
tenants  to  be  dealt  with  according  to  law  and  justice,  and 
not  to  be  troubled  by  any  new  tax  or  other  impost.3 

About  a  month  after  the  prebend  had  been  granted  to 
Tycho,  he  was  ordered,  in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  the 
chapter,  to  allow  the  widow  of  his  predecessor  and  the 
University  of  Copenhagen  to  enjoy  annum  gratice  of  the 
rents  and  other  income  of  the  prebend.  With  characteristic 
coolness  the  astronomer  seems  to  have  turned  a  deaf  ear 
to  this  injunction,  and  he  even  went  so  far  as  to  forbid 
the  tenants  to  pay  anything  to  the  widow.  On  the  3rd 
December  1579  the  king  therefore  found  it  necessary  to  send 

1  Anglice,  the  Three  Wise  Men  of  the  East.     The  chapel  is  an  excrescence 
on  the  south  side  of  the  cathedral,  built  in  1464.     Among  other  royal  tombs, 
that  of  Tycho's  patron,  Frederick  II.,  is  in  this  chapel. 

2  Royal  letter,  printed  in  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  203  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  92.) 

3  Ibid.,  p.  204  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  94). 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN.  Ill 

a  second  and  peremptory  order  to  pay  to  the  widow  and  the 
University  what  was  due  to  them.1  Three  years  later  Tycho 
thought  that  he  saw  a  chance  of  making  the  heirs  of  Henrik 
Hoik  disgorge  some  of  the  money  he  had  been  obliged  to 
let  them  have,  for  it  appears  that  some  repairs  had  to  be 
made  to  the  chapel,  and  that  Tycho  demanded  payment  for 
these  from  the  heirs.  But  here  again  the  king  showed 
that,  however  favourably  disposed  he  was  to  the  renowned 
man  of  learning,  he  would  have  no  injustice  done  to  any- 
body ;  and  in  July  1582  he  directed  that  the  repairs  were 
to  be  paid  for  out  of  public  funds,  but  that  in  future  Tycho, 
or  whoever  else  might  hold  the  prebend,  was  to  pay  for 
them.2  We  shall  afterwards  see  that  the  possession  of  this 
prebend  gave  rise  to  more  serious  troubles  to  Tycho  Brahe. 
It  was  mentioned  above  that  Tycho  obtained  a  grant  of 
the  Crown  estate  of  Nordf  jord  on  the  west  coast  of  Norway, 
to  be  held  by  him  during  the  time  that  he  was  waiting  for 
the  vacancy  in  the  prebend.  But  when  he  got  possession 
of  the  latter,  the  king  did  not  deprive  him  of  the  Nordf  jord 
estate,  but  granted  it  to  him  again  on  the  i  3th  June  I  579, 
during  pleasure,  free  of  rent,  and  merely  with  the  usual 
stipulation  that  he  was  to  keep  the  tenants  under  the  laws 
of  Norway,  and  not  injure  any  of  them,  nor  was  he  to  cut 
down  any  of  the  woods  on  the  estate.3  This  benefice  may 
only  have  been  intended  to  indemnify  Tycho  for  the  year  of 
grace  which  he  was  to  pay  out  of  the  Roskilde  prebend,  for  on 
the  loth  August  1580  the  king's  lieutenant  at  Bergen  was 
ordered  to  receive  the  Nordf  jord  estate  from  Tycho  Brahe, 
and  in  future  to  account  to  the  king's  exchequer  for  the  in- 
come of  the  same.  Tycho  must,  however,  have  persuaded  the 
king  that  he  could  ill  afford  to  lose  this  income,  for  already, 

1  DansJce  Magazin,  ii.  p.  208  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  100). 

2  E.    C.   Werlauff,    De  hellige   tre   Kongers   Kapel  i  Roeskilde  DomUrTce 
(Copenhagen,  1849),  p.  17. 

3  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  206  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  97). 


112  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

on  the  I  ith  November  I  580,  a  new  grant  of  the  estate  was 
made  to  Tycho  in  exactly  the  same  terms  as  the  previous 
one,  and  two  months  afterwards  the  lieutenant  at  Bergen  was 
directed  to  hand  over  the  estate  to  Tycho  Brahe,  and  to  re- 
fund all  money  received  from  it  during  the  time  he  had  been 
deprived  of  it.1  The  king  evidently  now  thought  that  he  had 
done  enough  for  Tycho,  for  on  the  2pth  March  1581  he  wrote 
to  him  that  although  Tycho  had  applied  to  have  the  pen- 
sion of  500  daler  continued,  still,  as  he  had  been  provided 
for  in  other  ways,  the  pension  was  to  be  paid  for  the  past 
year,  but  was  then  to  cease.  The  same  day  the  chief  of  the 
exchequer,  Yalkendorf,  received  instructions  to  this  effect; 
but  already  six  months  after  he  was  directed  again  to  pay 
the  pension  to  Tycho,  who  seems  to  have  received  it  without 
interruption  till  I59/.2 

Tycho  continued  in  undisturbed  possession  of  the  Nor- 
wegian estate  till  March  1586,  when  he  and  several  other 
tenants  of  Crown  estates  in  Norway  received  notice  to 
surrender  them,  as  "  fish  and  other  victuals "  which  they 
produced  were  wanted  for  the  navy.  It  was,  however, 
stated  that  they  were  not  to  consider  this  as  a  sign  of 
disgrace,  but  that  they  would  be  indemnified  in  other  ways. 
Thus  Tycho  got  in  the  first  instance  300  daler  from  the 
treasury,3  and  on  the  I  ith  September  following  he  was 
informed  that  he  would,  until  further  notice,  receive  an 
annual  sum  of  400  daler  from  the  customs  paid  at  Elsinore. 
This  grant  was  renewed  on  the  4th  June  1587,  the 
money  to  be  paid  annually  on  the  1st  May.d  The  estate 

1  Both  letters  to  the  lieutenant  are    printed   in  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  pp. 
2II-2I2  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  106). 

2  Letter  to  Tycho  Brahe  of  March  29th,  printed  in  Eriis,  Tyge  Brahe,  p. 
114  ;  letter  to  Valkendorf  of  same  date,  in  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  217  (Weis- 
tritz, ii.  p.  117). 

3  Friis,  Tyge  Brahe,  p.  161. 

4  Letters  of  I  ith  September  1586  and  4th  June  1587,  printed  in  Danske 
Magazin,  ii.  pp.  244-245  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  165-166),  where  is  also  a  letter  from 


THE  ISLAND  OF  HVEEN.  113 

of  Nordfjord  was  restored  to  Tycho  in  June  1589,  and  the 
grant  was  renewed  in  June  1592,  when  the  allowance  from 
the  Sound  duties  was  discontinued.1 

It  would  not  at  the  present  time  be  easy  to  form  an 
accurate  opinion  as  to  the  actual  amount  of  income  enjoyed 
by  Tycho  Brahe  during  the  years  he  lived  at  Hveen  (though 
we  may  mention  here  that,  according  to  his  own  statement, 
it  was  about  2400  daler  a  year),  and  on  the  other  hand  we 
have  no  way  of  knowing  exactly  how  much  he  spent  on  his 
instruments  and  buildings.2  But  at  any  rate,  it  will  be 
evident  from  the  above  account  of  the  various  grants  of 
land  and  money  that  King  Frederick  II.  had  very  amply 
provided  for  his  wants,  and  never  forgot  the  promises  made 
to  Tycho  when  the  latter  was  prevailed  on  to  settle  in  his 
native  country.  The  circumstances  which  gradually  led  to 
his  being  deprived  of  most  of  these  grants  will  be  detailed 
in  a  future  chapter ;  but  we  may  here  mention  that  Tycho, 
shortly  after  the  death  of  King  Frederick  II.,  in  1588, 
represented  to  the  new  Government  that  his  great  expenses 
in  connexion  with  the  scientific  work  at  Hveen  had  caused 
him  to  be  in  debt  to  the  amount  of  6000  daler.  This  sum  ' 
was  at  once  ordered  to  be  paid  by  the  Government,  so  that 
Tycho  might  reasonably  hope,  even  after  the  death  of  his 
royal  patron,  to  be  able  to  continue  the  work  so  munificently 
supported  by  the  late  king. 

Tycho  to  Niels  Bilde,  who  doubtless  then  was  lieutenant  at  Bergen,  asking  him 
to  assist  Christopher  Pepler,  formerly  Tycho's  steward  at  Nordfjord,  to  get 
payment  for  some  money  still  due  to  him. 

1  Friis,  p.  180;  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  280  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  228). 

2  Tycho  in  1598  estimated  the  total  cost  of  all  his  buildings  and  instru- 
ments at  75,000  daler  (about  £17,000).     See  below,  Chapter  X. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

TYCHO'S  LIFE  AT  HVEEN  UNTIL  THE  DEATH  OF 
KING  FREDERICK  II. 

AT  Uraniborg  Tycho  spent  more  than  twenty  years,  from 
the  end  of  I  5  7  6  to  the  spring  of  1597,  the  happiest  and 
most  active  years  of  his  life.  Surrounded  by  his  family 
and  numerous  pupils,  many  of  whom  came  from  great 
distances  to  seek  knowledge  in  the  house  of  the  renowned 
astronomer  and  assist  him  in  his  labours,  frequently 
honoured  by  visits  from  men  of  distinction  both  from 
Denmark  and  abroad,  Tycho  during  these  years  steadily 
kept  the  object  in  view  of  accumulating  a  mass  of  observa- 
tions by  means  of  which  it  would  be  possible  to  effect  that 
reform  of  astronomy  which  was  so  imperatively  demanded, 
and  for  which  the  labours  of  Copernicus  had  merely  paved 
the  way.  But  though  the  scientific  work  was  never 
neglected,  the  pleasant  little  island  afforded  many  means 
of  recreation.  The  map  in  Braun's  Theatrum  Urbium 
shows  that  provision  was  made  for  games  of  various  kinds 
in  the  orchards  which  surrounded  Uraniborg,  and  in  the 
south  and  east  of  the  island  there  were  places  arranged 
for  entrapping  birds.  There  were  plenty  of  hares  and 
other  small  game,  and  Tycho  caused  a  great  number  of 
fishponds  to  be  made.  Most  of  them  lay  in  the  south- 
western part  of  the  island,  connected  by  sluices  into  two 
rows  which  met  in  a  lake,  the  second  largest  of  all,  from 
,  which  a  small  river  made  its  way  through  the  cliff  to  the 

sea.     On  this  spot  Tycho   afterwards  built   a  paper-mill. 

114 


LIFE  AT  HYEEN.  115 

None  of  these  fishponds  are  seen  on  Braun's  map,  and  they 
would  therefore  seem  to  have  been  constructed  after  1585, 
as  the  map  bears  the  date  I  586.  Thus  Tycho  contrived  to 
add  to  the  comfort  and  convenience  of  his  surroundings. 

In  addition  to  these  means  of  recreation,  Tycho  Brahe 
possessed  others  of  a  higher  kind.  In  1584,  the  same 
year  in  which  the  Stjerneborg  was  built,  he  put  up  a 
printing-press  in  the  building  at  the  south  angle  of  the 
enclosure  surrounding  Uraniborg.  It  was  originally  in- 
tended for  the  printing  of  his  own  works,  but  when  not 
required  for  this  purpose  he  occasionally  employed  it  to 
print  poems  in  memory  of  departed  friends,  and  similar 
poetical  effusions.  Thus  we  have  already  mentioned  that 
in  1584  he  printed  an  epitaph  of  his  friend  Pratensis,1 
and  in  the  same  year  he  printed  a  poem  addressed  to  a 
Danish  nobleman,  Jacob  Ulfeld,  to  give  the  printer  some- 
thing to  do,  as  he  informs  us.2  Of  greater  interest  is  a 
longer  poem  of  288  lines,  dated  the  I  st  January  1585,  and 
addressed  to  the  Chancellor,  Niels  Kaas.3  In  this  Tycho 
complains  of  the  neglected  state  of  astronomy  in  most 
countries,  and  contrasts  this  with  its  present  flourishing 
state  in  Denmark,  where  buildings  have  been  erected  and 
instruments  constructed  such  as  the  world  never  saw.  But 
envy  and  malice  attempt  to  speak  slightingly  of  this  great 
work,  and  he  might  almost  be  inclined  to  regret  having 
undertaken  it  and  look  for  another  home  elsewhere,4  if  he 

1  A  poem  in  memory  of  another  friend,  Job.  Francisci  Ripensis,  given  in 
Gassendi's  book,  p.  261,  was  possibly  also  printed  at  Uraniborg. 

2  Printed  in  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  pp.  223-224  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  130  et  seq.). 

3  Printed  ibid.,  pp.  226-234  (Weistritz,  ii.  135  et  seq.). 

4  "  Undique  Terra  infra,  ccelum  patet  undique  supra, 

Omne  solum  patria  est,  cui  mea  sacra  placent." 

The  first  of  these  lines  and  part  of  the  second  occur  in  Astr.  Instauraice 
Mcchania,  fol.  D.,  where  he  mentions  that  one  of  his  armillse  could  be  taken 
asunder  and  transported  to  any  place  where  it  might  be  wanted.  It  is 
remarkable  how  strongly  imbued  he  always  was  with  the  cosmopolitan 
character  of  his  science,  even  when  Fortune  smiled  most  on  him. 


116  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

did  not  remember  that  the  Chancellor  was  interested  in  it  for 
the  sake  of  the  honour  thus  conferred  on  his  country,  and 
would  therefore  continue  to  protect  it.  Another  but  shorter 
poem  was  soon  afterwards  printed  at  Uraniborg,  addressed 
to  the  learned  Heinrich  Rantzov,  governor  of  the  Duchy  of 
Holstein.  In  this  poem,  which  is  dated  the  1st  March 
1585,  Tycho  complains  that  Rantzov,  in  a  book  on  astro- 
logy which  he  had  just  published,  had  used  the  word 
specula  when  speaking  of  Uraniborg,  which  magnificent 
building  did  not  merit  so  mean  an  appellation.1 

The  considerable  building  operations  in  which  Tycho 
engaged  at  Hveen  obliged  him  to  require  a  great  deal  of 
work  from  his  tenants  there,  and  when  we  remember  his 
naturally  hot  temper,  and  his  habit  of  exacting  without 
scruple  what  was  due  to  him  (and  even  more,  as  in  the  case 
of  Hoik's  widow),  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  com- 
plaints were  more  than  once  made  by  the  tenants  at  Hveen 
of  his  arbitrary  treatment  of  them.  Already  on  the  loth 
April  1578  an  order  was  issued  by  the  king  to  the 
peasants  at  Hveen,  that  they  were  not  to  leave  the  island 
because  Tycho  Brahe  required  more  labour  than  had  formerly 
been  demanded  from  them.2  But  Tycho,  who  was  perhaps 
not  worse  (and  certainly  not  better)  than  his  fellow-nobles 
were  generally  in  the  treatment  of  their  inferiors,  continued 
in  the  following  years  to  make  such  great  demands  on  the 
peasantry  at  Hveen  to  get  his  buildings,  plantations,  fish- 
ponds, &c.,  finished,  that  fresh  complaints  were  made.  The 
king  therefore  sent  two  noblemen,  the  governor  of  Helsing- 
borg  Castle  and  the  governor  of  Landskrona  Castle,  to 
Hveen  to  investigate  matters.  When  these  two  officials 
had  presented  their  report,  the  king,  on  the  8th  January 
1581  (the  same  day  on  which  he  ordered  his  lieutenant  at 

1  Printed  in  DansTce  Magazin,  ii.  pp.  235-238  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  148  et  seq.). 

2  Friis,  Tyge  Brahe,  p.  89. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  117 

Bergen  to  restore  the  Norwegian  estate  to  Tycho),  issued 
an  "  Arrangement  and  rule  for  Tycho  Brahe  and  the  in- 
habitants at  Hveen,"  which  both  parties  were  ordered  to 
obey  and  follow.1  In  this  document  the  amount  of  labour 
to  be  furnished  by  each  farm  was  fixed  at  two  days  a  week, : 
from  sunrise  to  sunset,  and  rules  were  laid  down  about 
various  other  matters ;  thus  a  tenant  who  did  not  keep  his 
dikes  and  fences  in  order  was  to  pay  a  fine  in  money  to  the 
landlord  and  a  barrel  of  beer  to  the  townsmen  ;  nobody 
was  to  gather  nuts  or  cut  wood  without  leave  from  Tycho 
Brahe  or  his  steward ;  a  petty  sessions  court  was  to  be  held 
every  second  Wednesday,2  and  appeals  were  to  be  heard  in 
Scania  in  future,  instead  of  in  Seeland.3  The  peasants 
were  not  to  consider  their  holdings  as  their  own  property, 
as  they  had  no  legal  authority  for  doing  so,  but  in  future, 
when  any  farmer  died,  his  holding  was  to  be  treated  as  any 
other  farm  on  a  Crown  estate. 

If  the  buildings  and  other  works  at  Hveen  required 
much  manual  labour,  the  scientific  researches  for  the  sake 
of  which  they  were  erected  required  a  great  deal  of  work 
to  be  done  by  practised  observers  and  computers,  and  these 
Tycho  readily  found  in  the  young  men  who  soon  began  to 
flock  to  Hveen  in  order  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of  studying 
under  his  guidance.  The  first  to  arrive  seems  to  have  been 
Peder  Jakobsen  Flemlose,  born  about  1554  in  a  village 
called  Flemlose,  in  the  island  of  Fyen  (Funen).  He  had 
already,  in  1574,  published  a  Latin  poem  on  the  solar 
eclipse  of  that  year,  in  which  he  showed  that  though  eclipses 
have  a  perfectly  natural  cause,  they  are  signs  of  the  anger 
of  God  ;  but  the  eclipse  of  I  574  he  believed  to  mean  that 
the  second  coming  of  Christ  was  soon  to  take  place.  This 

1  Printed  in  Danslce  Magazin,  ii.  pp.  213-217  (Weistritz,  ii.  pp.  110-116). 
-  The  court  was  held  on  a  hill  close  to  Uraniborg  (/  on  the  map). 
3  This  does  not  seem  to  have  been  carried  out. '    See  above,  p.  88. 


118  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

little  book  lie  dedicated  to  Tycho  Bralie.1  He  seems  to 
have  studied  medicine  in  his  youth,  for  his  second  publica- 
tion, in  1575,  was  a  translation  of  Simon  Musasus'  book 
against  melancholy.  He  must  have  entered  Tycho's  service 
in  the  beginning  of  1578,  and  did  so  (according  to  Longo- 
montanus)  on  account  of  the  supposed  intimate  connection 
between  medicine  and  astronomy.2  That  Tycho  had  great 
confidence  in  him  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  he  sent 
him  to  Cassel  in  I  586  to  deliver  a  letter  to  the  Landgrave 
and  report  to  Tycho  on  the  new  instruments  lately  mounted 
there.  In  June  1579  he  received  by  royal  letter  a 
promise  of  the  first  vacant  canonry  in  Roskilde  Cathedral, 
on  condition  that  "he  shall  be  bound  to  let  himself  be 
used  in  studiis  mathematicis  at  Tyge  Brahe's."  He  had, 
however,  to  wait  a  long  time  for  this  reward  of  his  services 
at  Hveen,  as  he  did  not  obtain  the  canonry  till  I  590,  when 
he  had  left  Tycho,  after  more  than  ten  years'  service  in  the 
observatory,  and  had  become  physician  to  Axel  Gyldenstjern, 
one  of  the  two  noblemen  whom  the  king  had  sent  to  Hveen 
to  report  on  the  affairs  of  the  tenants,  and  who  had  since 
been  made  Governor-General  of  Norway.  Flemlose  died 
suddenly  in  1599,  just  when  about  to  proceed  to  Basle  to 
obtain  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine.3  Whether  his 
medical  studies  had  derived  much  benefit  from  his  astro- 
nomical labours  is  not  known,  but  while  at  Uraniborg,  he 
not  only  spent  his  time  on  "pyronomic"  (i.e.,  chemical) 
and  astronomical  matters,  but  also  compiled  a  little  book 
which  was  printed  there  in  1591,  some  years  after  his 

1  "^Ecloga  de  eclipsi  solari  anno  1574  niense  Novembri  futura  et  tempore 
plenilunii  ecliptici  anno    1573  conspecti,  Succularum   ortu  obiter  descripto, 
breuique  Meliboei  pastoris  querela.   .  .  .  Autore  Petro  Jacobo  Flemlossio." 
Hafniae,  1574,  4to. 

2  He  made  observations  with  the  sextant  on  the  1 5th  March  1578,  and  the 
distance  measures  on  and  after  January  21  are  possibly  also  by  him. 

3  See  N.  M.  Petersen,  Den  Danske  Literaturs  Historic,  iii.  pp.  176-179,  and 
the  preface  by  Friis  to  the  reprint  of  Flemlose's  book  (1865). 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  119 

departure,  containing  399  short  rules  by  which  to  foretell 
changes  in  the  weather  by  the  appearance  of  the  sky,  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars,  or  by  the  behaviour  of  animals.1  In 
the  absence  of  the  author,  the  introduction  was  written  in 
his  name  by  his  fellow-student,  Longomontanus,  at  the 
dictation  of  Tycho.  In  this  it  is  stated  that  King  Frederick 
took  a  great  interest  in  weather  prognostications,  and  had 
desired  Tycho  Brahe,  from  books  and  his  own  experience,  to 
compile  a  treatise  on  the  subject,  but  as  Tycho  had  other 
and  more  important  work  to  look  after,  he  had  requested 
Flemlose  to  do  so.  It  is  not  said  whether  the  author  had 
collected  his  materials  at  Hveen,  but  most  of  the  rules 
contained  in  the  book  are  chiefly  such  as  farmers  and 
similar  observers  might  imagine  they  had  deduced  from 
their  experience,  and  here  and  there  it  affords  curious 
reading,  at  least  to  a  modern  student.2 

Another  of  the  early  assistants  of  Tycho  was  a  German, 
^auXJ\Yittich,  from  Breslau,  whose  name,  but  for  his  early 
death,  would  probably  be  much  better  known  in  the  history 
of  astronomy  than  it  is.  He  had  been  recommended  by 

1  "En  Elementisch  or  JovdischAstrologia  Om  Lufftens  forendring.  .  .  .  Til- 
sammen  dragen  aff  Peder  Jacobson  Flemlos  paa  Hueen.     Prentit  paa  Vrani- 
borg  Aff  Hans  Gaschitz,  Anno  1591,"  xvi.  +  143  pp.,  I2mo.     Keprinted  at 
Copenhagen  in   1644  (by  Longomontanus),   1745,  and    1865.     According  to 
Friis,   Tyge  Brake,  p.  362,  a  German  translation  was  printed  at  Hveen  in 
September  1591,  of  which  there  is  a  copy  in  the  library  of  the  Polytechnic 
Institute  at  Vienna  (see  also  Kcpleri  Opera,  viii.  p.  705,  first  line).     Of  the 
Danish  original,  only  two  copies  are  known  to  exist,  both  at  Copenhagen. 

2  I  shall  give  a  few  examples  : — Flies  and  fleas  announce  rain  when  they 
are  more  than  usually  troublesome  to  men,  horses,  and  cattle  (ccv.).     When 
goats  are  so  very  greedy  that  you  can  neither  by  words  nor  blows  drive  them 
away  from  small  shrubs,  which  they  bite  off  though  they  are  not  very  hungry, 
then  it  is  a  sure  sign  of  rain  or  storm  (ccix.).     When  pigs  with  their  snouts 
are  throwing  sheaves  of  corn  or  bundles  of  straw  round  about  as  if  they  were 
mad,  you  need  not  doubt  that  there  will  soon  be  rain  (ccxxii.).     All  kinds  of 
unusual  fire  in  the  air,  appearing  like  an  army  or  like  stars  running  to  and 
fro  or  against  each  other,  or  falling  down  to  the  earth,  are  forewarnings  of 
comets  (ccclx.).     [This  looks  like  an  unconscious  anticipation  of  modern  ideas 
about  the  nature  of  comets.]     Earthquakes  generally  follow  after  great  and 
long-continuing  comets  (ccclxiii.). 


120  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

Hagecius,  and  arrived  at  Hveen  in  the  summer  of  1580, 
where  he  took  part  in  the  observations  of  the  comet  of  that 
year  from  the  2  1st  to  the  26th  October.1  He  showed  him- 
self a  very  able  mathematician,  according  to  Tycho's  own 
testimony,2  and  declared  it  to  be  his  wish  to  stay  at  Urani- 
borg  and  be  a  "  fidus  Achates  "  to  Tycho.  But  when  he 
had  been  about  three  months  at  Hveen,  he  announced  that 
he  had  to  go  home  to  Breslau,  as  a  rich  uncle  of  his  was 
dead  and  he  wanted  to  secure  the  inheritance,  but  he  would 
return  to  Hveen  in  seven  or  eight  weeks.  He  took  with 
him  a  letter  from  Tycho  to  Hagecius  (dated  4th  November 
1580),  and  Tycho  became  very  uneasy  when  he  neither 
heard  anything  from  Wittich  (who  never  returned  to  Hveen) 
nor  received  an  answer  from  Hagecius  for  more  than  a  year. 
He  learned  at  last,  in  1582,  that  the  letter  had  been  duly 
delivered.3  A  few  years  after  he  heard  that  Wittich  had, 
about  1584,  turned  up  at  Cassel,  where  his  descriptions  of 
Tycho's  improvements  in  instruments,  particularly  of  the 
sights  and  the  transversal  divisions,  as  well  as  of  Tycho's 
sextants  for  distance  measures,  created  so  great  a  sensation 
that  the  Landgrave  immediately  had  his  instruments  im- 
proved and  altered  by  his  mechanician,  Joost  Blirgi,  in 
accordance  with  Wittich's  descriptions.4  When  Tycho 

1  In   the  observations  (Tychonis  Brake.  Olservationes  Scptem  Cometarum, 
Hafnise,  1867,  p.  30)  there  is  a  note  written  in  October  1600,  and  signed  Jacob 
Monaw,  certifying  that  the  observations  of  October  2ist  to  26th  were  written 
in  Wittich's  hand.     I  find  in  Jb'cher's  Gelehrten  Lexicon  that  this  Monaw  was 
a  Jesuit  from  Breslau  (1546-1603),  where  he  had  evidently  known  Wittich. 

2  In  Tycho's  Mechanica,  fol.  I.   3,   he  is  mentioned  as  "  quidam  insignis 
mathematicus,"  and  in  Progymn.,  ii.  p.  464,  he  is  called  "quidam  Vratislauien- 
sis  non  vulgaris  Mathematicus."     In  a  letter  to  Rothmann  (Epist.  Astr.,  p.  61) 
Tycho  says  that  Wittich  ingratiated  himself  with  him  "  quod  hominem  ob 
ingeniosam  in  Mathematicis,  prsesertim  quo  ad  Geometriam  attinet,  solertiam 
magnifacerem."     We  shall  see  farther  on  that  Tycho  and  Wittich  together 
deduced  convenient  formulae  whereby  multiplication  and  division  of  trigono 
metrical  quantities  were  avoided.     See  also  Epist.,  p.  296. 

3  T.  Brake  et  Doct.  Vir.  Epistolce,  pp.  54,  58,  64. 

4  Epist.  Astron.,  p.  3. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  121 

learned  this  lie  was  extremely  annoyed,  and  seemed  to  think 
that  Wittich  had  pretended  to  be  the  inventor  of  all  he  had 
described  to  the  Landgrave  (although  the  latter  had  not 
said  so),  and  in  his  first  letter  he  took  care  to  tell  the 
Landgrave  that  Wittich  had  seen  all  these  things  at  Hveen, 
as  might  already  be  seen  from  the  word  ' '  sextant."  1  How 
long  Wittich  remained  at  Oassel  is  not  known;  he  was 
there  in  November  1584,  when  he  observed  a  lunar  eclipse, 
and  the  Landgrave's  astronomer,  Eothmann,  mentions  him 
in  a  letter  of  April  1586  as  having  left  a  good  while 
previously.  He  died  on  the  9th  January  ISS/,2  and 
Tycho  seems  on  learning  this  to  have  regretted  that  he  had 
suspected  Wittich  of  robbing  him  of  his  fame,  for  he  wrote 
in  August  1588  that  he  would  have  written  more  mode- 
rately about  him  had  he  known  he  was  dead.3  Though 
Wittich  spent  but  a  short  time  at  Uraniborg,  his  name 
deserves  to  be  remembered  by  astronomers,  as  he  was 
apparently  the  ablest  of  all  Tycho's  pupils.4 

Most  of  these  pupils  spent  a  much  longer  time  at  Urani- 
borg than  Wittich  had  done.  Thus  Gellius  Sascerides 
stayed  about  six  years  there.  He  was  born  at  Copenhagen 
in  1562,  and  was  a  son  of  Johannes  Sascerides  of  Alkmaar, 
in  Holland,  professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  University  of 
Copenhagen.  Gellius  had  studied  at  Copenhagen  and  at 
Wittenberg,  and  came  to  Hveen  early  in  1582,  where  he 

1  Ibid.,  p.  7. 

2  According  to  a  MS.  in  the  library  at  Breslau,  quoted  by  Rud.  Wolf  in 
the  Vierteljahrsschrift  dcr  Astron.  Gcsellschaft,  xvii.  p.  129. 

3  Epist.    Astron.,   p.    113.     Tycho   here   again   praises   his  cleverness  "in 
Geometricis  et  Triangulorum  ac  mimerorum  tractatione."     In  the  letter  of 
2oth  January  1587  (to  which  he  refers)  he  had,  after  all,  only  said  :  "  Si  mea 
inventa  .  .  .  pro  suis  venditat,  nee  fatetur  per  quern  ea  habuerit,  rem  a  viro 
bono  et  grato,  ac  sinceritate  integritateque  Mathematica  alienam  committit." 

4  In  Chalmers'  General  Biogr.  Dictionary,  London,  1815,  vol.  xx.  p.  243,  it 
is  stated,  on  the  authority  of  a  Life  of  the  Scotch  mathematician  Duncan 
Liddel  by  Prof.  Stuart  (1790),  that  Liddel  studied  mathematics  at  Breslau, 
1582-84,  "under  Paul  Wittichius,  an  eminent  professor." 


122  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

remained  until  1588,  when  he  went  abroad  to  continue  his 
medical  studies  in  Italy.  Tycho  gave  him  a  letter  for 
Kothmann,  to  whom  he  recommended  Gellius  as  having 
assisted  him  both  in  astronomical  and  in  chemical  work.1 
We  shall  afterwards  hear  how  he  and  Tycho  got  on 
together  after  his  return. 

We  know  much  less  about  another  assistant  who  observed 
at  Hveen  about  the  same  time  as  Gellius,  called  Elias  Olsen 
Cimber  (or  Morsing,  i.e.,  from  the  Isle  of  Mors,  in  the 
Limfjord),  although  he  must  have  spent  a  number  of  years 
with  Tycho.  When  he  first  came  to  Hveen  is  not  known, 
but  he  seems  to  have  been  there  in  April  1583,  when  his 
handwriting  is  believed  to  occur  in  the  meteorological 
diary.  This  diary  (of  which  the  original  is  now  in  the 
Hofbibliothek  at  Vienna)  was  regularly  kept  from  the  1st 
October  1582  up  to  the  22nd  April  1597,  about  the  time 
when  Tycho  left  Hveen  for  ever.2  It  contains  for  every  day 
short  notes  about  the  weather,  stating  whether  it  was  clear 
or  cloudy,  hot  or  cold,  rainy  or  dry,  &c.  These  notes  are 
always  written  in  Danish,  except  where  halos,  auroras,  or 
similar  phenomena  are  described,  which  is  generally  done 
in  Latin.  But  the  principal  interest  attached  to  this  diary 
arises  from  the  numerous  very  short  notes  about  the  arrival 
or  departure  of  Tycho,  his  pupils  or  visitors,  which  occur 
frequently  from  April  1585.  These  historical  notes  are 
always  written  in  Latin  ;  they  are  often  very  much  abbre- 
viated and  difficult  to  decipher.  This  diary,  which  forms  a 
most  interesting  record  of  the  life  at  Hveen,  was  kept  now 

1  Epist.  Astron.,  p.  104. 

2  It  was  published  at   Copenhagen  in  1876  :    Tyge  Brake's  meteorologiske 
Dayboy  holdt  paa  Uraniborg  for  Aarene  1582-1597.     Appendice  aux  Collec- 
tanea Meteorologica  publics  sous  les  auspices  de  I' Academic  Rot/ale  des  Sciences 
et  des  Lettres  a  Copenhague.     The  value  of  the  diary  (263  pp.  8vo)  is  greatly 
increased  by  an  index  to  the  historical  names  by  a  Danish  historian,  H.  F. 
Rordam.     There  is  also  a  discussion  of  the  meteorological  results  by  P.  la 
Cour  (with  a  French  resume"). 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  123 

by  one,  now  by  another  assistant  (though  their  names  are 
not  given),  and  a  great  deal  of  it  was  written  by  the  above- 
mentioned  Elias  Olsen,  whose  writing  appears  in  it  for  the 
last  time  in  April  1589.  Probably  he  left  Tycho's  service 
at  that  time,  as  he  is  mentioned  in  the  diary  as  having 
arrived  and  departed  several  times  after  that  date.1 

In  1584  Elias  Olsen  was  sent  by  Tycho  on  an  astro- 
nomical expedition  of  some  importance.  At  Hveen  the 
inclination  of  the  ecliptic  had  been  found  equal  to  23°  3 1 '.5, 
while  Copernicus  had  found  23°  28'.  Tycho  correctly  ex- 
plained this  by  pointing  out  that  Copernicus  had  measured 
the  meridian  altitudes  of  the  sun  at  the  summer  and  winter 
solstices  without  taking  refraction  into  account,  and  for  the 
latitude  of  Frauenburg  in  Prussia  this  would  at  the  winter 
solstice  cause  an  error  of  over  4'  in  the  altitude.  Tycho, 
however,  believed  the  solar  refraction  at  the  altitude  of  I  2 
to  be  equal  to  9' ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  assumed  with 
Copernicus,  that  the  solar  parallax  was  3',  so  that  one  mis- 
take is  somewhat  compensated  by  the  other.  He  had  also 
found  that  the  solar  theory  of  Copernicus  often  deviated 
considerably  from  the  observed  places  of  the  sun,  and  he 
suspected  that  Copernicus  had  reduced  his  solar  observations 
with  an  erroneous  value  of  the  latitude.  He,  therefore, 
gladly  took  an  opportunity  of  verifying  this  latitude  when, 
early  in  1584,  an  embassy  from  George  Frederic,  Margrave 
of  Ansbach,2  headed  by  a  nobleman  of  the  name  of  Levin 

1  He  was  at  Hveen  June  9  to  II,  and  July  I   to  3,   1589,  November  5  to 
March  1 1,  1590.     Under  the  last  date  the  printed  edition  has  "  Elias  obiit  H. 
U^  noct.,"  but  doubtless  the  original  has  abiit  and  not  obiit,  for  the  words 
"Elias  Olai  "  occur  again  on  the  8th  May  1596,  so  he  cannot  have  died  in 
1590.     In  1589  he  went  with  Vedel  on  a  tour  through  Denmark  to  observe 
latitudes  and  azimuths  for  Vedel's  topographic  survey  of  the  country.     See 
E.  0.  Horsing  og  hans  Observations,  af  F.  R.  Friis,  Copenhagen,  1889,  28  pp. 
8vo. 

2  Regent  of  the  Duchy  of  Prussia  (for  his  cousin,  Duke  Albrecht  Frederic, 
who  was  insane).     The  house  of  Hohenzollern  is  descended  from  him. 


124  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

Billow,  returned  to  Germany  after  having  carried  out  its 
mission  to  the  Danish  Court.  As  the  embassy  was  sent  to 
Dantzig  in  some  royal  ships,  it  was  easy  for  Tycho  Brahe 
to  obtain  permission  for  Elias  Olsen  to  make  the  voyage  on 
one  of  these.  He  happened  to  be  keeping  the  meteoro- 
logical diary  at  that  time,  and  continued  on  the  journey  to 
record  in  it  the  state  of  the  weather.  We  learn  thus  that 
he  started  from  Copenhagen  on  the  1st  May,  reached 
Dantzig  the  loth,  and  Frauenburg  on  the  I3th.  In  this 
quiet  little  cathedral  town  Copernicus  had  lived  many 
years,  engaged  solely  in  building  up  his  great  astronomical 
work,  and  only  now  and  then  turning  aside  from  this  to 
assist  with  his  clear  mind  in  the  government  of  the  little 
diocese-principality  of  Ermland  or  in  the  affairs  of  the 
chapter  of  Frauenburg.  Elias  Olsen  remained  on  this  clas- 
sical spot  from  the  1 3th  May  till  the  6th  June,  and,  with 
a  sextant  which  he  had  brought  with  him,  he  found  by 
meridian  altitudes  of  the  sun  and  stars  the  latitude  to  be 
5  4°  2  2^',  while  Copernicus  made  it  5  4°  19^  (the  modern 
value  is  54°  21'  34/x)-  Tycho  remarks  that  the  solar  decli- 
nations of  Copernicus  are  consequently  2§ '  in  error,  which, 
together  with  his  omission  of  refraction,  was  sufficient  to 
explain  the  shortcomings  of  his  solar  theory.  We  shall 
afterwards  examine  this  question  again  when  discussing 
Tycho's  labours  on  the  solar  theory.  While  Elias  Olsen 
was  at  Frauenburg  he  was  requested  to  determine  the  lati- 
tude of  Konigsberg,  and  went  there  on  the  8th  June.  He 
found  54°  43',  greatly  different  from  54°  17',  which  Erasmus 
Keinhold  had  assumed  in  the  Prutenic  tables  on  the  autho- 
rity of  Apianus.1  On  the  28th  June  Elias  left  Konigsberg 

1  Progymnasmata,  pp.  34-35  ;  Epist.  Astr.,  p.  74.  The  latitude  of  the 
Konigsberg  observatory  is  54°  42'  51".  Most  of  the  observations  made  at 
Frauenburg  are  given  in  Baretti  Historia  Coclestis,  p.  104,  and  are  correctly 
reproduced,  except  that  the  date  of  the  observations  of  May  1 1  should  be 
May  17.  In  the  Hist.  Ccel.  are  not  given  the  "  Observationes  factas  in 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  125 

for  Frauenburg,  spent  five  days  there,  departed  for  Dantzig 
on  the  4th  July,  started  from  thence  on  the  7th,  and  was 
back  at  Hveen  on  the  23rd.1 

Valuable  as  these  results  of  the  journey  were,  Elias 
brought  something  else  home  with  him  which  was  perhaps 
even  more  valued  by  Tycho.  One  of  the  canons  at  Frauen- 
burg, Johannes  Hannov,  sent  him  the  instrument  used  by 
Copernicus  and  made  by  his  own  hands.  It  was  a  trique- 
trum  eight  feet  long,  made  of  pine-wood,  and  divided  by 
ink-marks,  the  two  equal  arms  into  IOOO  parts,  the  long 
arm  into  1414  parts.  Tycho  placed  this  scientific  relic  in 
the  northern  observatory  at  Uraniborg,  and  the  very  day  he 
received  it  (the  23rd  July)  he  composed  a  Latin  poem  ex- 
pressing his  enthusiastic  delight  at  possessing  an  instrument 
which  had  belonged  to  this  great  man,  whose  name  he  never 
mentioned  without  some  expression  of  admiration.2  This 
feeling  he  also  gave  vent  to  in  the  poem  which  he  a  few 
months  later  wrote  and  placed  under  the  portrait  of  Coper- 
nicus in  his  library.  Possibly  he  had  received  this  portrait 
on  the  same  occasion  as  the  instrument.3 

The  name  of  Elias  Olsen  is  also  connected  with  the  first 
book  printed  at  Uraniborg,  an  astrological  and  meteorolo- 
gical diary  for  the  year  1586,  somewhat  similar  to  the  one 
drawn  up  by  Tycho  for  the  year  1573.  It  also  contains  an 
account  of  the  comet  of  1585,  which  had  been  observed  at 
Hveen  from  the  I  8th  October  to  the  I5th  November.  The 
little  book  is  dated  the  1st  January  1586,  and  is  dedicated 

yEdibus  Hortensibus  illustrissimi  Marchionis  duels  Borussise  Regiomonti ;  " 
they  are  similar  to  those  made  at  Frauenburg,  and  extend  from  June  1 1  to  26 
(MS.  volume  of  Obs.). 

1  The  dates  are  from  the  meteorological  diary.     Friis  (T.  Brake,  p.  133) 
tells  his  readers  that  Elias  went  to  Regensburg  (Regiomontum  !!)  without 
remarking  the  wonderful  speed  with  which  he  would  have  had  to  travel  to 
reach  Regensburg  from  the  shore  of  the  Baltic  in  less  than  two  days. 

2  £pist.  Astr.,  p.  235;  Gassendi,  p.  57. 

3  Epist.,  p.  240. 


126  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

to  the  Crown  Prince,  who  was  then  between  eight  and  nine 
years  of  age.1 

Of  Tycho's  other  pupils,  Longomontanus  is  the  best 
known.  Christen  Sorensen  Longberg  was  born  on  the  4th 
October  1562,  at  the  village  of  Longberg  or  Lomborg,  in 
the  north-west  of  Jutland,  where  his  father  was  a  poor 
farmer.2  When  his  father  died  in  15/0,  his  uncle  took 
charge  of  him  for  some  time,  but  as  the  means  of  the  family 
were  too  small  to  allow  the  boy  to  follow  his  inclinations  and 
go  to  school,  the  uncle  sent  him  home  to  his  mother  to  help 
her  on  the  farm.  The  boy  persuaded  the  mother  to  allow 
him  to  get  some  lessons  during  the  winter-time  from  the 
.clergyman  of  the  parish,  but  during  the  summer  he  had  to 
lay  aside  his  books  and  take  to  farming  again.  At  last  he 
got  tired  of  this,  and  in  the  spring  of  1577  he  took  his 
books,  and,  without  telling  any  one,  walked  off  to  the  town 
of  Viborg,  some  fifty  miles  from  his  home.  He  attended  the 
grammar-school  of  Viborg  for  eleven  years,  and  in  addition 
to  the  ordinary  school  course  of  those  days  he  learned  the 
rudiments  of  mathematics.  At  the  age  of  twenty-six  he  left 
the  school  for  the  University  of  Copenhagen,  and  the  fol- 
lowing year  (1589)  he  was,  on  the  recommendation  of 
some  of  the  professors,  received  as  an  assistant  at  Uraniborg, 
where  he  remained  till  1597,  when  he  left  it  together  with 
Tycho.3 

Of  most  of  the  other  young  men  who  for  a  longer  or 

1  "  Diarium  astrologicum  et  metheorologicum  anni  anato  Christo  1586.    Et 
de  Cometa  qvodam  rotundo  omniqve  cavda  destitute  qui  anno  proxime  elapso, 
mensibus  Octobri  et  Nouembri  conspiciebatur,  ex  observationibus  certis  de- 
sumta    consideratio    Astrologica :    Per    Eliam    Olai    Cimbrum,    Nobili  viro 
T_ychoni  Brahe  in  Astronomicis  exercitiis  inservientem.     Ad  Loci  Longitudi- 
nem  37  Gr.  Latitudinem  56  Gr.     Excusum  in  Officina  Vranibvrgica."     See 
Weidler,  Hist.  Astr.,  p.  623  ;  Petersen,  DansJce  Literaturs  Historic,  iii.  p.  180. 

2  West  of  the  town  of  Lemvig,  about  four  miles  from  the  west" coast.     In 
Latin,  Longberg  called  himself  Christianus  Severini  Longomontanus. 

3  Petersen,  DansTce  Literaturs  Historic,  iii.  p.  177. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  127 

shorter  time  assisted  Tycho  Brahe,  we  know  little  but  the 
names.  A  certain  Hans  Coll,  or  Johannes  Aurifaber,  who 
had  charge  of  the  workshop,  must  have  been  with  him  a 
long  time,  as  he  is  mentioned  as  observing  in  1585,  and 
he  died  at  Hveen  in  I  59  i.1  Many  details  as  to  the  life  at 
Hveen  were  communicated  to  Gassendi  by  Willem  Janszoon 
Blaev,  the  celebrated  printer  at  Amsterdam,  who  in  his 
youth  (he  was  born  at  Alkmaar  in  1571)  had  spent  a  few 
years  at  Hveen,  and  to  whom  we  also  owe  the  large  map  of 
the  island  in  his  son's  Grand  Atlas.2 

Two  other  inmates  of  Tycho's  house  may  also  be  men- 
tioned here.  One  was  a  maid  of  the  name  of  Live  (or 
Liuva)  Lauridsdatter,  who  afterwards  lived  with  Tycho's 
sister,  Sophia,  and  later  was  a  sort  of  quack-doctor  at 
Copenhagen,  where  she  also  practised  astrology,  &c.  She 
died  unmarried  in  1693,  when  she  is  said  to  have  reached 
the  ripe  age  of  12/j..3  The  other  was  his  fool  or  jester, 

1  Obserrationes    Feptem    Comctarum    (1867),    pp.    63-64;   Baretti   Historia 
Ccelestis,  p.  429;  Diary,  3<Dth  November  1591. 

2  The  map  was    made   "cum  sub  Tychone  Astronomise   operam   daret." 
Blaev  must  have  been  at  Hveen  during  the  last  few  years  of  Tycho's  residence 
there.     He  is  mentioned  in  the  Observations  of  Comets,  p.  41,  as  being  there 
in  1596.     For  a  list  of  Tycho's  other  disciples  and  assistants,  as  far  as  their 
names  are  known,  see  Note  B.  at  end  of  this  volume.     In  1589  Rothmann 
inquired,   on   behalf   of    Professor   Victor   Schonfeld    of   Marburg,  whether 
Tycho  would  receive  a  son  of  Schonfeld  among  his  pupils,  adding  that  the 
young  man  had  just  been  made  a  Master  of  Arts  ;  to  which  Tycho  answered 
that  he  might  come,  but  whether  he  was  a  master  or  not  did  not  make  much 
difference,  that  it  was  better  to  be  a  master  than  to  be  called  one,  and  it  would 
be  sufficient  if  he  was  a  student  of  the  free  arts  (Epist.,  pp.  154,  168).     In 
Wolf's  Encomion  Regni  JJanice,    1654,   p.   52^»  ^  ^s  stated  that  there  were 
small  bells  in  the  rooms  of  the  students,  which  could  be  rung  by  touching 
hidden   buttons  in  the    observatories   or  sitting-rooms,  by  which  Tycho,  to 
the  surprise  of  his  guests,  could  make  any  of  the  students  come  to  him,  appa- 
rently merely  by  calling  their  name  in  a  low  voice.     Wolf  also  tells  how  Tycho 
could  lie  in  bed  and  observe  the  stars  through  a  hole  in  the  wall,  with  some 
mechanism  which  could  be  turned  round.     Probably  this  refers  to  the  mural 
quadrant,  which  had  a  "  hole  in  the  wall." 

3  Kastner,   Gcsch.   der   Math.,   ii.   p.   408,  quoting  Nora  Literaria   Marls 
Balthici,  August  1698,  p.   142.     There  is  a  portrait  of  this  woman  in  the 
National  Historical  Museum  at  Frederiksborg  Castle. 


128  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

a  dwarf  called  Jeppe  or  Jep,  who  sat  at  Tycho's  feet  when 
he  was  at  table,  and  got  a  morsel  now  and  then  from  his 
hand.  He  chattered  incessantly,  and,  according  to  Longo- 
montanus,  was  supposed  to  be  gifted  with  second-sight,  and 
his  utterances  were  therefore  listened  to  with  some  atten- 
tion. Once  Tycho  had  sent  two  of  his  assistants  to  Copen- 
hagen, and  on  the  day  on  which  they  were  expected  back 
the  dwarf  suddenly  said  during  the  meal,  "  See  how  your 
people  are  laving  themselves  in  the  sea,"  On  hearing  this, 
Tycho,  who  feared  that  the  assistants  had  been  shipwrecked, 
sent  a  man  to  the  top  of  the  building  to  look  out  for  them. 
The  man  came  back  soon  after  and  said  that  he  had  seen 
a  boat  bottom  upwards  on  the  shore,  and  two  men  near  it, 
dripping  wet.  Whenever  Tycho  was  away  from  home,  and 
the  pupils  relaxed  their  diligence  a  little,  they  set  Jeppe  to 
watch  for  him,  and  when  the  dwarf  saw  Tycho  approach 
he  would  call  out  to  them,  "  Junker  paa  Landet,"  i.e.,  the 
squire  [is]  on  land.1  "When  any  one  was  ill  at  Hveen,  and 
the  dwarf  gave  an  opinion  as  to  his  chance  of  recovery  or 
death,  he  always  turned  out  to  be  right. 

There  was  plenty  to  do  for  all  the  young  men  at  Urani- 
borg.  Of  course  the  astronomical  work  was  always  their 
principal  occupation,  but  the  laboratory  was  also  in  con- 
stant use.  We  have  no  knowledge  of  the  particular  direc- 
tion of  Tycho's  chemical  researches,  but  that  he  always  took 
a  very  deep  interest  in  chemistry  is  evident  from  more  than 
one  allusion  to  this  subject  in  his  writings.  In  several  of  his 
books  are  found  a  pair  of  vignettes,  which  illustrate  the  view 
of  Nature  as  a  whole,  representing  one  idea  under  various 

1  Gassendi  (p.  197),  who  had  these  details  from  letters  written  to  him  and 
Peyresc  by  the  Danish  physician  and  historian  Ole  Worm,  has  misspelt  the 
exclamation  of  the  dwarf  as  "  Juncher  xaa  laudit."  See  also  0.  Wormii  et 
doct.  vir.  ad  eum  Epistolce,  Hafniae,  1751,  and  Gassendi,  Epistolce  (Opera, 
vol.  vi.),  p.  527,  where  the  name  is  misspelt  Leppe.  The  word  "Junker" 
(esquire),  which  always  is  used  of  T.  Brahe,  shows  that  he  was  not  a  knight. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  129 

aspects,  with  which  not  only  Tycho,  but  most  thinkers  of  the 
Middle  Ages  were  imbued.1  On  both  these  vignettes  is  seen 
a  man  in  a  reclining  posture,  with  a  boy  at  his  side ;  but  in 
the  one  case  the  man  is  leaning  on  a  globe  and  holds  a  pair 
of  compasses  in  his  hand,  while  his  face  is  turned  upward ; 
in  the  other  case  he  has  at  his  side  some  chemical  apparatus, 
and  holds  in  his  hand  a  bunch  of  herbs,  while  the  snake  of 
yEsculapius  is  coiled  round  his  arm,  and  he  is  looking  down- 
wards. At  the  sides  of  the  former  picture  is  the  motto, 
"  Suspiciendo  despicio  ;  "  round  the  latter,  "  Despiciendo  sus- 
picio,"  expressing  beautifully  the  mystical  reciprocal  action 
and  sympathy  between  the  "  sethereal  and  elementary  worlds." 
In  a  letter  to  Rothmann,  Tycho  enters  at  some  length  on 
this  subject,  but  his  remarks  contain  nothing  which  may 
not  be  read  in  any  book  of  the  time  in  which  the  "  occult 
philosophy "  is  taught,  and  we  have  already  sufficiently 
alluded  to  these  matters  in  previous  chapters.  He  mentions 
the  principal  authors  whom  he  has  followed,2  but  adds  that 
Paracelsus  has  truly  said  that  nobody  knows  more  in  this 
art  than  what  he  has  experienced  himself  per  ignem,  for 
which  reason  he  cultivates  the  "  terrestrial  astronomy  "  with 
the  same  assiduity  as  the  celestial.  In  the  laboratory  Tycho 
also  occupied  himself  with  the  preparation  of  medicine,  and 
as  he  distributed  his  remedies  without  payment,  it  is  not 

1  These  vignettes  seem  first  to  have  been  used  for  a  poem  to  a  friend  of 
Tycho's,  Talk  Gjoe,  printed  at  Uraniborg  between  1584  and  1587,  and  of 
which  I  am  not  aware  that  any  copy  now  exists.     Rothmann  came  across  a 
copy  at  Frankfurt,  and  asked  Tycho  to  explain  the  vignettes.     Epist.  Astron., 
p.  89;  Tycho's  reply,  ibid.,  p.  115-117. 

2  Among  these  are  Hermes  Trismegistus,  Geber,  Arnoldus  de  Villa  Nova, 
Raymundus  Lullius,  Thomas  Aquinas,  Roger  Bacon,  Albertus  Magnus,  &c. 
He  does  not  allude  to  the  fact  that  the  idea  expressed  in  the  two  vignettes 
occurs  already  in  the  second  of  the  thirteen  sentences  of  the  so-called  Hermes 
Trismegistus  :  "  What  is  below  is  like  what  is  above,  and  what  is  above  is 
like  what  is  below,  to  accomplish  the  miracles  of  one  thing  "  (see  Nature,  vii. 
p.  90).     There  is,  however,  an  allusionjui-thjs   sentence  in  Epist.  Astron., 


130  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

strange  that  numbers  of  people  are  said  to  have  flocked  to 
Hveen  to  obtain  them.i  In  the  official  Danish  Pkarmacopcea 
of  1658  several  of  Tycho's  elixirs  are  given,  and  in  I  599  he 
provided  the  Emperor  Rudolph  with  one  against  epidemic 
diseases,  of  which  the  principal  ingredient  was  theriaca 
Andromachij  or  Venice  treacle,  mixed  with  spirits  of  wine, 
and  submitted  to  a  variety  of  chemical  operations  and  ad- 
mixtures with  sulphur,  aloes,  myrrh,  saffron,  &c.  This 
medicine  he  considered  more  valuable  than  gold,  and  if  the 
Emperor  should  wish  to  improve  it  still  more,  he  might  add 
a  single  scruple  of  either  tincture  of  coral  or  of  sapphire,  of 
garnet,  or  of  dissolved  pearls,  or  of  liquid  gold  if  free  from 
corrosive  matter.  If  combined  with  antimony,  this  elixir 
would  cure  all  diseases  which  can  be  cured  by  perspiration, 
and  which  form  a  third  part  of  those  which  afflict  the  human 
body.2  This  prescription  Tycho  begged  the  Emperor  to 
keep  as  a  great  secret,  and  he  had  evidently  as  much  con- 
fidence in  the  powers  of  his  elixir  as  the  ingenious  Hidalgo 
of  La  Mancha  had  in  the  efficacy  of  his  celebrated  balsam. 

We  can  form  some  slight  idea  as  to  the  principles  which 
guided  Tycho  in  his  medical  practice  from  a  remark  in  one 
of  his  letters  to  Rothinann,  where  he  speaks  of  the  Aurora 
Borealis.  This  he  takes  to  be  sulphurous  vapour,  indicat- 
ing that  the  air  is  apt  to  engender  infectious  diseases,  "  for 
such  illness  has  a  good  deal  in  common  with  the  nature  of 
sulphur,  and  it  can  therefore  be  cured  by  perfectly  pure 
earthly  sulphur,  particularly  if  this  is  made  into  a  pleasant 
fluid,  as  like  cures  like  (tanquam  simile  suo  simili),  for  the 

1  Tycho  seems  to  have  had  an  apothecary  in  his  service,  as  Paulus  Phar- 
macopeia is  often  alluded  to  in  the  diary  ;  e.g.,  22nd  July  1596  :  "Elisabetha, 
filia   Pauli   pharmacopolee,   Joachimus   et    Theodoricus    propter    seditionem 
dimittuntur." 

2  The  prescription  is  printed  by  Gassendi,  p.  242  et  seq.  ;  he  had  it  from 
Worm,  who  in  1653  informed  Gassendi  that  the  elixir  was  still  much  used  in 
Denmark,  frequently  by  the  writer  himself,  who  found  it  to  be  most  powerful 
in  causing  perspiration  (Opera,  vi.  p.  526). 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  131 

principle  of  the  Gallenians,  contraria  contrariis  curari,  is  not 
always  true."  l 

"We  have  repeatedly  had  occasion  to  quote  from  Tycho's 
letters.  Both  before  and  after  he  had  become  settled  at 
Hveen,  to  all  appearance  for  life,  he  kept  up  a  correspon- 
dence with  friends  at  home  and  with  scientific  colleagues 
abroad.  Of  the  former,  only  Vedel  and  Dancey  were  left, 
and  with  these  he  occasionally  exchanged  friendly  letters,2 
but  between  him  and  the  acquaintances  he  had  made  on 
his  foreign  travels  very  lengthy  epistles  passed  as  often  as 
an  opportunity  offered  of  sending  these  by  a  carrier,  mer- 
chant, or  by  some  casual  traveller.  Among  Tycho's  prin- 
cipal foreign  correspondents  were  Paul  Hainzel  and  Johannes 
Major  at  Augsburg,  Scultetus  at  Leipzig,  the  Emperor's 
physician,  Hagecius,  at  Prague,  and  Brucaeus  at  Rostock. 
Being  always  anxious  to  increase  his  library,  Tycho  in  many 
of  his  letters  inquires  about  new  books,  or  asks  his  friends 
to  procure  them  for  him,  especially  such  as  were  about  the 
new  star  or  the  recent  comets.  These  comets  had  also  been 
observed  by  Hagecius,  and  Tycho  pointed  out  the  erroneous 
result  his  correspondent  had  come  to  in  giving  the  comet  of 
1577  a  parallax  of  five  degrees,  which  would  place  it  far 
within  the  sphere  of  the  moon,  whereas  the  observations 
made  at  Hveen  showed  that  the  horizontal  parallax  was  less 

1  Epist.,    p.   162.     See   also   an   article,  "T.    Brahe   als   Homeopath,"  by 
Olbers,  in  Schumacher's  Jahrbuch  fur  1836,  p.  98.     Olbers  remarks  that  of 
course  Tycho  Brahe  had  too  much  common  sense  to  believe  in  infinitesimal 
doses. 

2  It  is  characteristic  that  while  Tycho  in  h-is  letters  to  Vedel    generally 
sends  his  regards  to  Vedel's  wife,  neither  of  them  ever  alludes  to  the  mother 
of  Tycho's  children.     Dancey  died  in  1589;  he  had  first  been  sent  to  Den- 
mark by  Henry  II.,  and  came  afterwards  again  when  King  Frederick  II.  was 
negotiating  to  recover  the  Orkney  Isles  from  Scotland.     Owing  to  the  dis- 
turbed state  of  France,  his  salary  was  often  considerably  in  arrear,  which 
placed  him  in  a  very  humiliating  position  both  to  the  Danish  king  and  to 
private  people   who  had  lent  him   money.      Notwithstanding  his  troubles, 
Dancey  was  greatly  liked  and  respected  in  Denmark. 


132  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

than  a  third  of  a  degree.1  Tycho  also  told  Hagecius  of  the 
corrections  to  the  elements  of  the  solar  orbit  of  Copernicus, 
which  his  own  observations  indicated ;  but  neither  to  the 
Bohemian  physician  nor  to  his  other  correspondents  did  he 
allude  to  the  new  system  of  the  world  which  he  had  con- 
structed, possibly  because  (as  he  wrote  to  Hagecius)  Wit- 
tich's  conduct  had  given  him  a  lesson  which  he  should  not 
forget.2  As  Tycho  had  understood  from  Wittich  that  Hage- 
cius had  lost  his  post  in  the  Emperor's  household,  he  invited 
him  to  come  to  Denmark,  where  he  might  be  sure  of  being 
well  remunerated  by  the  king  and  the  nobility  for  his  ser- 
vices as  a  physician  ;  but  Hagecius  declined  to  leave  Prague, 
as  he  had  not  lost  his  post,  and  found  it  too  risky  for  a  man 
who  was  no  longer  young  and  had  a  family  to  settle  abroad.3 
With  Johannes  Major,  Tycho  corresponded  about  the  Gre- 
gorian reform  of  the  calendar,  which  was  promulgated  in 
1582,  and  ordered  to  be  adopted  by  the  Catholic  world  under 
threat  of  excommunication.  In  consequence  of  this,  Pro- 
testants refused  to  make  any  alteration  in  the  calendar.  At 
Augsburg  several  members  of  the  civic  council  had  voted 
against  the  adoption  of  the  new  calendar  for  theological 
reasons,  and  when  the  mayor,  in  consequence,  tried  to  arrest 
and  carry  off  the  principal  theologian  of  Augsburg,  the  popu- 
lation rose  in  arms  and  set  him  free.  When  asked  for  his 
opinion,  Tycho  very  sensibly  remarks  that  if  the  Pope  at  the 
time  of  Eegiomontanus  (i.e.,  before  the  Reformation)  had 
improved  the  calendar,  Luther  would  most  assuredly  not 
have  wished  to  interfere  with  it,  as  this  matter  had  nothing 
to  do  with  religious  doctrines ;  and  why  should  not  the 
new  calendar,  approved  of  by  the  Emperor,  be  accepted,  as 
the  Nicean  calendar-rules  were  still  accepted  even  by  Pro- 
testants ?  Of  Tycho's  letters  to  his  old  fellow- student  at 

1  T.  B.  et  ad  eum  Doct.  Vir.  Episl.,  pp.  55,  60,  and  62. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  59.  3  Ibid.,  pp.  56,  65,  and  68. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  133 

Leipzig,  Scultetus,  five  are  preserved,  although  of  these  but 
three  are  printed  in  accessible  places ; l  one  of  these  (of 
1581)  deals  chiefly  with  the  comet  of  I577>  f°r  which 
Scultetus  also  imagined  that  he  had  found  a  parallax ; 
another  (of  1592)  is  written  in  a  jovial  manner,  Tycho  pro- 
mising to  drink  his  friend's  health  that  evening,  and  expect- 
ing him.  to  return  the  compliment.  Another  former  Univer- 
sity acquaintance  with  whom  Tycho  occasionally  exchanged 
letters  was  Professor  Brucasus,  who  had  been  appointed  to 
a  chair  of  medicine  in  the  University  of  Kostock  in  1567 
while  Tycho  was  studying  there.  He  was  one  of  the  com- 
paratively few  learned  men  of  the  time  who  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  astrology,  and  it  is  therefore  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  he  expressed  his  disapproval  on  hearing 
about  the  intended  printing  of  an  astrological  calendar  by 
Elias  Olsen  at  Hveen.  He  wrote,  for  instance,  that  weather 
predictions  reminded  him  of  Cato's  saying  of  the  Roman 
haruspices,  that  he  wondered  if  they  could  keep  from  laugh- 
ing whenever  they  met  each  other.2  But  though  adverse  to 
astrology,  Brucasus  had  no  objection  to  an  astronomer  dab- 
bling in  medicine,  and  in  one  of  his  letters  he  asked  Tycho 
to  let  him  know  if  he  was  in  possession  of  any  remedy 
against  epilepsy.  They  also  corresponded  on  astronomical 
matters,  and  Tycho  pointed  out  to  him  the  difficulty  in 
accepting  the  theory  of  Copernicus,  and  commented  on  the 
errors  of  the  Alphonsine  and  Prutenic  tables.3 

Of  far  greater  importance  than  the  above  correspondence 

1  The  first  one  in  T.  B.  et  Doct.  Vir.  Epist.,  p.  57  ;  the  second  in  Kastner's 
Geschichte  der  Matkematik,  ii.  p.  409.     The  source  of  both  is  Singularia  His- 
torico-literaria  Lusatica  oder  historische  und  gelehrte  MercTcwurdigTceiten  von 
Ober-  und  Nieder-Lausitz,  27te  Sammlung,  1743,  pp.  178  et  seq.,  where  there 
are  two  more  letters  printed.    Scultetus  (Schultz)  died  in  1614  as  burgomaster 
at  Gorlitz.     A  letter  dated  January  1600  is  printed  in  Aus  T.  Brakes  Brief - 
ivechsel,  von  F.  Burckhardt.     Basel,  1887. 

2  T.  B.  et  Doct.  Vir.  Epist.,  p.  93. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  75  et  seq. 


134  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

were  the  letters  exchanged  between  Tycho  and  Landgrave 
Wilhelm  of  Hesse,  and  his  astronomer  Christopher  Roth- 
mann.  We  have  seen  how  Tycho's  visit  to  Cassel  in  the 
year  1575  seems  to  have  given  a  fresh  impetus  to  the 
scientific  tastes  of  the  Landgrave,  who  in  1577  engaged 
Christopher  Rothmann  of  Anhalt  as  his  mathematicus,  a  man 
not  without  some  knowledge  of  astronomy  and  mathematics, 
though  not  possessing  the  genius  of  the  man  who,  two  years 
later,  was  engaged  as  his  assistant.1  Joost  Biirgi  was  born 
in  ISS2?  a^  Lichtensteig,  in  the  county  of  Toggenburg,  in 
Switzerland,  and  seems  to  have  been  a  watchmaker  in  his 
youth,  but  nothing  is  known  of  his  life  until  Landgrave 
Wilhelm,  in  1579,  appointed  him  court- watchmaker  at 
Cassel.  The  methods  of  observing  adopted  in  the  observa- 
tory at  Cassel  rendered  good  clocks  indispensable,  and  both 
these  and  the  constantly  improved  instruments  made  the 
services  of  the  ingenious  mechanician  most  valuable  to  the 
Landgrave,  who,  indeed,  was  well  aware  what  a  treasure  he 
had  found,  as  he  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Tycho  calls  Biirgi 
a  second  Archimedes.  Observations  were  regularly  made 
at  Cassel  by  Rothmann  and  Biirgi,  especially  of  the  fixed 
stars,  with  the  object  of  constructing  a  new  star-catalogue, 
but  other  celestial  phenomena  were  not  altogether  neglected, 
and  the  comet  of  1585  gave  rise  to  a  correspondence 
between  Tycho  and  the  Landgrave.  They  had  lost  sight 
of  each  other  since  1575,  but  the  Landgrave  was  well 
aware  that  a  magnificent  observatory  had  been  erected  at 
Hveen,  and  that  work  was  steadily  carried  on  there,  parti- 
cularly since  the  visit  of  Wittich  had  put  him  in  possession 
of  the  important  improvements  which  Tycho  had  introduced 
in  the  construction  of  instruments.  He  was  therefore 


1  Neither  the  year  of  Rothmann's  birth  nor  that  of  his  death  are  known. 
About  him  and  Biirgi,  see  in  particular  Rudolph  Wolf's  Gcschichte  der  Astro- 
nomic and  his  Astronomische  Mittheilungen,  Nos.  31,  32,  and  45. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  135 

anxious  to  learn  what  observations  Tycho  had  made  of  the 
comet  of  I  5  8  5 ,  as  it  was  not  a  very  conspicuous  one,  and 
probably  would  not  be  observed  by  many  astronomers. 
With  this  view  the  Landgrave  wrote  a  letter  to  the  learned 
Heinrich  Rantzov,  governor  of  Holstein,1  asking  that  his 
compliments  might  be  sent  to  Tycho,  with  a  hint  that  he 
would  be  glad  to  hear  something  of  the  observations  of  this 
comet  made  at  Hveen.  Tycho  was  very  happy  to  renew 
his  acquaintance  with  the  Landgrave,  to  whom  he  wrote  a 
long  letter  on  the  1st  of  March  I  586,  in  which  he  enclosed 
an  abstract  of  his  observations  of  the  comet.  In  the  letter 
he  suggested  an  exchange  of  observations  of  the  star  of 
1572  and  of  the  recent  comets,  claimed  the  instrumental 
improvements  already  announced  to  the  Landgrave  as  his 
own,  and  gave  an  account  of  various  instruments  he  had 
designed,  such  as  a  bifurcated  sextant,  to  be  used  by  two 
observers,  and  the  equatorial  armillae.  He  pointed  out  the 
great  convenience  of  the  latter  instrument,  which  directly 
gave  the  right  ascension  and  declination  of  an  object,  from 
which  the  longitude  and  latitude  could  be  found  either  by 
calculation,  or  by  a  specially  prepared  table,  or  by  a  large 
globe.  Tycho  also  sent  the  Landgrave  a  solar  ephemeris 
for  the  current .  year,  and  asked  him  to  compare  his  obser- 
vations with  it.  This  letter  and  its  appendices  were  sent 
to  Cassel  by  Tycho's  assistant,  Flemlose,  who  was  bound 
for  the  book-mart  at  Frankfurt,  and  could  take  Cassel  on 
his  way,  where  Tycho  doubtless  also  wished  him  carefully 
to  inspect  the  improved  instruments. 

To  this  letter  the  Landgrave  at  once  replied,  and  Roth- 
mann  also  took  the  opportunity  of  entering  into  corre- 
spondence with  Tycho.  ^  During  the  next  six  years  letters 

1  Rantzov  (1526-1599)  was  celebrated  as  a  collector,  not  only  of  books  (of 
which  he  possessed  about  7000  volumes),  but  also  of  works  of  art.  He  also 
wrote  on  astrology. 


136  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

continued  to  be  sent  backwards  and  forwards  between 
Cassel  and  Uraniborg,  in  which  were  discussed  the  methods 
of  observing,  the  instruments  in  use,  and,  after  the  publi- 
cation of  Tycho's  system  of  the  world,  also  the  question 
whether  this  system  or  that  of  Copernicus  was  the  true  one. 
We  shall  in  the  sequel  have  many  opportunities  of  quot- 
ing these  letters,  or  rather  astronomical  essays,  of  which 
Tycho  recognised  the  interest  to  the  scientific  world  by 
sending  copies  of  some  of  them  to  several  other  correspon- 
dents, and  finally  by  publishing  them  all  in  a  volume 
printed  at  Uraniborg,  which  forms  an  excellent  supple- 
ment to  his  other  writings,  and  completes  the  picture  of 
his  scientific  activity.1 

All  the  details  about  Tycho's  observatory  which  the 
Landgrave  had  learned  from  Tycho's  letters  to  himself  and 
Rothmann  had  naturally  made  him  anxious  to  see  it  for 
himself,  and  an  opportunity  of  doing  so  seemed  to  offer  itself 
in  1588,  as  there  was  to  be  a  meeting  of  North  German 
princes  at  Hamburg,  which  the  Landgrave  was  going  to 
attend.  King  Frederick  had  already  given  orders  to  have 
ships  ready  to  carry  the  Landgrave  over  to  Seeland,  when 
the  king's  death  prevented  the  meeting  at  Hamburg,  and 
with  it  a  second  meeting  of  Tycho  and  the  Landgrave.2 

But  though  Wilhelm  IV.  never  came  to  Hveen,  Tycho 
had  from  time  to  time  the  pleasure  of  welcoming  other 
distinguished  guests  at  Uraniborg.  Among  these  we  shall 
here  mention  Johan  Seccerwitz,  professor  in  Greifswalde, 
who  is  known  as  a  Latin  poet.  He  came  to  Denmark  in 
I  580  with  the  Duke  of  Pomerania  to  attend  the  christening 

1  A  short  chronological  summary  of  the  principal  points  of  interest  in  this 
correspondence  is  given  by  Delambre  in  his  Histoire  de  I' Astronomic  Moderne, 
torn.  i.  pp.  232  et.  seq.     See  also  Gassendi,  p.  65  et  seq. 

2  Epist.  Astron.,  in  the  dedication  to  the  Landgrave's  son,  and  also  p.  104. 
The  "  Comitia  Hamburgensia  "  was,  I  suppose,  a  meeting  of  the  princes  of 
the  Nether-Saxon   circle,   to   which  King  Frederick   belonged   as   Duke  of 
Holstein. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  137 

of  a  new-born  princess,  and  met  Tycho  in  the  house  of  the 
Bishop  of  Lund.  He  has  left  a  versified  description  of  his 
journey,  in  which  he  expresses  his  joy  at  having  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Tycho.  In  1584  the  French  historian 
Jacques  Bongars  was  at  Uraniborg.1  Another  learned  visitor 
was  Duncan  Liddel,  who  was  born  at  Aberdeen  in  1561, 
and  had  studied  at  Frankfurt-on-the-Oder  and  at  Breslau. 
In  1587  he  went  to  Rostock,  and  while  studying  there 
paid  a  visit  to  Hveen  on  the  24th  June.2  He  was  professor 
at  Helmstadt  from  1591  to  1607,  and  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  person  in  Germany  who  explained  the  motions  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  according  to  the  three  systems  of 
Ptolemy,  Copernicus,  and  Tycho.3  Some  travellers  who 
were  not  of  a  scientific  turn  of  mind  were  nevertheless 
attracted  to  Hveen  by  the  wonderful  things  to  be  seen  there. 
Thus,  in  1582  Lord  Willoughby  d'Eresby,  who  had  been 
sent  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  invest  King  Frederick  with  the 
Order  of  the  Garter,  paid  a  visit  to  Uraniborg,  and  brought 
with  him  a  physician,  Thomas  Mufiet,  in  whom  Tycho  was 
pleased  to  find  an  acquaintance  of  his  friend  Hagecius.4 
Daniel  Eogers,  who  was  on  several  occasions  employed  by 
Queen  Elizabeth  on  missions  to  the  Netherlands  and  Deri- 
mark,  was  also  acquainted  with  Tycho,  and  in  1588,  when 
he  came  to  condole  on  the  king's  death,  he  went  to  Hveen, 
where  he  promised  Tycho  to  obtain  for  him  the  copyright 
of  his  books  in  England.5  Below  we  shall  see  that  Tycho 

1  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  pp.  210  and  220  (Weistritz,  ii.  pp.  105  and  126). 

2  Meteorol.  Diary. 

3  About  Liddel,  see  above  p.  121,  footnote.     He  died  at  Aberdeen  in  1617. 

4  Letter  to  Hagecius,  T.  B.  et  Doct.  Vir.  Epist.,  p.  70.     Tycho  does  not 
mention  that  Lord  Willoughby  had  landed  at  Elsinore  on  the  22nd  July,  but 
that  the  king's  installation  as  a  KG.  did  not  take  place  till  the  igth  August, 
because  the  king  for  a  long  time  refused  to  be  dressed  in  the  full  costume,  &c., 
in  public.     Dancey  had  to  assist  in  settling  the  matter. 

5  Tycho  tells  this  in  a  letter  to  Peucer,  and  adds  that  he  had  already  secured 
the  copyright  in  France  and  Germany  (Weistritz,  i.  p.  264).     Rogers  (154°- 
1590)  was  a  man  of  considerable  learning,  particularly  in  British  antiquities; 


138  t      TYCHO  BRAKE. 

was  to  receive  even  more  exalted  visitors  from  abroad  during 
the  last  years  of  his  residence  at  Hveen. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  Danish  visitors  frequently 
crossed  over  the  Sound  to  the  little  island  which  had  so 
suddenly  become  famous.  Both  learned  and  unlearned  men 
were  ready  to  pay  court  to  the  great  astronomer  who  had 
raised  a  beautiful  building  full  of  curious  apparatus  on  the 
lonely  island.  Though  this  spot  had  expressly  been  selected 
for  his  residence  in  order  that  Tycho  might  undisturbedly 
devote  himself  to  the  studies  he  loved,  he  had  probably  no 
objection  now  and  then  to  receive  as  his  guests  even  some 
of  those  who  had  in  former  days  sneered  at  his  scientific 
tastes,1  and  not  a  few  among  the  Danish  visitors  were  men 
of  learning.  Among  those  who  paid  repeated  visits  was 
Tycho's  former  tutor  and  his  friend  through  life,  Anders 
Sorensen  Vedel,  who  was  now  royal  historiographer,  and 
lived  at  Ribe  in  Jutland,  as  a  canon  of  the  cathedral  there. 
He  was  on  a  tour  through  Denmark  to  collect  topographical 
and  other  information  for  his  Danish  history,  when  he 
arrived  at  Hveen  on  the  I3th  June  1586.  He  must  have 
stayed  there  some  weeks,  as  he  was  still  with  Tycho  when 
a  stately  little  fleet  on  the  27th  June  approached  the  island 
from  Seeland  with  Queen  Sophia  on  board.  The  queen  was 
a  daughter  of  Duke  Ulrich  of  Mecklenburg-  Glistrow,  and  was 
an  able  and  accomplished  lady.  Tycho's  mother,  Beate  Bille, 
acted  as  her  Mistress  of  the  Robes  (to  which  post  she  was 
regularly  appointed  in  1592  after  the  death  of  his  aunt 
and  foster-mother,  Inger  Oxe),  and  the  queen  was  therefore 
interested  beforehand  in  Tycho  and  his  work.  She  was 

he  had  studied  at  Wittenberg  during  the  persecution  of  the  Protestants  by 
Queen  Mary.  Perhaps  he  is  alluded  to  in  the  Meteorol,  Diary,  9th  July  1588, 
"  Angli  aderant." 

1  Fortunately  for  him,  Tycho  lived  before  the  age  of  telescopes,  so  he  was 
not  annoyed  by  constant  requests  "  to  see  the  moon  "  or  to  "  take  an  observa- 
tion through  the  big  telescope." 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  139 

detained  on  the  island  by  a  storm  till  the  29th,  so  that  she 
had  time  enough  to  see  everything  of  interest,  and  to  con- 
verse with  Tycho  and  Vedel  on  the  various  topics  which 
the  scenery  of  the  island  and  the  curiosities  of  the  obser- 
vatory and  laboratory  suggested.  At  table  Tycho  called 
the  queen's  attention  to  Yedel's  historical  researches  and 
his  collections  of  ancient  ballads  and  other  folk-lore,  a  sub- 
ject in  which  she  took  a  great  interest.  She  asked  Vedel 
for  a  copy  of  these  ballads  or  Kjcempeviser,  which  he  pro- 
mised to  send  as  soon  as  he  could,  and  this  incident  gave 
rise  to  Yedel's  collection  of  ancient  ballads  being  printed 
five  years  later.1  The  queen  must  have  enjoyed  herself 
well  (she  is  said  to  have  had  a  taste  for  chemistry),  and 
two  months  afterwards,  on  the  23rd  August,  she  brought 
her  father  and  mother 2  and  a  cousin  to  see  Uraniborg, 
and  was  on  this  occasion  attended  by  a  large  suite.  The 
Duke  was  also  fond  of  chemistry,  which  in  those  days  was 
a  fashionable  occupation,  owing  to  the  prevailing  opinion 
that  it  would  sooner  or  later  lead  to  the  discovery  of  the  art 
of  making  gold.3 

King  Frederick  did  not  accompany  the  queen  on  either 
of  these  occasions,  and  it  is  not  certain  that  he  ever  was  at 
Hveen.4  In  contemporary  documents  and  in  Tycho's  own 
writings  there  is  no  allusion  to  the  king's  having  visited 

1  Wegener's  Life  of  Vedel,  p.  148.     The  reader  may  recollect  that  Vedel's 
edition  of  the  Kjcempeviser  is  referred  to  in  Note  K.  to  "  The  Lady  of  the 
Lake."     The  queen  wrote  somewhere  at  Uraniborg  her  motto  "  Gott  veriest 
die  Seinen  nicht." 

2  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  King  Frederick  I.  of  Denmark. 

3  Tycho  told  the  Landgrave  about  this  visit  in  a  letter  dated  1 8th  January 
1587  (Epist.  Astron.,  p.  36).     In  March   1592  the  queen  wrote  to  T.   Brahe 
requesting  him  to  send  her  father  a  small  barrel  of  emery,  as  the  Duke  had 
heard  that  some  had  lately  been  found  at  Hveen,  and  for  herself  she  wanted 
some  "  burnt  antimony,"  such  as  she  had  got  from  him  before.     Friis,  Breve 
og  Aktstykker  angaaende  T.  JBrahe,     Copenhagen,  1875,  p.  5. 

4  The  king  was  in  Jutland  and  North  Slesvig  during  the  last  days  of  June 
(Wegener's  Life  of  Vedel,  p.  149),  and  that  he  did  not  accompany  the  queen 
in  August  is  evident  from  Tycho's  letter  to  the  Landgrave  just  quoted. 


140  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

him,  and  if  lie  had  done  so  during  the  last  three  years 
of  his  life,  it  would  certainly  have  been  mentioned  in  the 
meteorological  diary,  in  which  during  this  period  all  events 
of  that  character  were  noted.1  But  this  does  not  exclude 
a  visit  of  the  king  to  Hveen  before  1585,  and  it  would 
indeed  be  strange  if  he  had  never  during  the  years  he  was 
building  the  castle  of  Kronborg  at  Elsinore,  with  the  island 
before  his  eyes,  crossed  over  the  narrow  strip  of  water  to 
see  the  buildings  of  which  he  must  have  heard  so  much, 
and  to  whose  owner  he  continued  to  show  favour  on  every 
occasion.  The  king  might  also  have  taken  the  opportunity 
of  seeing  Uraniborg  in  the  year  1584,  when  his  eldest  son, 
Prince  Christian,  was  elected  his  successor.  On  the  2Oth 
July  the  nobility  of  Scania  swore  fealty  to  the  prince  at 
Lund,  where  Tycho  Brahe  also  appeared  among  the  other 
nobles  of  the  province,  and  the  king  was  apparently  in 
Scania  at  that  time.  A  remarkable  document,  which  is 
still  in  existence,  and  is  printed  among  the  many  important 
letters  in  the  Danske  Magazin?  seems  to  show  that  the  king 
was  expected  at  Hveen  at  that  time.  It  is  a  draught  of  an 
act,  written  in  Latin  and  in  the  king's  name,  dated  "  HuenaB 
in  Avtopoli  Vranopyrgensi,"  the  1st  July  1584.  In  this 
document  the  king,  in  recognition  of  Tycho  Brahe's  scientific 
work,  and  following  the  memorable  examples  of  former  ages, 
grants  to  him  and  his  heirs  male  for  ever  the  island  of 
Hveen  in  fief,  with  all  privileges  and  honours,  provided  that 
they  do  nothing  to  injure  the  king  or  kingdom,  and  keep 
the  buildings  of  the  island  solely  for  the  furtherance  of 
mathematical  studies.  But  this  document  was  never  en- 
grossed and  signed  by  the  king,  and  even  if  Tycho  could 
have  persuaded  the  king  to  grant  him  so  great  a  favour,  it 

1  It  is  curious  that  the  very  first  note  of  an  historical  character  is  under 
the  27th  April  1585:  "  Nunciuin  de  adventu  Regis,"  but  in  the  following 
there  is  nothing  about  him. 

a  ii.  pp.  220-221  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  124). 


LIFE  AT  HVEEX.  141 

would  have  been  very  hard  for  the  king  to  obtain  the  con- 
sent of  the  Privy  Council,  although  its  principal  members 
were  at  that  time  very  friendly  disposed  to  Tycho ;  and  in 
particular  these  great  nobles  would  have  protested  against 
so  monstrous  a  proceeding  as  the  transmission  of  a  valuable 
fief 'to  the  children  of  a  "bondwoman."  Probably  the  act 
was  only  drawn  up  in  an  idle  moment,  while  the  writer  *  was 
thinking  about  the  chance  of  a  visit  from  the  king,  but  it 
shows  at  any  rate  that  Tycho's  wishes  went  in  the  direction 
indicated  by  the  draught,  and  that  he  felt  the  insecure 
position  in  which  all  his  creations  at  Hveen  were  placed. 
All  his  endowments  were  only  enjoyed  by  him  during  the 
king's  pleasure,  and  even  the  island  was  only  granted  for 
his  own  lifetime.  Were  then  the  beautiful  buildings  and 
wonderful  instruments  some  day  to  vanish  again,  as  the 
observatories  of  Alexandria,  Cairo,  Meragah,  Cordova,  and 
Niirnberg  had  vanished  ?  This  thought  was  doubtless  a 
painful  one  to  Tycho,  who,  the  more  he  studied  the  stars  in 
the  heavens  and  the  elements  in  the  earth,  could  not  but 
feel  that  life  was  short  and  art  was  long. 

While  his  royal  protector  lived,  Tycho  and  his  observa- 
tory were,  however,  safe  enough ;  that  much  he  knew,  not 
only  by  the  readiness  with  which  one  pecuniary  grant  after 
another  was  made  to  him,  but  also  by  many  more  private 
acts  of  kindness  and  good  feeling  which  emanated  from  the 
king,  and  of  which  we  have  ample  proofs  in  various  letters 
still  extant.  The  king  evidently  looked  on  Tycho  not  only 
as  a  great  man,  whose  achievements  conferred  honour  on 
the  country  and  on  the  monarch  who  supported  him,  but 
also  as  a  confidential  servant  to  whom  he  could  turn  for 
advice  on  matters  within  his  province,  and  whom  he  in 
return  delighted  to  honour  and  befriend.  All  the  existing 

1  According  to  Friis  (Elms  Olsen  Morsing,  Copenhagen,  1889,  p.  6),  the 
handwriting  seems  to  be  Vedel's. 


142  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

portraits  of  Tycho  Brahe  represent  him  as  wearing  round 
his  neck  a  double  gold  chain,  by  which  is  suspended  an 
elephant.  It  is  not  known  on  what  occasion  the  king  pre- 
sented him  with  this  mark  of  favour,  but  the  source  whence 
it  came  is  evident  from  the  king's  initials,  motto,  or  minia- 
ture, which  on  different  portraits  are  shown  on  the  elephant.1 
But  in  addition  to  this  more  ornamental  than  useful  present, 
the  king  frequently  bestowed  others  of  a  more  practical 
nature  on  Tycho.  Thus  he  sent  in  June  1581  an  order  to 
the  treasury  to  pay  the  cost  of  a  bell  which  had  just  been 
cast  at  Copenhagen  for  Tycho,  and  which  was  to  be  used  at 
Hveen.  Perhaps  it  was  this  bell  which  was  suspended  in 
the  cupola,  at  Uraniborg.  Again,  in  November  1583  the 
king  ordered  the  treasury  to  hand  over  to  Tycho  "  a  good 
new  ship  or  pilot-boat/'  with  all  necessary  tackle,  &c.3 

From  some  letters  of  the  king's  it  appears  that  Tycho 
entertained  plans  of  some  work  of  a  geographical  and  his- 
torical character,  for  in  September  1585  the  king  instructed 
his  librarian  to  lend  to  Tycho  Brahe  "  as  many  chartas 
cosmograpliicas  or  maps  as  are  to  be  found  in  our  library  at 
our  castle  of  Copenhagen,  and  which  are  of  our  kingdom, 
Denmark,  or  Norway,  or  any  other  of  our  dominions,  for 
information  in  some  undertaking  of  which  he  has  told  us."  4 
A  few  weeks  later  the  governor  of  Kronborg  Castle  was 
informed  that  whereas  Tycho  Brahe  had  stated  his  intention 
of  publishing  something  about  Danish  kings,  and  had  re- 

1  On  the  contemporary  painting,  which  was  destroyed  in  the  burning  of 
Frederiksborg  Castle  in  1859,  (of  which  there  is  a  copy  in  Friis's  book),  a  small 
miniature  is  seen  on  the  middle  of  the  elephant.     The  engraving,  which  occurs 
in  several  of  Tycho's  printed  works  (by  Geyn,  dated  1586),  shows  on  the 
elephant  the  letters  F.  S.  (Fredericus  Secundus),  while  the  portrait  of  1597 
(copied  in  this  book)  has  the  miniature,  and   underneath  the  elephant  the 
letters  M.  H.  Z.  G.  A.  (Meine  Hoffnung  zu  Gott  allein),  the  king's  motto. 

2  DansTce  Mayazin,  ii.  p.  217  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  118). 

3  Ibid.,  ii.  p.  219  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  121). 

4  Werlauff,    Historiske  Efterretninger  om   det   Store   Kongdicje  BiUiotlicTc. 
Copenhagen,  1844,  p.  9. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  143 

quested  that  lie  might  get  their  portraits  as  shown  on  the 
new  tapestries  at  Kronborg,  the  king's  painter  was  to  be 
ordered  to  copy  all  the  portraits  and  Danish  and  German 
rhymes  on  the  tapestries.1  Possibly  Tycho  may  have  wished 
to  find  some  work  for  his  newly-acquired  printing-office,  but 
if  he  really  intended  preparing  a  work  on  the  geography 
and  history  of  Denmark,  he  never  carried  out  this  plan.  It 
seems,  however,  more  probable  that  he  had  intended  to  assist 
his  friend  Vedel,  who  just  at  that  time  was  collecting  materials 
of  this  kind  in  connection  with  the  work  on  Danish  history 
on  which  he  was  engaged. 

In  return  for  all  the  kindness  shown  by  the  king,  Tycho 
from,  time  to  time  rendered  such  service  to  his  patron  as 
he  was  able  to  offer.  Thus  his  name  is  associated  with  the 
castle  of  Kronborg  by  a  couple  of  Latin  poems  with  which 
he  ornamented  this  favourite  building  of  the  king.  On 
one  of  the  gables  was  placed  a  lengthy  versified  inscription 
praying  for  a  long  life  and  success  to  the  builder  and  his 
work ;  on  the  dial  of  a  clock  in  one  of  the  towers  he  put 
these  lines  : 

"  Transvolat  hora  levis  neque  scit  fugitiva  reverti, 
Nostra  simul  properans  vita  caduca  fugit." 2 

Tycho  was  scarcely  settled  at  Uraniborg  before  the  king 
wished  to  consult  him.  In  September  1578  he  wrote  to 
the  astronomer  from  Skanderborg,  in  Jutland,  that  it  was 
said  by  the  common  people  about  that  place  that  a  new  star 

1  Visitors  to  Copenhagen  may  still  see  some  of  these  tapestries  in  the  upper 
storey  of  the  Museum  of  Northern  Antiquities.     They  were  made  between  1581 
and  1584  from  designs  by  Hans  Knieper  of  Antwerp,  whom  we  have  men- 
tioned above  as  having  painted  part  of  the  picture  on  Tycho's  mural  quadrant. 
The  tapestries  (which  originally  numbered  in)  represent  each  a  Danish  king 
in  full  figure,  with  the  name  and  a  short  account  of  his  reign  in  German 
rhymes  above. 

2  Pontoppidan's  Danske  Atlas,  torn.  ii.  (1764),  p.  272  et  seq.     A  poem  with 
which  Tycho  ornamented  one  of  the  clocks  in  the  study  at  Stjerneborg  is 
printed  in  Epist.  Astron.,  p.  245. 


144  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

had  again  appeared  in  the  heavens,  and  he  therefore  asked 
what  planet  or  other  star  might  have  been  mistaken  for  a 
new  star.1  Again,  in  December  1584  the  king  turned  to 
Tycho  for  help,  writing  that  he  was  under  the  impression 
that  he  had  returned  to  Tycho  a  compass  made  by  the 
latter,  as  there  was  something  wrong  with  it.  If  this  was 
the  case,  Tycho  was  to  send  back  the  compass  ;  but  if  not, 
he  was  to  make  two  new  ones  similar  to  the  old  one.2 

But  the  most  important  service  (according  to  the  ideas 
of  the  time)  which  Tycho  had  to  render  to  the  king  was 
by  astrological  predictions.  The  first  occasion  on  which  he 
was  ordered  to  show  his  skill  in  such  matters  was  probably 
in  1577,  when  the  king's  eldest  son,  Prince  Christian,  was 
born.  The  king  and  queen  had  been  married  since  1572, 
and  two  daughters  had  been  born  of  the  marriage,  when  at 
last  a  son  was  born  at  Frederiksborg  Castle  at  half-past  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  on  the  I2th  April  1577.  Popular 
tradition  has  preserved  several  strange  circumstances  in 
connection  with  the  birth  of  this  prince,  who  afterwards 
became  one  of  the  most  popular  kings  of  Denmark.  An 
old  peasant  announced  to  the  king  in  the  previous  autumn 
that  a  mermaid  had  appeared  to  him  and  commanded  him 
to  tell  the  king  that  the  queen  was  to  be  delivered  of  a 
son  who  should  be  counted  among  the  most  renowned 
princes  in  the  northern  countries.  The  infant  prince  was 
christened  on  Trinity  Sunday,  the  2nd  June,  at  Copenhagen, 
with  the  solemnities  and  festivities  usual  on  such  occasions, 
and  among  those  who  attended  the  ceremony  and  had  an 
opportunity  on  the  two  following  days  of  being  edified  by 
the  stories  of  the  virtuous  Susanna  and  David  and  Goliath, 
which  the  students  of  the  university  acted  in  the  courtyard 
of  the  castle,  was  Tycho  Brahe,  to  whom  doubtless  more 

1  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  204  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  93). 

2  Friis,  Tyge  Brahe,  p.  147. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  145 

than  one  eye  was  directed  when  hopes  and  wishes  were 
uttered  for  the  future  of  the  little  prince.  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.1  The  report  contains,  first,  a  dedi- 
cation to  the  young  prince,  after  which  follow  the  calculation 
of  the  requisite  astronomical  data  and  the  discussion  of  the 
astrological  signification  of  these,  all  written  in  Latin,  but 
followed  at  the  end  by  a  German  translation  of  the  astro- 
logical predictions,  probably  prepared  for  the  convenience 
of  the  queen.  The  dedication  alludes  shortly  to  the  origin 
and  importance  of  astrology,  and  uses  the  same  arguments 
as  we  have  met  with  in  Tycho's  oration  on  this  subject. 
The  positions  of  the  planets  are  next  calculated  for  the  date 
of  the  prince's  birth  by  the  Prutenic  tables  (the  successive 
steps  being  given  for  each  planet),  while  those  resulting  from 
the  Alpbonsine  tables  are  also  given,  but  merely  for  the 
sake  of  comparison.  Being  a  practical  astronomer,  the 
writer  was  not  content  with  this,  but  corrected  by  means 
of  his  own  observations  the  tabular  places  of  Jupiter,  Mars, 
Venus,  and  the  sun,  adopting  the  positions  of  the  other 
planets  as  given  in  the  Prutenic  tables  because  he  had  no 

1  "  Horoscopus  Sr.  Regis  Christian!  IVti.,  ad  Mandatum  Sr.  Regis  Fride- 
rici  Ildi.,  a  Tychone  Brahe  Ottonide  conscript,  in  Insula  Hvena  Cal.  Julij 
Ao.  1577."  The  two  copies  must  be  of  slightly  later  date,  as  the  prince  did 
not  become  king  till  1588.  The  dedication  is  to  "  Inclyto  et  Illustri  Infanti 
Christiano,  Opt.  et  Potentiss.  Principis  Friderici  Ildi.  Danise  et  Norvegiee 
Regis,  Domini  Clementissimi  Filio  primogenito." 

10 


146  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

recent  observations  of  them.  The  figura  natalis  is  not  of 
the  square  shape  generally  used  by  astrologers,1  but  circular, 
in  accordance  with  the  plan  already  followed  by  Tycho  in 
the  case  of  the  new  star. 

Before  giving  a  short  account  of  the  further  contents  of 
Tycho's  report  on  the  horoscope  of  Prince  Christian,  it  may 
not  be  useless  to  say  a  few  words  about  the  general  prin- 
ciples followed  by  astrologers  in  preparing  horoscopes  ;  re- 
ferring for  further  particulars  to  works  in  which  this  subject 
is  treated  in  detail.2 

The  point  of  the  heavens  of  greatest  importance  for  the 
fate  of  man  was  the  point  of  the  ecliptic  which  was  rising  at 
the  precise  moment  of  his  birth  (punctum  ascendens).  Tbe 
next  step  for  the  astrologer  was  to  see  how  the  planets 
and  the  signs  of  the  zodiac,  as  well  as  a  few  of  the  most 
important  fixed  stars,  were  at  the  same  moment  situated  in 
the  twelve  "  houses  "  into  which  the  heavens  were  divided.8 
The  first  house,  ascendens  or  horoscopiis,  was  considered  the 
foundation  of  fate,  and  if  Mercury  or  a  favourable  star  was 
found  in  this  house,  it  would  announce  a  happy  and  pros- 
perous life,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  an  unfavourable  planet 
(Saturn  or  Mars)  would  indicate  a  short  and  unhappy  life. 
The  second  house  (north  of  the  first  one)  .gave  information 
about  riches  and  possessions ;  it  was  an  unlucky  house,  be- 

1  See,  e.g.,  Wallenstein's  and  Kepler's  horoscopes  in  Kepler's  Opera  Omnia 
vol.  i.  p.  293,  and  vol.  v.  p.  476. 

2  See,  in  particular,  Origani  Novce  Ccdestium  Motuum  EpTiemerides.  Frank- 
furt, 1609,  vol.  i. ;  or  of  modern  books,  Max  Uhlemann,  Grundzuge  der  Astro- 
nomic und  Astrologie  der  Alien,  besonders  der  ^Egypter,  Leipzig,  1857  ;  Kepler's 
Opera  Omnia,  ed.  Frisch,  i.  p.  293  ;  Delambre,  Hist,  de  I'Astr.  Anc.,  ii.  p.  546  ; 
Moycn  Age,  p.  290  and  p.  496  et  scq. 

3  As  already  remarked,  different  astrologers  divided  the  heavens  in  different 
ways  (Delambre,  M.  A.,  p.  496  et  seq.),  by  dividing  the  zodiac  or  the  equator 
by  circles  through  their  poles,  or  (as  Tycho  did)  by  circles  through  the  north, 
south,  east,  and  west  points  of  the  horizon.     About  the  Babylonian  origin  of 
these  "  houses,"  see  Mr.  G.  Bertin's  lectures  on  Babylonian  Astronomy  in 
Nature,  vol.  xl.  p.  237. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  147 

cause  it  was  not  in  favourable  aspect  to  the  first  one,  and 
while  a  favourable  star  (Jupiter  or  Venus)  would  here  point 
to  great  riches,  a  questionable  character  like  Mercury  might 
make  a  thief  and  a  vagabond  of  the  new-born  infant. 
Similarly  the  other  houses  had  each  a  separate  significa- 
tion ;  the  third  refers  to  brothers,  friends,  or  journeys ;  the 
fourth,  or  most  northern  house  (imum  codum\  refers  to 
parents,  because  it  is  in  quadrature  with  the  first  house,  and 
therefore  closely  allied  to  it ;  the  fifth  (bona  fortuna)  tells 
about  children,  and  is  a  very  favourable  house,  because  it  is 
in  aspcctus  trigonus  with  the  first  one,  and  Venus  placed 
here  would  have  great  effect.  The  sixth  house  is  a  bad  one 
(mala  fortuna),  because  it  has  no  aspect  to  the  first,  and, 
perhaps  on  this  account,  is  allotted  to  servants,  health, 
women,  &c.  The  seventh  and  easternmost  house,  opposite 
the  first,  refers  to  marriage ;  the  eighth  is  a  bad  one  (no 
aspect)  and  refers  to  death,  and  here  only  the  moon  is 
favourable.  The  ninth  house  is  intimately  connected  with 
the  first  (aspectus  trigonus),  and  the  sun  is  here  of  particular 
value ;  this  house  deals  with  religion  and  journeys.  The 
tenth  house  (medium  codi)  gives  information  about  life, 
deeds,  country,  residence,  &c.  The  eleventh  (bonus  daemon), 
is  in  aspectus  scxtilis  with  the  first,  and  is  generally  speaking 
a  favourable  house ;  but  at  a  birth  in  the  night,  Saturn 
would  here  cause  cowardice  and  poverty,  and  for  a  person 
born  in  the  daytime,  Mars  would  here  induce  loss  of 
property.  The  twelfth  house  is,  like  the  second,  a  bad  one 
(malus  dcemori),  and  tells  of  enemies  and  illnesses.  Having 
drawn  all  these  "  houses "  on  a  diagram  and  inserted  the 
planets  in  them,  the  astrologer  proceeded  to  examine  the 
aspects  of  the  latter  (conjunction,  opposition,  quadrature, 
&C.1),  and  make  out  the  prognosticum  by  means  of  rules,  as 

1  Of   these    conjunction,   aspectus   tri'jonus  and   scxtilis   were    favourable, 
opposition  and  quadrature  unfavourable. 


148  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

to  which  much  difference  of  opinion  existed.  Some  of  the 
most  important  things,  however,  were  the  directions.  So- 
called  circles  of  position  were  drawn  through  the  north  and 
south  points  of  the  horizon  and  any  two  points  of  the  zodiac, 
called  the  significator  and  the  promissor  (the  sun,  moon, 
or  planets,  according  as  they  had  to  be  considered),  and 
the  arc  of  the  equator  included  between  these  circles  was 
their  directio.1  Thus  Tycho  computes  the  direction  of  the 
ascendant  to  the  planets  (remarking  that  an  error  of  four 
minutes  in  the  stated  time  of  birth  will  alter  these  direc- 
tions by  one  degree,  which  corresponds  to  an  error  of  one 
year  in  the  time  of  any  event  foretold  by  a  direction),  and 
also  the  directions  of  sun,  moon,  and  Yenus  to  the  other 
planets.  There  were  various  methods  of  "  directing "  or 
referring  the  effects  of  the  planets,  as  they  might  be  placed 
at  any  subsequent  time,  to  their  positions  at  the  moment 
of  birth.  Thus  Kepler  says  that  if  the  sun  at  this  moment 
be  in  a  certain  place  in  the  zodiac,  and  a  planet  afterwards 
comes  to  an  important  place,  it  should  be  computed  how 
many  days  after  the  birth  the  sun  took  to  reach  that  place, 
and  the  number  of  days  corresponds  to  the  number  of 
years  which  will  elapse  from  the  birth  before  the  power  of 
that  configuration  will  be  felt.2 

The  action  of  each  planet  was  very  different  according  to 
the  house  and  sign  of  the  zodiac  which  it  occupied.  The 
sun  and  moon  had  each  a  sign  (by  some  also  called  house) 
specially  belonging  to  it  (Leo  and  Cancer),  and  the  other 
planets  had  each  two,  and  a  planet  exercised  the  greatest 
power  when  it  was  in  its  own  house.  The  sun  and  moon 
are  the  most  powerful,  while  the  others  have  the  greater 
effect  the  nearer  they  are  to  one  of  those.  If  a  planet  is 

1  Directions  might  also  be  taken  along  the  ecliptic.     See,  e.g.,  some  remarks 
on  this  matter  in  a  letter  from  Tycho  Brahe  to  Ludolf  Riddershnsen  of 
Bremen,  of  April  1600,  in  Breve  og  Aktstykker  (1875),  P-  I21- 

2  Kepleri  Opera,  i.  p.  295. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  149 

not  in  its  own  sign,  but  in  that  of  another  planet,  the  two 
bodies  act  together,  either  with  increased  effect  if  they  are 
of  the  same  nature  (e.g.,  both  favourable),  or  neutralising 
each  other  more  or  less  if  of  opposite  nature. 

After  this  necessarily  very  crude  outline  of  the  principles 
of  judicial  astrology,  we  return  to  Tycho's  forecast  of  the 
fate  of  the  new-born  prince.  It  would,  however,  lead  ns 
too  far  if  we  were  to  follow  him  through  the  various  proofs 
which  he  adduces  for  his  statements,  and  we  can  only 
mention  some  of  the  more  important  ones.  The  years  ot 
infancy  will  pass  without  danger,  as  Venus  is  favourably 
placed  in  the  ninth  house,  and  though  in  the  second  year 
the  opposition  of  Mercury  to  the  ascending  point  indicates 
some  small  illness,  it  will  be  nothing  serious.  The  years  of 
the  prince's  life  are  then  enumerated  in  which  he  will  be 
afflicted  with  illness.  For  instance,  in  his  twelfth  year  the 
ascendant  will  be  in  quadrature  with  Saturn,  which  indicates 
some  serious  illness  "  arising  from  black  bile,"  but  it  will 
not  be  mortal.  In  his  twenty-ninth  year  he  will  have  to 
be  very  careful  both  about  his  health  and  his  dignity, 
because  the  sun  will  be  in  quadrature  with  Saturn  at  the 
same  time  as  Venus  and  the  latter  are  in  opposition.  A 
very  critical  time  will  be  about  the  fifty-sixth  year,  when 
the  sun  and  Mars  are  most  unfavourable,  and  even  Venus 
cannot  help,  as  she  is  in  the  eighth  house.  The  methods  of 
the  Arabians  do  not  show  any  life  beyond  fifty-six  years, 
and  Ptolemy's  rule  gives  the  same  result.  As  the  sun's  direc- 
tion to  its  setting  gives  41^  years,1  the  moon,  Venus,  and 
Jupiter  add  together  twenty-six  years,  and  Saturn  in  quad- 
rature subtracts  I  of,  so  that  the  result  is  about  56^  years. 
AB  there  are  so  many  concurring  signs,  the  prince  will 

1  This  is  easy  enough  to  understand.  On  the  1 2th  April  the  sun  would 
set  about  7h.  I7m.  or  2h.  47m.  after  the  prince's  birth.  As  four  minutes  or 
one  degree  corresponds  to  a  year,  2h.  47m.  is  not  quite  forty-two  years. 


150  TYCHO  BKAHE. 

hardly  survive  that  age,  unless  God,  who  alone  has  power 
over  human  destiny,  specially  prolongs  his  life  ;  and  if  the 
prince  gets  over  the  critical  period,  he  will  have  a  happy 
old  age.  Passing  to  the  question  as  to  what  planets  are  the 
ruling  ones,  it  appears  that  Yenus  is  ruler  of  the  nativity 
(dominus  geniturce),  being  close  to  the  tenth  house  or  sum- 
mum  cceli  ;  but  Mars  is  in  conjunction  with  Venus,  and  in 
the  sign  belonging  to  Mercury  (Gemini),  so  that  these  two 
also  have  great  influence.  Venus  will  make  him  pleasant, 
comely,  and  voluptuous,  fond  of  music  and  the  fine  arts ; 
Mars  makes  him  brave  and  warlike,  while  Mercury  adds 
cleverness  and  acuteness  to  his  other  faculties.  He  will  be 
of  a  sanguine  temperament,  because  nearly  all  the  planets 
which  indicate  the  temperament  are  in  sanguine  signs,  but 
at  the  same  time  he  will  not  be  without  some  saturnine 
gravity.  Venus,  as  the  ruler,  determines  his  character,  and 
as  Mars  is  joined  to  her,  the  prince  will  indulge  too  much 
in  sensual  enjoyment,  but  Mars  in  the  sign  of  Mercury  will 
make  him  generous  and  ambitious.  He  will  be  healthy 
and  not  subject  to  illness,  but  in  various  years  (which  are 
enumerated)  he  must  be  careful,  as  the  ascendant  will  be 
influenced  by  the  malevolent  rays  of  Saturn.  His  mental 
abilities  will  be  very  good,  because  Mercury  is  favourably 
situated ;  and  as  this  planet  is  in  a  good  aspect  with  Venus 
and  Mars,  the  prince  will  be  fond  of  warlike  occupations 
and  field  sports,  and  take  an  interest  in  surgery  and  other 
sciences.  He  will  have  good  luck  in  his  undertakings,  as 
Saturn  is  in  the  fourth  house  and  in  his  own  sign  of  Capri- 
corn, while  Mercury  and  Mars  occupy  each  other's  signs ; 
but  as  Jupiter  is  badly  placed,  the  prince  will  be  less  suc- 
cessful in  ecclesiastical  matters.1  As  regards  honours  and 


1  Probably  because  Jupiter  had  an  oracle  at  Dodona,  and  therefore  was  of 
a  clerical  turn  of  mind.  Here  he  was  in  the  twelfth  house  and  in  the  sign  of 
Mercury  (Virgo),  both  circumstances  bad. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  151 

dignities,  it  is  an  excellent  circumstance  that  the  most  bril- 
liant of  all  stars,  Alhabor,  in  the  mouth  of  Sirius,  is  in  the 
corner  of  medium  cceli,  and  there  are  also  other  fixed  stars 
of  importance  in  favourable  positions,  such  as  the  Twins  in 
the  tenth  house,  Spica  in  the  first,  with  Corona  borealis  a 
little  above,  and  the  Southern  Crown  exactly  in  the  corner 
of  the  fourth  house.  Among  the  planets,  the  sun  has  most 
influence  on  honours  and  dignities  and  is  well  placed,  and 
only  Saturn  in  opposition  to  medium  cceli  shows  that  the 
prince  will  meet  with  some  serious  adversities,  which,  how- 
ever, will  be  overcome  as  everything  else  is  so  favourable. 
The  years  are  mentioned  in  which  he  will  be  specially 
fortunate  or  unfortunate ;  and  here  again  it  appears  that 
after  his  fifty-fifth  year,  "  when  the  direction  of  the  sun 
overtakes  Mars,"  there  will  be  serious  adversities  awaiting 
him.  As  to  riches,  it  is  especially  of  importance  that  pars 
fortunes l  is  well  situated  in  the  eleventh  house,  and  the 
sun  is  in  the  seventh,  and  the  prince  will  therefore  become 
rich  ;  but  as  the  sign  of  Mars  (Scorpio)  is  in  the  second  house 
(domus  divitiarum),  his  riches  will  principally  be  acquired 
by  war.  At  great  length  it  is  set  forth  in  which  years  of 
his  life  the  position  of  pars  fortunes  with  regard  to  the 
planets  portends  the  acquisition  of  riches.  The  prospects 
with  regard  to  marriage  are  not  altogether  favourable,  as 
the  moon  is  in  the  sixth  house,  and  the  position  of  Venus 
with  regard  to  Mars  and  Saturn  signifies  some  adversity 
in  matrimony  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  Mercury  is  in  the 
seventh  house  (domus  conjugii\  which  promises  some  hap- 
piness. Tycho  here  adds  the  remark,  that  in  his  opinion 
the  prince  will  be  more  inclined  to  other  amours  than  to 
matrimony  (which  turned  out  true  enough).  The  time  when 
he  will  be  inclined  to  marry  will  be  about  the  age  of  twenty 

1  Pars  fortunes,  is  the  difference  of  longitude  between  sun  and  moon  added 
to  the  longitude  of  the  punctum  ascendens ;  it  is  indicated  by  the  sign  ©. 


152  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

or  twenty-one,  when  Venus  comes  in  sextile  aspect  with 
Jupiter  about  the  medium  cceli,  or  in  his  thirty-fourth  or 
thirty-fifth  year,  or,  if  not  married  before,  in  his  forty-seventh 
year,  when  the  moon  reaches  the  seventh  house.  But  all 
this  depends  more  on  man's  free  will  than  on  the  stars.  It 
does  not  seem  that  he  will  have  many  children,  as  Saturn 
is  master  of  the  fifth  house,  and  is  in  a  sterile  sign,  but  if 
he  has  any,  they  will  be  healthy  and  long-lived.  His  friends 
will  be  "  solar  people,"  such  as  kings  and  princes,  because 
the  sun  is  ruler  of  the  eleventh  house,  where  pars  fortune 
is  placed.  His  enemies  will  be  "jovial  and  mercurial 
people,"  because  Jupiter  is  unluckily  placed  in  the  twelfth 
house,  and  Mercury  ruling  the  twelfth  is  in  the  seventh,  but 
the  latter  planet  assumes  the  nature  of  Mars,  which  is  in  its 
sign.  His  enemies  will,  therefore,  be  ecclesiastics  and  war- 
riors, but  he  will  defeat  them,  because  Venus,  the  ruling 
planet,  is  much  higher  in  the  sky  than  Mars,  and  is  in  the 
apogee  of  its  excentric ;  but  he  must  beware  of  captivity  or 
exile  on  account  of  the  position  of  Mercury,  which  is  also 
injured  by  being  in  quadrature  with  Saturn.  There  is 
nothing  to  indicate  a  violent  death,  and  the  prince  will  die 
from  natural  causes,  but  Venus  shows  that  he  will  cause  his 
own  death  by  immoderate  sensuality. 

Finally,  Tycho  ends  this  dissertation  by  saying  that  all 
this  is  not  irrevocably  settled,  but  may  be  modified  by  many 
causes.  God  is,  besides,  the  origin  of  all,  and  the  giver  of 
life  and  all  good  things,  and  He  disposes  freely  of  everything 
according  to  His  own  judgment.  He  alone  is  therefore  to 
be  implored  that  He  may  rule  our  life,  grant  us  prosperity, 
and  avert  evil.1 

The  reader  will  pardon  this  long  digression,  but  judicial 
astrology  has  played  so  important  a  part  in  the  history  of 

1  "  Ille  potest  Solis  currus  inhibere  volantes, 
Ille  augere  potest,  tollere  fata  potest." 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  153 

the  world,  and  been  so  beneficial  in  furthering  the  study  of 
astronomy,  that  it  cannot  be  left  out  of  consideration  if  we 
wish  to  get  a  full  view  of  the  scientific  life  and  doings  of 
former  ages.  Having  devoted  so  much  space  to  the  horo- 
scope of  the  first-born  son  of  the  king,  we  shall  not  review 
those  of  the  younger  sons,  which  Tycho  was  afterwards  called 
on  to  prepare,  although  in  these  cases  the  originals  (and  not 
merely  copies)  have  been  preserved  in  the  Royal  Library  at 
Copenhagen.  The  second  son,  Prince  Ulrich,  was  born  on 
the  3Oth  December  1578,  and  Tycho  worked  out  his 
Genethliaca  by  royal  command,  and  presented  it  in  May 
1579.  It  is  a  handsome  volume  in  small  4to,  bound  in 
pale  green  velvet  with  gilt  edges,  containing  about  300 
pages,  all  written  in  Tycho  Brahe's  own  hand.  The  arrange- 
ment of  the  contents  is  like  that  of  the  previous  prognosti- 
cation, the  results  being,  as  before,  given  first  in  Latin  and 
afterwards  in  German.  Mars  is  the  ruler,  as  he  is  in  his 
own  sign,  and  in  every  way  most  favourably  situated,  but 
the  sun  is  dominus  ascendentis,  and  the  solar  eclipse  of  the 
2  1st  July  1590  in  the  eighth  degree  of  Leo,  and  "  in  the 
very  degree  of  the  ascendant,"  will  be  of  great  importance, 
and  may  injure  the  prince.  It  is  again  repeatedly  pointed 
out  how  uncertain  the  whole  thing  is.1  In  1583  the  king's 
third  and  last  son,  Hans,  was  born  on  the  26th  July,  and 
Tycho  had  again  to  attack  the  twelve  houses,  aspects,  &c. 
He  sent  in  a  volume  like  the  last  one,  bound  in  the  same 
manner,  and  containing  about  the  same  number  of  pages, 
but  the  Latin  part  is  neatly  written  by  one  of  Tycho's 
assistants,  and  only  the  German  part  by  himself.  To  show 
his  readiness  to  please  the  king,  he  has,  in  addition  to  the 
circular  figure,  divided  into  "  houses  "  in  the  same  way  as  on 
the  two  previous  occasions,  drawn  two  square  figures,  divided 

1  Round  the  four  sides  of  the  central  part  of  the  figura,  natalis  Tycho  has 
written  :  "  Potest — fata  augere — Deus — tollere  fata." 


154  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

by  distributing  the  Louses  evenly  round  the  equator  and 
round  the  ecliptic.  In  the  preface  he  talks  about  the  possi- 
bility of  averting  the  inclinations  of  the  stars  in  the  same 
strain  as  before,  and  throughout  the  whole  dissertation  he 
seems  more  doubtful  about  the  results  to  be  expected  than 
he  was  in  1577.  He  has  again  corrected  the  places  of 
the  planets  by  his  own  observations.  Mercury  is  here  the 
strongest  planet,  free  from  the  rays  of  the  sun,  though 
somewhat  weakened  by  being  retrograde  and  moving  slowly, 
bat  particularly  by  being  in  the  sixth  house.  The  prince 
seems  only  to  have  "  mediocre "  luck  in  store,  but  Tycho 
remarks  that  everybody  shapes  his  own  fortune.1 

That  Tycho  did  not  take  much  interest  in  nor  attach  any 
importance  to  these  astrological  prognostications  will  be 
evident  to  anybody  who  has  read  the  foregoing  pages. 
Whatever  he  had  thought  about  these  matters  in  his  youth, 
the  great  work  of  his  life  now  stood  so  clearly  before  him, 
that  he  did  not  care  to  waste  his  time  on  work  of  so  very 
doubtful  value  as  astrological  forecasts.2  We  possess  even 
stronger  testimony  to  this  effect  than  any  we  have  yet 
quoted,  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  on  the  7th  December 
1587  to  Heinrich  von  Below,  a  nobleman  from  Mecklenburg, 
who  in  1579,  through  the  queen's  influence,  had  received 
an  estate  in  Jutland  in  fief,  and  who  was  married  to  a  first 
cousin  of  Tycho's.3  Duke  Ulrich  of  Mecklenburg-Giistrow, 

1  "  Quisque  suae  fortunes  faber  :  tarnen  non  est  dubium  astra  in  his  plurinmm 
posse,  ut  non  imrnerito  dixerit  Poeta  ille  : 

'  Esse  igitur  sapiens  et  felix  nemo  potest  qui 
Nascitur  adverse  coelo  stellisque  sinistris.'  " 

2  All  the  same,  he  was  naturally  looked  upon  by  the  common  people  in 
Denmark  as  nothing  but  an  astrologer,  and  thirty-two  unlucky  days  are 
attributed  to  his  authority  (Hofman,  Portraits  historiques  dcs  hommes  illustrcs 
de  Denmark,  vi.  Partie,  p.  23),  though  nothing  could  be  more  opposed  to  the 
principles  of  astrology  than  the  fixing  upon  cei-tain  dates  as  lucky  or  unlucky. 

3  C.  G.  F.  Lisch,  Tycho  Brahe  und  seine  Verhaltnisse  zu  MeLlenburg,  in 
the    Jahrbuclier    des    Vereins   fur    JMcklenburgische    Geschichte,    vol.    xxxiv. 
(1869).     I  quote  from  a  reprint,  20  pp.  8vo.     See  also  Note  C. 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  155 

the  queen's  father,  had  procured  two  prognostica  for  the 
year  1588,  the  one  by  Tobias  Moller,  the  other  by  Andreas 
Eosa ;  and  as  they  were  so  far  from  agreeing,  that  one  let 
the  year  be  governed  by  the  two  beneficent  planets,  while  the 
other  put  it  under  the  dominion  of  the  two  malevolent  ones, 
the  Duke  requested  Below  to  inquire  from  his  kinsman  Brahe 
which  of  them  was  correct.  In  his  answer  Tycho  remarked  that 
he  did  not  care  to  mix  in  astrological  matters,  but  for  some 
years  had  endeavoured  "  to  put  astronomy  into  proper  order," 
because  only  in  this  way,  by  reliable  instruments  and  mathe- 
matical methods  and  certainty,  could  the  truth  be  arrived 
at.  He  shows  that  the  two  prognostics  differ  so  much 
because  one  is  built  on  the  Prutenic,  the  other  on  the 
Alphonsine  tables,  which  differ  nineteen  hours  as  to  the  time 
of  the  vernal  equinox.  It  is  therefore  not  surprising  that 
the  two  astrologers  find  different  rulers  for  the  year,  as 
these  are  found  from  the  figura  cosli  for  the  time  of  vernal 
equinox.  These  astrological  predictions  are  like  a  cothurnus, 
which  may  be  put  on  any  foot,  large  or  small ;  and  when  he 
every  year  sends  his  Majesty  a  prognosticon,  he  only  does 
it  by  the  king's  express  command,  although  he  does  not 
like  to  have  anything  to  do  with  such  doubtful  predictions, 
in  which  one  cannot  come  to  the  truth,  as  in  geometry  and 
arithmetic,  on  which  astronomy  is  founded,  by  means  ot 
diligent  observations.  As  to  the  two  prognostications  about 
which  the  Duke  inquires,  neither  the  Prutenic  nor  the 
Alphonsine  tables  are  correct,  as  he  had  found  by  his  own 
observations,  and  he  had  as  usual  sent  the  king  a  prog- 
nostic for  the  coming  year,  but  had  not  kept  a  copy  of  it, 
and  if  the  Duke  wanted  to  see  it,  he  might  apply  to  the 
king  about  it. 

This  letter  shows  with  all  desirable  distinctness  what 
Tycho  thought  of  judicial  astrology,  with  which  philosophical 
speculations  on  the  unity  of  the  kosmos  and  the  analogy 


156  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

between  its  celestial  and  terrestrial  parts  must  by  no  means 
be  confounded.  He  was  not,  like  Kepler,  obliged  to  waste 
Ids  time  on  work  of  that  kind  in  order  to  get  daily  bread 
for  himself  and  his  family ;  but  he  was  highly  paid,  and 
his  scientific  researches  were  most  liberally  supported  by 
the  king,  who  could  not  be  expected  to  appreciate  their 
real  value  ;  and  it  was  only  natural  that  he  should  annually 
send  the  king  an  offering  of  a  kind  that  the  latter  could 
understand,  and  which  by  the  king  was  considered  an 
acceptable  gift.  Tycho  showed  clearly  enough  in  the  horo- 
scopes which  he  drew  up  for  the  royal  children  that  he 
was  inclined  to  agree  with  Horace  when  he  said — 

**  Tu  lie  qusesieris,  scire  nefas,  quern  mihi,  quern  tibi 
Finem  di  dederint,  Leuconoe,  nee  Babylonios 
Tentaris  numeros." 

None  of  the  almanacs  which  Tycho  prepared  for  the  king 
have  been  preserved,  but  a  letter  from  the  king  is  extant, 
dated  24th  September  1587,  in  which  he  reminded  Tycho 
about  sending  him  the  usual  almanac  for  the  ensuing  year 
by  the  bearer  of  the  letter,  or,  if  it  was  not  ready,  as  soon  as 
possible.1 

Tycho  doubtless  obeyed  the  king's  command,  and  it 
turned  out  to  be  the  last  time  he  had  to  do  so.  King 
Frederick  II.  died  on  the  4th  April  I  588,  in  his  fifty- fourth 
year,  to  the  great  regret  of  Tycho,  who  owed  him  so  much, 
as  well  as  of  the  country  at  large.  His  character  was  open  and 
chivalrous,  and  he  was  sincerely  religious,  while  he  at  the 
same  time  tried  to  keep  himself  free  from  the  intolerance 
prevailing  everywhere  in  those  days.  He  was  less  free 
from  another  weakness  of  his  time,  and,  with  characteristic 
frankness,  Vedel  said  in  a  funeral  oration,  that  "  if  His 
Grace  could  have  kept  from  that  injurious  drink  which  is 
much  too  prevalent  all  over  the  world  among  princes  and 

1  Danske  Magazln,  ii.  p.  247  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  171). 


LIFE  AT  HVEEN.  157 

nobles  and  common  people,  then  it  would  seem  to  human 
eyes  and  understanding  that  he  might  have  lived  for  many 
years  to  come."  But  if  he  was  not  better  than  his  con- 
temporaries in  this  respect,  he  was  at  any  rate  far  superior 
to  most  of  them  by  honouring  and  protecting  the  peaceful 
student  of  science,  and  in  the  history  of  astronomy  his  name 
will  always  be  gratefully  remembered  as  long  as  that  of 
Tycho  Brahe  continues  to  be  reckoned  among  the  heroes 
of  science. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

TYCHO'S  BOOK  ON  THE  COMET  OF  1577,  AND  HIS 
SYSTEM  OF  THE   WORLD. 

THE  year  1588  is  one  of  great  importance  in  the  life  of 
Tycho  Brahe,  not  only  because  his  firm  friend  and  bene- 
factor died  in  that  year,  but  also  because  he  then  published 
a  volume  containing  some  of  the  results  of  his  work  at 
Uraniborg,  and  embodying  his  views  on  the  construction 
of  the  universe.  The  subject  specially  dealt  with  in  this 
volume  was  the  great  comet  of  1577?  ^he>  most  conspicuous 
of  the  seven  comets  observed  in  his  time. 

This  comet  was  first  noticed  by  Tycho  on  the  1 3th 
November  1577,  but  it  had  already  been  seen  in  Peru 
on  the  1st,  and  in  London  on  the  2nd  November.1  On 
the  evening  of  the  I  3th,  a  little  before  sunset,  Tycho  was 
engaged  at  one  of  his  fishponds,  trying  to  catch  some  fish 
for  supper,  when  he  remarked  a  very  brilliant  star  in  the 
west,  which  he  would  have  taken  for  Venus  if  he  had  not 

1  According  to  Tycho,  it  had  been  seen  by  mariners  on  the  gth.  In  a  copy 
of  Cometce  anno  humanitatis  1577  a  10  vmibris  .  .  .  adparcntis  descriptio, 
by  Bart.  Scultetus  (Gorlicii,  1578),  which  I  picked  up  at  Copenhagen  some 
years  ago,  and  which  now  belongs  to  the  Royal  Observatory,  Edinburgh, 
there  is  written  in  a  neat  hand  the  following  on  the  last  blank  page  : — 
"  Ego  Londini  in  Anglia  cometam  hoc  libro  descriptum,  et  2  die  Nouembris 
visum,  tertio  obseruare  coepi  ut  potui  radio  nautico  necdum  sesquipedali,  ita 
ut  triangulum  faceret  cometa  cum  stellis  subnotatis,  caudse  arcu  cornprehen- 
clente  gradus  6m.  30  et  amplius."  [Then  follow  distance  measures  on  Novem- 
ber 3,  9,  13,  15,  24,  and  25,  but  without  indication  of  time.]  "Tanto  lumine 
corruscabat  hie  cometes  primo  meo  aspectu  idque  per  nubes  obuersantes,  ut 
antequam  integram  ejus  formam  vidissem,  Lunam  esse  suspicarer,  quam  tamen 
eo  turn  loci  et  temporis  lucere  non  potuisse  statim,  idque  in  tanto  maiore 
adrniratione,  colligebam." 

158 


THE  COMET  OF  1577.  159 

known  that  this  planet  was  at  that  time  west  of  the  sun. 
Soon  after  sunset  a  splendid  tail,  22°  in  length,  revealed 
itself,  and  showed  that  a  new  comet  had  appeared.  It  was 
situated  just  above  the  head  of  Sagittarius,  with  the  slightly 
curved  tail  pointing  towards  the  horns  of  Capricornus,  and 
it  moved  towards  Pegasus,  in  which  constellation  it  was 
last  seen  on  the  26th  January  1578.  During  the  time  it 
was  visible  Tycho  observed  it  diligently,  measuring  with  a 
radius  and  a  sextant  the  distance  of  the  head  from  various 
fixed  stars,  and  occasionally  also  with  a  quadrant  furnished 
with  an  azimuth  circle  (four  feet  in  diameter),  the  altitude 
and  azimuth  of  the  comet.  The  sextant,  which  afterwards 
was  placed  in  the  large  northern  observing  room  at  Urani- 
borg,1  was  constructed  on  the  same  principle  as  the  one 
which  Tycho  had  made  at  Augsburg  in  1569,  and  was 
mounted  on  a  convenient  stand,  which  enabled  the  observer 
to  place  it  in  any  plane  he  liked ;  the  arms  were  about  four 
feet  long.  The  quadrant  was  about  32  inches  in  semi- 
diameter,  and  the  arc  was  graduated  both  by  the  transver- 
sals nearly  always  employed  by  Tycho,  and  by  the  concentric 
circles  on  the  plan  proposed  by  Nunez  ;  and  on  the  back  of 
the  quadrant  was  a  table,  by  means  of  which  the  readings 
of  the  latter  could  be  converted  into  minutes  without  cal- 
culation.2 When  observing  this  comet,  Tycho  had  not  yet 
at  his  disposal  as  many  instruments  and  observers  as  in  after 
years,  nor  had  he  as  yet  perceived  the  necessity  of  accurate 
daily  time  determinations  by  observing  altitudes  of  stars, 
but  merely  corrected  his  clocks  by  sunset.3  The  observa- 

1  Figured  in  De  Mundi  ^Eth.  Rec.  Phenom.,  p.  460,  and  Astr.  Inst.  Mech., 
ol.  D.  6  verso. 

2  The  quadrant  is  figured  in  De  Mundi  ^Eih.  Rec.  Phen.,  p.  463,  and  Mech., 
fol.  A.  2. 

3  The  orbit  of  the    comet  of    1577  was  computed  from  Tycho's  sextant 
observations  by  F.  Woldstedt,  "De  Gradu  Prsecisionis  Positionum  Cometae 
Anni  1577  a  celeberrimo  T.  B.  .  .  .  determinatarum  et  de  fide  elementorum 
orbitae,"  &c.     Helsingsfors,  1844,  J5  PP-  4to- 


160  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

tions  of  this  comet  cannot  therefore  compare  in  accuracy  with 
his  later  ones,  but  still  they  were  immeasurably  superior  to 
those  made  by  other  observers,  and  they  demonstrated  most 
decisively  that  the  comet  had  no  perceptible  parallax,  and 
was  consequently  very  far  above  the  "  elementary  sphere  "  to 
which  the  Aristotelean  philosophy  had  consigned  all  comets 
as  mere  atmospherical  phenomena.  By  showing  that  the 
star  of  1572  was  situated  among  the  stars,  Tycho  had 
already  dealt  the  Aristoteleans  a  heavy  blow,  as  it  was  now 
clear  that  new  bodies  could  appear  in  the  sethereal  regions. 
But  still  that  star  was  not  a  comet,  and  Tycho,  who  had 
formerly  believed  in  the  atmospherical  origin  of  comets, 
now  took  the  opportunity  of  testing  this  matter,  and  found 
that  the  comet  had  no  appreciable  daily  parallax.  Thougli 
he  was  not  the  only  observer  who  placed  the  comet  beyond 
the  moon,  his  observations  were  known  by  his  contempo- 
raries to  be  of  very  superior  accuracy,  and  his  authority 
was  so  great  that  this  question  was  decided  once  for 
all.1 

Before  proceeding  to  pass  in  review  the  book  which 
Tycho  prepared  on  this  comet,  we  shall  shortly  allude  to 
the  other  comets  observed  at  Hveen.  On  the  loth  October 
1580  Tycho  found  a  comet  in  the  constellation  Pisces.  It 
was  observed  at  Hveen  till  the  25th  November,  and  again 
after  the  perihelium  passage  on  the  morning  of  the  1 3th 
December.  The  observations  are  more  numerous  and  better 
than  those  of  the  previous  comet,  and  time  determinations 
with  a  quadrant  were  made  nearly  every  night,  while 
there  are  very  few  quadrant  observations  of  the  comet. 
Moestlin  had  seen  it  already  on  the  2nd  October,  and  both 
he  and  Hagecius  observed  it  assiduously,  but  their  observa- 

1  Except  that  Scipione  Chiaramonte  and  an  obscure  Scotchman,  Craig, 
vainly  endeavoured  to  deduce  the  very  opposite  result  from  Tycho's  observa- 
tions, but  they  were  easily  reduced  in_absurdum. 


THE  COMET  OF  15,77.  161 

tions  are  worthless  compared  with  Tycho's.1  The  next 
comet  was  visible  in  May  1582,  and  was  observed  by  Tycho 
on  three  nights  only,  the  I  2th,  1 7th,  and  1 8th,  after  which 
date  the  strong  twilight  prevented  further  observations ; 
but  in  Germany  it  was  still  seen  on  the  23rd,  and  in  China 
it  was  seen  for  twenty  days  after  the  2Oth  May.2  Of 
greater  interest  are  the  observations  of  the  comet  of  1585, 
which  appeared  at  a  time  when  Tycho's  collection  of  instru- 
ments was  complete,  and  when  he  was  surrounded  by  a 
staff  of  assistants.  The  comet  was  first  seen  by  Tycho  on 
the  I  8th  October  after  a  week  of  cloudy  weather,  but  at 
Cassel  it  had  already  been  seen  on  the  8th  (st.  v.).3  Tycho 
compares  its  appearance  when  it  was  first  seen  with  the 
cluster  (or  nebula,  as  it  was  then  called)  Prgesepe  Cancri, 
without  any  tail.  The  observations  are  very  numerous,  and 
were  made  partly  with  a  sextant,  partly  with  the  large 
armillas  at  Stjerneborg,  with  which  newly- acquired  instru- 
ment the  declinations  of  the  comet  and  the  difference  of 
right  ascension  with  various  bright  stars  were  observed  at 
short  intervals  on  every  clear  night  up  to  the  I2th  .Novem- 
ber. The  excellence  of  the  observations  and  the  care  with 
which  the  instruments  were  treated  are  fully  demonstrated 
by  the  most  valuable  memoir  on  this  comet  by  C.  A.  F. 
Peters.4  We  have  already  mentioned  that  this  comet  gave 
rise  to  the  correspondence  between  Tycho  and  the  Land- 
grave and  Eothmann.  The  next  comet  appeared  in  1590, 

1  The  orbit  was  determined  by  Schjellerup  from  a  complete  discussion  of 
Tycho's  sextant  observations  (Det  kgl.  danske  VidensJcabernes  Selskabs  Skrifter, 
math.  Af deling,  5te  Raekke,  4de  Bind,  1854). 

2  The  orbit  is  very  uncertain.     D'Arrest,  Astr.  Nachr.,  xxxviii.  p.  35. 

3  Tycho  returned  home  from  Copenhagen  on  October  iSth.     Elias  Olsen 
Horsing  had  seen  it  on  the  loth,  as  he  wrote  in  the  meteorological  diary, 
"  Stella  in  ijnotam  vidi."    See  also  Introduction  to  the  Observations. 

4  Astr.  Nachr.,  vol.  xxix.     The  observations  had  been  published  by  Schu- 
macher in  1845  (Observationes  cometce  anni  1585  Uraniburgi  habitaz  a  Tyclione 
Brake.     Altona,  4to). 

II 


162  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

and  was  observed  from  the  2  3rd  February  to  the  6th  March 
inclusive,  the  decimation  with  the  armillge,  altitudes  and 
azimuths  with  a  quadrant,  and  distances  with  a  sextant. 
The  time  determinations  are  numerous.1  In  July  and 
August  1593  a  comet  appeared  near  the  northern  horizon. 
It  was  not  observed  at  Hveen,  but  only  by  a  former  pupil  of 
Tycho's,  Christen  Hansen,  from  Eibe  in  Jutland,  who  at 
that  time  was  staying  at  Zerbst  in  Anhalt.  He  had  only 
a  radius  with  him,  and  his  observations  were  therefore  not 
better  than  those  made  by  the  generality  of  observers  in 
those  days.2  The  last  comet  observed  at  Hveen  was  that 
of  1596,  which  was  first  seen  by  Tycho  at  Copenhagen 
on  the  1 4th  July,  south  of  the  Great  Bear.  It  was  not 
properly  observed  till  after  his  return  home  on  the  I  7th, 
and  then  only  on  three  nights.  It  was  last  seen  on  the 
27th  July.3 

The  star  of  1572  and  the  comets  observed  at  Hveen  had 
cleared  the  way  for  the  restoration  of  astronomy  by  helping 
to  destroy  old  prejudices,  and  Tycho  therefore  resolved  to 
write  a  great  work  on  these  recent  phenomena  which  should 
embody  all  results  of  his  observations  in  any  way  bearing 
on  them.  The  first  volume  he  devoted  to  the  new  star,  but 
as  the  corrected  star  places  which  were  necessary  for  the 
reduction  of  the  observations  of  1572—73  involved  researches 
on  the  motion  of  the  sun,  on  refraction,  precession,  &c.,  the 
volume  gradually  assumed  greater  proportions  than  was  origi- 
nally contemplated,  and  was  never  quite  finished  in  Tycho' s 

1  Orbit  computed  by  Hind,  Astr.  Nadir.,  xxv.  p.  in. 

2  Orbit  by  Lacaille,  in  Pingre's  Cometographie,  i.  p.  560. 

3  Orbits  by  Hind  and  Valz,  Astr.  Nadir.,  xxiii.  pp.  229  and  383  ;  the  ob- 
servations are  published  ibid.,  p.  371  et  seq.     Pingre  gives  the  results  of  most 
of  the  observations  of  the  seven  comets  from  a  copy  of  them  which  is  still 
preserved  at  the  Paris  Observatory.     A  complete  edition  of  all  the  observa- 
tions was  published  in  1867  at  Copenhagen,  under  the  supervision  of  D'Arrest, 
Tychonis  Brake  Dani  Observationes  Septem  Cometarum.    Nunc  primum  edidit 
F.  R.  Friis.     4to. 


THE  COMET  OF  1577.  163 

lifetime.  On  account  of  the  wider  scope  ol  its  contents  lie 
gave  it  the  title  Astronomies  Instauratce  Progymnasmata,  or 
Introduction  to  the  New  Astronomy,  a  title  which  marks  the 
work  as  paving  the  way  for  the  new  planetary  theory  and 
tables  which  Tycho  had  hoped  to  prepare,  but  which  it  fell 
to  Kepler's  lot  to  work  out  in  a  very  different  manner  from 
that  contemplated  by  Tycho.  The  second  volume  was 
devoted  to  the  comet  of  15  77,  and  as  the  subject  did  not 
lead  to  the  introduction  of  extraneous  matter,  this  volume 
was  finished  long  before  the  first  one.  The  third  volume 
was  in  a  similar  manner  to  treat  of  the  comets  of  I  580  and 
following  years,  but  it  was  never  published,  nor  even  written, 
though  a  great  deal  of  material  about  the  comet  of  1585 
was  put  together  and  first  published  in  1845  w^h  the 
observations  of  this  comet.1 

The  two  volumes  about  the  new  star  and  the  comet  of 
1577  were  printed  in  Tycho's  own  printing-office  at  Urani- 
borg,  and  after  some  delay  caused  by  want  of  paper,  the 
second  volume  was  completed  in  I5SS.2  The  title  is 
"  Tychonis  Brahe  Dani,  De  Mundi  setherei  recentioribus 
phasnomenis  Liber  secundus,  qui  est  de  illustri  stella  cau- 
data  ab  elapso  fere  triente  Nouembris  anno  MDLXXVII  usque 
in  finem  Januarii  sequentis  conspecta.  Vraniburgi  cum 
Privilegio."  The  book  is  in  demy  4to,  465  pp.,  and  the 

1  The  third  volume  is  alluded  to  in  several  places  in  Tycho's  writings,  e.g. 
Proyym.,  i.  pp.  513  and  714  ;  Epist.,  pp.  12,  20,  104,  &c. 

2  In  the  above-mentioned  letter  to  Below,  Tycho  wrote  in  December  1587 
that  he  should  soon  be  in  want  of  paper  for  a  book  which  was  being  printed 
in  his  office,  and  had  applied  to  the  managers  of  two  paper-mills  in  Mecklen- 
burg without  getting   an   answer.     He   therefore   asked  Below  to  write  to 
the  managers  of  these  mills,  and  to  ask  some  friend  at  the  Duke's  court  to 
intercede  for  him  ;  that  he  would  willingly  pay  for  the  paper,  which  might  be 
sent  through  his  friend  Brucseus  at  Rostock.     Below  wrote  at  once  (28th 
December  1587)  to  Duke  Ulrich,  and  asked  him  to  do  Tycho  this  favour,  "  der 
loblichen  Kunst  der  Astronomic  zur  Beforderung  "  (Lisch,  1.  c.,  p.  6).     To 
avoid  a  repetition  of  this  inconvenience  the  paper-mill  at  Hveen  was  built  a 
few  years  later. 


164  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

colophon  is  the  vignette  "  Svspiciendo  Despicio,"  with  the 
words  underneath  "  Uranibvrgi  In  Insula  Hellespont!  Danici 
Hvenna  imprimebat  Authoris  Typographus  Christophorus 
Weida.  Anno  Domini  MDLXXXVIII." 

The  book  is  divided  into  ten  chapters.  The  first  contains 
most  of  the  observations  of  the  comet ;  the  second  deduces 
new  positions  for  the  twelve  fixed  stars  from  which  the  dis- 
tance of  the  comet  had  been  measured.  Tycho  mentions 
that  while  the  comet  was  visible  he  had  not  yet  any  armillge, 
and  he  therefore  carefully  placed  a  quadrant  in  the  meridian, 
and  thus  determined  the  decimation  of  the  star,  and  by  the 
time  of  transit  (through  the  medium  of  the  moon  and  the 
tabular  place  of  the  sun)  also  the  right  ascension.  He  does 
not  give  any  particulars  about  the  observations  and  method, 
but  he  goes  through  the  computations  of  the  latitude  and 
longitude  of  each  star  from  the  right  ascension,  declination 
and  the  point  of  the  ecliptic  culminating  with  the  star.  In 
a  note  at  the  end  of  the  chapter  he  gives  improved  star 
places  from  the  later  observations  with  better  instruments 
and  methods,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  these  later  results 
are  really  much  better  than  those  found  in  1578. l  In  the 
third  chapter  the  longitude  and  latitude  of  the  comet  for 
each  day  of  observation  are  deduced  from  the  observed  dis- 
tances from  stars ;  but  though  he  gives  diagrams  of  all  the 
triangles,  and  gives  all  the  numerical  data,  the  trigonome- 
trical process  is  not  shown.  In  the  fourth  chapter  the  right 
ascensions  and  declinations  of  the  comet  are  computed  from 
the  longitudes  and  latitudes.2  The  fifth  deals  with  the  deter- 

1  In  the  above-mentioned  paper  Woldstedt  compares  the  two  sets  of  posi- 
tions with  modern  star  places  (Abo  or  Pond  with  proper  motions  from  Bessel's 
Bradley  or  Abo).     The  means  of  the  errors  of  Tycho's  places,  irrespective  of 
sign,  are  in  longitude  and  latitude,  for  the  older  positions,   4/.8  and  I'.I,  for 
the  later  ones,  i'.4  and  i'.$.   About  the  methods  by  which  these  positions  were 
found,  see  Chapter  XII. 

2  By  the  method  of  Al  Battani,  which  employs  the  point  of  the  equator  having 
the  same  longitude  as  the  comet.     Delambre,  Astr.  du  Moyen  Age,  p.  21. 


THE  COMET  OF  1577.  165 

mination  of  the  inclination  and  node  of  the  apparent  path 
of  the  comet  with  regard  to  the  ecliptic,  which  Tycho  found 
from  two  latitudes  and  the  arc  of  the  ecliptic  between  them  ; 
seven  different  combinations  give  results  which  only  differ  a 
few  minutes  inter  se.  The  sixth  chapter  is  a  more  lengthy  one, 
and  treats  of  the  distance  of  the  comet  from  the  earth ;  and 
as  this  was  of  paramount  importance  as  a  test  of  the  Aristo- 
telean  doctrine,  he  endeavours  to  determine  the  parallax  in 
several  different  ways.  First,  he  shows  that  the  comet  had 
moved  in  a  great  circle,  and  though  not  with  a  uniform  velo- 
city throughout,  yet  with  a  very  gradually  decreasing  one ; 
and  if  it  had  been  a  mere  "  meteor  "  in  our  atmosphere,  it 
would  have  moved  by  fits  and  starts,  and  not  in  a  great  circle. 
The  velocity  never  reached  half  that  of  the  moon,  the  nearest 
celestial  body.  He  next  discusses  two  distance  measures 
from  e  Pegasi,  made  on  the  23rd  November,  with  an  inter- 
val of  three  hours,  and  finds  that  if  the  comet  had  been  at 
the  same  distance  from  the  earth  as  the  moon,1  the  parallax 
would  have  had  the  effect  of  making  the  second  angular 
distance  from  the  star  equal  to  the  first,  even  after  allowing 
for  the  motion  of  the  comet  in  the  interval,  while  the  second 
observed  distance  was  I  2'  smaller  than  the  first  one.  At 
least  the  comet  must  have  been  at  a  distance  six  times  as 
great  as  that  of  the  moon,  and  all  that  can  be  concluded 
from  the  distance  measures  is  that  the  comet  was  far  beyond 
the  moon,  and  at  such  a  distance  that  its  parallax  could  not 
be  determined  accurately.  The  same  appears  from  compari- 
sons between  distance  measures  from  stars  made  at  Hveen 
and  those  made  at  Prague  by  Hagecius,  which  should  differ 
six  or  seven  minutes  if  the  comet  was  as  near  as  the  moon, 
whereas  they  only  differed  one  or  two  minutes.  The  obser- 
vations of  Cornelius  Gemma  at  Lou  vain,  when  compared  with 
those  at  Hveen,  point  in  the  same  direction,  but  are  much 

1  Which  he,  with  Copernicus,  assumes  =  52  semi- diameters  of  the  earth. 


166  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

too  inaccurate  to  build  on.  Again,  Tycho  takes  two  obser- 
vations of  altitude  and  azimuth ;  from  the  first  he  computes 
the  declination,  corrects  this  for  the  motion  of  the  comet  in 
the  interval,  and  with  this  and  the  second  azimuth  computes 
the  altitude  for  the  time  of  the  second  observation.  For  a 
body  as  near  as  the  moon  there  would  be  a  considerable 
difference,  while  several  examples  show  none.  Finally,  Tycho 
employs  the  method  of  Kegiomontanus  for  finding  the  actual 
amount  of  parallax  from  two  altitudes  and  azimuths,  but 
several  combinations  gave  the  same  result,  that  no  parallax 
whatever  could  be  detected  in  this  way.  Tycho  was  well 
aware  that  this  was  a  bad  method,  and  evidently  only  tried 
it  as  a  duty.1  (The  comet  of  1585  was  chiefly  observed 
with  the  large  armillae,  and  the  want  of  parallax  was 
demonstrated  by  comparing  the  right  ascension  and  declina- 
tion observed  with  an  interval  of  some  hours  with  the  daily 
motion  of  the  comet.2) 

In  the  seventh  chapter  the  position  of  the  comet's  tail 
is  examined.  The  increased  attention  which  had  been  paid 
to  comets  during  the  sixteenth  century  had  led  to  the  dis- 
covery of  the  fact  that  their  tails  are  turned  away  from  the 
sun,  and  not  only  Peter  Apianus,  who  is  generally  credited 
with  the  discovery,  but  also  Fracastoro,  and  after  them 
Gemma  and  Cardan,  had  pointed  out  this  remarkable  fact 
from  observations  of  different  comets.  Tycho,  who  took 
nothing  on  trust,  examined  the  matter,  and  computed  from 
twelve  observations  of  the  direction  of  the  tail  of  the  comet 
of  1577  the  position  of  the  tail  with  regard  to  a  great 
circle  passing  through  the  sun.  He  found  that  the  direc- 

1  See  his  remarks  about  the  method,  De  mundi  ccth.  rec.  pJien.,  p.  156,  and 
in  a  letter  to  Hagecius  (who  had  found  a  parallax  of  five  degrees  by  the 
method),  T.  B.  et  doct.  vir.  Epist.,  p.  60.     Delambre  sets  forth  the  method 
with  his  usual  prolixity  in  Hist,  de  VAstr.  du  Moyen  Age,  pi  341  ;  Astr.  Moderne, 
i.  p.  212  et  seq. 

2  Epist.  Astron.,  pp.  16-17. 


THE  COMET  OF  1577.  167 

tion  of  the  tail  never  passed  exactly  through  the  sun,  but 
seemed  to  pass  much  nearer  to  the  planet  Venus ;  he  adds, 
that  though  the  statement  of  Apianus  was  only  approxi- 
mately true,  the  opinion  of  Aristotle  was  far  more  erroneous, 
for  according  to  him,  the  tails,  as  lighter  than  the  head, 
should  be  turned  straight  away  from  the  centre  of  the 
earth.  The  curvature  he  considers  merely  an  illusion, 
caused  by  the  head  and  the  end  of  the  tail  being  at  dif- 
ferent distances  from  the  earth. 

The  eighth  chapter  is  the  most  important  in  the  whole 
book,  as  the  consideration  of  the  comet's  orbit  in  space 
leads  Tycho  to  explain  his  ideas  about  the  construction  of 
the  universe.  The  "  sethereal  world/'  he  says,  is  of  wonder- 
fully large  extent  ;  the  greatest  distance  of  the  farthest 
planet,  Saturn,  is  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  times  as 
great  as  the  semi-diameter  of  the  "  elementary  world "  as 
bordered  by  the  orbit  of  the  moon.  The  moon's  distance 
he  assumes  equal  to  fifty-two  times  the  semi-diameter  of 
the  earth,  which  latter  he  takes  to  be  860  German  miles.1 
The  distance  of  the  sun  he  believes  to  be  about  twenty 
times  that  of  the  moon.  In  this  vast  space  the  comet  has 
moved,  and  it  therefore  becomes  necessary  to  explain  shortly 
the  system  of  the  world,  which  he  had  worked  out  "  four 
years  ago,"  i.e.,  in  1 5 S3.2  The  Ptolemean  system  was  too 
complicated,  and  the  new  one  which  that  great  man  Coper- 
nicus had  proposed,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  Aristarchus 
of  Samos,  though  there  was  nothing  in  it  contrary  to 
mathematical  principles,  was  in  opposition  to  those  of 
physics,  as  the  heavy  and  sluggish  earth  is  unfit  to  move, 

1  The  value  for  the  earth's  semi-diameter  was  probably  taken  from  Fernels 
well-known  Cosmotheoria,  Paris,  1528.     We  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter  what 
ideas  Tycho  had  formed  as  to  the  distance  of  the  outer  planets  and  the  fixed 
stars  (Progym.,  i.  p.  465  et  seq.). 

2  The  book  was   written   in   1587,  as  appears   from  several  allusions   to 
time  in  it. 


168 


TYCHO  BRAHE. 


and  the  system  is  even  opposed  to  the  authority  of  Scrip- 
ture. The  vast  space  which  would  have  to  be  assumed 
between  the  orbit  of  Saturn  and  the  fixed  stars  (to  account 
for  the  want  of  annual  parallax  of  these),  was  another 
difficulty  in  the  Copernican  system,  and  Tycho  had  there- 
fore tried  to  find  a  hypothesis  which  was  in  accordance  with 
mathematical  and  physical  principles,  and  at  the  same  time 
would  not  incur  the  censure  of  theologians.  At  last  he 
had,  "  as  if  by  inspiration,"  been  led  to  the  following  idea 
on  the  planetary  motions. 


THE  TYCHONIC  SYSTEM  OF  THE  WORLD. 

The  earth  is  the  centre  of  the  universe,  and  the  centre  of 
the  orbits  of  the  sun  and  moon,  as  well  as  of  the  sphere 
of  the  fixed  stars,  which  latter  revolves  round  it  in  twenty- 


THE  TYCHONIC  SYSTEM.  169 

four  hours,  carrying  all  the  planets  with  it.  The  sun  is  the 
centre  of  the  orbits  of  the  five  planets,  of  which  Mercury 
and  Venus  move  in  orbits  whose  radii  are  smaller  than  that 
of  the  solar  orbit,  while  the  orbits  of  Mars,  Jupiter,  and 
Saturn  encircle  the  earth.  This  system  accounts  for  the 
irregularities  in  the  planetary  motions  which  the  ancients 
explained  by  epicycles  and  Copernicus  by  the  annual  motion 
of  the  earth,  and  it  shows  why  the  solar  motion  is  mixed  up 
in  all  the  planetary  theories.1  The  remaining  inequalities, 
which  formerly  were  explained  by  the  excentric  circle  and 
the  deferent,  and  by  Copernicus  by  epicycles  moving  on 
excentric  circles,  could  also,  in  the  new  hypothesis,  be  ex- 
plained in  a  similar  way.  As  the  planets  are  not  attached 
to  any  solid  spheres,  there  is  no  absurdity  in  letting  the 
orbits  of  Mars  and  the  sun  intersect  each  other,  as  the 
orbits  are  nothing  real,  but  only  geometrical  representations. 

This  is  all  which  Tycho  considered  it  necessary  to  set 
forth  about  his  system  in  the  book  on  the  comet,  but  he 
stated  his  intention  of  giving  a  fuller  account  of  it  on  a 
future  occasion,  which  never  came.  We  shall  finish  our 
account  of  his  labours  connected  with  the  comet  of  1577 
before  we  consider  his  system  a  little  more  closely. 

The  comet  was  by  Tycho  supposed  to  move  round  the 
sun  in  an  orbit  outside  that  of  Venus,  and  in  the  direction 
opposite  to  that  of  the  planets,  the  greatest  elongation  from 
the  sun  being  60°.  He  was  unable  to  represent  the  observed 
places  of  the  comet  by  a  uniform  motion  in  this  orbit,  and 
was  obliged  to  assume  an  irregular  motion,  slowest  when  in 
inferior  conjunction,  increasing  when  the  comet  was  first 
discovered,  and  afterwards  again  decreasing.  Tycho  remarks 

1  This  alludes  to  the  circumstance,  which  had  appeared  so  strange  to  the 
ancients,  that  the  period  of  the  motion  of  each  upper  planet  in  its  epicycle 
was  precisely  equal  to  the  synodical  period  of  the  planet,  while  in  the  case  of 
the  two  inferior  planets  the  period  in  the  deferent  in  the  Ptolemean  system 
was  equal  to  the  sun's  period  of  revolution. 


170  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

that  an  epicycle  might  be  introduced  to  account  for  this,  but 
as  the  inequality  was  only  5',  he  did  not  deem  it  necessary 
to  go  so  far  in  refining  the  theory  of  a  transient  body  like 
a  comet ;  and  besides,  it  is  probable  that  comets,  which  only 
last  a  short  time,  do  not  move  with  the  same  regularity  as 
the  planets  do.  He  finds  the  inclination  of  the  orbit  to  the 
ecliptic  equal  to  29°  15',  and  shows  how  to  compute  the 
place  of  the  comet  for  any  given  time  by  means  of  the  table 
of  its  orbital  motion  with  which  te  concludes  the  first  part 
of  the  book.  The  ninth  chapter  is  a  very  short  one,  and 
treats  of  the  actual  size  of  the  comet ;  as  the  apparent 
diameter  of  the  head  on  the  1 3th  November  was  7',  the 
diameter  was  368  miles,  or  -f±  of  the  diameter  of  the  earth. 
Similarly  he  calculates  the  length  of  the  tail,  and  finds  it 
equal  to  96  semi-diameters  of  the  earth.  This  is  on  the 
assumption  that  the  tail  is  really  turned  away  from  Venus, 
and  though  he  adds  that  he  had  also  found  this  to  be  the 
case  with  the  comet  of  1582,  he  suspects  that  some  optical 
illusion  must  be  the  cause  of  this,  as  it  would  be  more 
natural  that  the  tail  should  be  turned  from  the  sun  than 
from  Venus.  In  a  letter  to  Rothmann  in  1589,  he  ex- 
presses the  opinion  that  the  tail  is  not  a  mere  prolongation 
of  the  head,  for  in  1577  head  and  tail  were  of  a  different 
colour,  and  stars  could  be  seen  through  the  tail.  He 
apparently  thought  that  the  tail  was  merely  an  effect  of 
the  light  from  the  sun  or  Venus  shining  through  the  head, 
and  referred  to  the  opinion  of  Benedict  of  Venice  that 
the  illumination  of  the  dark  side  of  the  moon  was  due  to 
Venus,  about  which  he,  however,  does  not  express  any 
decided  opinion.1 

The  only  part  of  the  tables  of  the  comet's  motion  which 
requires  notice  is  that  relating  to  the  horizontal  parallax. 
This  he  makes  out  from  his  theory  to  have  been  nearly  20' 

i  Fpist,  astron.,  p.  142. 


THE  TYCHONIC  SYSTEM.  171 

in  the  beginning  of  November,  and  then  rapidly  to  have 
decreased ;  and,  as  an  excuse  for  this  considerable  quantity 
not  having  been  detected,  he  adds  his  belief  that  refraction 
would  counteract  the  parallax  near  the  horizon  where  the 
comet  was  observed. 

The  remainder  of  Tycho's  book  is  devoted  to  a  detailed 
examination  of  the  writings  and  observations  of  other 
astronomers  on  the  comet.  This  was  the  first  comet  which 
gave  rise  to  a  perfect  deluge  of  pamphlets,  in  which  the 
supposed  significance  of  the  terrible  hairy  star  was  set 
forth,  and  for  more  than  a  century  afterwards  every  comet 
was  followed  by  a  flood  of  effusions  from  numberless  scrib- 
blers. The  astrological  significance  of  the  comet  Tycho  does 
not  trouble  himself  about,  though  he  takes  the  opportunity 
of  stating  that  he  does  not  consider  astrology  a  delusive 
science,  when  it  is  kept  within  bounds  and  not  abused  by 
ignorant  people.  For  the  sun,  moon,  and  fixed  stars  would 
have  sufficed  for  dividing  time  and  adorning  the  heavens, 
and  the  planets  must  have  been  created  for  some  purpose, 
which  is  that  of  forecasting  the  future.1  But  he  goes 
through  the  observations  or  speculations  of  eighteen  of  his 
contemporaries,  taking  first  those  who  had  acknowledged 
the  comet  to  be  beyond  the  lunar  orbit  (Wilhelm  IV., 
Moestlin,  Cornelius  Gemma,  and  Helisaeus  Roeslin),  and 
afterwards  the  great  herd  of  those  who  believed  it  to  move 
in  the  "  elementary  world."  Among  these  there  are  no 
generally  known  names  except  those  of  Hagecius  and 
Scultetus.  A  theory  very  like  that  of  Tycho  was  proposed 
by  Moestlin,  who  also  let  the  comet  move  in  a  circle  round 
the  sun  outside  the  orbit  of  Venus,  and  accounted  for  the 
irregular  motion  by  a  small  circle  of  libration  perpendicular 
to  the  plane  of  the  orbit,  along  the  diameter  of  which  the 
comet  moved  to  and  fro.  This  idea  was  borrowed  from 
1  De  mundi  ceth.  rec.  phen.,  p.  287.  Compare  above,  Chapter  IV.  p.  75. 


172  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

Copernicus,  whose  lead  Moestlin  also  followed  with  regard 
to  the  motion  of  the  earth. 

That  the  great  Danish  astronomer  did  not  become  con- 
vinced of  the  truth  of  the  Copernican  system,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  set  up  a  system  of  his  own  founded  on  the  im- 
movability of  the  earth,  may  appear  strange  to  many  who 
are  unacquainted  with  the  state  of  astronomy  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  it  may  to  them  appear  to  show  that  he 
cannot  have  been  such  a  great  reformer  of  astronomical 
science,  as  is  generally  supposed.  But  it  is  not  necessary 
to  concoct  an  apology  for  Tycho ;  we  shall  only  endeavour 
to  give  an  intelligible  and  correct  picture  of  the  state  of 
science  at  that  time  with  regard  to  the  construction  of  the 
universe. 

That  Copernicus  had  precursors  among  the  ancients  who 
taught  that  the  earth  was  in  motion,  is  well  known,  and 
he  was  well  aware  of  this  fact  himself.  But  none  of 
those  precursors  had  done  more  than  throw  out  their  ideas 
for  the  consideration  of  philosophers ;  they  had  not  drawn 
the  scientific  conclusions  from  those  ideas,  'and  had  not 
worked  them  into  a  complete  system  by  which  the  compli- 
cated motions  of  the  planets  could  be  accounted  for  and 
made  subject  to  calculation.  Neither  had  this  been  done 
by  the  philosophers  who  made  the  earth  the  centre  of  the 
universe,  and  let  it  be  surrounded  by  numerous  solid  crystal 
spheres  to  which  the  heavenly  bodies  were  attached.  All 
this  was  only  philosophical  speculation,  and  was  not  founded 
on  accurate  observations  ;  but  the  only  two  great  astronomers 
of  antiquity,  Hipparchus  and  Ptolemy,  have  handed  down 
to  posterity  a  complete  astronomical  system,  by  which  the 
intricate  celestial  motions  could  be  explained  and  the 
positions  of  the  planets  calculated.  But  this  "  Ptolemean 
system,"  in  which  a  planet  moved  on  an  epicycle,  whose 
centre  moved  on  another  circle  (the  deferent),  with  a  velo- 


THE  TYCHONIC  SYSTEM.  173 

city  which  was  uniform  with  regard  to  the  centre  of  a 
third  circle,  the  equant,1  was  only  a  most  ingenious  mathe- 
matical representation  of  the  phenomena — a  working  hypo- 
thesis ;  it  did  not  pretend  to  give  a  physically  true  descrip- 
tion of  the  actual  state  of  things  in  the  universe.2  No 
doubt  there  were  many  smaller  minds  to  which  this  did 
not  become  clear,  but  both  by  the  great  mathematician  who 
completed  it,  and  by  astronomers  of  succeeding  ages  the 
Ptolemean  system  was  merely  considered  a  mathematical 
means  of  computing  the  positions  of  the  planets. 

When  astronomy  towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
again  began  to  be  cultivated  in  Europe,  the  inconvenience 
of  the  extremely  complicated  system  became  felt,  and  soon 
the  great  astronomer  of  Frauenburg  conceived  how  a  dif- 
ferent system  might  be  devised  on  the  basis  of  the  earth's 
motion  round  the  sun.  But  Copernicus  did  a  great  deal 
more  than  merely  suggest  that  the  earth  went  round  the 
sun.  He  worked  out  the  idea  into  a  perfect  system,  and 
developed  the  geometrical  theory  for  each  planet  so  as  to 
make  it  possible  to  construct  new  tables  for  their  motion. 
And  though  he  had  but  few  and  poor  instruments,  and  did 
not  observe  systematically,  he  took  from  1497  to  1529 
occasional  observations  in  order  to  get  materials  for  finding 
the  variations  of  the  elements  of  the  orbits  since  the  time 


1  The  earth,  the  centre  of  the  deferent,  and  the  centre  of  the  equant  were 
in  a  straight  line  and  equidistant ;  only  in  the  case  of  Mercury  the  centre  of 
the  equant  was  midway  between  the  earth  and  the  centre  of  the  deferent. 

2  Perhaps  we  may  illustrate   this   by  an  example   from    modern  science. 
When  the  deflection  of  a  magnetic  needle  in  the  neighbourhood  of  an  electric 
current  was  first  discovered,  some  difficulty  was  felt  in  giving  a  rule  for  the 
direction  in  which  either  pole  of  a  needle  is  deflected  by  a  current,  whatever 
their  relative  positions  may  be,  until  Ampere  suggested  that  if  we  imagine  a 
human   figure  lying  in  the  current  facing  the   needle,  so  that  the  current 
comes  in  at  his  feet  and  out  at  his  head,  then  the  deflection  of  the  north- 
seeking  pole  will  be  to  his  left.     Nobody  ever  suspected  Ampere  of  believing 
that  there  really  was  a  little  man  lying  in  the  current,  but  to  many  people  iu 
the  Middle  Ages  the  epicycles  were  doubtless  really  existing. 


174  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

of  Ptolemy.  He  was  therefore  able  to  produce  a  complete 
new  system  of  astronomy,  the  first  since  the  days  of  the 
Alexandrian  school,  and  the  first  of  all  which  gave  the 
means  of  determining  the  relative  distances  of  the  planets. 
And  it  was  in  this  way  that  he  showed  himself  as  the  great 
master,  and  was  valued  as  such  by  Tycho  Brahe,  who  was 
better  able  than  any  one  else  to  appreciate  Copernicus,  since 
his  own  activity  left  no  part  of  astronomy  untouched.  But 
unfortunately  the  edifice  which  Copernicus  had  constructed 
was  not  very  far  from  being  as  artificial  and  unnatural 
as  that  of  Ptolemy.  The  expedient  of  letting  the  earth 
move  in  a  circular  orbit  round  the  sun  could  explain 
those  irregularities  in  the  planetary  motions  (stations  and 
retrogradations)  of  which  the  synodic  revolution  was  the 
period  (the  second  inequalities,  as  the  ancients  had  called 
them),  because  they  were  caused  by  the  observer  being 
carried  round  by  the  moving  earth.  But  this  could  not 
account  for  the  variable  distance  and  velocity  (the  first 
inequality)  of  which  the  orbital  revolution  was  the  period, 
and  of  which  Kepler  gave  the  explanation  when  he  found 
that  the  planets  move  in  ellipses,  and  detected  the  law  which 
regulates  the  velocities  in  these.  Until  Kepler  had  dis- 
covered the  laws  which  bear  his  name,  there  was  no  way  of 
accounting  for  these  variations,  except  by  having  recourse 
to  the  same  epicycles  and  excentrics  which  Ptolemy  had 
used  so  liberally ;  and  the  planetary  theory  of  Copernicus 
was  therefore  nothing  but  an  adaptation  of  the  Ptolemean 
system  to  the  heliocentric  idea.1  And  the  motions  were  not 
referred  to  the  real  place  of  the  sun,  but  to  the  middle  sun, 
i.e.,  to  the  centre  of  the  earth's  orbit,  while  the  orbit  of 
Mercury  required  a  combination  of  seven  circles,  Venus  of 

1  The  chief  claim  of  the  system  of  Copernicus  to  be  considered  simpler 
than  the  Ptolemean  was  that  it  dispensed  with  the  equant  (which  really 
violated  the  principle  of  uniform  motion,  so  much  thought  of),  and  let  the 
motion  on  the  deferent  be  uniform  with  regard  to  its  centre. 


THE  TYCHONIC  SYSTEM.  175 

five,  the  earth  of  three,  the  moon  of  four,  and  each  of  the 
three  outer  planets  of  five  circles ;  and  even  with  this 
complicated  machinery  the  new  system  did  not  represent 
the  actual  motions  in  the  heavens  any  better  than  the 
Ptolemean  did.  Copernicus  himself  said  that  he  would  be 
as  delighted  as  Pythagoras  was  when  he  had  discovered  his 
theorem,  if  he  could  make  his  planetary  theory  agree  with 
the  observed  positions  of  the  planets  within  ic/.1  But  the 
accuracy  was  very  far  indeed  from  reaching  even  that  limit.2 
Doubtless  the  Prutenic  tables  were  better  than  the  Alphon- 
sine  ones,  but  that  was  simply  because  Copernicus  had  been 
able  to  apply  empiric  corrections  to  the  elements  of  the 
orbits,  and  because  Keinhold  did  his  work  better  than  the 
numerous  computers  at  Toledo  had  done  theirs.  The 
Copernican  system  as  set  forth  by  Copernicus,  therefore,  did 
not  advance  astronomy  in  the  least ;  it  merely  showed  that 
it  was  possible  to  calculate  the  motions  of  the  planets  with- 
out having  the  origin  of  co-ordinates  in  the  centre  of  the 
earth.  But  of  proofs  of  the  physical  truth  of  his  system 
Copernicus  had  given  none,  and  could  give  none;  and  though 
there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt  that  he  himself  believed  in 
the  reality  of  the  earth's  motion,  it  is  extremely  difficult  to 
say  of  most  of  his  so-called  followers  whether  they  had  any 
faith  in  that  motion,  or  merely  preferred  it  for  geometrical 
reasons.3 

It  is  always  difficult  to  avoid  judging  the  ideas  of  former 
ages  by  our  own,  instead  of  viewing  them  in  their  connection 
with  those  which  went  before  them  and  from  which  they 

1  Rhetici  Ephemcrides  novce,  1550,  p.  6. 

2  Mobius  has  shown  that  the  use  of  the  mean  place  of  the  sun  (i.e.,  the 
centre  of  the  earth's  orbit)  instead  of  the  true  place  might,  in  the  Copernican 
theory  of  Mars,  lead  to  errors  of  2°.     See  a  note  in  Apelt's  Die  Reformation 
der  Sternkunde,  Jena,  1852,  p.  261. 

3  The  contemporaries  of  Copernicus  were  not  aware  that  the  introduction 
to  his  book,  in  which  the  system  is  spoken  of  as  a  mere  hypothesis,  was 
written  without  the  knowledge  of  the  author  by  Osiander  of  Niirnberg. 


176  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

were  developed.  The  physical  objections  to  the  earth's 
motion,  which  to  us  seem  so  easy  to  refute,  were  in  the 
sixteenth  century  most  serious  difficulties,  and  the  merits  of 
Galileo  in  conceiving  the  principles  of  elementary  mechanics 
and  fixing  them  by  experiments  must  not  be  underrated. 
Neither  should  the  advantage  be  forgotten  which  the  seven- 
teenth century  had  over  the  sixteenth  from  the  invention  of 
the  telescope,  which  revealed  the  shape  of  the  planets,  the 
satellites  of  Jupiter,  and  the  phases  of  Venus,  and  thus 
placed  the  planets  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  earth,  to 
which  the  unassisted  vision  could  never  have  seen  any 
similarity  in  them. 

Tycho  Brahe  evidently  was  not  content  with  a  mere 
geometrical  representation  of  the  planetary  system,  but 
wanted  to  know  how  the  universe  was  actually  constructed. 
He  felt  the  "  physical  absurdity  "  of  letting  the  earth  move, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  clearness  of  mind  which  made 
him  so  determined  an  opponent  of  the  scholastic  philosophy 
enabled  him  to  see  how  unfounded  some  of  the  objections  to 
the  earth's  motion  were.  In  a  letter  to  Rothmann  in  1587 
Tycho  remarks  that  the  apparent  absurdity  is  not  so  great 
as  that  of  the  Ptolemean  idea  of  letting  a  point  move  on 
one  circle  with  a  velocity  which  is  uniform  with  regard  to 
the  centre  of  another  circle.  He  adds  that  the  objections 
which  Buchanan  had  made  to  the  revolution  of  the  earth  in 
his  poem  on  the  sphere  are  futile,  since  the  sea  and  the  air 
would  revolve  with  the  earth  without  any  violent  commotion 
being  caused  in  them.1  But  all  the  same  he  thought  that 
a  stone  falling  from  a  high  tower  ought  to  fall  very  far  from 
the  foot  of  the  tower  if  the  earth  really  turned  on  its  axis. 
This  remark  is  made  in  another  letter  to  Eothmann  in 
1589,  in  which  he  made  several  objections  to  the  annual 
motion  of  the  earth.2  The  immense  space  between  Saturn 

1  Epist.  astron.,  p.  74.  2  Ibid.,  p.  167. 


THE  TYCHONIC  SYSTEM.  177 

and  the  fixed  stars  would  be  wasted.  And  if  the  annual 
parallax  of  a  star  of  the  third  magnitude  was  as  great 
as  one  minute,  such  a  star,  which  he  believes  to  have  an 
angular  diameter  of  one  minute,  would  be  as  large  as  the 
annual  orbit  of  the  earth.  And  how  big  would  the  brightest 
stars  have  to  be,  which  he  believes  to  have  diameters  of 
two  or  three  minutes  ?  And  how  enormously  large  would 
they  be  if  the  annual  parallax  was  still  smaller  ? l  It  was 
also  very  difficult  to  conceive  the  so-called  "  third  motion  " 
of  the  earth,  which  Copernicus  (so  needlessly)  had  introduced 
to  account  for  the  immovable  direction  of  the  earth's  axis. 

Tycho  alludes  in  several  places  to  the  difficulty  of  recon- 
ciling the  motion  of  the  earth  with  certain  passages  of 
Scripture.2  He  was  far  from  being  the  only  one  who 
believed  this  difficulty  to  be  a  very  serious  one  against 
accepting  the  new  doctrine.  The  Roman  Church  had  not 
yet  taken  any  official  notice  of  the  Copernican  system,  but 
in  Protestant  countries  the  tendency  of  the  age  was  de- 
cidedly against  the  adoption  of  so  stupendous  a  change  in 
cosmological  ideas.  Nobody  cared  to  study  anything  but 
theology,  and  theology  meant  a  petrified  dogmatism  which 
would  not  allow  the  smallest  iota  in  the  Bible  to  be  taken 
in  anything  but  a  strictly  literal  sense.  Luther  had  in  his 
usual  pithy  manner  declared  what  he  thought  of  Copernicus,3 
and  even  Melanchthon,  who  was  better  able  to  take  a  dis- 
passionate view  of  the  matter,  had  declared  that  the  authority 

1  Tycho  had  in  vain  tried  to  find  an  annual  parallax  of  the  pole  star  and 
other  stars.  Letter  to  Kepler,  December  1599,  Kepleri  Opera  Omnia,  viii. 
p.  717. 

3  Epist.,  p.  148.  He  says  here  that  Moses  must  have  known  astronomy, 
since  he  calls  the  moon  the  lesser  light,  though  sun  and  moon  are  apparently 
of  equal  size.  Therefore  the  prophets  must  also  be  assumed  to  have  known 
more  about  astronomy  than  other  people  of  their  time  did. 

3  "  Der  Narr  will  die  ganze  Kunst  Astronomia  umkehren  !  Aber  wie  die 
heilige  Schrift  anzeigt,  so  hiess  Josua  die  Sonne  still  stehen  und  nicht  das 
Erdreich." — Luther  s  Tischredcn.  p.  2260. 

12 


178  TYCHO  BKAHE. 

of  Scripture  was  against  accepting  the  theory  of  the  earth's 
motion.1  This  may  have  had  some  weight  with  Tycho,  at  least 
it  might  at  first  have  made  him  indisposed  openly  to  advocate 
the  Copernican  system,  as  the  most  narrow-minded  intoler- 
ance was  rampant  in  Denmark  (as  in  most  other  countries), 
notwithstanding  the  king's  more  liberal  disposition.  But 
the  king  did  not  wish  to  be  considered  unorthodox,  and  had 
yielded  to  the  importunity  of  his  brother-in-law,  the  Elector 
of  Saxony,  by  dismissing  the  distinguished  theologian  Niels 
Hemmingsen  from  his  professorship  at  the  University,  as 
suspected  of  leaning  to  Calvinism.  It  would  certainly  not 
have  been  prudent  for  the  highly-salaried  and  highly-envied 
pensioner  of  the  king,  to  declare  himself  an  open  adherent 
of  a  system  of  the  world  which  was  supposed  not  to  be 
orthodox. 

How  far  this  consideration  influenced  Tycho  it  is  not 
easy  to  decide,  but  the  supposed  physical  difficulties  of  the 
Copernican  system  and  a  disinclination  to  adopt  a  mere 
geometrical  representation,  in  the  reality  of  which  he  could 
not  believe,  led  him  to  attempt  the  planning  of  a  system 
which  possessed  the  advantages  of  the  Copernican  system 
without  its  supposed  defects.  In  a  letter  to  Rothmann  in 
I5892  Tycho  states  that  he  was  induced  to  give  up  the 
Ptolemean  system  by  finding  from  morning  and  evening 
observations  of  Mars  at  opposition  (between  November  1582 
and  April  1583)  that  this  planet  was  nearer  to  the  earth 
than  the  sun  was,  while  according  to  the  Ptolemean  system 
the  orbit  of  the  sun  intervened  between  that  of  Mars  and 
the  earth.  To  the  modern  reader  who  knows  that  the 
horizontal  parallax  of  Mars  can  at  most  reach  about  23", 


1  Melanchthon's  Initia  doctrines  physicce,  in  the  chapter  "  Quis  est  motus 
mundi." 

2  Epist.  astr.,  p.  148;  see  also  ibid.,  p.  42,  and  letter  to  Peucer  of  1588, 
Weistritz,  i.  p.  243. 


THE  TYCHONIC  SYSTEM.  179 

a  quantity  which  Tycho's  instruments  could  not  possibly 
measure,  this  looks  a  surprising  statement,  particularly 
when  it  is  remembered  that  Tycho,  like  his  predecessors, 
assumed  the  solar  parallax  equal  to  3'.  This  mystery  was 
believed  to  have  been  solved  by  Kepler,  who  states  that  he 
examined  the  observations  of  1582—83,  and  found  little  or 
no  parallax  from  them  ;  but,  to  his  surprise,  he  found  among 
Tycho's  manuscripts  one  written  by  one  of  his  disciples,  in 
which  the  observed  places  were  compared  with  the  orbit  of 
Mars  according  to  the  planetary  theory  and  numerical  data 
of  Copernicus,  and  a  most  laborious  calculation  of  triangles 
ended  in  the  result  that  the  parallax  of  Mars  was  greater 
than  that  of  the  sun.  Kepler  suggests  that  Tycho  meant 
his  pupil  to  calculate  the  parallax  from  the  observations, 
but  that  the  pupil,  by  a  misunderstanding,  worked  out  the 
distance  of  Mars  from  the  diameters  of  the  excentrics  and 
epicycles  of  Copernicus.1  The  subject  of  the  parallax  of 
Mars  is  alluded  to  by  Tycho  in  a  letter  to  Brucaeus,  written 
in  1584.  Here  he  does  not  hint  at  having  already  con- 
structed a  new  system  himself,  but  merely  tries  to  disprove 
that  of  Copernicus,  and  among  his  arguments  is,  that,  ac- 
cording to  Copernicus,  Mars  should  in  1582  have  been  at  a 
distance  equal  to  two-thirds  of  that  of  the  sun,  and  conse- 
quently have  had  a  greater  parallax,  whereas  he  found  by 
very  frequent  and  most  exquisite  observations  that  Mars  had 
a  far  smaller  parallax,  and  therefore  was  much  farther  from 
us  than  the  sun.2  In  other  words,  Tycho  could  not  find 
any  parallax  of  Mars  from  his  observations,  but  somehow 
he  afterwards  imagined  that  he  had  found  Mars  to  be  nearer 

1  Kepler,  DC  motibus  stcUce  Martis,  ch.  xi.,  Opera  omnia,  Hi.  p.  219  ;  see  also 
p.  474.     In  his  Progymnasmata,  i.  p.  414,  Tycho  says  that  the  outer  planets 
have  scarcely  perceptible  parallaxes,  but  that  he  had  found  by  an  exquisite 
instrument  that  Mars  at  opposition  was  nearer  than  the  sun.     On  p.  66 1  he 
alludes  to  it  again. 

2  T.  Brahei  et  doct.  vir.  Epistola,  p.  76. 


180  TYCHO  BKAHE. 

the  earth  at  opposition  than  the  sun  was,  and  this  decided 
him  to  reject  the  Ptolemean  system.  He  adds  in  his  letter 
to  Kothmann,  that  the  comets  when  in  opposition  did  not 
move  in  a  retrograde  direction  like  the  planets,  for  which 
reason  he  had  to  reject  the  Copernican  system  also.  It  did 
not  strike  him  that  comets  might  move  in  orbits  greatly 
differing  from  those  of  the  planets.  Having  rejected  the 
two  existing  systems,  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  design 
a  new  one. 

The  Tychonic  system  could  explain  the  apparent  motions 
of  the  planets  (including  their  various  latitudes),  and  it 
might  have  been  completed  in  detail  by  being  furnished 
with  excentrics  and  epicycles  like  its  rival.  Copernicus 
had  referred  the  planetary  motions,  not  to  the  sun,  but  to 
the  centre  of  the  earth's  orbit,  from  which  the  excentrici- 
ties  were  counted,  and  through  which  the  lines  of  nodes 
passed,  so  that  the  earth  still  seemed  to  hold  an  exceptional 
position.  The  Copernican  system,  so  long  as  it  was  not 
purged  of  the  artificial  appendage  of  epicycles  by  the  laws 
of  Kepler,  was  not  very  much  simpler  than  the  Tychonic, 
and,  mathematically  speaking,  the  only  difference  between 
them  was,  that  the  one  placed  the  origin  of  co-ordinates  in 
the  sun  (or  rather  in  the  centre  of  the  earth's  orbit),  the 
other  in  the  earth.1  Tycho's  early  death  prevented  the 
further  development  of  the  theory  of  the  planets  by  his 
system,  which  he  intended  to  do  in  a  work  to  be  called 
Theatrum  astronomicum.  He  only  gives  a  sketch  of  the 
theory  of  Saturn  in  the  first  volume  of  his  book,  in  which 
the  planet  moves  in  a  small  epicycle  in  retrograde  direction, 

1  Might  Tycho  have  got  the  idea  of  his  system  by  reading  the  remark  of 
Copernicus  (De  revol.,  iii.  15)  when  talking  about  the  earth's  orbit :  "  Estque 
prorsus  eadem  demonstratio,  si  terra  quiesceret  atque  Sol  in  circumcurrente 
moveretur,  ut  apud  Ptolemaeum  et  alios  "  ?  According  to  Prowe  (Nic.  Cop- 
pernicus,  Bd.  i.  Part  2,  p.  509),  this  is  one  of  the  sentences  struck  out  in  the 
original  MS.,  but  reinserted  by  the  editor  of  the  first  edition. 


THE  TYCHONIC  SYSTEM.  181 

making  two  revolutions  while  the  centre  of  the  small  epi- 
cycle moves  once  round  the  circumference  of  a  larger  one 
in  the  same  direction  in  which  the  centre  of  the  latter 
moves  along  the  orbit  of  Saturn.1 

The  Tychonic  system  did  not  retard  the  adoption  of  the 
Copernican  one,  but  acted  as  a  stepping-stone  to  the  latter 
from  the  Ptolemean.  By  his  destruction  of  the  solid  spheres 
of  the  ancients  and  by  the  thorough  discomfiture  of  the  scho- 
lastics caused  by  this  and  other  results  of  his  observations 
of  comets,  he  helped  the  Copernican  principle  onward  far 
more  effectually  than  he  could  have  done  by  merely  acqui- 
escing in  the  imperfectly  formed  system,  which  the  results 
of  his  own  observations  were  to  mould  into  the  beauti- 
ful and  simple  system  which  is  the  foundation  of  modern 
astronomy. 

The  book  on  the  comet  of  I  577  was  ready  from  the  press 
in  1588,  and  though  not  regularly  published  as  yet,  copies 
were  sent  to  friends  and  correspondents  whenever  an  oppor- 
tunity offered.2  Thus  Tycho's  pupil,  Gellius  Sascerides,  who 
in  the  summer  of  1588  started  on  a  journey  to  Germany, 
Switzerland,  and  Italy,  brought  copies  to  Eothmann  and 
Maestlin,  to  whom  he  was  also  the  bearer  of  letters.3  The 
Landgrave  did  not  receive  a  copy,  but  studied  Kothmann's 
copy  with  great  interest,  and  thought  that  it  must  have 
been  meant  for  himself,  until  Eothmann  suggested  that  it 
was  only  part  of  an  unfinished  work,  and  that  he  would  get 
one  later  on,  which  of  course  he  did  as  soon  as  Tycho  heard 
of  this  incident.  In  the  following  year,  while  he  was  at 
the  fair  of  Frankfurt,  Gellius  received  another  copy  of  the 
book,  which  he  was  to  bring  to  Bologna  to  Magini,  and  this 

1  Progymn.,  i.  p.  477,  where  he  also  alludes  to  the  "  Cotnmentariolus  "  of 
Copernicus,  see  above,  p.  83). 

2  The  book  was  not  for  sale  till  1603.     There  are  three  copies  in  the  Royal 
Library  at  Copenhagen  with  the  original  title-page  of  1588. 

3  About  Maestlin  see  Kepleri  Opera,  i.  p.  190. 


182  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

he  forwarded  from  Padua  in  1590,  together  with  a  letter 
in  which  he  gave  an  account  of  the  unfinished  first  volume 
of  Tycho's  work.1  A  copy  was  sent  to  Tycho's  old  friend 
ScultetuSj  who  let  Monavius  of  Breslau  partake  of  his  joy 
over  it.  To  Thomas  Savelle  of  Oxford,  a  younger  brother 
of  the  celebrated  founder  of  the  two  Savillian  professorships, 
who  was  then  travelling  on  the  Continent,  Tycho  sent  two 
copies  of  the  book,  together  with  a  letter  in  which  he, 
among  other  things,  asked  him  to  remind  Daniel  Rogers 
about  the  copyright  which  he  had  promised  to  procure 
Tycho  for  his  books  in  England.2  To  Caspar  Peucer,  who 
had  already  heard  of  the  book  from  Kantzov,  Tycho  sent  a 
copy,  and  added  a  very  long  letter  in  which  he  entered 
fully  into  his  reasons  for  rejecting  the  Copernican  system, 
and  discussed  some  passages  of  Scripture  which  had  been 
made  use  of  to  prove  the  solidity  of  the  celestial  spheres. 
In  this  letter  he  also  gives  an  interesting  sketch  of  the  plan 
of  the  great  work  to  which  the  three  volumes  on  the  new 
star  and  comets  were  to  be  introductory.  It  was  to  consist 
of  seven  books ;  the  first  was  to  describe  his  instruments, 
the  second  the  trigonometrical  formulae  required  in  astro- 
nomy, the  third  the  new  positions  of  fixed  stars  from  his 
observations,  the  fourth  was  to  deal  with  the  theories  of  the 
sun  and  moon,  the  fifth  and  sixth  with  the  theories  of 
the  planets,  the  seventh  with  the  latitudes  of  the  planets.3 
With  the  exception  of  the  first  chapter  (which  he  made 
into  a  separate  book),  the  contents  of  this  projected  work 

1  Carteggio  inedito  di  Ticone  Brahe,  G.  Keplero,  &c.,  con  G.  A.  Magini.    Ed. 
Ant.  Favaro,  Bologna,  1886,  p.  193. 

2  A  Collection  of  letters  illustrative  of  the  progress  of  science  in  England. 
Edited  by  J.  0.  Halliwell.    London,  1841,  p.  32.    Tycho  also  sent  Savelle  four 
copies  of  his  portrait  engraved  at  Amsterdam  (by  Geyn,  1586),  and  inquired 
whether  there  were  any  good  poets  in  England  who  would  write  an  epigram 
on  this  portrait  or  in  praise  of  his  works.     He  added  that  Rogers  might  also 
show  his  friendship  by  helping  him  in  this  matter. 

3  Weistritz,  i.  pp.  239-264,  reprinted  from  Resets  Inscriptions  Hafnienses. 


THE  TYCHONIC  SYSTEM.  183 

(or  at  least  the  outlines  of  them)  were  afterwards  incorpo- 
rated in  Tycho's  first  volume  of  Progymnasmata. 

When  Rothmann  had  received  the  book  he  wrote  to 
Tycho  to  thank  him  for  it,  and  remarked  that  the  new 
system  of  the  world  seemed  to  be  the  same  as  one  which 
the  Landgrave  a  few  years  previously  had  got  his  instru- 
ment-maker to  represent  by  a  planetarium.1  Tycho,  who 
had  kept  his  system  a  deep  secret  until  the  book  was 
ready,  was  at  first  unable  to  understand  from  whom  the 
Landgrave  could  have  got  a  description  of  it,2  but  he  soon 
after  received  from  a  correspondent  in  Germany  a  recently 
published  book  which  solved  the  riddle.  The  title  of  the 
book  was  Nicolai  Raymari  Ursi  Dithmarsi  Fundamentiim 
astronomicum,  printed  at  Strassburg  in  1588.  The  author, 
Nicolai  Reymers  Bar,  was  a  native  of  Ditmarschen,  in  the 
west  of  Holstein,  and  a  son  of  very  poor  parents.  He  is 
even  said  to  have  earned  his  bread  as  a  swineherd,  but 
possessing  great  natural  abilities,  he  rapidly  acquired  con- 
siderable knowledge  both  in  science  and  in  classics.  In 
1 5  80  he  published  a  Latin  Grammar,  and  in  1 5 8 3,  at  Leipzig, 
a  Gfeodaesia  Ranzoviana,  dedicated  to  his  patron,  Heinrich 
Rantzov,  Governor  of  Holstein.3  Having  for  some  time 
worked  as  a  surveyor,  he  seems  to  have  entered  the  service 
of  a  Danish  nobleman,  Erik  Lange  of  Engelholm,  in  Jut- 
land, who  was  a  devoted  student  of  alchemy.  Lange  went 
on  a  visit  to  Tycho  in  September  1584,  and  brought  Reymers 
with  him,  but  this  probably  somewhat  uncouth  self-taught 
man  seems  to  have  been  treated  with  but  scant  civility 

1  Epist.  astron.,  pp.  128,  129. 

2  So  Tycho  says  in  his  reply  to  Rothmann  (Epist.,  p.  149),  but  before 
Rothmann's  letter  was  written  Tycho  had  in  his  letter  to  Peucer  (dated  I3th 
September    1588)  mentioned  that  a  German  mathematician  had  two   years 
previously  heard  of  the  system  "  per  quendam  meum  fugitivum  ministrum  " 
(Weistritz,  i.  p.  255),  and  this  he  also  mentions  in  the  letter  to  Rothmann. 

3  Kastner,  Gcschichte  der  Mathematik,  i.  p.  669 ;  Kepleri  Opera  ed.  Frisch, 
i.  p.  218. 


184  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

at  Uraniborg.  After  Laving  spent  a  winter  as  tutor  in 
Pomerania,  Keymers  went  to  Cassel  in  the  spring  of  1586, 
where  he  informed  the  Landgrave  that  he  had  the  previous 
winter,  while  living  on  the  outskirts  of  Pomerania,  designed 
a  system  of  the  world.  This  was  exactly  like  Tycho's, 
except  that  it  admitted  the  rotation  of  the  earth.  The 
Landgrave  was  so  pleased  with  the  idea,  that  he  got  Biirgi 
to  make  a  model  of  the  new  system ;  but  though  he  had 
been  well  received  at  Cassel,  Reymers  was  not  long  in 
favour  there,  as  he  fell  out  with  Rothmann,  to  whom  he 
abused  Tycho.  Rothmann  mentioned  this  in  a  letter  to 
Tycho  in  September  I586,1  but  did  not  mention  Reymers' 
system,  which  first  became  known  in  I  5  8  8  by  the  above- 
mentioned  book.2  This  contains  some  chapters  on  trigono- 
metry and  some  on  astronomy,  and  in  the  last  chapter  the 
new  system  is  explained  and  illustrated  by  a  large  diagram 
on  about  twice  as  large  a  scale  as  that  in  Tycho's  book. 
The  only  important  difference  is,  that  the  orbit  of  Mars  does 
not  intersect  that  of  the  sun,  but  lies  quite  outside  it. 

Tycho  was  apparently  very  proud  of  his  system,  and  (as 
in  the  case  of  Wittich)  he  immediately  jumped  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Reymers  Bar  had  robbed  him  of  his  glory.3 

1  Epist. rastron. ,  p.  33,  where  Rothmann  (who  thought  that  Reymers  had 
been  employed  in  Tycho's  printing-office)  calls  him  a  dirty  blackguard  ("plura 
scriberem,  prsesertim  de  impuro  illo  nebulone  "),  which  expression  Tycho  now 
found  very  suitable  (ibid.,  p.  149). 

2  For  accounts  of   this  book   see  Kastner,  i.  p.  631  ;  Delambre,  Astron. 
moderne,  i.   p.   287 ;   and  Rudolf   Wolf's  Astronomische  Mittlicilungen,  No. 
Ixviii. 

3  Already  in  1589   or  1590  Duncan  Liddel  lectured  at  Rostock  on  the 
Tychonic  system,  calling  it  by  this  name.     A  report  afterwards  reached  Tycho 
to  the  effect  that  Liddel  privately  took  the  credit  of  the  new  system  to  him- 
self, and  that  he  later  on  did  so  openly  at  Helmstadt  (see  letter  from  Cramer, 
a  clergyman  of  Rostock,  to  Holger  Rosenkrands,  in  Epistolce  ad  J.  Kepplerum, 
ed.  Hanschius,  p.  114  et  seq.).     It  appears,  however,  that  Liddel  indignantly 
denied  the  charge,  though  he  claimed  to  have  deduced  the  system  himself, 
and  to  owe  Tycho  nothing  except  the  incitation  to  speculate  on  the  matter, 
for  which  reason  he  had  mentioned  the  system  as  the  "  Tychonic  "  (Kepkri 
Opera  omnia,  i.  pp.  227,  228), 


THE  TYCHONIC  SYSTEM.  185 

He  wrote  at  once  to  Rothmann  (in  February  1589)  that 
Beymers  must  have  seen  a  drawing  of  the  new  system 
during  his  stay  at  Uraniborg  in  1584,  and  as  a  proof  of 
this  he  refers  to  the  orbit  of  Mars,  which  in  a  drawing 
made  before  that  time,  by  a  mistake,  had  been  made  to  sur- 
round the  solar  orbit  instead  of  intersecting  it.  This  can- 
celled drawing  had  got  in  among  a  number  of  maps  in  a 
portfolio,  where  Keymers  must  have  seen  it,  as  he  copied 
the  erroneous  orbit  of  Mars  in  the  diagram  of  his  book.  He 
therefore  expressed  his  concurrence  in  the  not  very  flatter- 
ing expression  which  Kothmann  had  applied  to  Eeymers 
Bar  in  a  former  letter.1 

It  must,  however,  be  said  that  this  accusation  of  plagi- 
arism is  founded  on  very  slight  evidence,  and  the  verdict 
of  posterity  can  only  be  "  not  proved."  In  his  writings 
Keymers  has  shown  himself  an  able  mathematician,  and 
there  is  no  reason  whatever  why  he  should  not  indepen- 
dently have  arrived  at  a  conclusion  similar  to  the  idea 
which  Tycho  conceived  on  the  planetary  motions.  We 
shall  afterwards  see  what  a  curious  end  this  affair  got,  and 
how  Tycho  and  Rothmann  may  have  regretted  that  they 
had  not  let  the  bear  alone. 

1  Epist.  astr.,  pp.  149,  150. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
FURTHER  WORK  ON  THE  STAR  OF  1572. 

AFTER  the  publication,  or  rather  the  completion,  of  the  second 
volume  of  his  book  Tycho  pushed  on  the  preparation  of  the 
first  volume  on  the  new  star,  of  which  the  printing  began 
long  before  the  manuscript  was  approaching  completion. 
From  many  direct  or  indirect  allusions  to  time  in  various 
places  in  the  book,  it  appears  that  it  was  written  in  the 
years  1588  to  1592, x  and  as  Tycho  had  several  times  been 
inconvenienced  by  want  of  paper,  he  resolved  to  build  a 
paper-mill  on  the  south-western  coast  of  the  island,  which 
could  be  driven  by  the  water  from  the  fish-ponds.  This 
mill  was  finished  in  1589  or  I59O>  and  the  same  water- 
wheel  which  turned  it  could  also  be  connected  with  a  corn- 
mill  and  machinery  for  preparing  skins.2  It  was,  however, 
by  no  means  only  the  want  of  paper  which  delayed  the 
completion  of  Tycho's  book ;  it  had  come  to  embrace 

1  See,  e.g.,  Progym.,  I  pp.  34,  52,   102,  335,  559,  710,  721,  745.     In  the 
appendix  written  by  Kepler  it  is  stated  that  the  book  was  written  between 
1582  and  1592,  but  the  printing  cannot  have  commenced  before  1588,  and 
that  the  first  chapter  was  written  in  1588  is  evident. 

2  In  a  letter  to  Rothmann  (24th  November  1589)  Tycho  mentions  the  mill 
as  having  been  for  some  time  at  work.     The  inscription  on  a  slab  in  the  wall 
of  the  mill  is  given  slightly  different  by  Resen.,  Inscript.  Hafn.,  1668,  p.  335 
(Weistritz,  i.  p.  69),  and  in  the  DansTce  Magazin,  ii.  p.  265  (Weistritz,  ii.  p. 
198)  ;  and  according  to  the  former  it  was  begun  in  1589  and  completed  in 
1590  ;  according  to  the  latter,  commenced  1590,  finished  1592.     But  the  former 
dates  must  be  correct,  as  they  agree  with  Tycho's  statement  that  the  mill  was 
at  work  in  1589;  and  in  the  meteorological  diary  we  read  under  22nd  July 
1590:  "Abiit  Valentinus  opere   aggeris   apud   molendinum  confecto."      In 
March  1590  the  widow  of  Steen  Bille  was  ordered  to  allow  Tycho  to  cut  down 
an  oak  in  the  wood  at  Heridsvad  for  use  in  the  mill  (D.  Magazin,  ii.  264). 

186 


FURTHER  WORK  ON  THE  STAR  OF  1572.  187 

many  branches  of  astronomy,  and  as  the  current  observa- 
tions continued  to  reveal  imperfections  in  the  values  of 
astronomical  constants  handed  down  from  antiquity,  Tycho 
was  unwilling  to  finish  the  book  and  deprive  himself  of 
the  power  of  inserting  in  it  further  results  of  his  work. 
The  book  was  never  issued  in  a  complete  state  in  his  life- 
time ;  only  a  very  few  friends  or  correspondents  received 
incomplete  copies  or  portions  of  the  book ;  and  after  Tycho's 
death  an  important  section  (32  pp.),  separately  paged,  was 
inserted  at  the  end  of  the  first  chapter.  When  completed, 
the  book  numbered  more  than  900  pages,  divided  into  three 
parts  and  a  "  conclusion ; "  and  it  bears  many  traces  of 
having  been  both  written  and  printed  in  the  course  of  many 
years,  succeeding  sheets  frequently  before  preceding  ones. 
The  first  chapter  deals  with  the  apparent  motion  of  the  sun, 
the  length  of  the  year,  the  elements  of  the  solar  orbit,  re- 
fraction, and  gives  tables  for  the  motion  of  the  sun.  As 
there  were  a  few  pages  to  spare  (the  second  chapter  having 
been  printed  and  paged  first),  Tycho  determined  to  devote 
them  to  the  lunar  theory,  though  this  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  determination  of  star  places,  and  was  not  even  mentioned 
in  the  title  of  the  chapter;  and  as  this  subject  grew  in 
importance  and  difficulty,  it  eventually  delayed  the  pub- 
lication of  the  volume  considerably.  The  second  chapter 
describes  the  methods  of  determining  the  places  of  stars, 
investigates  the  amount  of  precession,  and  contains  Tycho's 
own  catalogue  of  star  places.1  This  finishes  the  first  part 
of  the  book,  and  as  we  shall  examine  in  our  last  chapter 
the  various  subjects  dealt  with,  we  may  pass  to  the  second 
part  of  Tycho's  book,  which  is  devoted  to  his  own  observa- 
tions of  the  star  of  1572. 


1  The  Catalogue  was  printed  after  the  succeeding  sheets,  and  the  sheets 
KK.  and  LL.  are  therefore  double  ones,  as  the  Catalogue  filled  more  space 
than  anticipated. 


188  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

The  third  chapter  describes  the  appearance  of  the  star, 
the  gradual  fading  of  its  light,  the  variation  of  colour ;  how 
it  was  seen  by  carriers,  sailors,  and  similar  people,  a  good 
while  before  the  astronomers  in  their  chimney-corners  heard 
of  it ;  then  branches  off  into  a  mythological  account  of 
Queen  Cassiopea,  and  gives  a  map  of  the  constellation  with 
the  star  in  it.  Tycho  refers  to  the  Aristotelean  idea  of  the 
unchangeable  nature  of  the  heavens,  and  to  the  star  of  Hip- 
parchus,  which  he  believes  to  have  been  similar  to  his  own 
star,  and  then  to  that  of  the  Magi,  which  he  says  could  not 
have  been  a  star  in  the  heavens,  since  it  showed  the  way  to 
a  particular  town,  and  even  to  a  house,  and  was  only  seen 
by  the  wise  men.  He  therefore  summarily  dismisses  the 
idea  that  the  star  in  Cassiopea  should  signify  the  return  of 
Christ.  Lastly,  he  mentions  the  stars  said  by  Cyprianus 
Leovitius  to  have  appeared  in  the  years  945  and  1264. 
All  these  subjects  we  have  dealt  with  in  sufficient  detail  in 
the  chapter  on  the  new  star,  where  the  book  of  which  we 
are  now  summarising  the  contents  is  frequently  quoted. 

In  the  fourth  chapter  are  given  descriptions  and  illustra- 
tions of  the  sextant  with  which  he  observed  the  star,  and 
of  the  great  quadrant  at  Augsburg.  This  chapter  also  con- 
tains the  measured  distance  of  the  new  star  from  twelve 
stars  in  Cassiopea,  the  distances  inter  se  of  most  of  these 
stars  (from  observations  made  at  Hveen  in  1578  and  1583), 
and  a  number  of  observations  made  with  the  Augsburg 
quadrant.  As  this  instrument  was  designed  and  con- 
structed by  Tycho,  he  naturally  wished  to  prove  its  ex- 
cellence, and  inserted  a  number  of  observed  decimations 
of  circumpolar  stars  (which  give  values  for  the  latitude 
of  Goggingen  agreeing  inter  se  within  a  minute),  and  the 
declinations  of  six  zodiacal  stars  in  equally  good  accordance 
with  the  results  obtained  at  Hveen. 

In  the  fifth  chapter  the  co-ordinates  of  the  star  both 


FURTHER  WORK  ON  THE  STAR  OF  1572.  189 

with  regard  to  the  ecliptic  and  the  equator  are  computed 
from  its  distance  from  the  other  stars  in  Cassiopea  and  the 
places  of  these  stars  as  observed  at  Hveen.  Seven  different 
combinations  give  results  of  which  the  extremes  differ  only 
about  half  a  minute.1  Tycho  also  gives  the  places  of  the 
twelve  comparison  stars  according  to  Alphonso  and  Coper- 
nicus (i.e.,  Ptolemy),  which  differ  in  many  cases  upwards  of 
a  degree  from  his  own.  He  then  turns  in  the  sixth  chapter 
to  the  question  as  to  where  the  star  was  situated  in  space, 
and  proves  in  four  ways  that  it  was  far  beyond  the  planets, 
"  in  the  eighth  sphere."  First,  the  shape,  light,  continual 
twinkling,  immovability,  daily  revolution  like  the  fixed  stars, 
and  its  having  lasted  more  than  a  year,  prove  that  it  was 
not  a  comet.  Secondly,  it  had  no  parallax,  as  the  distance 
from  the  pole  and  from  neighbouring  stars  remained  un- 
altered during  the  daily  revolution,  while  the  polar  distance 
would  have  varied  i°  5'  if  the  star  had  been  as  near  as  the 
moon,  2f  5  2f/  if  as  near  as  the  sun,  and  1 6/f  if  at  the  distance 
of  Saturn,  with  smaller  variations  in  the  distances  from  the 
other  stars.2  Here  he  not  only  gives  this  indication  of  his 
idea  of  the  distance  of  the  planets,  but  also  shortly  alludes 
to  his  system  of  the  world.  He  remarks  that  if  the  star 
was  situated  in  the  sphere  of  Saturn,  and  if  we  adopt  the 
annual  motion  of  the  earth  according  to  Copernicus,  the 
star  would  in  a  year  appear  to  move  backwards  and  forwards 
(i.e.,  have  an  annual  parallax)  to  the  extent  of  about  ten 
degrees,  so  that  even  followers  of  Copernicus  must  admit 
that  the  star  was  far  beyond  Saturn.  The  third  proof  of 
the  great  distance  of  the  star  is,  that  the  meridian  alti- 

1  The  result  adopted  by  Tycho  is  for  1573,  AR  o°  26'  24",  Decl.  61°  46'  45", 
while  Argelander  found  O°  28'  6"  and  6l°  46'  23"  from  a  recomputation  of  the 
distance  measures,  using  Bessel's  and  Bradley's  star  places.     Astr.  Nachr., 
Ixii.  No.  1482. 

2  On  p.  414  he  refers  to  the  difficulty  of  finding  the  parallaxes  of  the  outer 
planets,  and  how  Mars  was  nearer  than  the  sun.     See  above,  p.  179. 


190  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

ttides  gave  the  same  latitude  (for  Heridsvad  and  Goggingen) 
as  other  stars  gave ;  and  the  fourth  is,  that  observations  at 
far-distant  places  gave  results  in  good  accordance  inter  se, 
as,  for  instance,  his  own  and  those  of  Munosius  at  Valencia. 
As  Tycho  has  so  often  referred  to  the  parallax  of  the  moon, 
he  verifies  at  the  end  of  this  chapter  the  value  of  Coperni- 
cus by  computing  the  lunar  parallax  from  six  observations, 
three  on  the  meridian  and  three  at  the  nonagesimal  point, 
where  there  is  no  parallax  in  longitude. 

In  the  seventh  and  last  chapter  of  the  second  part  of  the 
book  Tycho  attempts  to  calculate  the  diameter  of  the  new 
star.  He  first  recounts  the  crude  ideas  of  his  predecessors 
as  to  the  diameters  of  the  planets  and  fixed  stars,  on  which 
he  did  not  improve  very  much  himself.  He  did  not,  however, 
place  all  the  fixed  stars  at  the  same  distance  just  beyond 
the  orbit  of  Saturn,  and  he  suggested  that  the  fainter  stars 
are  probably  at  a  far  greater  distance  than  the  brighter 
ones,  though  even  if  they  were  at  the  same  distance  it 
would  not  follow  that  all  the  stars  which  we  consider  as 
belonging  to  one  magnitude  were  equal  in  size,  as  Sirius 
and  Vega  are  much  larger  than  Aldebaran,  which  again  is 
larger  than  Regulus.1  The  apparent  diameter  of  the  sun 
Tycho  had,  in  1591,  measured  "through  a  canal  32  feet 
long,"  and  in  this  way  he  found  that  at  the  apogee  the 
diameter  was  barely  30',  and  at  the  perigee  slightly  above 
32'.2  The  instrument  was,  according  to  Kepler,  a  screen 
on  which  the  image  of  the  sun  fell  through  a  small  opening, 
and  the  "  canal "  must  have  been  added  merely  to  exclude 
stray  light.3  The  diameter  of  the  moon  Tycho  generally 


1  Progym.,  p.  470. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  471.     Historia  Coelestis,  p.  475  et  seq.     Tycho's  mean  diameter 
31'  is  exactly  i'  too  small,  and  the  difference  between  apogee  and  perigee  is 
only  i',  as  Kepler  already  found. 

3  Ad  Vitdl.  Pared.,  cap.  xi. ;  Opera  omnia,  ii.  pp.  343-44,  where  Kepler  quotes 


FURTHER  WORK  ON  THE  STAR  OF  1572.  191 

determined  by  observing  the  difference  of  decimation  of 
the  upper  and  lower  limb  ;  he  adopts  the  mean  diameter 
33'.  With  these  data  he  now  calculates  the  real  diameters 
of  the  sun  and  moon,  making  use  of  the  old  value  of  the 
solar  parallax  of  3',  which  neither  Copernicus  nor  he  thought 
of  discarding.  The  distance  of  the  sun  being  1150  semi- 
diameters  of  the  earth,  the  semi-diameter  of  the  sun  will  be 
5 . 2  times  that  of  the  earth,  and  similarly  the  distance  of  the 
moon  is  60  and  its  semi-diameter  0.29.  For  the  planets 
he  assumes  apparent  diameters  from  2'  to  3',  and  calculates 
from  these  their  diameters  and  volumes  in  parts  of  those 
of  the  earth.1  For  the  fixed  stars  Tycho  assumes  smaller 
apparent  diameters  than  other  astronomers  did  before  the 
invention  of  the  telescope.2  With  regard  to  the  distance 
of  the  stars,  he  believes  the  greatest  distance  of  Saturn  to 
be  12,300  semidiameters  of  the  earth  (to  arrive  at  which  he 
sketches  the  theory  of  Saturn  as  mentioned  above 3) ;  and 
as  he  does  not  believe  that  there  is  a  great  void  between 
the  orbit  of  Saturn  and  the  fixed  stars,  he  places  these  at 

some  observations  made  at  Hveen  in  March  and  June  1578,  giving  30'  35" 
and  29'  53".  About  the  diopters  of  Hipparchus,  see  Halma's  preface  to  the 
Almegist,  vol.  ii.  p.  Iviii. 

1  The  diameters  of  the  planets  are  measured  by  pointing  with  the  armillae 
or  a  quadrant  alternately  to  the  upper  and  lower  edge  of  the  planet.     See, 
e.g.,  Historia  Ccelestis,  p.  429,  for  a  number  of  measures  of  Saturn.     The 
diameters  assumed  are  (Prog.,  pp.  475-76)  : — 

Mercury  2'  10"  at  mean  distance,  1,150 
Venus      3' 1 5"         „  „         1,150 

Mara         i' 40"         „  „          1,745 

Jupiter    2' 45"         „  „         3,990 

Saturn     i' 50"         „  „       10,550 

2  First  mag.  diameter   120",  second  90",  third  65",  fourth   45",  fifth  30", 
sixth  20"  (ibid.,  pp.  481-82).      Magini   took  the  stars  of  the  first  mag.  to 
be  10'  in  diameter  ;  Kepler  made  the  diameter  of  Sirius  4'  (Opera,  ii.  p.  676) ; 
the  Persian  author  of  the  Ayeen  Akbery  put  the  diameter  of  stars  of  the  first 
mag.  =  7'  (Delambre,  Moyen  Age,  p.  238),  so  that  Tycho's  estimates  were  more 
reasonable  than  any  of  these. 

3  The  ratio  of  the  semidiameters  of  the  deferent  of  Saturn  and  of  the  solar 
orbit  he  borrows  from  Copernicus.     Compare  above,  p.  181,  footnote  \ 


192  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

a  distance  of  about  14,000,  and  the  new  star  at  least  at 
13,000  semidiameters.  The  apparent  diameter  of  the  new 
star  at  its  first  appearance  he  estimated  at  3!',  and  its  real 
diameter  must  therefore  have  been  7|  times  that  of  the 
earth,  or  somewhat  greater  than  that  of  the  sun.  He  does 
not  think  that  the  diminution  of  light  was  caused  by 
the  star  having  moved  away  from  us  in  a  straight  line, 
partly  because  no  celestial  body  moves  in  a  straight  line, 
partly  because  it  would,  when  about  to  disappear,  have  been 
at  the  incredible  distance  of  300,000  semidiameters  of  the 
earth.  The  star  must  actually  have  decreased  in  size,  so 
that  it  at  the  end  of  the  year  1573  was  about  equal  to  the 
earth  in  size. 

This  finishes  what  Tycho  has  himself  found  by  observa- 
tion and  speculation  concerning  the  star  of  Cassiopea,  and 
he  next  devotes  the  third  part  of  his  book,  300  pages, 
to  an  examination  of  the  writings  of  other  astronomers  or 
authors  about  the  star.  First  he  discusses  in  Chapter  VIII. 
the  observations  of  those  who  could  not  find  any  parallax 
(the  last  book  considered  being  his  own  little  book  of 
1573,  of  which  he  reprints  the  greater  part,  omitting  the 
astrological  predictions)  ;  next  he  deals  in  Chapter  IX.  with 
those  authors  who  thought  they  had  found  some  parallax, 
but  who  did  not  place  the  star  within  the  lunar  orbit ;  and 
lastly,  he  deals  with  the  writers  "  who  have  not  brought  out 
anything  solid  or  important,  and  either  maintained  that  the 
star  was  not  new  or  that  it  was  a  comet  or  a  sublunary 
meteor."  His  remarks  are  often  written  in  a  sarcastic 
style,  with  puns  or  play  upon  words,  by  which  he  perhaps 
meant  to  relieve  the  dulness  of  this  far  too  lengthy  part  of 
the  book.  We  have  above,  in  our  third  chapter,  given  the 
reader  some  idea  of  these  various  classes  of  writers,  and 
need  not,  therefore,  here  enter  into  further  details  about 
these  chapters  of  Tycho's  book. 


FURTHER  WORK  ON  THE  STAR  OF  1572.  193 

Finally,  the  "  Conclusion"  of  the  volume  (pp.  787-816) 
gives  first  a  rapid  summary  of  the  contents  of  the  book,  and 
then  deals  with  two  questions  not  yet  touched  upon,  the 
physical  nature  of  the  new  star  and  the  astrological  effect 
and  signification,  which  the  author  did  not  wish  to  enter  on 
in  the  body  of  the  work,  "as  these  matters  are  not  subject 
to  the  senses,  nor  to  any  geometrical  demonstration,  but 
can  only  be  speculated  on."  As  to  the  nature  of  the  star, 
Tycho  considers  that  it  was  formed  of  "  celestial  matter," 
not  differing  from  that  of  which  the  other  stars  are  com- 
posed, except  that  it  was  not  of  such  perfection  or  solid 
composition  as  in  the  stars  of  permanent  duration.  It  was 
therefore  gradually  dissolved  and  dwindled  away.  It  became 
visible  to  us  because  it  was  illuminated  by  the  sun,  and  the 
matter  of  which  it  was  formed  was  taken  from  the  Milky 
Way,  close  to  the  edge  of  which  the  star  was  situated,  and 
in  which  Tycho  believed  he  could  now  see  a  gap  or  hole 
which  had  not  been  there  before.  This  idea  may  to  the 
modern  reader  seem  absurd,  but  it  should  be  remembered 
that  the  telescope  had  not  yet  revealed  the  true  nature  of 
the  Milky  Way,  and  Tycho's  ideas  about  the  latter  were  at 
all  events  a  great  advance  from  those  of  Aristotle  (which 
he  sharply  attacks),  according  to  which  the  Milky  Way 
was  merely  an  atmospheric  agglomeration  of  stellar  matter. 
With  regard  to  the  other  question,  the  astrological  signi- 
fication of  the  star,  Tycho  had  evidently  considered  it  a  good 
deal  since  he  wrote  his  little  book  in  1573,  and  he  does 
not  on  this  occasion  merely  express  himself  in  very  general 
terms,  but  gives  his  opinion  with  more  decision.  As  his 
prediction  attracted  a  good  deal  of  attention,  particularly 
later  when  it  seemed  to  have  been  fulfilled,  it  is  worth 
while  to  give  a  short  summary  of  it. 

As  the  star  of  Hipparchus  announced  the  extinction  of 

the  Greek  ascendency  and  the  rise  of  the  Roman  empire, 

13 


194  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

so  the  star  of  1572  is  the  forerunner  of  vast  changes,  not 
only  in  politics,  but  also  in  religious  affairs,  for  the  star  was 
situated  close  to  the  equinoctial  colure,  which  by  astrologers 
is  supposed  to  have  something  to  do  with  religious  matters.1 
And  as  the  star  first  shone  with  Jovial  and  clear  light,  and 
afterwards  with  Martial  and  ruddy  light,  the  effect  will  first 
be  peaceful  and  favourable,  but  afterwards  become  violent 
and  tumultuous.  And  the  religions  which  are  full  of 
"  Jovial "  splendour  and  pomp,  after  having  for  a  long  time 
dazzled  ignorant  people  by  their  external  magnificence  and 
more  than  Pharisaic  formalism,  will,  like  that  pseudo-star, 
fade  and  disappear.  Though  the  star  was  so  near  the 
equinoctial  colure  that  it  nearly  touched  it  with  its  rays,  it 
was  quite  within  the  vernal  quadrant,  and  it  announces  that 
some  great  light  is  at  hand,  just  as  the  sun  when  past  the 
vernal  equinox  conquers  the  darkness  of  night.  And  as 
the  star  was  visible  over  most  of  the  earth,  so  the  effects  of 
it  will  be  felt  over  the  greater  part  of  the  globe,  though 
the  northern  hemisphere  will  be  especially  affected.  With 
regard  to  the  time  when  the  influence  of  the  star  will  begin 
to  be  felt,  this  will  be  nine  years  after  the  great  conjunction 
of  planets  in  April  1583,  in  the  2ist  degree  of  Pisces  (be- 
cause the  direction  of  this  and  the  star  along  the  equator 
is  9°),  or  in  other  words,  in  1592,  and  those  who  were  born 
when  the  star  appeared  will  about  that  time  enter  man's 
estate,  and  be  ready  for  the  great  enterprise  for  which  they 
are  ordained.  But  if  we  take  the  direction  along  the 
zodiac,  we  find  forty-eight  years,  after  the  lapse  of  which 
period  the  effect  of  the  star  will  become  strongest,  and  will 
last  for  some  years,  until  1632  or  about  that  time,  when 
the  effect  of  the  fiery  trigon  (which  the  star  announced) 
will  also  be  felt.  The  conjunction  of  1583  concluded  a 
cycle  of  planetary  conjunctions,  the  seventh  since  the 

1  Pisces  was  supposed  to  be  the  sign  of  Palestine. 


FURTHER  WORK  ON  THE  STAR  OF  1572.  195 

creation  of  the  world.1  The  first  cycle  ended  at  the  time 
of  Enoch,  the  second  at  the  deluge,  the  third  at  the  exodus 
from  Egypt,  the  fourth  at  the  time  of  the  kings  of  Israel, 
the  fifth  at  the  time  of  Christ  when  the  Eoman  empire  was 
at  its  height,  the  sixth  when  the  empire  arose  in  the 
western  world  under  Charlemagne,  and  the  seventh  and 
sabbath-like  one  was  now  coming.  And  as  the  first,  third, 
and  fifth  "  restitution  "  had  been  salutary  to  the  world,  the 
seventh,  which  had  a  particularly  uneven  number,  will  in- 
augurate a  very  happy  state  of  things,  a  peaceful  and  quiet 
age  such  as  that  foretold  by  the  prophets  Isaiah  (ch.  xi.) 
and  Micah  (ch.  iv.),  when  the  lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the 
ox,  and  the  sucking  child  shall  play  on  the  hole  of  the  asp, 
&c.  As  to  the  place  on  the  earth  from  which  this  change 
will  arise,  it  will  be  the  one  in  the  Zenith  of  which  the  star 
was  at  its  first  appearance,  which  Tycho  assumes  to  have 
been  at  the  time  of  the  New  Moon  previous  to  the  I  ith 
November,  when  he  noticed  the  star.2  The  star  was  then 
on  the  meridian  of  places  about  1 6°  east  of  Uraniborg  and 
in  the  Zenith  of  a  place  with  north  latitude  6if°.  This 
fixes  the  ominous  spot  "  in  Russia  or  Moschovia  where  it 
joins  the  north-east  part  of  Finland."  Having  devoted  so 
much  space  to  this  matter,  I  must  pass  over  the  way  in 
which  Tycho  finds  Moschovia  pointed  out  in  the  Prophets, 
the  Revelation,  and  a  certain  ancient  prophecy  of  Sibylla 
Tiburtina,  found  in  1520  in  Switzerland. 

That  Tycho  when  writing  of  the  religion  distinguished 
by  pomp  and  splendour  which  was  soon  to  disappear  was 
thinking  of  the  Roman  Catholic  persuasion  is  beyond  a 

1  "  Septima  haec  est  trigonorum  in  integrum  ab  Orbe  condito  restitutio." 
About  the  trigoni  see  above,  p.  49,  footnote.  The  conjunction  of  Jupiter 
and  Saturn  in  Sagittarius  in  December  1603  commenced  a  new  cycle  with  a 
fiery  trigon. 

~  See  above,  p.  50.  Tycho  now  (Progym.,  p.  809)  gives  the  time  of  New 
Moon  as  7h.  3i§m.  P.M. 


196  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

doubt,  and  it  is  curious  that  the  book  in  which  we  read 
this,  though  printed  in  Denmark,  should  eventually  come 
to  be  published  at  Prague  (where  the  religious  war  which 
he  foretold  raged  furiously  less  than  twenty  years  after  his 
death)  and  was  dedicated  to  the  Roman  Emperor !  But  it 
is  more  curious  still  that  some  of  his  other  predictions 
seem  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  person  of  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
the  greatest  champion  of  Protestantism  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  He  was  born  in  1594  (only  two  years  after  the 
influence  of  the  star  should  begin  to  be  felt),  and  his  glory 
was  greatest  in  the  year  in  which  he  fell,  1632,  the  very 
year  mentioned  by  Tycho.  He  certainly  was  not  born  in 
Finland  (for  it  is  Finland  and  not  the  adjoining  part  of 
Russia  which  is  indicated  by  1 6°  east  of  Uraniborg  and  62° 
Latitude),  but  in  Stockholm  ;  but  Finland  was  still  a  province 
of  Sweden,  and  the  yellow  Finnish  regiments  were  con- 
spicuous for  their  bravery  on  many  a  blood-stained  battle- 
field in  Germany.  No  wonder  that  many  contemporaries 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus  were  startled  by  these  coincidences, 
and  that  the  concluding  part  of  Tycho's  book  was  translated 
into  several  languages.1  But  the  star  had  a  truer  mission 
than  that  of  announcing  the  arrival  of  an  impossible  golden 
age.  It  roused  to  unwearied  exertions  a  great  astronomer, 
it  caused  him  to  renew  astronomy  in  all  its  branches  by 
showing  the  world  how  little  it  knew  about  the  heavens ;  his 
work  became  the  foundation  on  which  Kepler  and  Newton 


1  I  possess  an  English  translation  which  seems  to  be  very  scarce  :  "  Learned 
Tico  Brahse  his  astronomicall  Coniectur  of  the  new  and  much  Admired  *  which 
Appered  in  the  year  1572,"  London,  1632,  26  pp.  text,  5  pp.  dedication  ("To 
the  High  and  Mighty  Ernperour  Rvdolphvs  the  II.  The  Preface  of  the  Heyres 
to  Tycho  Brahe  "),  and  2  pp.  of  epigrams  by  the  translator  and  James  VI.  I 
have  seen  another  copy  in  which  there  was  a  portrait  of  Gustavus  Adolphus. 
Lalande  has  a  German  translation  also  printed  in  1632,  and  there  is  a  Dutch 
one  printed  at  Goude  in  1648  ("Generale  Prognosticatie  van  het  jaer  1572  tot 
desen  tegenwoordigen  Jare,  alles  in  Latijn  beschreven  van  Ticho  Brahe  ")  in 
the  library  of  Trin.  Coll.,  Dublin. 


FURTHER  WORK  ON  THE  STAR  OF  1572.  197 

built  their  glorious  edifice,  and  the  star  of  Cassiopea  started 
astronomical  science  on  the  brilliant  career  which  it  has 
pursued  ever  since,  and  swept  away  the  mist  that  obscured 
the  true  system  of  the  world.  As  Kepler  truly  said,  "  If 
that  star  did  nothing  else,  at  least  it  announced  and  pro- 
duced a  great  astronomer."  ] 

1  "  Certe  si  nihil  aliud  stella  ilia,  magnum  equidem  astronomum  significavit 
et  progenuit. "     The  last  words  in  Kepler's  Appendix  to  the  Progymnasmata. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN,  1588-1597. 

AT  the  death  of  King  Frederick  II.,  in  1588,  his  eldest  son, 
Prince  Christian,  who  had  been  elected  his  successor,  was 
only  eleven  years  of  age.  The  Queen  claimed  the  right  of 
governing  the  country  during  his  minority,  and  asked  the 
Privy  Council  if  she  had  not  in  her  husband's  lifetime 
shown  her  love  to  the  two  kingdoms,  and  whether  they 
could  show  cause  why  she  should  have  forfeited  the  right 
of  Dowager-Queens.  But  the  powerful  nobles  were  deter- 
mined to  take  the  reins  into  their  own  hands,  and 
elected  four  Protectors  from  among  the  Privy  Councillors 
— the  Chancellor,  Niels  Kaas ;  the  Chief  of  the  Exchequer, 
Christopher  Yalkendorf ;  the  Admiral  Peder  Munk ;  and 
the  Governor  of  Jutland,  Jorgen  Rosenkrands.  In  order  to 
keep  their  power  as  long  as  possible,  it  was  decided  that  the 
minority  should  last  till  the  Prince  was  twenty  years  of 
age.  The  quiet  and  careful  education  of  the  young  King- 
Elect,  which  his  father  had  planned,  was  continued,  and  the 
Government  of  the  Protectors  was  on  the  whole  well  and 
ably  conducted.  To  Tycho  Brahe  it  was  of  great  importance 
that  the  Chancellor  Kaas  was  a  member  of  the  Government, 
as  the  precarious  tenure  by  which  he  held  all  his  endowments 
and  pensions  made  it  a  vital  matter  for  him  to  have  firm 
friends  among  those  at  the  head  of  affairs.  Probably  with 
a  view  to  ascertain  how  far  the  new  Government  was 
friendly  to  him,  Tycho  in  the  spring  of  1588  addressed 

a    memorial    to    the    young    King    in    which    he    showed 

198 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  199 

that  he  not  only  had  spent  his  various  pensions  and  the 
income  from  his  hereditary  estate  on  his  buildings  and 
works  at  Hveen,  but  had  incurred  a  debt  of  6000  Daler 
(£13  60),  and  he  begged  that  the  King  would  indemnify 
him  for  this  loss,  as  he  had  spent  the  money  according 
to  the  desire  of  the  late  King  and  for  the  honour  of 
the  country.  On  the  8th  July,  Kaas  and  B-osenkrands 
paid  Tycho  a  visit  at  Hveen,  and  probably  by  their  advice 
the  young  King,  on  the  1 2th  July,  with  the  sanction  of 
the  Privy  Council,  granted  the  said  sum  of  6000  Daler  to 
Tycho,  2000  to  be  paid  by  the  Treasury  and  4000  from 
the  Crown  revenue  of  the  former"  Dueholm  monastery  in 
Jutland.  The  money  was  paid  on  the  1 4th  December  follow- 
ing, 2000  from  the  Sound  dues  and  4000  from  Dueholm.1 
In  addition  to  this  proof  of  the  continued  favour  of  the 
Government,  the  Protectors  on  the  23rd  August  issued  a  de- 
claration promising  to  keep  the  buildings  at  Hveen  in  repair 
at  the  public  expense,  and  on  the  expiration  of  the  King's 
minority  to  advise  him  to  fix  a  certain  annual  endowment 
for  the  continuance  of  the  astronomical  work  there  by  some 
fit  person  of  Tycho's  own  family,  or,  failing  such,  by  some 
suitable  person  of  Danish  nobility  or  by  some  other  native.2 
In  the  following  year,  on  the  1 7th  July  1589,  a  new 
declaration  to  the  same  effect  and  very  much  in  the  same 
words  was  drawn  up  and  signed  and  sealed,  not  only  by 
the  four  Protectors,  but  by  all  the  members  of  the  Council, 
fourteen  in  number.3 

Though  these  declarations  were  very  reassuring  to  Tycho, 
he  seems  to  have  thought  that  the  young  King  might 
possibly  in  future  years  not  consider  himself  bound  by 
them,  for  in  March  1590  he  procured  a  letter  from  the 

1  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  249,  253  (Weistritz,  ii.  175  and  182). 
a  Ibid.,  p.  250  (W.f  p.  177). 
a  Ibid.,  p.  260  (W.,  p.  192). 


200  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

Queen  stating  that  she  perfectly  remembered  to  have  heard 
King  Frederick,  some  time  before  his  death,  express  his 
intention  of  appointing  one  of  Tycho's  children  to  succeed 
him  at  Hveen,  if  one  should  be  found  skilful  in  the  astro- 
nomical art.1  Tycho  does  not  appear  to  have  made  any 
use  of  this  letter  in  after  years,  perhaps  because  neither 
of  his  two  sons  showed  any  taste  for  astronomy. 

For  the  present,  at  any  rate,  Tycho's  position  was  secured 
by  the  new  Government,  and  we  have  already  seen  that  the 
grant  of  the  Norwegian  estate  was  renewed  in  June  1589. 
In  this  year  he  received  another  mark  of  the  friendly 
feelings  of  the  Government,  as  a  letter  from  the  young  king 
to  the  burgomasters  and  Corporation  of  Copenhagen  (dated 
Copenhagen  the  1 3th  March  1589)  ordered  them  to  lend 
Tycho  Brahe  a  stone  tower  next  the  rampart,  "  and  a  small 
piece  of  the  rampart  up  to  his  paling,"  as  he  intended  to 
erect  a  building  on  the  tower  for  astronomical  use,  where 
he  wanted  to  keep  some  instruments  for  the  use  of  some 
people  who  might  reside  there  and  practise  with  them.  He 
was,  however,  to  give  up  the  tower  and  rampart  whenever 
they  might  be  required  for  the  defence  of  the  city.2  This 
part  of  the  rampart  was  doubtless  close  to  a  house  which  he 
is  known  to  have  owned  in  the  Farvergade,  in  the  south- 
west part  of  Copenhagen,  perhaps  at  the  corner  where  the 
street  (until  a  few  years  ago)  adjoined  the  rampart,  as  the 
latter  is  said  to  "reach  to  his  paling."  On  the  25th  of 
March  following  the  king  furthermore  gave  to  Tycho  and 
his  heirs  for  ever  two  empty  houses  next  his  own,  on  con- 
dition that  he  should  build  another  house  for  the  dyer  who 

1  Breve  og  Aktstykker  angaaende  Tyge  Brahe  og  hans  Slcegtninge.     Sam- 
lede  af  F.  R.  Friis,  Kjobenhavn,  1875,  p.  I.     From  the  Queen's  letter-book 
in  the  Royal  archives.     It  appears  from  two  other  letters  that  the  Queen  had 
lent  Tycho  1000  Daler,  which  he  was  to  pay  back  at  Michaelmas  1590. 

2  G.  F.  Lassen,   Documenter  og  Actstykker  til  Kjobenliavn  s   Befcestnings 
Historic,  Copenhagen,  1855,  p.  in. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  201 

had  carried  on  business  in  one  of  those  which  Tycho  got.1 
Though  he  frequently  went  to  Copenhagen  (as  may  be  seen 
by  the  Meteorological  Diary),  nothing  is  known  about  his 
domestic  arrangements  there,  nor  do  we  know  whether  he 
really  kept  students  or  pupils.  No  observations  were  made 
at  Copenhagen. 

At  Hveen  the  life  and  work  continued  as  in  previous 
years,  and  Tycho  was  still  honoured  and  f£ted  by  both  com- 
patriots and  foreigners.  Among  his  nearer  friends,  Yedel 
and  Erik  Lange  paid  him  occasional  visits,  and  early  in 
1590  the  latter  became  engaged  to  Tycho's  youngest  sister, 
Sophia,  who  was  a  very  frequent  guest  at  Uraniborg,  and 
who  after  Steen  Bille's  death  (1586)  was  the  only  one  of 
Tycho's  relations  who  was  capable  of  appreciating  the  work 
carried  on  there.2  At  the  age  of  nineteen  or  twenty  she 
had  been  married  to  Otto  Thott  of  Eriksholm,  in  Scania, 
who  died  in  1588,  leaving  an  only  child,  Tage  Thott, 
during  whose  minority  the  young  widow  managed  the 
property  of  Eriksholm.  Here  she  devoted  her  leisure  hours 
partly  to  horticulture  (in  which  she  must  have  excelled, 
since  Rothmann,  who  paid  her  a  visit  during  his  stay  in 
Denmark,  thought  her  garden  worthy  of  special  praise  to 
the  Landgrave),  partly  to  chemistry  and  medicine  (which 
latter  she  made  use  of  to  relieve  the  poor),  and  especially 
to  judicial  astrology,  to  which  she  was  greatly  devoted,  so 
that  she  is  said  to  have  always  carried  a  book  about  with 
her  in  which  the  horoscopes  of  her  friends  were  entered. 
She  had  several  times  met  Erik  Lange  at  Uraniborg,  where 
he  probably  came  to  consult  Tycho  on  matters  relating 
to  alchemy,  on  which  pursuit  he  squandered  his  fortune. 

1  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  254  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  183),  where  also  is  given 
Tycho's  acknowledgment  of  his  being  bound  to  provide  the  dyer  with  a  new 
house. 

*  About  her  observation  of  the  lunar  eclipse  of  1573,  see  above  p.  73. 


202  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

The  match  was  not  a  brilliant  one  for  her,  though  Lange 
was  her  equal  as  regards  birth,  but  in  searching  for  the 
philosopher's  stone  he  had  become  greatly  indebted,  and  in 
order  to  escape  his  creditors  he  left  the  country  in  1591, 
hoping  perhaps  abroad  to  be  more  successful  in  the  gold- 
making  line  than  he  had  been  at  home.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  he  met  with  new  disappointments,  and  Sophia  and 
he  were  not  united  till  1 602,  six  months  after  Tycho's 
death.1 

Sophia  Brahe  and  her  future  husband  were  not  the 
only  guests  at  Uraniborg  in  the  spring  of  1590,  at  which 
time  Tycho  received  his  most  distinguished  visitor,  King 
James  VI.  of  Scotland.  This  monarch  had  several  years 
before  made  overtures  for  the  hand  of  Princess  Elizabeth, 
the  eldest  daughter  of  Frederick  II.  His  envoy,  Peter 
Young,  had,  however,  produced  powers  so  limited,  or  had 
conducted  the  negotiations  in  so  lukewarm  a  manner  (it  is 
supposed  at  the  instigation  of  Queen  Elizabeth),  that  the 
Danish  king  did  not  believe  the  wooer  to  be  in  earnest,  and 
promised  his  eldest  daughter  to  the  Duke  of  Brunswick. 
Not  discouraged  by  this  failure,  and  yielding  to  the  loudly 
expressed  wish  of  the  Scotch  nation  to  see  the  king  married 
soon,  James  solicited  the  hand  of  King  Frederick's  second 
daughter,  Anne.  The  Earl  Marshal,  Lord  Keith,  was  sent 
to  Denmark  in  1589,  and  the  marriage  was  celebrated  at 
Kronborg  Castle  by  procuration.  The  bride  set  out  for 
Scotland  in  September,  escorted  by  a  Danish  fleet  of  four- 
teen vessels,  but  a  storm  obliged  the  fleet  to  seek  shelter  at 

1  DansTce  Magazin,  iii.  (1747),  p.  12  et  seq.  During  Lange's  absence  abroad 
Sophia  Brahe  sent  him  a  long  letter  in  Latin  verses,  which  is  printed  in 
Resenii  Inscription.es  Hafnienses  (1668),  but  from  a  very  incorrect  copy. 
There  is  a  more  correct  copy  in  the  Hofbibliothek  at  Vienna,  printed  in  Breve 
og  Actstykker,  pp.  6-25.  The  poem  is  most  interesting  from  the  numerous 
allusions  to  alchemy  and  astrology  in  it,  but  Sophia  Brahe  cannot  have  written 
it  in  Latin,  to  judge  from  what  Tycho  says  of  her  attainments  in  a  MS.  note, 
also  in  the  Hofbibliothek  (ibid.,  pp.  160-161). 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  203 

Oslo  in  Norway,  and  James  was  informed  'that  it  was  not 
likely  to  put  to  sea  again  for  some  months.  Vexed  at  this 
new  disappointment,  he  quickly  made  up  his  mind  (not  a 
very  usual  thing  for  him  to  do,  but  he  was  probably  anxious 
to  have  the  vexed  question  of  the  Orkney  and  Shetland  Isles 
settled  as  soon  as  possible),  and  having,  without  communi- 
cating his  intention  to  his  Council,  fitted  out  some  ships,  he 
started  for  Norway  attended  by  the  Chancellor,  Sir  John 
Maitland,  and  a  numerous  suite.  He  arrived  at  Oslo  in 
November,  and  the  marriage  was  solemnised  at  Aggershus 
Castle  on  the  24th  of  that  month  by  his  own  chaplain, 
David  Lyndsay.  The  timid  monarch  did  not  care  to  face 
the  boisterous  North  Sea  a  second  time  in  winter,  and  re- 
mained in  Norway  for  some  time,  until  he  accepted  the 
invitation  of  the  Danish  Government  and  set  sail  for  Kron- 
borg,  where  he  arrived  with  his  bride  on  the  2Oth  January 
1590.  A  month  after  he  went  to  Copenhagen,  where  the 
usual  festivities  were  held  in  his  honour ;  but  James  did 
not  neglect  the  opportunity  of  enjoying  the  conversation  of 
learned  men,  and  even  went  to  see  the  theologian  Hemming- 
sen  at  Roskilde.  It  is  natural  that  he  should  wish  to  see 
the  spot  to  which  the  eyes  of  all  the  learned  men  of  Europe 
were  directed,  and  on  the  2oth  March  he  paid  a  visit  to 
Tycho  Brahe  at  Hveen,  arriving  at  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  remaining  till  three  P.M.1  King  James  was 
particularly  pleased  to  see  in  the  library  at  Uraniborg  the  por- 
trait of  his  former  tutor,  George  Buchanan,  which  had  been 
presented  to  Tycho  by  Peter  Young,  who  had  once  taught 
James  to  spell,  and  had  afterwards  several  times  been  sent 
to  Denmark  on  various  missions.2  The  learned  king  and 
the  astronomer  had  thus  more  than  one  interest  in  common, 
and  it  is  easy  to  imagine  the  delight  the  former  must  have 

1  Meteorological  diary :  "Rex  Schotise  venit  mane  H.  8,  abiit  H.  3." 

2  He  was  now  the  king's  almoner. 


204  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

felt  while  conversing  with  his  host.  To  show  how  gratified 
he  was  with  his  reception,  he  wrote  at  Uraniborg  (whether 
it  was  in  a  "  visitors'  book  "  does  not  appear) : 

Est  nobilis  ira  Leonis 
Parcere  subjectis  et  debellare  superbos. 
Jacobus  Rex.1 

Why  he  wrote  these  particular  lines  is  not  easy  to  under- 
stand, but  perhaps  he  considered  them  emblematic  of 
"  kingcraft."  2  Maitland  also  tried  his  hand  at  Latin  verse- 
making,  expressing  his  admiration  of  the  house  of  the 
Muses.  The  king  is  said  to  have  discussed  the  Copernican 
system  and  other  matters  with  Tycho,  and  was  doubtless 
equally  proud  of  his  own  exhibition  of  learning  and  pleased 
with  the  hospitable  reception  he  had  met  with.  He  readily 
promised  Tycho  copyright  in  Scotland  for  his  writings 
for  thirty  years,  and  sent  him  this  three  years  later,  ex- 
pressing in  the  document  the  pleasure  it  had  given  him  to 
converse  with  Tycho  and  learn  with  his  own  eyes  and  ears 
things  which  still  delighted  his  mind.  Two  Latin  epigrams 
accompanied  the  document  and  are  printed  with  it  at  the 
beginning  of  Tycho's  Progymnasmata?  King  James  is  also 
said  to  have  presented  Tycho  with  two  fine  English  mastiffs 
before  his  departure.  Various  members  of  his  suite  paid 
visits  to  Hveen  during  the  time  between  the  king's  visit 
and  his  final  departure  from  Denmark,  which  took  place  on 
the  2 1  st  April.4 

1  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  266  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  200), 

2  These  lines  seem  to  have  been  a  standing  dish  with  King  James,  for 
according  to  Horace  Marryat  (A  Residence  in  Jutland,  the  Danish  Isles  and 
Copenhagen,  London,  1860,  vol.  i.  p.  306)  he  also  wrote  them  in  a  hymn-book 
belonging  to  Ramel,  tutor  to  the  young  King  Christian  IV. 

3  Also  in  Gassendi,  p.  1 06. 

4  Epist.  astron.,  p.   175:  "Exinde   quasi   quotidianos  hospites  habuerim." 
Meteor,  diary,  April  21  :  "Rex  Scotise  circiter  horam  7  P.M.  Helsingora  cum 
Regina  sua  et  comitatu  in  regnum  per  mare  discessit,  Navali  regis  comitatu 
stipatus." 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  205 

Two  days  before  his  departure  King  James  had  at  Kron- 
borg  assisted  at  the  nuptials  of  the  lady  he  had  first  wooed 
with  Henry  Julius,  Duke  of  Brunswick- Wolfenblittel.  Of 
course  the  Duke  had  also  to  be  taken  over  to  Hveen  to  see 
the  wonders  there,  which  he  and  his  suite  did  on  the  4th 
May  ;  but  this  visit  does  not  appear  to  have  been  as  pleasant 
to  Tycho  as  that  of  King  James.  The  Duke  took  a  fancy 
to  the  little  revolving  statue  of  Mercury  which  stood  on 
the  roof  of  the  central  room  of  Stjerneborg,  and  thought  it 
would  be  a  pretty  toy  to  take  home  with  him.  Tycho  had 
to  give  him  permission  to  take  it  away  with  him,  when  the 
Duke  had  promised  to  send  him  an  exact  copy  of  it,  which 
promise  he  never  took  the  trouble  to  fulfil,  though  Tycho 
sent  him  several  reminders.1  Gassendi  tells  a  curious  in- 
cident of  this  visit,  which  he  had  heard  from  Janszoon 
Blaev.  At  table  the  Duke  remarked  that  it  was  getting 
late  and  he  would  have  to  take  his  leave,  but  Tycho,  who 
perhaps  was  still  annoyed  at  the  loss  of  the  statue,  said  in 
a  joking  way  that  it  was  his  right  to  give  the  signal  for 
breaking  up.  The  Duke  took  offence  at  this  and  walked 
off  towards  the  shore  without  taking  leave,  and  when  Tycho, 
who  had  first  remained  at  table,  after  a  little  while  followed 
him  and  offered  him  a  stirrup-cup,  the  Duke  turned  away 
and  continued  his  walk.  Upon  which  Tycho  let  him  go, 
and  returned  home  without  troubling  himself  more  about 
his  guest.2  This  may  be  only  gossip,  but  Tycho  was  cer- 
tainly haughty  and  self-sufficient  enough  to  have  behaved 
in  this  manner  even  to  the  king's  brother-in-law,  and  he 
probably  made  himself  more  than  one  powerful  enemy  by 
his  overbearing  manner. 

A  more  welcome  visitor  arrived  three  months  after  this 
event  in  the  person  of  the  Landgrave's  astronomer,  Chris- 

1  Tycho  tells  this  himself  in  Epist.,  p.  256. 

2  Gassendi,  p.  196. 


206  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

topher  Rothmann,  who  came  to  Hveen  on  the  1st  August 
and  stayed  with  Tycho  till  the  I  st  September.  He  seems  to 
have  been  a  somewhat  peculiar  character,  and  to  have  taken 
a  rather  unfair  advantage  of  the  great  modesty  and  retiring 
disposition  of  his  colleague,  Biirgi,  to  push  himself  into  the 
foreground,  if  not  actually  to  try  to  shine  with  borrowed 
plumes.1  In  a  letter  of  which  he  was  the  bearer,  the  Land- 
grave wrote  that  Kothmann  had  been  in  bad  health  for 
some  time,  and  imagined  that  a  little  travelling  and  change 
of  air  would  do  him  good.  "  But  he  has  a  head  of  his  own, 
for  which  he  every  year  buys  a  hat  of  his  own,  so  we  must 
leave  him  to  himself;  but  we  should  be  sorry  if  anything 
happened  to  him,  for  he  is  ingenious  and  a  fine,  learned 
fellow."2  Tycho  and  he  had  now  been  in  regular  corre- 
spondence for  about  four  years,  and  had  in  their  letters 
entered  very  fully  into  the  methods  of  observing  used  at 
Hveen  and  at  Cassel,  and  the  advantages  or  difficulties  of 
the  Copernican  system.  They  had  discussed  the  frequently 
observed  "  chasmata "  or  aurorse  (which  Tycho  took  to  be 
sulphurous  exhalations  ignited  in  the  air,  and  not  clouds 
illuminated  by  the  sun,  as  the  latter  was  too  far  below  the 
horizon  in  winter3)  ;  they  had  exchanged  ideas  about  the 
celestial  space,  which  Tycho  did  not  believe  to  be  filled  with 
air,  as  this  would  produce  a  sound  when  the  planets  moved 
through  it  (which  Kothmann  denied) ;  about  the  amount  of 
refraction  and  the  duration  of  twilight,  for  which  Ptothmann 
assumed  a  depression  of  the  sun  equal  to  24°,  while  Tycho 
found  1 6°  to  I7°,4  and  on  any  other  subject  which  their 
work  might  suggest.  Eothmann  had  prepared  for.  publica- 

1  R.  Wolf,  Astr.  Mittheilungen,  xxxii.  p.  66. 

2  Epist.  astr.,  p.  182. 

3  Epist.,  p.   162.     In  his  Handbucli  der  Matltematik,  Astronomic,  &c.,  ii. 
P-   337>   R-  Wolf  states  that  Tycho  and   Rothmann   had  seen  the  zodiacal 
light ;  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  anything  which  looks  like  an  observa- 
tion of  this.  4  Epist.,  pp.  139-140. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  207 

tion  several  treatises,  none  of  which  have  ever  been  printed, 
among  which  was  one  on  trigonometry,  which  he  had  thought 
of  dedicating  to  King  Frederick  II.,  one  on  the  Copernican 
system,  which  he  suppressed  when  he  saw  how  badly  the 
Prutenic  tables  agreed  with  the  observations,1  and  a  treatise 
on  spherical  and  practical  astronomy,  which  is  still  preserved 
in  MS.  at  Cassel.2 

Tycho  and  his  guest  must  have  had  plenty  of  subjects 
for  conversation,  and  the  host  no  doubt  did  his  best  to 
entertain  the  man  with  whom  he  had  for  years  exchanged 
ideas,  though  they  had  never  yet  met.  It  appears  from 
the  diary  that  several  foreign  visitors  came  and  went  during 
Rothmann's  stay  at  Hveen,  and  these  as  well  as  the  above- 
mentioned  trip  to  Scania  to  see  Sophia  Brahe  and  her 
garden  lent  variety  to  the  visit.  There  were  even  some 
fine  auroraa  to  be  looked  at  and  discussed.  The  many 
interesting  objects  to  be  seen  at  Hveen,  and  the  scenery,  so 
charming  in  summer-time,  ought  to  have  made  Rothmann's 
stay  at  Uraniborg  very  pleasant ;  but  unluckily  Tycho  seems 
to  have  belaboured  him  with  arguments  against  the  Coper- 
nican system  which  must  have  become  somewhat  tiresome 
in  the  end.  In  a  lengthy  note  which  Tycho  has  inserted 
among  his  printed  letters,3  he  states  that,  during  the  weeks 
he  had  Rothmann  with  him  he  pleaded  his  cause  with  this 
generally  very  obstinate  man  so  well,  that  Rothmann  began 
to  waver,  and  finally  declared  himself  convinced,  and  assured 
Tycho  that  he  had  only  held  to  his  opinion  for  the  sake  of 
argument ;  he  even  added  that  he  had  not  published,  and 
never  would  publish,  anything  in  that  direction.  Doubtless 
Rothmann  was  glad  to  end  a  dispute  which  could  lead  to 
nothing,  and  both  these  skilful  observers  knew  well  that 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  89-90. 

2  R.  Wolf,  Astr.  Mitth.,  xlv.,  where  there  is  a  r6sum6  of  the  contents. 

3  Epist.  astr.,  pp.  188-192. 


208  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

there  was  a  great  deal  of  work  to  be  done  yet  ere  the  true 
system  of  the  world  could  be  indisputably  proved.  In  the 
note  already  alluded  to  Tycho  sets  forth  the  arguments 
which  he  had  made  use  of.  These  refer  only  to  the  rota- 
tion of  the  earth,  as  he  thought  the  two  other  motions 
would  be  untenable  when  that  was  disproved.  He  main- 
tains that  though  the  thin  and  subtle  air  might  follow  the 
rotatory  motion,  a  heavy  falling  body  would  not,  and  if  two 
projectiles  were  shot  out  with  equal  force,  one  towards  the 
east  and  the  other  towards  the  west,  he  was  sure  they  would 
go  equally  far,  and  thus  prove  that  the  earth  was  stationary. 
The  enormous  velocity  with  which  the  eighth  sphere  revolves 
in  twenty-four  hours  he  considers  a  proof  of  the  wisdom  and 
power  of  God ;  and  as  motion  is  more  noble  than  rest,  it  is 
natural  that  the  asthereal  world  should  be  in  motion  and 
the  lower  and  coarser  earth  at  rest,  and  this  idea  he  dwells 
on  at  some  length. 

Rothmann  left  Tycho  on  the  1st  September  I  590,  osten- 
sibly to  return  to  Cassel ;  but  whatever  the  reason  may  have 
been,  he  went  instead  to  his  native  place,  Bernburg  in  Anhalt. 
After  a  long  silence  he  wrote  once  more  to  Tycho  in  Septem- 
ber 1594,  but  his  letter  was  only  a  short  one,  complain- 
ing greatly  of  his  health  and  inquiring  why  Tycho's  book 
on  the  comet  of  15 77  nad  not  yet  been  published.  Tycho 
wrote  him  in  January  1595  a  very  long  answer,  which  is 
almost  entirely  taken  up  by  a  defence  of  his  book  on  the 
comet  against  the  attack  made  on  it  by  John  Craig,  for- 
merly Professor  of  Logic  and  Mathematics  at  Frankfurt  on 
the  Oder,  and  now  Physician  to  the  King  of  Scotland.1 
Craig  had  in  1588,  through  the  intercession  of  a  country- 
man (no  doubt  Liddel),  obtained  a  copy  of  the  book,  and  had 
written  to  Tycho  trying  to  disprove  the  conclusion  at  which 

1  Chalmers'  Gen.  BiograpJi.  Dictionary,  London,  1815,  vol.  xx.  p.  243.  Tycho 
does  not  mention  his  name. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  209 

the  latter  had  arrived,  that  the  comet  was  far  beyond  the 
moon.  Tycho  had  in  reply  taken  the  trouble  to  prepare  a 
detailed  "apology"  for  his  book,  and  had  sent  it  to  Craig 
in  1589,  and  three  years  later  the  latter  published  a  refuta- 
tion of  Tycho's  book,  in  which  he  ("  nee  tarn  scotice  quam 
scoptice  ")  made  a  violent  attack  on  all  who  would  not  follow 
Aristotle's  doctrine  about  comets.1  In  this  last  letter  to 
Rothmann,  Tycho,  in  a  needlessly  prolix  manner,  defends  his 
observations  and  results  against  this  obscure  writer,  who, 
but  for  his  attack  on  Tycho,  would  be  quite  unknown  in  the 
annals  of  science.2 

Rothmann  never  returned  to  Cassel,  and  nothing  further 
is  known  of  him.  He  was  still  alive  in  I  599,  when  Tycho 
heard 'from  him  through  a  mutual  acquaintance,  and  he 
must  have  died  before  1608,  when  a  theological  pamphlet 
by  him  was  published,  which  is  designated  as  posthumous.3 
At  Cassel,  where  the  astronomical  work  was  carried  on  by 
Biirgi,  his  continued  absence  created  much  surprise,  and 
the  Landgrave  and  Tycho,  in  the  letters  which  they  fre- 
quently exchanged  in  1591,  repeatedly  expressed  their 
wonder  at  his  disappearance.  These  letters  are  not  like 
the  earlier  ones,  almost  entirely  devoted  to  astronomy, 
though  Tycho  did  not  omit  to  .tell  the  Landgrave  that  the 
printing  of  the  first  volume  of  his  work  was  approaching 
completion,  and  that  he  had  shown  Rothmann  as  much  as 
was  in  type  ;  it  was  partly  want  of  paper  which  delayed  the  /• 

1  "  Capnuraniae  restinctio  sen  cometarum  in  aethera  sublimationis  refutatio." 
Kepler  began  a  refutation  of  Craig's  book  (Opera,  i.  p.  279),  and  Longo- 
montanus  also  (Gassendi,  p.  206),  but  neither  were  printed. 

2  Epist.,  pp.  284-304.     Tycho's  first  Apologia  of  1589  was  never  published, 
though  Lalande  in  his  Bibliographie  (and  following  him  Delambre)  mentions 
it  as  printed  at  Uraniborg  in  1591.     Tycho  might  have  treated  Craig's  attack 
with  the  same  contempt  with  which  he  met  Christmann's  attack  on  his  solar 
theory,  which  he  only  answered  by  putting  up  in  one  of  his  rooms  a  picture 
of   a  dog  barking  at  the  moon,  with  the  inscription  "Nil  moror  nugas." 
Gassendi,  p.  119. 

3  R.  Wolf,  Gcschichte  der  Astronomic,  p.  274. 

14 


210  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

finishing  of  the  book.  The  Landgrave  offered  to  inquire  at 
Frankfurt  whether  there  might  be  one  or  two  papermakers 
,  there  who  might  be  willing  to  go  to  Hveen,  but  Tycho 
wrote  back  that  he  had  already  got  one.1  In  February 
1591  the  Landgrave  wrote  that  he  had  heard  of  an  animal 
from  Norway,  taller  than  a  stag,  of  which  there  were  some 
at  Copenhagen  and  in  the  royal  deer  park  at  Frederiksborg, 
and  he  would  like  a  drawing  of  it.  Tycho  answered  that 
he  did  not  know  of  any  such  animal,  but  some  time  ago  a 
reindeer  had  been  sent  to  Copenhagen  from  Norway,  but 
had  died  during  the  summer ;  he  sent,  however,  a  drawing 
of  it.  The  Landgrave  again  wrote  that  he  had  also  twice 
got  a  number  of  reindeer  from  Sweden,  and  they  seemed 
to  thrive  well  in  winter,  and  could  draw  a  sledge  on  the 
ice,  but  they  died  as  soon  as  warm  weather  came  on.  In 
his  deer-park  at  Zapfenburg,  the  Landgrave  had  an  elk 
since  the  previous  autumn,  and  it  skipped  about  well,  and 
when  he  came  driving  in  his  little  green  carriage,  the  elk 
would  run  alongside  like  a  dog.  If  Tycho  could  send  him 
one  or  two  tame  ones,  he  would  be  very  pleased.  This 
Tycho  promised  to  do,  and  added  that  he  had  himself  had  an 
elk  on  his  estate  in  Scania,  and  had  wanted  to  get  it  over 
to  Hveen.  In  the  first  instance  the  animal  had  been  sent 
to  Landskrona  Castle,  where  Tycho's  niece's  husband  kept 
it  for  some  days,  until  unluckily  the  elk  one  day  walked  up 
the  stairs  into  a  room,  where  it  drank  so  much  strong  beer, 
that  it  lost  its  footing  when  going  down  the  stairs  again 
and  broke  its  leg,  and  died  in  consequence.  Tycho  never 
succeeded  in  getting  an  elk  for  the  Landgrave,  nor  in 
satisfying  his  curiosity  concerning  the  gigantic  animal  called 
Orix,  about  which  the  Landgrave  had  first  inquired.2 

1  Epist.  astr.,  pp.  198,  202,  205,  215.     In  1592  Tycho  was  buying  rags  in 
Seeland  for  his  paper-mill  (DansJce  Magazin,  ii.  280). 

2  Epist.  astr.,  pp.   195,  200,  201,  205,  210,  212,  214.     In  April  1592  the 
Landgrave  wrote  that  he  had  got  four  elks  from  Sweden,  but  three  of  them 
had  died,  probably  from  eating  too  many  rotten  acorns  (p.  269). 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.          211 

Among  other  matters,  the  Landgrave  inquired  about  the 
state  of  affairs  in  Denmark,  and  Tycho  gave  him  the  re- 
quired information  in  detail,  telling  him  that  the  young 
king-elect  was  being  carefully  educated,  and  that  there  was 
every  prospect  of  his  walking  in  his  father's  footsteps  ;  that 
among  the  four  protectors,  the  one  of  greatest  influence 
was  the  Chancellor  Kaas,  a  man  conspicuous  not  only  by 
his  illustrious  descent,  but  also  by  his  experience,  judgment, 
and  prudence,  while  he  was  also  a  very  well-read  man, 
particularly  in  historical  and  political  matters.  If  anything 
of  special  importance  occurred,  it  was  referred  to  the  annual 
assembly  of  nobles.  The  form  of  government  was  thus  an 
aristocratic  one  (which  was  not  a  bad  one),  until  the  king- 
elect  should  attain  his  majority.1  In  return,  the  Landgrave 
sent  Tycho  some  abstracts  from  newspapers  about  the  state 
of  France,  and  gave  it  as  his  opinion  (in  the  curious  mix- 
ture of  German  and  Latin  in  which  he  always  wrote), 
"  dass  es  misserimus  status  totius  Europee  ist."  2 

As  Rothmann  did  not  return  to  Cassel,  and  the  Land- 
grave, therefore,  did  not  see  the  drawings  and  descriptions 
of  the  instruments  at  Hveen  which  he  had  collected  during 
his  stay  there,  Tycho  caused  his  German  amanuensis  to 
prepare  a  description  of  all  the  instruments,  twenty-eight  in 
number,  which  was  sent  to  the  Landgrave,  and  afterwards 
was  inserted  in  the  printed  volume  of  letters,  together  with 
a  Latin  translation,  which  is  somewhat  longer,  and  furnished 
with  woodcuts  of  the  buildings  and  a  map  of  the  island,  as 
well  as  with  copies  of  the  versified  inscriptions  on  various 
portraits  in  Tycho's  collection.  Tycho  was  still  anxious  to 
have  good  mechanics  in  his  service,  and  wrote  to  the  Land- 
grave in  February  1592  that  his  goldsmith,  Hans  Crol, 
was  dead,3  who  had  had  charge  of  his  instruments  for  many 

1  Epist.  astr.,  p.  199,  translated  in  Weistritz,  ii.  p.  209. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  210.  3  He  died  on  the  3Oth  November  1591  (Diary). 


212  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

years,  and  had  made  several  of  them.  He  therefore  in- 
quired if  Biirgi  knew  of  an  able  man  who  might  succeed 
him.  It  so  happened  that  Biirgi  shortly  afterwards  had  to 
go  to  Prague  to  present  to  the  Emperor  a  mechanical  repre- 
sentation of  the  motions  of  the  planets,  and  the  Landgrave 
promised  that  he  should  inquire  about  some  goldsmith  who 
was  accustomed  to  instruments  and  clocks.  Whether  Tycho 
got  such  a  man  is  not  known.1 

The  Landgrave  died  at  Cassel  on  the  25th  August  I  592, 
at  the  age  of  sixty.  His  son  and  successor,  Maurice,  did 
not  share  his  father's  taste  for  astronomy  (though  he  con- 
tinued to  keep  Biirgi  in  his  service  till  1603,  when  Biirgi 
removed  to  Prague),  but  he  was  a  man  of  literary  tastes, 
and  at  Tycho's  request  sent  him  a  Latin  poem  for  insertion 
in  one  of  his  publications,  though  he  modestly  disclaimed 
the  poetical  talent  which  had  been  attributed  to  him.2 

Before  Tycho  lost  his  diligent  correspondents  at  Cassel  he 
had  opened  a  literary  intercourse  with  Giovanni  Antonio 
Magini,  from  1588  Professor  of  Mathematics  at  Bologna,  a 
man  who  by  his  extensive  correspondence  and  his  literary 
activity  gained  a  position  of  some  importance  in  the  history 
of  science.3  We  have  already  mentioned  that  Tycho's  pupil, 
Gellius  Sascerides,  during  his  stay  at  Padua,  sent  Magini  a 
copy  of  the  volume  on  the  comet  of  1577,  and  in  1590 
Magini  wrote  to  Tycho  thanking  him  for  the  welcome  pre- 
sent, and  expressing  his  approval  of  the  new  system  of  the 
world.  In  this  he  could  only  have  wished  that  the  orbits 
of  Mars  and  the  sun  had  not  intersected  each  other,  though 

1  Epist.,  pp.  266  and  270. 

2  The  verse  is  printed  in  Epist.,  p.  281.    Tycho  wrote  to  Landgrave  Maurice 
in  December  1596,  when  he  at  last  sent  him  the  two  elks  which  the  late  Land- 
grave had  wished  for  so  much  (ibid.,  p.  305). 

3  Carteggio  inedito  di  Tichone  Brahe,  Giovanni  Keplero  e  di  altri  celebri 
astronomi  e  matematici  dei  secoli  xvi.  e  xvii.  con  G.  A.  Magini,  tratto  dall' 
Archivio  Malvezzi  de'  Medici  in  Bologna,  pubblicato  ed  illustrate  da  A.  Favaro. 
Bologna,  1886,  8vo. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  213 

this  would  be  admissible  if  (as  Gellius  had  told  him)  Tycho 
had  found  Mars  in  opposition  to  be  nearer  than  the  sun. 
He  begged  Tycho  particularly  to  observe  Mars,  as  he  sus- 
pected its  excentricity  to  be  variable  and  periodical,  so  that 
an  equation  to  this  effect  should  be  introduced  in  the 
theory.1  In  reply,  Tycho  remarked  that  he  had  found  this 
well-known  difficulty  not  only  in  the  theory  of  Mars,  but  in 
a  lesser  degree  also  in  the  theories  of  the  other  planets,  and 
he  wanted  to  observe  the  oppositions  of  Mars  all  round  the 
zodiac.  He  also  gave  a  short  account  of  the  reasons  why 
he  found  it  necessary  to  devise  a  new  system.  He  would 
have  sent  Magini  a  copy  of  his  star-catalogue,  but  the  dis- 
tance was  so  great,  and  the  difficulties  of  transit  so  con- 
siderable, that  it  might  fall  into  wrong  hands  and  somebody 
might  publish  it  as  his  own.2  In  conclusion,  Tycho  remarks 
that  he  had  read  in  Magini's  Tdbulce  Secundi  Mobilis  that 
geographical  latitudes,  since  the  days  of  Ptolemy,  had  in- 
creased more  than  a  degree,  but  he  does  not  believe  it,  as 
the  latitude  of  Rome,  according  to  Pliny,  was  41°  54', 
while  Regiomontanus  found  42°  7'  and  42°  o';  likewise 
Pliny  says  that  at  Venice  the  gnomon  and  its  shadow  were 
of  equal  length  at  the  time  of  equinox,  which  gives  the 
latitude  45°  16',  agreeing  to  the  minute  with  Pitati's  result ; 
also  Pliny  gave  44°  10'  for  Ancona,  which  was  more  than 
the  modern  value,  43°  20',  instead  of  less,  as  had  been 
imagined.3 

Gellius  spent  about  two  years  at  Padua,  where  he  was 
matriculated  at  the  University  in  October  1589.  In 
1591  Magini  had  a  sextant  made  from  his  description,  and 

1  This  letter  is  printed  in  Tycho's  Astr.  inst.  Mechanica,  fol.  H.,  reprinted 
in  Carteggio,  p.  392. 

2  In  February  1591  Gellius  wrote  to  Magini  that  Tycho  had  determined 
the  places  of  500  stars  to  within  a  minute  of  arc.     Carteggio,  p.  2O2. 

3  Carteggio,  p.  403.     It  was  Domenico  Maria  Novara  (whose  lectures  Coper- 
nicus had  attended)  who  had  suggested  that  the  latitudes  had  increased. 


214  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

they  observed  Mars  with,  it  together  on  some  evenings  in 
June  and  July,  as  Tycho  had  called  Magini's  attention  to 
the  singularly  favourable  opposition.1  Magini  wrote  to 
Tycho  that  he  was  going  to  get  a  large  quadrant  and  a 
radius  (cross-staff)  made  with  sights  like  Tycho's.  He 
added  that  he  could  not  procure  for  Tycho  the  copyright  of 
his  books  in  the  Venetian  dominions,  as  they  had  not  been 
printed  there.2  In  the  following  year  Magini  dedicated  to 
Tycho  a  book  on  the  extraction  of  square  root,  but  the  copy 
sent  to  Denmark  never  reached  its  destination,  and  Tycho 
did  not  see  the  book  till  five  years  later,  when  he  came  across 
another  copy  and  reprinted  the  dedication  in  his  Mechanica. 
In  1592,  the  year  in  which  Tycho  wrote  the  concluding 
part  of  his  book  on  the  new  star,  an  event  occurred  which 
seemed  to  augur  well  for  his  future.  The  young  king- 
elect,  then  fifteen  years  of  age,  paid  a  visit  to  Hveen  on 
the  3rd  July.  We  possess  a  detailed  account  of  the  way 
in  which  this  visit  was  brought  about,  through  the  Latin 
exercise-book  of  the  Prince,  in  which  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
writing  letters,  sometimes  fictitious,  sometimes  really  ad- 
dressed to  those  about  him.3  In  the  beginning  of  April 
I  592  he  was  obliged  to  leave  Copenhagen,  where  the  plague 
had  appeared,  and  on  the  way  to  Frederiksborg  Castle  he 
received  from  Tycho's  friend  Kaas  so  lively  a  description  of 
Uraniborg,  that  he  became  very  anxious  to  pay  a  visit  to 
Hveen.  He  at  once  composed  a  Latin  letter,  probably 
addressed  to  his  governor,  in  which  he  requested  leave  to 
proceed  to  Hveen,  and  as  he  met  with  a  refusal,  he  appealed 

1  Barretti  Historia  Ccelestis,  p.  498  ;  Kepler,  De  Stella  Martis,  ( Opera  omnia, 
iii.  p.  21 1). 

2  Carteggio,  p.  407.     In  a  footnote  Favaro  quotes  a  statement  by  J.  D. 
Cassini,  that  he  had  seen  a  sextant  which  T.  Brahe  had  got  made  for  Magini 
by  a  workman  sent  from  Denmark,  and  that  M.  sold  the  sextant  as  soon  as 
the  workman  was  gone.     No  doubt  this  "  workman  "  was  Gellius. 

3  Published  in  the  Danish  Nyt  Historisk  Tidskrift,  vol.  iii.  ;  compare  T. 
Lund,  HistorisTce  Skitser  efter  utrylte  Kilder,  Copenhagen,  1876,  p.  322  ct  scq. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  215 

to  the  Chancellor,  from  whom  he  at  once  obtained  the 
desired  permission,  as  Kaas  was  only  too  glad  to  see  the 
future  king  interested  in  Tycho  and  his  work.  Unluckily 
the  plague  had  made  its  appearance  on  the  island,  and 
Tycho,  who  on  the  2Qth  of  April  had  been  informed  of 
the  intended  visit,  thought  it  his  duty  the  next  day  to  send 
one  of  his  pupils  over  to  Seelaiid  to  announce  this.1  The 
messenger  found  the  Prince  at  the  shore,  just  about  to 
embark,  and  the  youth  could  only  console  himself  in  his 
disappointment  by  composing  a  new  exercise  the  next  day, 
in  which  he  expressed  the  hope  that  there  might  be  nothing 
to  hinder  the  visit  in  the  coming  month  of  June.  The 
prince  was  evidently  determined  that  nothing  should  prevent 
him  from  seeing  Tycho's  observatory  as  soon  as  possible, 
and  it  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  he  did  not,  five  years 
later,  show  an  equally  strong  desire  to  keep  the  great 
astronomer  in  his  own  country,  notwithstanding  all  the 
complaints  brought  against  Tycho  by  his  detractors.  On 
the  present  occasion  he  got  his  own  way.  In  June  the 
Prince's  governor  was  obliged  to  take  his  charge  to  the 
manor  of  Horsholm  (about  fourteen  miles  north  of  Copen- 
hagen, and  only  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  sea),  and  this 
temporary  residence,  which  the  spreading  of  the  plague 
had  rendered  necessary,  was  most  convenient  for  the  visit 
to  Hveen.  When  Tycho  therefore  arrived  on  the  3oth  of 
June  to  announce  that  the  plague  had  vanished  from 
Hveen,  the  Prince's  governor  could  not  find  any  excuse  for 
preventing  the  future  king  from  visiting  the  astronomer, 
and  on  the  3rd  July  the  Prince  started,  attended  by  two  of 
the  protectors,  Admiral  Munk  and  Jorgen  Roseiikrands,  and 
his  governor,  Hak  Ulf stand.  The  weather  was  most  favour- 
able, and  the  trip  was  no  doubt  thoroughly  enjoyed  by  the 
Prince,  whose  excellent  education  enabled  him  to  view  with 

1  Cort  Axelseu  from  Bergen  ;  see  the  Meteorol.  Diary. 


216  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

intelligent  interest  the  many  strange  objects  which  Tycho 
had  to  show  him.  In  particular,  he  admired  a  small  brass 
globe,  which,  by  an  internal  mechanism,  showed  the  motions 
of  the  sun  and  moon.  Tycho  immediately  begged  him  to 
accept  it,  and  in  return  the  Prince  took  off  a  massive  gold 
chain  in  which  his  own  portrait  was  suspended,  and  hung 
it  round  his  host's  neck.1  The  conversation  between  the 
astronomer  and  his  youthful  guest  turned  to  fortification, 
navigation,  shipbuilding,  and  other  branches  of  applied 
science,  in  which  the  Prince  had  been  instructed,  and  it  is 
stated  that  Tycho  on  this  occasion  received  a  promise  of  an 
annual  grant  of  400  daler  (£91)  for  instructing  young  men 
in  the  theory  of  navigation  and  astronomy,  and  an  allow- 
ance of  1 20  daler  annually  for  the  keep  of  each  pupil.2 
The  Prince  was  greatly  pleased  with  his  visit,  and  seems  to 
have  regretted  that  it  was  but  a  short  one,  as  he  wrote 
in  his  Latin  exercise  the  next  day  that  he  returned  to 
Horsholm  "  long  before  supper." 

Historical  events,  whether  trifling  or  important,  are  often 
by  posterity,  without  any  reason,  connected  with  others 
or  supposed  to  have  caused  them.  Tradition  afterwards 
made  out  that  Christopher  Valkendorf  was  in  the  Prince's 
suite  on  this  occasion,  and  it  has  been  related  in  detail  how 
he  and  Tycho  became  enemies  because  Yalkendorf  kicked 
one  of  the  dogs  which  King  James  had  presented  to  Tycho, 
while  the  latter  in  turn  abused  the  offender.  But  this 
story,  which,  according  to  other  writers,  refers  to  a  later  date, 
rests  on  a  very  slender  foundation  indeed,  and  at  any  rate 

1  Astron.  inst.  Mechanica,  fol.  B.  (where  for  1590  should  be  read  1592). 
Tycho  had  already  in  1589  procured  a  couple  of  globes  for  the  Prince  from  the 
Dutch   artist   Jacob  Floressen  (Florentius),   who  sent  his  son  to  Hveen  to 
obtain  correct  star-places  for  his  globes,  which   Tycho  declined  to  give   in 
writing,   while  he  allowed  him  to  examine  the  great  globe  in  the  library 
(Progym.,  p.  274).    In  1600  Tycho  sent  a  star-globe  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony. 

2  Lund,  ffistorisJce  Skitser,  p.  353,  quoting  Slange's  Christian  den  Fjerdes 
Historic  (1749).     I  have  not  seen  this  mentioned  elsewhere. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.          217 

the  incident  cannot  have  occurred  on  this  occasion,  as  it  is 
quite  certain  that  Valkendorf  did  not  attend  the  Prince  on 
his  visit  to  Hveen.  During  the  summer  of  1592  Tycho 
had  a  number  of  other  visitors,  among  them  Prince  Vilhelm 
of  Courland,  a  brother  to  the  Duke.1 

But  though  Tycho's  position  still  seemed  an  excellent 
one,  and  he  continued  in  the  undisturbed  possession  of  all 
his  sources  of  income,  he  seems  about  this  time  to  have 
become  dissatisfied  and  annoyed  by  various  circumstances. 
In  the  letter  to  the  Landgrave  in  1591  in  which  he 
described  the  state  of  Denmark,2  he  remarked  that  there 
were  certain  unpleasant  obstacles  which  hindered  him  from 
carrying  out  successfully  all  that  he  had  planned  for  the 
restoration  of  astronomy,  but  he  hoped  to  get  rid  of  these 
and  other  obstacles  in  some  way  or  other,  and  any  soil  was 
a  country  to  the  brave,  and  the  heavens  were  everywhere 
overhead.  These  last  words  ("  omne  solum  forti  patria  est 
coelum  undique  supra  est ")  are  very  similar  to  some  which 
he  had  used  six  years  before  in  the  poetical  letter  to  Kaas, 
and  they  seem  to  indicate  that  already  at  this  time  he  was 
not  unfamiliar  with  the  idea  of  seeking  a  home  outside 
Denmark,  if  circumstances  should  make  the  stay  at  Hveen 
unpleasant  to  him.  Among  his  causes  of  annoyance  was 
a  quarrel  with  one  of  the  tenants  on  the  estate  of  the 
Koskilde  prebend,  which  does  not  place  Tycho  in  a  very 
favourable  light,  and  which  may,  perhaps,  account  for  the 
coldness  shown  by  the  governor  of  the  Prince  when  the  visit 
to  Hveen  was  proposed.  It  appears  that  Tycho  and  the 
tenant,  Kasmus  Pedersen,  had  had  some  difference  in  the 

1  Tycho  calls  him  in  the  diary  Vilihelmus,  Dux  Curlandire  et  Semigalliae 
(i.e.,  Semgallen  or  Samogitia,  the  south-east  part  of  Courland),  but  he  was  not 
a  Duke,  and  never  became  one.     He  probably  visited  Denmark  to  endeavour 
to  enlist  the  sympathy  of  that  country  for  Courland,  which  had  a  difficult 
position  between  Russia  and  Sweden. 

2  Epist.,  p.  198,  last  line.     The  letter  is  dated  Cal.  Augusti,  which  should  be 
Cal.  Aprilis,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  Landgrave's  answer. 


218  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

year  1590,  as  the  latter  got  the  mayor  of  Eoskilde  and 
another  man  to  go  over  to  Hveen  on  the  I  5th  July  to  try 
and  settle  the  matter.1  They  cannot,  however,  have  suc- 
ceeded, and  Tycho  wanted  a  decree  of  eviction  against  the 
tenant,  but  the  court  which  tried  the  matter,  and  which  was 
composed  of  four  noblemen,  did  not  grant  the  decree.  Tycho 
now  appealed  to  the  king,  who  summoned  the  four  nobles 
and  the  litigants  to  appear  before  the  High  Court  of  Justice 
in  July  1591.  From  the  judgment  of  the  four  Commis- 
sioners it  appeared  that  the  tenant  had  been  disobedient 
and  had  refused  to  come  to  Tycho  when  ordered,  but  that 
Tycho,  notwithstanding  the  lease  for  life  which  the  tenant 
held  of  his  farm,  had  let  other  people  plough  and  sow  the 
land,  and  in  the  previous  October  (six  months  before  he 
tried  to  have  him  legally  evicted)  had  taken  the  farm  from 
him.  Tycho  had  furthermore  taken  the  law  into  his  own 
hands  by  having  Rasmus  put  in  irons  at  his  own  table, 
from  whence  he  was  carried  off  to  Hveen,  where  he  was 
detained  for  six  weeks  or  more.  And  as  Rasmus  had 
represented  that  he  had  feared  the  severity  of  Tycho,  and 
did  not  go  to  him  when  ordered  because  Tycho  would  not 
give  him  a  safeguard,  the  Commissioners  had  thought  that 
six  weeks'  imprisonment  was  a  sufficient  punishment  for 
this  act  of  disobedience,  and  that  Easmus  should  not  be 
evicted  from  the  farm,  of  which  he  had  only  purchased  the 
lease  four  years  before,  and  on  which  he  had  built  a  house. 
Although  Tycho  had  forbidden  Easmus  to  work  his  farm, 
this  was  not  according  to  law,  as  long  as  the  tenant  had 
not  legally  forfeited  his  lease.  As  to  the  house  on  the  farm, 
which  Tycho  complained  had  been  sold  by  the  tenant,  it  ap- 
peared that  it  was  still  standing  in  the  garden,  and  formed 

1  Meteor.  Diary.  In  Breve  og  ATctstyTcker,  p.  3,  is  a  letter  from  Tycho  dated 
June  1591  to  the  Rector  of  the  University  asking  for  the  testimony  of  Dr. 
Krag  and  Magister  Kolding,  who  had  been  present  at  Hveen  when  the  two 
men  came  over  from  Roskilde. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  219 

part  of  the  farm.  Further  Tycho  alleged  that  a  certain 
house  had  been  sold  and  not  entered  on  the  accounts ;  but 
as  Rasmus  Pedersen  denied  all  knowledge  of  any  such  mat- 
ter, and  Tycho  had  not  submitted  any  evidence  to  prove  his 
assertion,  the  tenant  had  been  acquitted  of  this  charge. 
He  had  been  obliged  to  go  over  to  Hveen  to  work  for  his 
landlord  with  four  horses  and  two  carts,  and  two  of  the 
horses  had  died ;  but  the  Commissioners  had  found  that 
Rasmus  was  in  no  way  bound  to  work  for  his  landlord. 
Some  boxes  belonging  to  him  had  been  sealed  and  carried 
off  while  he  had  been  locked  up,  and  these  Tycho  had  been 
ordered  to  hand  over  unopened  to  the  tenant.  When  asked 
in  the  Court  of  Appeal  what  objection  he  had  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Commissioners,  Tycho  stated  that  he  had  hardly 
any  objection  to  make,  except  that  the  case  had  been  greatly 
delayed,  and  that  the  Commissioners  had  not  tried  the  entire 
case,  but  had  referred  some  parts  of  it  to  the  local  court,1 
others  to  the  provincial  court,2  notwithstanding  that  the 
royal  command  had  ordered  them  to  judge  in  all  matters 
between  Tycho  and  his  tenant ;  they  had  also  passed  over 
some  questions,  and  not  tried  them  at  all.  To  this  the 
Commissioners  answered  that  the  delay  had  merely  been  in 
having  their  seals  affixed  to  the  judgment ;  that  they  had 
been  justified  in  referring  some  matters  to  the  local  court, 
as  the  case  about  a  man  who  was  drowned  in  a  well  was 
clearly  a  case  for  a  jury,  while  other  things  were  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  provincial  court ;  and  as  to  the  matters 
which  they  were  said  to  have  passed  over  altogether,  they 
were  not  aware  of  any  such  matters.  The  High  Court  of 
Justice  concurred  with  the  Commissioners  in  every  respect, 
and  ordered  that  their  judgment  should  stand.3 

1  Herredsthing,  i.e.,  court  of  the  hundred. 

2  Landsthing. 

3  The   whole  judgment   is   printed  in   Danske  Mayazin,  ii.    pp.   274-278 
(Weistritz,  ii.  pp.  216-224). 


220  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  the  humiliation  of 
having  had  the  judgment  upheld,  against  which  he  so  need- 
lessly had  appealed,  would  have  been  enough  for  Tycho,  and 
that  he  might  have  left  Kasmus  Pedersen  alone  in  future, 
but  this  he  evidently  could  not  persuade  himself  to  do, 
although  we  know  very  little  about  the  further  progress  of 
the  case.  In  February  1592  Tycho  had  to  attend  the  pro- 
vincial court  at  Kingsted,  in  Seeland,  as  a  Latin  epigram 
has  been  preserved  which  he  wrote  on  the  way  home,  and 
in  which  he  complains  of  unfair  treatment  by  the  judge.1 
The  case  tried  on  that  occasion  was  probably  one  of  those 
referred  to  the  provincial  court  by  the  Commissioners. 
From  the  end  of  the  same  year  a  draught  of  a  royal  letter 
has  been  found  (dated  I7th  November  1592)  which  shows 
that  Tycho  was  still  persecuting  the  tenant.  The  letter 
states  that  whereas  Easmus  Pedersen  has  complained  that 
he  was  still  kept  out  of  his  farm,  and  that  his  brother  and 
his  servant  had  been  imprisoned,  and  were  still  detained  by 
Tycho,  while  he  was  most  anxious  to  be  left  in  peace,  since 
he  had  built  a  house  on  the  farm,  and  would  be  utterly 
ruined  if  this  quarrel  did  not  cease,  the  king  desired  that 
Tycho  should  remember  the  misery  of  the  man,  and  act  in 
a  Christian,  reasonable,  and  lawful  manner  towards  him,  so 
that  the  Crown  would  not  be  obliged  to  interfere  and  pro- 
tect him,  particularly  as  he  was  a  tenant  of  an  estate  which 
was  merely  granted  to  Tycho  during  pleasure.  It  was 
therefore  the  royal  command  that  this  case  be  finally 
settled  and  arranged  by  the  judge  of  the  provincial  court  of 
Seeland  and  some  other  gentlemen,  who  were  to  judge  in 
all  matters  which  had  not  already  been  judicially  decided. 
Tycho  was  therefore  desired  to  nominate  some  impartial 
gentlemen  who  might  be  ordered  to  act  on  this  commission.2 

1  Also  printed  in  DansTce  Magazln,  ii.  p.  279  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  226). 

2  Danske  Magazin,  3rd  Series,  vol.  iv.  p.  263. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  221 

Nothing  further  is  known  about  Rasmus  Pedersen  and  his 
disagreeable  landlord,  who  seems  to  have  acted  in  a  re- 
markably high-handed  manner  in  the  whole  affair.  He 
certainly  did  not  by  this  conduct  improve  his  credit 
with  the  young  king,  who  throughout  his  life  wished  to 
act  justly  by  everybody,  irrespective  of  rank  and  social 
position. 

Another  source  of  trouble  to  Tycho,  for  which  he  also 
had  himself  alone  to  blame,  arose  soon  after  out  of  his  pre- 
bend at  Roskilde.  We  have  seen  that  the  possession  of 
this  prebend  brought  with  it  the  obligation  to  keep  in  good 
repair  not  only  the  residence  attached  to  it,  but  also  the 
"Chapel  of  the  Holy  Three  Kings"  in  the  Roskilde 
Cathedral.  Though  perfectly  willing  to  enjoy  the  income 
of  the  prebend,  Tycho  seems  altogether  to  have  neglected 
to  look  after  the  state  of  the  chapel,  and  in  August  1591 
the  Government  found  it  necessary  to  draw  the  attention  of 
the  Chapter  to  the  want  of  repair  of  the  chapel.  Having 
been  informed  that  Tycho  was  bound  to  see  to  this,  a  letter 
was  written  on  the  3<Dth  of  August  to  Tycho  in  the  king's 
name  about  this  matter.  Tycho  does  not  appear  to  have 
taken  any  notice  of  this  reminder,  and  the  king  had  to 
write  to  him  again  in  August  1593,  that  he  had  himself 
been  in  the  cathedral,  and  found  the  roof,  the  woodwork, 
and  the  vault  in  so  dilapidated  a  state,  that  it  was  to  be 
feared  that  it  would  all  come  down  unless  something  was 
done  before  the  winter.  Tycho  was  therefore  desired  to 
repair  the  chapel  at  once,  and  if  he  did  not  do  so,  the  king 
would  have  it  done  by  a  builder  at  Tycho's  expense.  But 
Tycho  did  nothing,  and  in  consequence  received  in  Sep- 
tember i  5  94  a  third  reminder,  in  which  he  was  informed 
that  if  the  chapel  was  not  repaired  at  latest  before  Christ- 
mas, the  prebend  would  be  conferred  on  somebody  else. 
Now  at  last  Tycho  thought  he  had  better  do  something, 


222  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

and  applied  for  leave  to  take  down  the  arched  roof  of  the 
chapel  and  put  a  flat  ceiling  in  its  place,  which  would  sim- 
plify the  repairs,  and  this  he  received  permission  to  do  in 
November  I  594  ;  but  he  did  not  carry  out  his  proposal,  and 
he  must  have  managed  to  repair  the  chapel  in  some  other 
manner.1 

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  15  94?  an^ 
after  his  death  Tycho  must  have  felt  himself  less  secure  in 
the  enjoyment  of  his  several  endowments.  Possibly  Tycho 
may  also  gradually  have  become  tired  of  the  continued 
residence  on  the  lonely  little  island,  from  which  his  very 
frequent  trips  to  Scania  and  to  Copenhagen 2  cannot  always 
have  been  pleasant,  particularly  in  winter,  and  he  may  by 
degrees  have  become  desirous  of  making  a  change.  He 
had  not  been  outside  Denmark  since  1575,  and  must  have 
longed  for  the  easy  intercourse  with  learned  men  which  he 
had  once  hoped  to  find  at  Basle,  and  for  which  the  occa- 
sional visits  of  learned  foreigners  to  Hveen  was  not  a 
sufficient  compensation.  Reports  must  also  have  reached 
him  of  the  great  love  of  astronomy  and  alchemy  of  the 
Emperor  Rudolph  II.,  and  the  thought  may  easily  have 
arisen  in  his  mind  that  he  might  find  the  same  liberality 
in  the  German  monarch  as  he  had  formerly  found  in  King 
Frederick.  With  the  Emperor's  physician,  Hagecius,  Tycho 

1  Danslce  Magazin,  ii.  281-283  ;  Werlauff,  De  hellige  tre  Kongers  Kapel  i 
RoesTcilde  Domkirke,  Copenhagen,  1849,  p.  18  ct  seq. 

2  See  the  Diary,  passim.  • 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  223 

had  continued  to  correspond,  and  he  had  even  a  more  in- 
fluential ally  in  the  Imperial  Vice-Chancellor,  Jacob  Curtz 
of  Senftenau,  with  whom  he  had  also  exchanged  letters, 
and  who  in  1590  had  sent  him  the  privilege  for  his 
writings  which  Hagecius  had  some  years  before  promised 
to  get  for  him,  together  with  a  description  of  a  method  of 
subdividing  arcs  designed  by  Clavius,  which  is  based  on 
the  same  principle  as  that  afterwards,  in  a  more  practical 
form,  proposed  by  Vernier.1  According  to  Gassendi,  Curtz 
went  to  Denmark  not  long  before  his  death  (which  took 
place  in  1594),  on  the  pretence  of  coming  on  the  Emperor's 
business,  and  offered  Tycho  to  intercede  with  the  Emperor 
to  procure  an  invitation  to  Bohemia  in  case  he  should  wish 
to  leave  Denmark ;  he  is  even  said  to  have  offered  Tycho 
his  own  house  at  Prague,  and  to  have  left,  a  plan  of  it  with 
Tycho  in  case  he  might  wish  to  have  any  alterations  made 
in  it.2  After  Curtz's  death,  Hagecius  is  said  to  have 
assured  Tycho  that  the  new  Vice-Chancellor,  Rudolph 
Corraduc,  would  not  fail  to  befriend  him. 

It  was  perhaps  with  a  view  to  the  probability  that  he 
might  soon  wish  to  leave  Denmark  that  Tycho  disposed  of 
his  portion  of  the  family  property  of  Knudstrup,  which, 
since  the  death  of  his  father,  he  had  possessed  jointly  with 
his  brother  Steen,  and  which  his  sons,  as  born  of  a  "  bond- 
woman," could  not  have  inherited.  The  date  of  this  sale  is 
not  known,  but  it  must  have  been  previous  to  the  loth 
August  I  594,  on  which  day  he  signed  a  document  by  which 
he  reserved  to  himself  the  right  to  continue  to  call  himself 
"  of  Knudstrup,"  without  any  injury  to  the  rights  of  his 
brother  or  his  brother's  heirs.3 

1  Astr.  inst.  Mechanica,  fol.  G.  6 ;  Delambre,  Astr.  moderne,  i.  p.  253. 

2  Gassendi,  p.  131.     I  have  not  succeeded  in  finding  Gassendi's  authority 
for  this.     Curtius  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Meteorological  Diary,  so  he  can 
hardly  have  been  at  Hveen. 

3  Danske  Magazin,  4th  Series,  ii.  p.  325.     It  is  characteristic  of  the  careless 


224  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

Among  the  causes  which  finally  induced  Tycho  to  leave 
Denmark,  the  quarrel  with  his  former  pupil,  Gellius  Sasce- 
rides,  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  (i  592—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.  Gellius  would  hardly  have  thought  of  aspir- 
ing to  the  hand  of  any  other  nobleman's  daughter,  but  the 
peculiar  position  of  Tycho's  children,  by  many  people  not 
considered  to  be  legitimate,  may  have  given  him  courage. 
Tycho  does  not  appear  to  have  objected  to  the  proposed 
marriage,  and  may  have  thought  that  the  undoubted  learning 
of  Gellius  made  up  for  any  supposed  deficiency  in  lineage.1 
But  the  pleasant  relations  between  Tycho  and  Gellius  did 
not  last  long,  probably  because  the  latter  during  his  long 
absence  abroad  had  become  unaccustomed  to  the  imperious 
manner  of  Tycho,  and  the  quarrel  commenced  in  earnest  in 
the  following  year,  when  the  wedding  began  to  be  talked 
about.  It  appears  that  Tycho  did  not  care  to  have  festi- 
vities and  expense  in  connexion  with  the  ceremony,  and 
further  demanded  that  Gellius,  after  the  wedding,  should 
remain  at  Hveen  for  a  while  to  assist  in  the  work ;  and  not 
content  with  this,  he  made  certain  stipulations  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  Gellius  was  to  provide  his  wife  with 
clothes,  &c.  On  the  other  hand,  Gellius  is  said  to  have 


manner  of  spelling  names  which  prevailed  in  those  days,  that  Tycho  Brahe's 
name  in  the  document  is  spelt  Tygge  Brahe,  in  the  signature  Thyghe  Brahe. 
In  Latin  or  German  he  always  wrote  Tycho,  in  Danish  generally  Tyge. 

1  The  following  account  is  taken  from  Dr.  Rordam's  paper  in  the  Danske 
Magazin,  4th  Series,  ii.  p.  16  et  seq.,  which  is  founded  on  documents  in  the 
archives  in  the  Copenhagen  University  which  were  not  accessible  to  Langebek 
(D.  M.,  ii.  p.  285  et  seq.). 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  225 

expected  a  dowry  with  his  bride,  while  Tycho  refused  this, 
adding  that  if  he  would  not  take  the  girl  for  her  own  sake, 
he  should  not  have  her  at  all.  In  the  autumn  of  I  594  the 
end  of  all  this  disagreement  was  that  Gellius  broke  off  the 
match.  Still  he  seems  about  that  time  to  have  been  fre- 
quently at  Hveen,  and  Tycho  wrote  to  his  sister  that  all 
might  yet  be  well  if  Gellius  did  not  become  vacillating 
again.  But  during  an  interview  between  Gellius  and  Tycho 
they  quarrelled  again  about  the  matter,  in  consequence  of 
which  Tycho  sent  two  friends  to  Gellius  to  demand  a  clear 
answer  to  the  question  whether  he  would  accept  the  pro- 
posed terms  or  not.  At  first  Gellius  would  not  give  a  deci- 
sive answer,  but  during  the  next  few  days  (in  December 
I  594)  he  told  one  of  the  intercessors,  Professor  Krag,  more 
than  once,  that  he  did  not  want  Tycho's  daughter ;  and  on. 
learning  this,  Tycho  and  his  daughter  sent  Gellius  a  formal 
notice  that  the  engagement  was  at  an  end.1  In  a  letter  to 
a  friend  (which  was  afterwards  produced),  Magdalene  Brahe 
expressed  herself  thankful  that  all  was  over. 

Gellius  was  greatly  blamed  by  many  people,  but  he  tried 
to  shift  the  blame  on  others,  particularly  on  Krag,  saying 
that  he  himself  was  joking  or  drunk  when  he  spoke  to  the 
latter,  and  that  his  words  were  not  intended  to  be  carried 
further.  Tycho,  therefore,  in  the  beginning  of  January 
1595,  got  Krag  to  give  him  a  written  account  of  all  that 
had  happened  between  him  and  Gellius,  as  he  particularly 
wished  his  sister  Sophia  to  have  an  unbiassed  explanation. 

1  Krag  was  perhaps  hardly  a  safe  person  to  employ  in  a  delicate  mission. 
He  had  recently  been  appointed  royal  historiographer,  and  had  the  following 
year  the  meanness  to  accept  all  the  materials  laboriously  gathered  by  Tycho's 
friend  Vedel,  whom  the  Government  forced  to  deliver  up  all  his  collections, 
because  he  had  delayed  the  writing  of  his  Danish  history  so  long.  Krag  told 
Tycho  in  a  pointed  manner  that  he  was  glad  that  it  had  only  fallen  to  his  lot 
to  describe  the  youth  of  Hveen  and  not  its  decay,  by  which  he  meant  that  his 
history  was  to  stop  at  the  death  of  King  Frederick  II.  Wegener's  Vedel, 
p.  200. 

15 


226  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

At  the  same  time  (i  ith  January)  Tycho  wrote  to  the  Rector 
of  the  University,  and  requested  a  statement  from  him  and 
the  professors  to  prevent  Gellius  from  throwing  all  the  blame 
on  him  and  his  daughter.  This  led  to  an  agreement  being 
drawn  up  five  days  later  between  the  parties,  which  was 
signed  and  sealed  by  the  rector  and  four  professors/  and 
Tycho  now  seemed  content.  But  the  affair  had  of  course 
been  talked  about,  and  Gellius  continued  his  attempts  to 
place  himself  in  the  best  possible  light.  Tycho  in  the  end 
got  tired  of  this,  and  in  February  I  596  he  again  requested 
the  University  to  investigate  the  whole  affair,  and  let  all 
documents  laid  before  the  academic  senate  by  himself  or 
his  adversary  be  registered  by  the  notary.2  About  the 
same  time  he  drew  up  a  list  of  all  the  accusations  of  Gel- 
lius,3 and  invited  him  to  prove  them  before  the  professors. 
Gellius  made  several  attempts  to  prevent  further  proceed- 
ings, but  failed  to  do  so,  and  formal  conferences  before  the 
academic  senate  were  commenced  on  the  25th  February. 
They  were  continued  off  and  on  till  the  month  of  July, 
when  everybody  was  probably  so  thoroughly  sick  of  the 
wearisome  twaddle,  which  could  not  lead  to  anything,  that 
the  matter  was  allowed  to  drop.  The  details  of  the  pro- 
ceedings4 give  scarcely  any  information  about  the  origin  of 
the  quarrel,  but  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  Gellius  would 
not  have  dared  to  trifle  with  Tycho  and  his  daughter  if  he 
had  not  seen  how  unpopular  his  former  master  had  become  ; 

1  Alluded  to  in  Dansk.e  Magazin,   ii.  p.  292  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  250),  as  a 
"  contract ;  "  it  does  not  seem  to  be  in  existence  now. 

2  On  the   5th  February  1596,  Tycho  had  procured  a  royal  order  to  the 
Chapter  of  Lund  to  judge  the  matter,  as  Gellius  had  obtained  a  medical 
appointment  in  Scania,  and  therefore  in  matrimonial  matters  was  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  said  Chapter ;  but  it  is  not  known  what  action  the  Chapter 
took. 

3  Printed  in  Danslce  Magazin,  ii.  p.  286  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  239).     The  charges 
of  Gellius  relate  to  the  demands  that  he  should  stay  at  Hveen,  keep  his  wife 
in  fine  clothes,  &c. 

4  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  pp.  291-307  (Weistritz,  ii.  pp.  248-281). 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.          227 

and  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  probable  that  Tycho's  domineer- 
ing manner  first  brought  about  the  difference  between  him 
and  Gellius  which  led  to  this  unpleasant  affair.1 

During  the  years  when  all  these  annoyances  happened 
to  the  astronomer,  his  scientific  work  continued  to  be  carried 
on,  and  the  years  1594  and  1595  are  considerably  richer 
in  observations  than  those  immediately  preceding.  Most 
of  his  observations  for  determining  accurate  places  of  fixed 
stars  were  made  before  the  end  of  1592,  and  the  results 
were  embodied  in  a  catalogue  of  777  stars  for  the  end  of 
the  year  1600,  which  is  printed  in  his  Progymnasmata. 
After  1590  it  was  especially  the  planets  which  were 
observed  (though  they  had  always  been  regularly  attended 
to),  and  in  1593  extensive  series  of  observations  of  Mars, 
Jupiter,  and  Saturn  were  made.  In  1595  observations  of 
fixed  stars  were  resumed  in  order  to  bring  the  number  of 
stars  in  the  catalogue  up  to  1000,  and  even  in  the  first 
two  months  of  1597,  immediately  before  leaving  Hveen, 
some  observations  were  taken  in  hot  haste  to  make  up  the 
thousand  (pro  complendo  millenario),  mostly  only  depending 
on  a  single  measure  of  the  declination  and  the  distance 
from  one  or  two  known  stars,  and  sometimes  with  a  rough 
diagram  to  identify  the  star.  It  must  therefore  be  taken 
cum  grano  salis  when  Tycho  already  in  January  1595 
wrote  to  Rothmann  that  he  had  now  finished  "  about  a 
thousand  stars,"  and  when  he  writes  in  his  Mechanica  that 
the  great  globe  was  quite  finished  in  1595,  exhibiting  a 
thousand  stars.2  It  has  been  suggested  that  it  was  this 

1  Gellius  married  in  1599,  became  Professor  of  Medicine  in  the  Copen- 
hagen University  in  1603,  and  died  1612  (Rordam,  Z.  c.,  p.  31).     Magdalene 
Brahe  went  with  her  father  to  Prague,  and  apparently  never  married. 

2  Longomontanus  says  in  his  Astronomia  Danica,  p.  201,  that  the  work  on 
the  star-catalogue  was  commenced  in  1590,  and  went  on  for  five  years  ("Ego 
.   .  .  huic  de  fixis  ccelitus  restituendis  negocio  et  exsecutioni  non  solum  inter- 
f ui,  sed  etiam  prsefui "). 


228  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

completion  of  Tycho's  star-catalogue  which  lie  wished  to 
commemorate  by  the  striking  of  a  medal  (or  rather  two, 
slightly  different)  bearing  the  year  1595.  This  is  quite 
possible,  and  he  may  have  wished,  in  the  midst  of  all  his 
worry  and  vexation,  to  have  a  memorial  of  the  work  carried 
on  for  nearly  twenty  years  at  Hveen.1  A  more  lasting 
memorial  of  his  activity  and  of  the  respect  with  which  he  was 
treated  by  any  one  able  to  value  his  work  was  the  collec- 
tion of  letters  exchanged  between  him,  the  late  Landgrave 
of  Hesse,  and  Rothmann.  Rantzov  had  long  ago  suggested 
the  publication  of  this  series  of  scientific  essays,  and  copies 
of  some  of  them  had  been  sent  to  Hagecius  and  Peucer, 
who  had  expressed  a  similar  wish.  They  were  printed  in 
Tycho's  own  office,  and  form  a  quarto  volume  of  310  pp., 
and  38  pp.  of  laudatory  poems,  dedication,  and  preface.2 
The  title  shows  that  Tycho  intended  afterwards  to  publish 
letters  to  and  from  other  astronomers,  an  intention  which 
he  did  not  live  to  carry  out,  so  that  only  some  of  these 
letters  have  of  late  years  been  published.  None  of  Tycho's 

1  One  of  these  medals  (in  silver)  is  in  the  royal  numismatic  collection  in 
Copenhagen,  described  and  figured  in  DansTce  Magazin,  ii.  p.  161,  and  Weis- 
tritz,  ii.  p.  14.     It  is  about  ij  inch  in  diameter,  and  shows  on  one  side  Tycho 
Brahe's   portrait,    and  round    it   "  Effigies  Tychonis  Brahe  O.    F.    set.   49 " 
(O.  F.  means  Ottonis  Filii),  on  the  other  his  coat  of  arms,  and  round  this  his 
motto  :  "Esse  potius  quam  haberi.  1595."     The  other  medal  is  in  a  collec- 
tion at  Prague  {Friis,  T.  Brahe,  p.  363),  and  is  a  quarter  inch  more  in  dia- 
meter ;  the  only  other  difference  is  the  inscription  round  the  arms  :  "  Arma 
genus  fundi  pereunt,  durabile  virtus,"  (and  inside  this)  "Et  doctrina  decvs 
nobilitatis  habent." 

2  "  Tychonis  Brahe  Dani,  Epistolarum  astronomicarum  Libri.    Quorum  pri- 
mus hie  illustriss.  et  laudatiss.  Principis  Gulielmi  Hassiae  Landtgrauij  ac  ipsius 
Mathematics  Literas,  vnaque  Responsa  ad  singulas  complectitur.     Vraniburgi. 
Cum  Csesaris  &  Regum  quorundam  priuilegiis.    Anno  MDXCVI."    Colophon 
is  the  vignette  with  "  Svspiciendo  despicio,"  and  underneath  :  "  Vranibvrgi  Ex 
officina  Typographic^,  Authoris.     Anno  Domini  MDXCVI."     The  portrait  of 
Tycho  which  appears  facing  the  title-page  is  from  1586,  and  is  engraved  by 
Geyn  of  Amsterdam.     There  is  a  copy  of  it  in  Gassendi's  book.     The  printing 
must  have  commenced    before  1590,   as  Gellius   had   given  Magini   a   few 
printed  leaves  of  the  book  (Carteggio,  p.  233). 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  229 

other  letters  can,  however,  compare  in  importance  with  the 
lengthy  essays  exchanged  between  Hveen  and  Cassel,  which 
give  a  most  instructive  picture  of  the  revolution  in  practical 
astronomy  effected  by  Tycho.  The  dedication  to  Landgrave 
Maurice  alludes  to  the  origin  of  Tycho's  acquaintance  with 
Landgrave  Wilhelm,  the  renewal  of  it  through  Eantzov-in 
1585,  praises  the  Landgrave  for  not  having  studied  astro- 
nomy in  books  but  in  the  heavens,  and  quotes  from  a 
funeral  oration  in  which  the  hope  had  been  expressed  that 
the  correspondence  of  the  deceased  with  Tycho  Brahe  might 
be  published,  as  it  would  show  the  world  the  merits  of  the 
Landgrave's  scientific  work.  In  the  preface  Tycho  refers 
to  the  length  of  time  necessary  to  form  a  complete  series  of 
observations  by  which  the  restoration  of  astronomy  might 
be  accomplished.  Though  the  solar  orbit  may  be  suffi- 
ciently investigated  in  four  years,  the  intricate  lunar  course 
requires  the  study  of  many  years,  while  it  takes  twelve 
years  to  follow  the  oppositions  of  Mars  and  Jupiter  round 
the  zodiac,  and  even  thirty  years  to  see  Saturn  move  round 
the  heavens.  He  had  commenced  his  own  observations  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  though  the  results  of  the  first  ten  years' 
work  were  less  accurate  than  the  later  ones.  Ptolemy  and 
Copernicus  had  not  observed  for  such  a  length  of  time,  and 
consequently  the  numerical  values  of  astronomical  constants 
had  not  been  well  determined  by  them.  As  already  re- 
marked, most  of  the  letters  are  in  Latin,  only  those  of  the 
Landgrave  and  some  of  Tycho's  replies  to  him  being  in 
German,  with  a  liberal  sprinkling  of  Latin  words  and 
sentences,  which  almost  render  unnecessary  the  Latin 
translation  which  always  follows.1  As  also  mentioned 

1  Here  is  a  specimen  from  the  Landgrave's  first  letter  (to  Rantzov)  : 
"  Darneben  wollen  wir  euch  auch  nicht  verbal  ten,  das  vff  angeben  Paul 
Vvitichij,  wir  vnsere  Instruments  Matliematica  dermassen  verbessert,  dass,  da 
wir  zuuor  kaum  2  Min.scharff,  wir  jetzo  \  ja  J  einer  min.  obseruiren  kb'nnen. 
Haben  vns  derhalben  vff  die  Art  Quadrantem  Horizontalem  desgleichen  em 


230  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

above,1  there  is  towards  the  end  of  the  volume  a  description 
of  the  instruments  and  buildings  at  Hveen,  with  woodcuts  of 
the  latter.  Of  the  instruments,  seven  were  already  figured 
in  Tycho's  other  books,  and  it  appears  that  to  a  few  copies 
of  the  Epistolce  he  added  an  appendix  of  eleven  leaves,  with 
figures  of  some  of  the  instruments,  and  on  the  last  leaf  a 
short  note  promising  that  a  complete  account  of  all  of  them 
should  soon  appear.  This  appendix  was  doubtless  only 
printed  in  a  very  few  copies,  as  it  was  soon  to  be  rendered 
superfluous  by  the  publication  of  Tycho's  special  book  on 
his  instruments.2 

While  the  printing  of  Tycho's  correspondence  was  being 
completed  important  events  took  place  in  Denmark.  Tycho's 
last  remaining  influential  friend,  Jorgen  Rosenkrands,  died 
in  April  1596,  and  the  young  king,  who  was  now  in  his 
twentieth  year,  was  soon  afterwards  declared  of  age,  and  was 
crowned  on  the  29th  August  at  Copenhagen.3  He  had 
appointed  Christian  Friis  of  Borreby,  Chancellor,  and 
Christopher  Yalkendorf  to  the  office  of  High  Treasurer, 
which  had  been  vacant  since  the  death  of  Tycho's  con- 
nexion, Peder  Oxe,  in  1575;  but  King  Christian  had  both 
the  will  and  the  ability  to  govern  himself,  and  soon  made 
his  authority  felt  and  respected.  He  was  personally  of  an 

Sextantem,  ad  obseruandas  distantias  Stellarum  inter  se,  lassen  zurichten,  jedes 
von  gutem  Messing  vnd  bicubital.  Hal  ten  auch  drei  Gesellen,  Astronomice  & 
Obseruationum  peritos  ad  iustificanda  loca  Stellarum  Fixarum."  Letters  from 
learned  men,  if  not  written  altogether  in  Latin,  were  generally  written  in  this 
mongrel  tongue. 

1  See  above,  p.  211. 

2  This  appendix  or  pamphlet  ("  Icones  instrumentorum  qvorvndam  Astro- 
nomise   instaurandse  gratia  a  Tychone  Brahe  Dano  diligentia3   impendioqve 
inestimabili  elaboratorvm")  is  mentioned  by  Friis,  Tyge  Brake,  pp.  363-364. 
In  1889  I  tried  in  vain  to  get  a  look  at  it  at  the  Royal  Library  at  Copen- 
hagen, but  it  was  not  there.     These  pictures  are  alluded  to  in  Tycho's  letter 
to  the  Chancellor  of  the  3ist  December  1596. 

3  Tycho  attended  the  coronation  (Meteor.  Diary),  and  a  few  days  after  he 
was  visited  by  Johann  Miiller,  "  Mathematicus  administratoris  Brandenbur- 
gensis."     See  also  Gassendi,  p.  153. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  231 

economical  disposition,  and  at  once  began  to  introduce 
reductions  in  various  branches  of  the  administration. 
Among  others  who  were  made  to  feel  the  change  of  govern- 
ment was  Tycho  Brahe,  who  lost  the  Norwegian  fief  ''im- 
mediately after  the  coronation,"  as  he  tells  us  himself.1  As 
this  was  a  serious  loss  to  Tycho,  he  made  an  effort  to  re- 
cover the  fief,  or  at  least  to  be  allowed  to  keep  it  till  the  I  st 
May,  the  usual  time  for  giving  up  possession  of  beneficiary 
grants.  On  the  3ist  December  1596  he  therefore  wrote 
a  lengthy  letter  in  Latin  to  the  new  Chancellor,  Friis,2 
pointing  out  how  deeply  interested  King  Frederick  had  been 
in  his  work,  and  how  death  alone  had  prevented  him  from 
carrying  out  his  intention  of  permanently  endowing  the 
observatory  at  Hveen ;  how  much  he  had  done  for  the 
advancement  of  astronomy,  as  might  be  seen  from  the 
correspondence  just  published,  and  of  which  he  would  have 
sent  King  Christian  a  copy  if  the  king  had  not  been 
absent  in  Jutland.  For  the  present,  he  only  asked  to  have 
the  Norwegian  estate  restored,  or  at  least  to  let  him  keep 
it  till  May,  as  his  steward  would  then  have  paid  him  the 
rents.  With  this  letter  Tycho  sent  a  copy  of  his  Epistolce 
and  a  copy  of  the  declaration  of  the  Privy  Council  of  I  589, 
promising  to  advise  the  king  to  endow  Tycho's  observatory 
in  a  permanent  manner.  In  reply,  the  Chancellor,  who  was 
with  the  king  in  Jutland,  on  the  2Oth  January  I  597  wrote 
in  a  short,  business-like  manner,  that  he  had  laid  Tycho's 
petition  before  the  king,  but  that  his  Majesty  did  not  see 
his  way  to  pay  anything  from  the  Treasury  towards  the 
maintenance  of  the  instruments,  and  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  postpone  the  surrender  of  the  Norwegian  fief, 
as  the  main  fief  of  Bergen  (to  which  that  of  Nordfjord 
belonged)  could  not  spare  the  income  from  it.  But  if  the 

1  In  his  Latin  account  of  how  he  left  Denmark.    Barrettus.  Hist,  CoeL,  p.  8oi 

2  Tycho  had  first  applied  to  ValUendorf,  but  in  vain  (I.  c.). 


232  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

Chancellor  could  oblige  him  in  any  other  way,  he  should 
be  happy.1 

It  is  very  difficult  to  form  an  idea  of  the  motives  which 
dictated  this  changed  behaviour  of  the  king  and  the  Govern- 
ment to  the  great  astronomer,  but  there  can  hardly  be  any 
doubt  that  Tycho  had  made  himself  more  than  one  enemy 
among  the  nobles,  and  these  found  in  his  own  conduct 
faults  enough  which  they  could  point  out  to  the  king, 
hinting  that  this  self-willed  man,  who  would  hardly  con- 
descend to  obey  the  royal  authority,  had  been  petted  long 
enough,  and  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  continuing  to 
spend  great  sums  of  money  on  his  instruments,  the  more  so 
as  it  could  not  be  a  secret  that  he  was  by  no  means  devoid 
of  pecuniary  resources  himself.  When  they  had  reminded 
the  king  of  Tycho's  persecution  of  the  tenant  near  Koes- 
kilde,  of  his  having  not  only  neglected  to  attend  to  his 
duty  of  keeping  the  chapel  of  his  prebend  in  repair,  but 
also  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  repeated  injunctions  about  this 
matter,  it  was  probably  not  difficult  for  his  enemies  to  in- 
fluence the  young  king.  Who  these  enemies  were  is  not 
known  with  absolute  certainty.  Tradition  mentions  among 
them  the  king's  physician,  Peder  Sorensen,  with  whom 
Tycho  had,  about  twenty  years  before,  exchanged  friendly 
letters,  but  who  is  said  to  have  become  jealous  of  Tycho's 
dabbling  in  medicine,  and  particularly  of  his  having  dis- 
tributed remedies  against  various  diseases  without  payment. 
But  Tycho  himself  considered  Christopher  Valkendorf  and 
Christian  Friis  as  having  been  the  principal  instigators  in 
the  events  which  led  to  his  expatriation ;  at  least  he  did  so 
some  time  afterwards,  when  he  mentioned  them  as  such  in 
several  letters.2  As  early  as  about  fifty  years  after  these 

1  The  two  letters  are  printed  in  Hofman's  Portraits  historiques  des  hommes 
illustrcs  de  Danemarc  (1746),  vi.  pp.  14-16,  and  in  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  pp. 
310-314  (Weistritz,  ii.  pp.  289-297). 

2  In  a  letter  to  Professor  Grynseus  at  Basle,  dated  8th  October  1597,  Tycho 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.          233 

events  it  was  currently  believed  that  the  ill-feeling  between 
Valkendorf  and  Tycho  arose  from  a  quarrel  about  a  dog,1 
but  the  story  is  told  in  different  ways.  We  have  already 
alluded  to  the  version  of  the  story  according  to  which  the 
quarrel  occurred  on  the  occasion  of  the  visit  of  the  young 
king  to  Hveen,  and  it  was  pointed  out  that  Valkendorf  was 
not  at  Hveen  at  that  time.  The  well-known  French  writer, 
Pierre  Daniel  Huet,  who  was  at  Copenhagen  in  1652,  tells 
the  story  differently.2  According  to  him,  an  English  envoy 
had  a  dog  which  Tycho  wanted  for  a  watch-dog  at  Urani- 
borg ;  but  as  Valkendorf  also  coveted  it,  and  the  envoy 
wished  to  keep  friendly  with  both  of  them,  he  promised  to 
send  them  each  a  dog  when  he  went  home.  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 

says  that  "duo  Dynastse,"  either  from  ignorance  of  science,  or  from  hatred 
and  malice  towards  him,  or  from  both  causes,  got  his  endowments  taken  from 
him.  In  a  letter  to  Magini,  dated  3rd  January  1600,  Tycho  speaks  in  stronger 
terms.  He  wanted  Magini  to  get  some  Italian  writer  to  compose  a  panegyric 
on  him,  and  had  sent  Magini  some  materials  for  this,  but  he  mentions  that  he 
does  not  want  his  country,  nor  the  king,  nor  the  nobility  at  large  to  be  abused, 
as  most  of  these  had  nothing  to  do  with  his  exile.  "  Perstringendi  vero  solum- 
modo  pro  merito  Cancellarius  modernus  et  Aulae  Magister ;  qui  cum  patriae 
honorem  ex  officio  promovere  debuissent,  eum  potius  ob  avaritiam  et  sorditiem 
pari  invidia,  malignitate  et  odio  coniunctum  (cum  ipsi  liberalibus  scieintis  vel 
nihil  vel  admodum  parum  tincti  essent)  impediverunt  et  exterminarunt. 
Isomina  eorum  invenies  in  iis  quse  de  caussis  discessus  mei  Latine  exarata 
mine  mitto."  He  adds  that  their  names  are  as  well  worth  preserving  as  that 
of  Herostratos  who  burned  the  temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus  I  (F.  Burckhardt, 
Aus  Tycho  Brakes  Brief wechsel,  Basel,  1887,  pp.  10  and  14.  Magini  printed 
the  letter  in  his  Tabula  primi  Mobilis,  but  left  out  the  above  passage,  which, 
therefore,  does  not  occur  in  the  Carteggio,  p.  418.) 

1  Danslcc  Magazin,  ii.  p.  322,  quotes  Th.  Bartholin,  De  medicina  Danorum 
(1666).     Gassendi  (p.  140)  also  knows  the  story. 

2  Pet.  Dan.  fluetii,  Episcopi  Abrincensis,  Commentarius  de  rebus  ad  eum 
pertlnentibus.     Amstelodami,   1718,    I2ino,  p.  90.     Huet  was  on  his  way  to 
Queen  Christina  of  Sweden  when  he  visited  Copenhagen  and  Hveen.     As  he 
mentions  the  Danish  savant  Ole  Worm,  he  may  have  had  the  story  from 
him. 


234  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

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.  But  it  is  a 
necessity  for  human  nature  to  have  a  scapegoat,  and,  with 
a  rare  unanimity,  astronomical  historians  have  told  their 
readers  that  Valkendorf  was  the  sole  cause  of  Tycho's  exile, 
and  several  of  them  indulge  in  very  pretty  expressions  of 
indignation  against  that  monster.1  Of  course  they  are  not 
aware  that  Valkendorf  s  name  is  in  very  good  repute  in 
Denmark,  where  he  distinguished  himself  not  only  as  a 
statesman,  but  also  as  a  promoter  of  learning  by  founding 
a  college  for  poor  students  in  connexion  with  the  University.2 
It  is  far  more  likely  that  Friis,  the  new  Chancellor,  was  an 
active  enemy  of  Tycho's,  and  we  shall  see  that  he  reaped  a 
pecuniary  advantage  from  the  disgrace  of  Tycho.8  As  to 
the  young  king,  there  is  every  excuse  for  him,  for  it  is 
really  not  strange  that  he  should  have  thought  it  desirable 
to  diminish  the  annual  burden  to  the  Treasury,  which  was 
without  precedent,  and  which  undoubtedly  might  be  reduced 
without  seriously  interfering  with  Tycho's  scientific  work. 

The  Norwegian  estate  was  not  the  only  endowment 
which  Tycho  lost  before  leaving  Hveen.  On  the  1 8th 
March  1597,  Valkendorf  received  the  king's  order  that 
Tycho's  annual  pension  of  5°O  daler  from  the  Treasury 

1  For  instance :  "  Son  nom  doit  etre  cite*  pour  6tre  reserve*   a  1'infamie  et 
devout  a  1'exdcration  des  savans  de  tous  les  ages."     Lalande's  Astr.,  i.  p.  196 
(2nd  edit.). 

2  "  Valkendorf  s  Collegium"  (founded  1589)  is  still  in  existence.     Valken- 
dorf died  in  January  1601. 

3  If  Friis  was  really  so  great  an  enemy  of  Tycho's,  it  is  very  curious  that 
he  should  a  few  years  after  act  as  Maecenas  to  Longomontanus,  Tycho's 
favourite  pupil.     See  the  preface  to  his  Astronomia  Danica. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  235 

should  cease.1  If  Tycho  had  not  already  commenced  his 
preparations  for  leaving  Hveen,  he  did  so  at  once  after 
this  last  blow.  Though  certainly  not  a  poor  man  (for  he 
was  able  six  months  later  to  invest  10,000  daler,  or  about 
£2200,  a  very  considerable  sum  at  that  time),  he  would 
have  been  unable  in  future  to  maintain  a  large  staff  of 
observers,  printers,  and  other  assistants ;  the  extensive 
buildings  would  require  some  outlay  to  keep  them  in  repair, 
and  the  idea  of  retrenching  could  not  be  pleasant  to  him.2 

These  considerations,  added  to  the  natural  feeling  of  dis- 
gust at  the  want  of  appreciation  he  had  met  with,  and 
the  wish  again  to  enjoy  the  society  of  congenial  minds, 
overcame  the  regret  he  must  have  felt  at  leaving  the  happy 
home  where  he  had  lived  for  fully  twenty  years,  the  build- 
ings he  had  raised,  and  which  had  been  the  wonder  of  the 
age,  and  the  hitherto  obscure  little  island  on  which  he  had 
conferred  imperishable  fame.  The  observations,  which  had 
been  progressing  as  usual,  were  discontinued  on  the  I5th 
March  (on  which  day  the  last  ones,  of  the  sun,  moon,  and 
Jupiter,  were  recorded),  and  the  dismantling  of  the  instru- 
ments, and  the  removal  of  these  and  other  property  to  his 
house  at  Copenhagen,  were  rapidly  proceeded  with.  Under 
the  2  ist  March  we  read  in  the  Meteorological  Diary  :  "  We 
catalogued  all  the  Squire's  books ;  "  and  we  can  picture  to 
ourselves  the  desolation  which  soon  reigned  in  the  hitherto 
crowded  library  and  observatories. 

But  Tycho  was  not  allowed  to  leave  Hveen  without 
further  annoyance.  When  the  peasants  on  the  island  found 
that  their  master  was  not  in  favour  at  court,  they  drew  up 

1  See  Tycho's  account,    "De   occasione   interruptarum   observationum   et 
cliscessus  mei,"  Barretti,  Hist.  Cod.,  p.  801.     The  date  is  given  in  Friis,  Ti/ge 
Brake,  p.  229. 

2  In  addition  to  Hveen,  he  still  held  the  prebend  of  Roskilde  and  the  eleven 
farms  in  Scania ;  the  rent  from  the  latter  was  barely  200  daler  a  year  (Weis- 
tritz,  i.  p.  170). 


236  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

a  memorial  complaining  of  his  oppression  and  ill-treatment 
of  them.  On  the  4th  April  the  king,  therefore,  commanded 
the  Chancellor  and  Axel  Brahe  (apparently  a  brother  of 
Tycho's,  who  in  June  1596  had  become  a  privy  councillor) 
to  proceed  to  Hveen  on  Saturday  the  pth  April,  in  order  to 
examine  on  the  following  day  into  the  complaints  of  the 
tenants,  to  inspect  the  land,  and  also  to  see  "if  he  has 
dared  to  act  against  the  ritual,  as  you,  Christen  Friis,  are 
aware."  The  report  of  this  expedition  is  not  known,  but 
proceedings  were  at  once  taken  against  the  clergyman  at 
Hveen  for  having  acted  contrary  to  the  Church  ritual. 
On  the  1 4th  April  the  following  commission  was  issued  to 
a  privy  councillor,  Ditlev  Hoik :  "  Know  you,  that  whereas 
a  minister,  by  name  Jens  Jensen,  has  dared  during  the 
service  in  church  to  act  against  the  ritual,  and  he  for  such 
audacious  conduct  is  to  appear  before  our  beloved  the 
honourable  and  learned  Dr.  Peder  Winstrup,  superinten- 
dent l  of  this  diocese  of  Seeland,  on  the  22nd  April :  We 
order  and  command  that  you  arrange  to  be  present  here  in 
this  town  at  the  same  time,  and  afterwards  with  the  said 
Peder  Winstrup  in  the  said  case  to  judge  according  to  what 
is  Christian  and  right." 2  The  judgment  of  these  two 
commissioners  is  not  known,  but  in  an  old  diocesan  record 
it  is  stated  that  "  the  minister  of  Hveen  was  dismissed  in 
disgrace  for  not  having  kept  to  the  ritual  and  prayer-book  in 
the  form  of  baptism  ("  I  adjure  thee  "),  but  acting  differently; 
also  for  not  having  punished  and  admonished  Tyge  Brahe 
of  Hveen,  who  for  eighteen  years  had  not  been  to  the 
Sacrament,  but  lived  in  an  evil  manner  with  a  concubine."  3 
In  other  words,  the  clergyman  had  omitted  the  exorcism 


1  After  the  Reformation  the  Danish  Bishops  were  for  some  time  styled 
superintendents,  but  the  old  name  soon  came  into  use  again. 

2  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  316  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  300). 

3  Ibid.,  p.  317. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  HVEEN.  237 

in  the  baptismal  service,  a  great  crime  in  a  Lutheran 
country,  because  it  had  been  omitted  by  Zwingli  and 
Calvin,  but  retained  by  Luther.1  The  "  concubine  "  would 
a  few  years  earlier  have  been  called  Tycho's  lawful  wife,  as 
we  have  already  shown,  and  though  Tycho  may  not  have 
been  a  regular  attendant  at  the  church  of  Hveen,  he  was 
unquestionably  a  man  of  a  religious  mind,  as  many  pas- 
sages in  his  writings  show  very  clearly.2  Bishop  Winstrup 
was  not  very  friendly  to  Tycho  (as  had  appeared  during 
the  proceedings  about  Gellius  before  the  University),  and 
the  minister  of  Hveen  was  probably  not  a  very  desirable 
person,  as  he  afterwards,  while  staying  with  Tycho  in  Hoi- 
stein,  tried  to  make  mischief  between  him  and  the  steward 
left  behind  at  Hveen.3  That  Tycho  should  not  generally 
have  conformed  to  the  usage  of  the  Lutheran  Church  seems 
unlikely  when  we  remember  his  intimate  friendship  with 
Vedel,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  there  were  several  future 
clergymen,  and  not  less  than  four  future  bishops,  among  his 
resident  pupils. 

1  It  is  curious  that  King  Christian  IV.  already  in  1606  desired  Bishop 
Winstrup,   when  a  little  princess  was  being  christened,  to  leave  out   the 
exorcism.     D.  Mag.,  ii.  319. 

2  Riccioli  quotes  Progymn.,  pp.  712,  777,  to  show  that  Tycho  had  too  much 
veneration  for  Luther,  Melanchthon,  and  Chytraeus,  "  those  pests  of  the  human 
race  "  (Kastner,  Gesch.  der  Math.,  ii.  p.  407).     Gassendi,  on  the  other  hand, 
by  several  extracts  shows  how  full  of  true  religious  feeling  Tycho  always  was 
when  speaking  of  the  Creator  of  the  Universe  (p.  190  et  seq.). 

3  Danslce  Mag.,  ii.  p.  318  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  305),  quoting  a  letter  from  Tycho 
to  Holger  Rosenkrands.     In  the  above-mentioned  letter  to  Grynaeus,  Tycho 
thus  describes  the  incidents  narrated  above  :  "  Accesserunt  et  alias  non  pau- 
culae  tribulationes,  quibus  abitum  meum  eo  citius  promoverunt,  adeo  ut  ne 
quidem  a  Parocho  meo  in  mei  contumeliam  et  despectum  persequendo  ab- 
stinuerint,  quod  is  detestandum  et  impium  istum  Exorcismurn  in  Paedobaptismo 
meo  conscio  omiserit.      Ideoque  officio  privatum,  et  per  integrum  mensem 
citra  latam  sententiam  incarceratum,  parum  abfuit,  quin  etiam  capite  plecte- 
rent,  nisi  ego  cum  meis  Amicis  apud  reliquum  Regni  senatum  tantam  sssvitiam 
avertissem.     Quin  et  Rusticos  tarn  contra  me  quam  eundem  Parochum  meum 
clancularie  excitatos  tantum  aberat,  ut  secundum  leges  (prout  urgebam)  eorum 
iniustam  perfidiam  et  rebellionem  refraenare  voluerint,  ut  potius  horum  im- 
merita  defensione  suscepta  in  malitia  illos  confirmarint.    Ego  autem  Parochum 
tandem  ex  istis  affiictionibus  liberatum  in  Germaniain  mecum  recepi." 


238  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

It  is  not  quite  certain  whether  Tycho  was  still  at  Hveen 
during  the  month  of  April,  while  his  treatment  of  the 
tenants  and  the  conduct  of  the  clergyman  were  being  in- 
vestigated. By  the  end  of  March  the  removal  of  his  instru- 
ments, printing-press,  and  furniture  had  been  completed, 
and  only  four  of  the  largest  instruments  were  left  behind 
for  a  while,  as  too  troublesome  to  move.1  Shortly  after 
Easter,  Tycho  Brahe  and  his  family  left  their  home  at 
Hveen  for  ever,  and  took  up  their  residence  temporarily  at 
Copenhagen.2 

1  These  were  :  Armillse  maximse  (with  the  equatorial  arc  belonging  thereto), 
and   Quadrans   chalybeus  magnus,  both   at  Stjerneborg ;   the  great   Mural 
quadrant  and  Semicirculus  magnus  azimuthalis,  the  latter  of  which  was  in  the 
southern  observatory  at  Uraniborg.     See  Tycho's  account,  De  occasione  inter- 
rupt, obs.,  Barrettus,  p.  80 1. 

2  The  diary  and  the  account  in  the  observing  ledger  (Barrettua,  p.  801) 
differ  as  to  the  date  of  Tycho's  departure  from  Hveen.     In  the  latter  he  says 
that   he    left  the  island  with  his  family  "  statim  a  Paschatis  Festo  die  29 
Aprilis  "  (most  distinctly  written  in  the  original  MS.)-     But  Easter  was  the 
2yth  March.     The  diary  is  silent  from  the  22nd  March  to  the  loth  April  in- 
clusive, "  propter  alias  occupationes  observaase  aut  notasse   non  potuirnus," 
and  under  April  II  it  has  :  "  Primum  ingressi  sumus  novum  Musseura  Haf- 
niense."    On  the  i;th  April  :  "  Profectus  est  Tycho  "Roschyldiam."     The  diary 
stops  abruptly  on  April  22nd  at  the  middle  of  a  page,  and  was  never  taken 
up  again.     Probably  it  was  on  the  2Qth  March  that  Tycho  left  Hveen,  and 
this  is  confirmed  by  his  German  account,  in  which  he  says  that  he  was  at 
Copenhagen  "in  die  dritte  Monat,"  i.e.,  more  than  two  months. 


CHAPTER  X. 

TYCHO'S  LIFE  FROM  HIS  LEAVING  HVEEN  UNTIL  HIS 
ARRIVAL  AT  PRAGUE  (1597-1599). 

WHEN  Tyclio  arrived  at  Copenhagen  in  April  i  597,  lie  pro- 
bably did  not  intend  to  make  a  long  stay  there,  but  merely 
to  watch  events  for  a  short  time.  He  can  hardly  have 
intended  to  settle  in  his  house  at  Copenhagen  and  continue 
his  work  there,  as  he  had  the  Isle  of  Hveen  for  life,  and 
might  as  well  have  stayed  there  if  he  had  any  wish  to 
remain  in  Denmark,  unless,  indeed,  the  troubles  at  Hveen 
had  risen  to  such  a  height  that  the  island  had  become 
odious  to  him.  He  had  brought  his  instruments,  chemical 
apparatus,  and  printing-press  with  him,  but  he  does  not 
appear  to  have  commenced  astronomical  observations  at  the 
tower  on  the  rampart  close  to  his  house.  Probably  he  had 
not  time  to  get  any  of  the  larger  instruments  mounted,  as 
he  tells  us  in  the  account  of  his  leaving  Denmark,  as  well 
as  in  several  of  his  letters,  that  the  Treasurer,  acting  in  the 
name  of  the  king,  who  was  absent  in  Germany,  forbade  him 
to  take  observations  in  the  tower  on  the  rampart.  He  does 
not  say  on  what  pretext  this  was  done,  but  possibly  the 
Government  did  not  wish  him  to  settle  permanently  on  any 
part  of  the  fortification.1  He  is  also  said  to  have  been  for- 

1  In  the  account  "De  interruptione,"  &c.  (Barrettus,  p.  801),  as  well  as  in 
a  letter  to  Vedel  in  1599  (Weistritz,  i.  p.  171),  Tycho  says  that  the  order  not 
to  observe  on  the  rampart  was  given  by  Aulae  Magister  (i.e.,  Valkendorf), 
though  he  had  been  one  of  the  four  protectors  who  had  granted  him  the  use 
of  the  tower  in  1589.  See  also  a  letter  to  Vincenzio  Pinelli  of  Padua  (Aus 
T.  Brakes  Brief wechsel,  p.  12). 

239 


240  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

bidden  by  the  mayor,  Carsten  Kytter,  to  make  chemical 
experiments  in  his  own  house,  and  Gassendi  adds  that  he 
and  his  clergyman  were  subjected  to  personal  annoyance, 
and  that  he  was  not  able  to  obtain  legal  reparation ;  but 
this  doubtless  refers  to  the  troubles  at  Hveen,  and  not  to 
anything  which  happened  at  Copenhagen.1  But  an  event 
which  at  first  sight  looks  even  more  strange  took  place 
soon  after.  On  the  2nd  June,  Thomas  Fin  eke,  Professor  of 
Mathematics  (afterwards  of  Medicine),  and  Iver  Stub,  Pro- 
fessor of  Hebrew,  were  ordered  to  proceed  to  Hveen,  as  the 
king  had  learned  that  the  peasants  had  damaged  the  instru- 
ments ;  they  were  to  examine  into  this  matter  and  report 
on  it.2  Their  report  is  not  known,  and  this  expedition  is 
not  mentioned  in  any  of  Tycho's  accounts  of  his  expatria- 
tion, except  in  his  poem  ~Elegia  ad  Daniam  (which  will  be 
mentioned  farther  on),  and  a  garbled  account  of  it  may 
have  reached  him  after  his  departure  from  Denmark.  Ac- 
cording to  Gassendi,  the  two  professors  declared  that  the 
instruments  were  not  only  useless,  but  even  noxious  curio- 
sities,3 which  probably  only  referred  to  the  chemical  appara- 
tus. Fincke  had  in  1583,  at  Basle,  published  a  Geometria 
Kotundi,in  the  preface  to  which  he  had  addressed  some  highly 

1  Tycho  says  (Barrettus,  p.  802)  :  "  Taceo  nunc,  quse  circa  reprobos  istos 
Insulares  et  Parochum  in  odium  mei  evenerunt  "  (compare  footnote  3  on  page 
237).     In  a  letter  to  Paschalius  Mulseus  (Glaus  Mule,  one  of  his  pupils),  of 
unknown  date,  but  found  among  the  MSS.  of  Longomontanus,   Tycho  says 
(after  describing  how  he  had  lost  his  endowments  and  had  been  forbidden  by 
the  mayor  to  carry  on  his  exercitia) :  "  I  shall  also  pass  over  what  happened 
to  my  clergyman  from  hatred  to  me,  also  the  insolence  shown  to  me  by  those 
who  were  instigated  to  it,  also  that  I  was  forbidden  to  take  legal  proceedings 
against  them"  (Bang's  Samlinger,  ii.  p.  493  ;  Weistritz,  i.  p.  155).     Gassendi, 
p.  140,  uses  almost  the  same  words,  and  has  them  probably  from  the  same 
source. 

2  Friis,  T.  Brake,  p.  234,  quoting  from  the  original  document  in  the  archives 
at  Copenhagen. 

3  Gassendi  (p.  140)  evidently  knows  very  little  beyond  the  allusion  to  the 
trip  in  the  Elegy  ;  he  only  knows  the  name  of  one  of  the  emissaries,  and  mis- 
spells it  Feuchius.     He  does  not  mention  that  any  damage  had  been  done  to 
the  instruments. 


DEPARTUEE  FROM  DENMARK.  241 

complimentary  sentences  to  Tycho,  and  the  book  is  the 
earliest  in  which  the  words  secant  and  tangent  are  proposed, 
while  several  new  fundamental  formulas  of  trigonometry 
occur  in  it  for  the  first  time,  so  that  the  author  must  have 
been  a  man  of  considerable  ability.1  The  mission  of  the 
two  professors  was  no  doubt  caused  by  some  disturbances 
at  Hveen,  which,  perhaps,  had  more  to  do  with  Tycho's 
departure  than  we  are  aware  of,  and  it  is  much  to  be 
regretted  that  we  do  not  possess  any  account  of  these 
transactions  except  Tycho's  own.  Gassendi  thinks  that  the 
report  of  the  professors  was  the  cause  of  Tycho's  chemical 
experiments  being  forbidden  ;  but  this  cannot  have  been  the 
case,  as  the  expedition  of  the  two  learned  professors  must 
have  taken  place  after  the  2nd  June,  and  Tycho  must  have 
left  Copenhagen  either  on  that  date  or  immediately  after  it, 
as  he  arrived  at  Rostock  during  the  first  half  of  June. 

After  having  spent  two  or  three  months  at  Copenhagen, 
Tycho  must  have  felt  that  there  was  nothing  to  be  obtained 
by  delaying  his  departure  from  Denmark  any  longer,  and 
early  in  June  1597  he  sailed  for  Rostock  with  his  family, 
some  students  and  attendants,  about  twenty  persons  in  all, 
taking  his  instruments,  printing-press,  &c.,  with  him.  His 
principal  assistant  of  late  years,  Longomontanus,  who 
wished  to  study  at  German  universities,  had  obtained  his 
discharge  with  a  kind  testimonial  from  Tycho,  dated  at 
Copenhagen  on  the  1st  June.2  Among  those  who  accom- 

1  See  particularly  pp.  77-78,  and  p.  292,  rule  15.     About  this  book,  compare 
R.  Wolf,  Handbuch  der  Astronomic,  pp.  173,  179,  and  Catalogue  of  Crawford 
Astr.  Library,  p.  188.     Kastner  (i.  p.  629)  does  not  seem  to  have  perceived  the 
valuable  parts  of  the  book.     Fincke  (1561-1656)  was  first  physician  to  the 
Duke  of  Holstein-Gottorp,  then  Professor  of  Mathematics,  and  from  1603  of 
Medicine  at  the  University  of  Copenhagen.     He  had  studied  at  Strassburg 
and  Padua,  and  corresponded  for  some  years  with  Magini.     According  to 
Lalande  and  Poggendorff,  he  wrote  previous  to  1603  several  tracts  on  astro- 
nomical subjects,  but  after  1603  he  devoted  himself  only  to  medicine. 

2  This  testimonial  is  printed  by  Gassendi,  pp.  140-141.    Tycho  calls  himself 
"  Dominus  hsereditarius  de  Knudstrup  et  arcis  Uraniburgi  in  insula  Dauise 
Venusia  Fundator  et  Presses." 

16 


242  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

panied  Tyclio  was  a  young  Westphalian  gentleman,  Franz 
Gansneb  Tengnagel  von  Camp,  who  had  been  with  him  at 
Hveen  since  I  5  9  5  >  an(^  wno  afterwards  became  his  son- 
in-law. 

At  Rostock  Tycho  had  still  friends  from  former  days, 
though  his  correspondent  Brucaeus  had  died  four  years 
previously.  But  Chytrseus  was  still  alive,  and  on  the  i6th 
June  he  wrote  a  friendly  letter,  regretting  that  the  state  of 
his  health  prevented  him  from  paying  his  respects  to  Tycho.1 
But  the  exiled  astronomer  found  that  though  he  was  at 
once  welcomed  to  Germany,  he  had  not  improved  his  posi- 
tion in  Denmark,  for  immediately  after  his  departure,  on 
the  loth  June,  he  was  deprived  of  the  prebend  of  Roskilde, 
which  was  conferred  on  the  Chancellor,  Friis,  although  the 
latter  already  enjoyed  the  best  prebend  in  the  chapter,  and 
though  the  rules  were  that  nobody  could  hold  more  than 
one  prebend  in  any  cathedral,  that  they  were  tenable  for  life- 
time, and  that  the  heirs  of  a  prebendary  should  enjoy  annum 
gratice  after  his  death.2  But  here  it  must  in  fairness  to 
the  Government  be  recollected  that  Tycho  had  for  years 
showed  the  most  complete  disregard  of  his  obligations  as 
a  Prebendary,  and  that  he  had  apparently  left  the  country 
for  ever  in  order  to  obtain  employment  abroad  wherever 
he  could  get  it.  There  was,  therefore,  some  excuse  for 
depriving  him  of  this  lucrative  sinecure  ;  but  it  certainly, 
on  the  other  hand,  seems  to  point  to  Friis  as  an  enemy  of 
Tycho's,  since  he  made  this  an  occasion  for  feathering  his 
own  nest. 

When  Tycho  Brahe  had  been  about  a  month  at  Rostock, 
he  took  a  step  which  he  probably  ought  to  have  taken  long 

1  Letter  in  DansTce  Magazin,  ii.  p.  325  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  318). 

2  Ibid.,  p.  325.     That  Friis  already  had  another  prebend  is  stated  by  Tycho 
himself,  ibid.,  p.  348  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  346).     Tycho  says  (Hist.  CoeL,  p.  802, 
that  he  was  "vix  e  patria  egressus  "  when  this  happened.     He  must,  there- 
fore, have  left  Copenhagen  between  the  1st  and  loth  June. 


TYCHO  AT  ROSTOCK.  243 

before,  and  addressed  himself  directly  to  King  Christian  IV. 
As  it  is  of  great  interest,  we  shall  give  a  translation  of  the 
letter,  keeping  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  words  of  the 
Danish  original.1 

* '  Most  puissant,  noble  King,  my  most  gracious  Lord ! 
with  my  willing  and  bounden  duty  most  humbly  declared. 
I  beg  most  humbly  to  inform  your  Majesty,  that  whereas  I 
had  no  opportunity  of  appearing  before  your  Majesty  before 
my  departure,  neither  knew  whether  it  might  be  agreeable 
to  your  Majesty  or  not,  I  am  now  obliged  shortly  to  let 
your  Majesty  know  in  writing  what  I  should  otherwise 
humbly  have  stated  verbally. 

"  Whereas  from  my  youth  I  have  had  a  great  inclination 
thoroughly  to  study  and  understand  the  laudable  astrono- 
mical art,  and  to  put  it  on  a  proper  foundation,  and  for 
that  purpose  formerly  hoped  to  remain  in  Germany  in  order 
conveniently  to  do  so,  then  your  Majesty's  father  of  laud- 
able memory,  when  H.  M.  learned  this,  graciously  desired 
and  induced  me  to  undertake  and  carry  out  the  same  at 
Hveen.  Which  I  have  done  for  more  than  twenty-one 
years  with  the  greatest  diligence,  and  at  great  expense, 
believing  to  have  thereby  shown  that  I  liked  best  to  do 
it  to  the  honour  of  my  own  Lord  and  King  and  of  my 
country.  And  your  Majesty's  father  graciously  intended 
and  promised  that  whatever  I  started  in  the  said  art  should 
by  a  foundation  be  sufficiently  endowed  and  perpetuated  on 
several  good  conditions  which  were  graciously  promised  me, 
which  your  Majesty's  Lady  mother,  my  most  gracious 
Queen,  doubtless  still  remembers,  and  formerly  has  stated 
to  the  Privy  Council  of  Denmark.  For  that  I  have  received 
the  public  act  of  the  Privy  Council  on  parchment,  confirm- 
ing and  further  assuring  me  of  this.  Therefore  I  have 

1  The  original  is  printed  in  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  pp.  327-330,  translated  in 
Weistritz,  i.  p.  122  et  seq. 


244  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

since  incurred  great  trouble  and  expense,  even  more  than 
formerly,  hoping  that  your  Majesty  when  coming  to  the 
Government  would  be  graciously  pleased  to  let  me  and  mine 
profit  thereby.     But  it  has  turned  out  differently  from  what 
I  had  believed,   about  which  I  shall  now   only   state   the 
following.      Your  Majesty  is  doubtless  aware  that  I  have 
been  deprived  of  what  I  should  have  had  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  said  art,  and  that  I  have  been  notified  that 
your  Majesty   does   not   intend  further   to   support   it,  in 
addition  to  much  else  which  has  happened  me  (as  I  think) 
without  my  fault  or  error.      And  whereas  I,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  shall  have  to  carry  to  an  end  what  I  once  with  so 
much  -earnest  and  for   so  long  have  worked  at,   which  is 
also  known  to  many  foreign   nations  and  greatly  desired, 
and  I  have  not  myself  means  for  this,  as  I  have  been  so 
reduced  that  I,  notwithstanding  the  fiefs  I  held,  have  been 
obliged   to   part   with   my   hereditary   estate  ;   therefore   I 
trust  that  your  Majesty  will  look  to  my  necessities,  and  not 
be  -displeased  with  this  my  departure,  as  I  for  these  and 
other  reasons  am  greatly  in  need  of  seeking  other  ways  and 
means,   that  what  has  been  well  begun  may  be  properly 
finished,  and  that  I  may  maintain  my  good  name  and  repu- 
tation in  foreign  countries.      But  I  have  not  departed  with 
the  intention  of  totally  leaving  my  native  land,  but  only  to 
look  for  help  and  assistance  from  other  princes  and  poten- 
tates, if  possible,  so  that  I  may  not  too  much  be  a  burden 
to  your  Majesty  and  the  kingdom.     If  I  should   have   a 
chance  of  continuing  my  work  in  Denmark,  I  would  not 
refuse  to  do  so,  for  I  should  still  as  formerly  much  prefer 
to  do  as  much  as  I  can  to  the  honour  and  praise  of  your 
Majesty  and  my  own  native  land  in  preference  to  any  other 
potentates,  if  it  could  be  done  on  fair  conditions,  and  with- 
out injury  to  myself.      And  if  not,  though  it  be  ordained 
that  I  am  to  remain  abroad,  I  shall  always  be  subject  to 


TYCHO  AT  KOSTOCK.  245 

your  Majesty  with  all  respect  and  humility  and  humble 
capacity.  Submitting  also  to  the  gracious  consideration  of 
your  Majesty,  that  it  is  by  no  means  from  any  fickleness 
that  I  now  leave  my  native  land  and  relations  and  friends, 
particularly  at  my  age,  being  more  than  fifty  years  old  and 
burdened  with  a  not  inconsiderable  household,  which  I,  at 
great  inconvenience,  am  obliged  to  take  abroad.  And  that 
which  is  still  left  at  Hveen  proves  that  it  was  not  formerly 
my  purpose  and  intention  to  depart  from  thence.  Hoping, 
therefore,  humbly,  that  when  your  Majesty  considers  these 
circumstances,  your  Majesty  will  be  and  continue  my 
gracious  Lord  and  King,  and  with  all  royal  favour  and 
grace  incline  toward  me  and  mine.  I  shall  always  be 
found  humbly  true  and  dutiful  to  your  Majesty  to  the  best 
of  my  ability,  wherever  the  Almighty  sends  me.  The  same 
good  God  who  rules  all  worldly  government  grant  your 
Majesty  during  your  reign  happiness,  blessing,  good  counsel 
and  design.  Datum  Kostock  the  loth  July  1597." 

The  same  day  Brahe  wrote  a  letter  (in  Latin)  to  a  young 
friend,  Holger  Kosenkrands  (afterwards  known  as  a  writer 
on  religious  subjects),  in  which  he  thanked  Rosenkrands 
for  a  letter  he  had  just  received,  which  showed  that 
Ovid's  words,  "  quam  procul  ex  oculis,  tarn  procul  ibit 
amor,"  could  not  be  applied  to  him.  He  had  desired  a 
painter  to  send  a  portrait  of  himself  to  Rosenkrands.  He 
would  like  to  know  what  was  going  on  in  Denmark,  and 
what  people  said  about  his  departure.  He  was  still  staying 
at  Rostock,  waiting  for  the  return  of  the  Danish  embassy,1 
in  order  to  speak  to  his  brother  Steen,  and  he  had  been 
advised  by  some  people  versed  in  state  affairs  not  to  apply 
to  any  foreign  Government  before  he  was  assured  as  to  the 

1  Probably  this  was  an  embassy  to  Coin  an  der  Spree  (Berlin)  in  connection 
with  the  approaching  marriage  of  the  king  with  Anna  Catharina  of  Branden 
burg. 


246  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

intentions  of  the  Danish  king  ;  but  if  he  found  that  his 
Majesty  was  unfavourable  to  him  and  his  studies,  he  ex- 
pected confidently  to  find  advice  elsewhere. 

It  would  almost  seem  that  Tycho  already  regretted  having 
left  Denmark,  as  he  now  made  every  effort  to  influence 
King  Christian  in  his  favour,  though  he  had  neglected  to 
approach  the  king  personally  while  he  was  still  in  the 
country.  On  the  29th  July  he  wrote  a  letter  in  German 
to  Duke  Ulrich  of  Mecklenburg-Glistrow,  the  maternal  grand- 
father of  the  king,  reminding  him  of  the  visit  which  the 
Duke  had  once  paid  to  Uraniborg,  and  stating  that  he 
had  been  obliged  to  leave  Denmark  for  reasons  which  he 
did  not  wish  to  put  in  writing.  For  the  present  he  had 
taken  up  his  abode  at  Rostock,  which  he  hoped  was  not 
displeasing  to  the  Duke,  who  doubtless  would  regret  that 
work,  which  was  progressing  well  and  which  was  valued  by 
learned  men  all  over  Europe,  should  be  so  suddenly  in- 
terrupted and  almost  come  to  nought.  He  therefore  begged 
the  Duke  to  advise  him  how  this  work  might  be  continued, 
if  not  in  Denmark,  then  somewhere  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  promised  in  future  publications  gratefully  to  acknow- 
ledge any  assistance  the  Duke  would  give  him.  At  the 
same  time  Tycho  wrote  to  the  Duke's  chancellor,  Jacob 
Bording,  whose  father  had  been  physician  to  King  Chris- 
tian III.  of  Denmark,  and  asked  the  chancellor  to  speak  for 
him  to  the  Duke.  Bording  answered  at  once,  assuring  Tycho 
of  the  good- will  of  the  Duke,  who  would  in  a  few  days 
write  to  him  as  well  as  to  the  king.  On  the  4th  August 
Duke  Ulrich  wrote  to  Tycho,  expressing  his  sympathy,  and 
asking  whether  Tycho  would  wish  him  to  send  off  a  letter 
to  King  Christian,  of  which  he  enclosed  a  copy.  He  could 
not  express  an  opinion  as  to  how  the  astronomical  work 
might  be  carried  on,  but  it  would  require  the  patronage  of 

1  DansTce  Magazin,  ii.  330  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  322). 


TYCHO  AT  ROSTOCK.  247 

some  great  potentate.  In  his  letter  to  the  king  the  Duke 
merely  asked  his  grandson  not  to  allow  Tycho's  work  to  be 
interrupted,  as  it  did  great  credit  to  the  late  king  and  the 
country,  and  was  renowned  among  all  nations.1 

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.2  He  found  a  very  convenient 
way  of  investing  his  money,  as  the  Dukes  Ulrich  and  Sigis- 
mund  August,  as  guardians  of  the  young  Dukes  Adolph 
Friedrich  I.  and  Johann  Albrecht  II.  of  Mecklenburg,  hap- 
pened to  require  money,  and  were  willing  to  borrow  from 
Tycho.  In  the  summer  of  1597  tnev  oPene(i  negotiations 
with  him  for  the  loan  of  10,000  "  harte  Keichsthaler  "  (i.e. 
of  full  value,  not  clipped).  As  a  prudent  man,  Tycho 
wanted  proper  security,  and  demanded  a  bond,  by  which 
ten  well-known  men  should  declare  themselves  and  their 
heirs  bound  to  him  in  the  sum  of  10,000  thaler;  but  as  it 
was  not  customary  in  Mecklenburg  for  sureties  to  bind  their 
heirs,  he  had  to  give  up  that  point.  As  it  took  time  to 
procure  the  consent  and  the  signatures  of  the  sureties,  Brahe 
agreed  to  pay  the  money  on  receiving  a  temporary  receipt 
from  the  two  ducal  guardians,  and  a  mortgage  on  the  county 
of  Doberan  ;  but  when  this  was  settled  and  two  officials  came 

1  These    letters    are    printed    in  the  DansTce   Magazin,  ii.   pp.    330-336 
(Weistritz,  ii.  p.  323  et  seq.). 

2  Several  letters   between  Tycho  and  his  kinsman  Eske  Bille  (from  the 
years  1599-1600)  seem  to  show  that  Tycho  had  some  dispute  with  several 
other  heirs  of  his  aunt.     See  Breve  og  Aktstykker,  pp.  49  and  99. 


248  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

for  the  money,  lie  would  not  pay  it,  as  the  receipt  did  not 
contain  a  certified  copy  of  the  bond  to  be  given  by  the  ten 
men,  and  did  not  specify  the  interest  to  be  paid.  At  last 
everything  was  settled  and  the  bond  was  delivered,  dated 
the  24th  August  1597,  to  "  Tycho  Brahe  auf  Knustorf 
im  Reiche  Danemark  erbgesessen,"  after  which  the  money 
was  paid.1 

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 ;  but  to  an  impartial 
observer  it  is  not  strange  that  the  king  should  be  offended 
with  a  subject  whose  previous  behaviour  had  been  far  from 
faultless,  who  had  left  the  country  in  a  huff  in  order  to 
carry  his  talents  to  the  most  profitable  market,  and  who 
now  declared  himself  willing  to  forget  the  past  and  come 
back  if  it  was  made  worth  his  while.  Of  the  interference 
of  his  grandfather  the  king  took  no  notice  whatever,2  but 
to  Tycho' s  own  letter  he  sent  on  the  8th  October  the  fol- 
lowing answer,  which  we  also  translate  literally.3 

"  Christian  the  Fourth,  by  the  grace  of  God  of  Denmark 
and  Norway,  the  Vends  and  the  Goths,  King,  &c.  Our 
favour  as  hitherto.  Know  you  that  your  letter  which  you 
have  addressed  to  us  sub  dato  Rostock  the  loth  day  of  July 
last,  has  been  humbly  delivered  to  us  this  week,  in  which 

1  G.  C.  F.  Lisch,  Tycho  Brake  und  seine  Verhdltnisse  zu  Melicnburg,  pp. 
9-10  (Jahrbiicher  des  Vereins  fur  melderiburgische  Geschichte,  xxxiv.). 

2  See  Tycho's  letter  to  Vedel  of  September  1599  (Weistritz,  i.  p.  172). 

3  The  Danish  original  in  DansJce  Magazin,  ii.  p.  336  et  seq.,  translated  by 
Weistritz,  i.  p.  1 26  et  seq. 


TYCHO  AT  ROSTOCK.  249 

among  other  things  are  counted  up,  first,  that  you  had  no 
opportunity  to  speak  to  us  before  you  left  this  kingdom, 
neither  knew  whether  it  were  convenient  to  us  or  not ; 
therefore  you  have  humbly  wished  to  let  us  know  your  case 
in  writing,  and  [you  add]  that  we  are  doubtless  aware  that 
you  have  lost  whatever  allowance  you  hitherto  have  had  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  astronomical  art,  also  that  we  will 
not  continue  to  support  the  said  art,  and  other  things  which 
unexpectedly  have  occurred  and  have  happened  to  you  with- 
out any  fault  or  error  of  yours,  as  you  think.  Furthermore, 
that  you  have  not  yourself  the  means  to  perfect  the  said 
art  at  your  own  expense,  and  even  though  you  had  your 
former  benefices,  you  have  yet  been  so  reduced  as  to  have 
had  to  part  with  your  estate.  And  whereas  you  for  the 
said  reasons  are  obliged  to  seek  in  other  places  from  foreign 
potentates  and  lords  help,  assistance,  and  counsel  to  promote 
the  astronomical  art,  then  you  beg  that  we  will  not  with 
displeasure  look  upon  your  journey,  particularly  as  you  will 
not  altogether  leave  your  native  land.  Furthermore,  you 
state  that  if  it  may  be  granted  to  you  in  this  kingdom  to 
continue  your  work,  then  you  would  not  refuse  it,  but  grant 
that  honour  to  us  and  your  native  land,  if  it  could  be  done 
on  fair  conditions  and  without  injury  to  you,  as  your 
lengthy  letter  furthermore  details  it.  Now  we  would 
graciously  not  withhold  from  you,  first,  as  regards  that  you 
have  not  had  an  opportunity  of  speaking  to  us  before 
you  left  the  kingdom,  and  that  you  were  not  aware  whether 
it  would  be  agreeable  to  us  or  not :  You  must  well  re- 
member that  you  were  staying  for  some  weeks  in  our  city 
of  Copenhagen  before  you  left  the  kingdom,  and  not  only 
did  not  ask  authority  from  us  to  leave  the  country,  as  you 
should  have  done,  but  never  even  spoke  to  us  except  on  the 
one  occasion  when  the  peasants  of  Hveen  and  you  were  in 
court  before  us,  and  you  were  commanded  and  ordered  to 


250  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

appear  before  us  at  the  castle.  And  although  you  do 
not  blush  to  make  your  excuse  for  this  in  a  manner  as 
if  you  were  our  equal,  we  desire  in  this  letter  to  let  you 
know  that  we  are  aware  of  that,  and  that  we  expect  from 
this  day  to  be  respected  by  you  in  a  different  manner,  if 
you  are  to  find  in  us  a  gracious  lord  and  king.  As  regards 
your  not  doubting  that  we  are  aware  that  you  have  lost 
some  fiefs  you  had  held,  and  your  thinking  that  it  happened 
through  no  fault  or  error  of  yours ;  you  remember  well 
what  complaints  our  poor  subjects  and  peasants  at  Hveen 
have  had  against  you,  how  you  have  acted  about  the  church 
there,  of  which  you  for  some  years  took  the  income  and 
tithes  and  did  not  appoint  any  churchwarden,  but  let  it 
stand  ruinous ;  also  took  the  land  from  the  parsonage ;  and 
partly  pulled  down  the  houses,  and  the  parson  who  should 
live  there  and  use  the  land  to  keep  himself  and  his  wife, 
him  you  have  given  some  pennies  per  week  and  fed  him 
with  your  labourers,  so  that  there  have  been  during  some 
years  many  parsons,  who  yet  did  not  receive  a  call  from  the 
congregation  in  accordance  with  the  ordinance,  nor  were 
lawfully  dispossessed.  In  what  way  the  words  of  baptism 
for  a  length  of  time  have  been  omitted,  against  the  estab- 
lished usage  of  these  kingdoms,  with  your  cognisance,  is 
too  well  known  to  everybody.  Which  things,  as  well  as 
others,  which  have  occurred  on  that  poor  and  small  land, 
and  were  known  to  us  for  a  good  while  before  it  became 
publicly  known,  have  caused  us  to  grant  our  tenants  and 
the  crown's  in  fief  to  others  who  would  keep  them  under 
the  law,  right,  and  established  custom.1  With  regard  to 
your  not  being  wealthy  enough  to  promote  the  astronomical 
art  by  your  own  means,  but  sold  your  hereditary  estate 

1  This  refers  to  the  fief  of  Nordf  jord  and  the  estate  of  the  Roskilde  prebend. 
The  Island  of  Hveen  could  not  be  taken  from  him  as  he  had  got  it  for  life, 
and  we  shall  see  that  Tycho  continued  to  keep  a  steward  there,  and  received 
rent  and  produce  from  the  island. 


TYCHO  AT  ROSTOCK.  251 

while  you  yet  held  your  fiefs,  so  that  you  have  left  the 
kingdom  to  ask  for  help  from  foreign  potentates,  and  not 
intending  to  leave  your  native  land  altogether,  which 
journey  you  humbly  ask  us  not  to  take  umbrage  at :  there 
is  great  doubt  whether  you  have  spent  the  moneys  you 
received  for  the  property  you  sold  on  astronomical  instru- 
ments, as  it  is  said  here  that  you  have  them  to  lend  in 
thousands  of  daler  to  lords  and  princes,  for  the  good  of 
your  children  and  not  for  the  honour  of  the  kingdom  or 
the  promotion  of  science.  Also  it  is  very  displeasing  to  us 
to  learn  that  you  seek  for  help  from  other  princes,  as  if  we 
or  the  kingdom  were  so  poor  that  we  could  not  afford  it 
unless  you  went  out  with  woman  and  children  to  beg  from 
others.  But  whereas  it  is  now  done,  we  have  to  leave 
it  so  and  not  to  trouble  ourselves  whether  you  leave  the 
country  or  stay  in  it.  Lastly,  as  you  humbly  state  that  if  it 
might  be  permitted  you  to  finish  your  work  in  this  kingdom 
you  would  not  refuse  if  it  could  be  done  without  injury  to 
you ;  now  we  shall  graciously  answer  you  that  if  you  will 
serve  as  a  mathematicus  and  do  what  he  ought  to  do,  then 
you  should  first  humbly  offer  your  service  and  ask  about  it 
as  a  servant  ought  to  do,  and  not  state  your  opinion  in  such 
equivocal  words  (that  you  will  not  refuse  it).  When  that 
is  done,  we  shall  afterwards  know  how  to  declare  our  will. 
And  whereas  your  letter  is  somewhat  peculiarly  styled,  and 
not  without  great  audacity  and  want  of  sense,  as  if  we  were 
to  account  to  you  why  and  for  what  reason  we  made  any 
change  about  the  crown  estates ;  and  we  besides  remember 
how  you  have  published  in  your  epistles  various  nonsense 
about  our  dear  father,  to  the  injury  both  of  his  love  and 
of  yourself  ;  now  we  by  this  our  letter  forbid  you  to  issue 
in  print  the  letter  you  wrote  to  us,  if  you  will  not  be 
charged  and  punished  by  us  as  is  proper.  Commending 


252  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

you  to  God.      Written  at  our  Castle  of  Copenhagen  the  8th 
October  Anno  1597.      Under  our  seal, 

CHRISTIAN." 

(Address) — "  To  our  beloved,  the  honourable  and  noble 
Tyge  Brahe  of  Knudstrup,  our  man  and  servant." 

The  harsh  and  angry  tone  of  this  letter  shows  how  com- 
pletely the  king's  mind  had  become  estranged  from  Tycho ; 
and  no  matter  how  badly  Tycho  may  have  treated  his  in- 
feriors, the  fact  remains  that  he  was  in  his  turn  treated 
with  severity  and  a  want  of  appreciation  of  his  great  scien- 
tific merit  which  is  inexcusable.  It  could  not  be  expected 
that  the  king  or  his  advisers  should  have  been  able  to  ap- 
preciate the  true  value  of  Tycho's  scientific  labours,  but  they 
could  not  help  being  aware  that  he  enjoyed  a  world-wide 
reputation,  such  as  no  Dane  had  ever  acquired  before ;  and 
if  he  was  a  bad  landlord,  they  might  have  endowed  him 
in  some  other  way.  But  this  is  neither  the  first  nor  the 
last  time  that  a  Government  has  given  science  the  cold 
shoulder,  since  even  in  later  and  much  more  enlightened 
times  statesmen  of  all  nations  not  unfrequently  have  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  a  sovereign  contempt  of  science. 
But  all  the  more  let  us  admire  the  truly  enlightened  mind 
of  Tycho's  great  benefactor  and  friend,  King  Frederick 
the  Second,  whom  he  had  unfortunately  lost  too  early. 
King  Christian  seems  to  have  felt  personally  offended  with 
Tycho  Brahe  for  having  first  retreated  to  a  distance  and 
then  attempted  to  make  terms  with  him.  But  it  is  not 
impossible  that  Tycho  may  have  thought  of  Vedel,  who 
in  1595  had  not  only  been  deprived  of  his  office  of  his- 
toriographer for  delaying  too  long  to  write  the  Danish 
history,  but  had  even  been  forced  to  deliver  up  all  the 
materials  which  he  had  been  collecting  for  years.  Possibly 
Tycho  wished  to  bring  his  great  treasure  of  observations  out 


TYCHO  AT  WANDSBECK.  253 

of  the  reach  of  envious  people,  who  might  suggest  that  it 
had  been  gathered  at  the  public  expense,  and  therefore  was 
public  property ;  but  by  doing  so  he  destroyed  the  bridge 
behind  him,  and  could  now  only  look  abroad  for  a  place  to 
continue  his  labours. 

As  Tycho  had  no  reason  to  remain  any  longer  at  Eos- 
tock,  where  the  plague  besides  made  the  stay  unpleasant  if 
not  dangerous,  he  now  accepted  the  invitation  of  Heinrich 
Eantzov  to  reside  for  a  while  in  one  of  his  castles.  Of 
these,  Waridsbeck,  which  had  been  rebuilt  not  long  before, 
seemed  to  Tycho  the  most  convenient,  as  it  was  situated 
close  to  Hamburg  (only  two  or  three  miles  north-east  of  it), 
and  the  intercourse  with  foreign  countries,  therefore,  was 
easy.  As  Eantzov,  who  was  a  very  wealthy  man,  had  spent 
great  sums  on  accumulating  books  and  treasures  of  art  in 
his  various  castles  in  Holstein  and  Slesvig,  Tycho  found  at 
Wandsbeck  (or  Wandesburg,  as  the  new  castle  was  called) 
not  only  a  comfortable  dwelling,  but  also  one  in  which  the 
owner's  refined  tastes  had  created  a  home  which  might  to 
some  extent  bear  comparison  with  the  one  he  had  left 
for  ever.  Tycho  removed  with  his  family  and  belongings 
to  Wandsbeck  about  the  middle  of  October  1597,  and  met 
a  former  acquaintance  there  in  the  person  of  Georg  Lud- 
wig  Froben  (Frobenius)  from  Wiirzburg,  who  six  or  seven 
years  before  had  visited  Uraniborg  after  studying  at 
Tubingen  and  Wittenberg.  He  was  at  that  time  probably 
employed  by  Eantzov  at  Wandsbeck  in  literary  work,  and 
he  settled  in  the  year  1600  as  a  printer  at  Hamburg,  where 
he  remained  till  his  death  in  I645.1 

Tycho  could   now    think  of  resuming   the   observations 

which  had  been  interrupted  seven  months  before.      On  the 

2Oth  October  he  wrote  a  short  statement  of  the  causes  of 

this    interruption   and   of   his    departure,    which   we   have 

1  Jocher's  Gelehrten  Lexicon,  vol.  ii. 


254  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

already  quoted,1  and  a  long  poem  "  Ad  Daniam  Elegia," 
in  which  he  taxes  his  native  land  with  having  rewarded 
him  with  ingratitude.  It  begins  thus  : 2 — 

"  Dania,  quid  merui,  quo  te,  mea  Patria,  laesi 
Usque  adeo  ut  rebus  sis  minus  sequa  meis  ? 

Scilicet  illud  erat,  tibi  quo  nocuisse  reprendar, 
Quo  majus  per  me  nomen  in  orbe  geras  1 

Die  age,  quis  pro  te  tot  tantaque  fecerat  ante, 
Ut  veheret  famam  cuncta  per  astra  tuam  ? " 

The  writer  next  inquires  who  is  to  make  use  of  the 
precious  things  which  he  has  left  behind.  "  Somebody 
has  been  sent  to  Hveen  who  was  believed  to  know  Urania's 
secrets  ;  he  came,  and  when  he  beheld  the  great  sights 
(though  but  a  few  are  left),  he  stared  with  wonder.  What 
could  an  ignorant  man  do,  who  had  never  seen  such  things  ? 
He  inquires  their  name  and  use,  but  lest  he  should  seem  to 
have  been  sent  thither  in  vain,  he  sneers  at  what  he  does 
not  comprehend,  probably  instructed  by  my  enemy,  who 
already  before  has  injured  me."  The  poem  further  alludes 
to  all  he  has  done  for  science,  and  how  little  his  Herculean 
labours  have  been  valued ;  how  he  has  cured  the  sick  with- 
out payment,  and  suggests  that  this  perhaps  has  roused 
the  envy  of  his  enemies.  He  regrets  that  his  ungrateful 
country  shall  lose  the  honour  which  he  conferred  on  it,  but 
he  looks  to  the  future  without  fear,  as  the  whole  world  will 
be  his  country  and  he  will  be  appreciated  everywhere.  He 
exonerates  the  king  from  all  blame,  but  there  are  a  few 
others  whom  he  never  injured,  but  who  yet  have  done  him 
all  the  harm  they  could.  Finally,  he  thanks  Eantzov  for 
having  so  hospitably  received  him. 

The  statement  about  the  interruption  of  the  observations 

1  "  De  occasione  interruptarum  observationum  et  discessus  mei."     Historia 
Coelestis,   pp.  801-802. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  802,  also  in  Resenii  Inscript.  Ilafhienses  (1668),  p.  347,  and  in 
Casseburg,  TycJionis  Brake  rclatio  de  statti  suo,  &c.    Jena,  1730,  less  correctly 
given  by  Gassendi,  p.  143. 


TYCHO  AT  WANDSBECK.  255 

and  the  elegy  were  copied  into  the  volume  in  which  the 
observations  of  the  years  1596  and  15 97  were  written, 
and  copies  of  the  poem  were  sent  to  various  correspondents. 
Though  it  was  probably  not  intended  for  the  eye  of  King 
Christian,  it  fell  into  his  hands  by  accident.  On  a  copy  of 
the  poem  which  Tycho  in  the  following  year  sent  to  Joseph 
Scaliger  he  added  a  note  to  the  following  effect : — Rantzov 
got  a  copy  of  the  poem  as  soon  as  it  was  written,  and  had  it 
stitched  in  a  calendar  of  his,1  and  when  the  king  in  the  course 
of  the  winter  paid  a  visit  to  Rantzov  at  one  of  his  other  castles 
in  Holstein,  he  happened  to  find  the  book  lying  open  on  the 
library  table.  The  king  took  it  up,  and  when  he  saw  the 
poem  with  Tycho's  signature  underneath,  he  read  the  whole 
of  it  thoughtfully  and  slowly,  though  he  on  other  occasions 
would  not  have  been  affected  by  such  things.2  Having 
read  it,  he  silently  put  down  the  book  and  never  spoke  to 
Rantzov  about  it,  nor  did  he  in  conversation  allude  to  Tycho 
Brahe.  When  Rantzov  was  told  that  the  king  had  seen 
the  poem,  he  was  much  vexed,  but  Tycho  on  hearing  it 
only  hoped  that  the  king  had  understood  all  the  allusions, 
and  expressed  himself  ready  to  send  the  king  a  copy.3 

Though  Tycho  Brahe  had  been  unsuccessful  in  his  appli- 
cation 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  I  597 
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 

1  Ranzovianum  Calendarium,  printed  at  Hamburg  in  1590,  described  by 
Kastner,  ii.  p.  413. 

2  "  Qui  alias  talibus  rebus  non  afficitur." 

3  "  Quod  et  adhuc  facere  paratus  sum."     This  copy  of  the  poem  (z\  pp. 
folio)  is  now  in  the  University  Library  at  Leyden.     See  also  Danske  Magazin, 
i.  340  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  334). 


236  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

of  their  daughter  and  King  Christian  at  Haderslev  in  Slesvig, 
on  the  2 /th  November.  On  the  22nd  December  Tycho 
handed  the  Margrave  a  letter  in  which  he  expressed  his 
regret  to  find  that  the  king  was  displeased  with  him  for 
leaving  Denmark,  though  any  one  might  know  that  he  would 
not  without  cause  have  left  his  home  with  wife  and  children, 
and  at  the  age  of  fifty.  But  as  it  perhaps  had  been  so 
ordained  by  God,  he  was  content,  and  had  no  wish  to  be 
reinstated,  and  even  if  that  should  be  done,  he  would  be 
very  unwilling  to  live  any  longer  at  Hveen,  and  always  to 
stay  there.1  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  per- 
manently 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.  In  that  case  he 
hoped  the  king  would  endow  the  observatory  with  canonries 
in  accordance  with  the  promise  of  the  Government  during 
the  interregnum.  But  if  the  king  did  not  desire  to  keep 
up  the  observatory,  he  hoped  he  might  remove  the  four 
instruments,  and  that  he  might  receive  some  compensation 
for  all  the  trouble  and  expense  he  had  gone  to.2 

With  this  letter  has  been  preserved  another  memorandum 
of  Tycho's   reasons   for  going  abroad,  which   he   doubtless 

1  "  Dan  ich  darum  keinen  Verlangen  trage,  nunmehr  vor  mein  Person  in 
Dennemarck  zu  sein  und  gerestituiret  zu  werden,  und  wan  das  schon  geshehen 
solte,  so  ist  es  mir  doch  sehr  uiigelegen  auf  der  Insel  Huen  lenger  zu  wohnen, 
und  stets  zu  bleiben,  wovon  ich  an  einem  anderen  Ort  meine  Ursachen  ver- 
zeichnet  habe."     I  believe  there  is  not  any  document  extant  in  which  these 
reasons  for  not  living  at  Hveen  are  stated^ 

2  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  pp.  342-344  (Weistritz.  ii.  p.  336  et  seq.}. 


TYCHO  AT  WAXDSBECK.  237 

gave  the  Margrave  with  the  letter.1  In  this  memorandum 
it  is  stated  that  Tycho  had,  at  the  wish  of  King  Frederick, 
settled  at  Hveen,  where  he  had  erected  a  number  of  costly 
buildings  and  constructed  more  than  fifty  fish-ponds,  which 
were  a  great  boon  to  the  island,  as  often  there  was  formerly 
a  scarcity  of  fresh  water.  All  this,  as  well  as  his  instru- 
ments, had  cost  over  75,000  daler,  though  the  king  and 
Council  had  only  paid  10,500  daler  towards  it.2  When 
the  Privy  Council,  shortly  after  the  king's  death,  had  pledged 
itself  to  recommend  the  young  king,  when  he  attained  his 
majority,  to  perpetuate  the  observatory,  Tycho  had  in  the 
following  eight  years  even  expended  more  than  before. 
But  after  the  coronation  he  lost  first  his  Norwegian  fief, 
which  had  brought  him  in  about  IOOO  daler  annually,  and 
soon  after  that  he  also  lost  his  pension  of  500  daler.  His 
removal  to  Copenhagen  is  then  mentioned,  and  how  he  was 
during  the  king's  absence  forbidden  to  continue  his  work 
there.  Then,  when  he  left  for  Germany,  the  Chancellor 
got  his  prebend,  which  was  worth  about  700  daler  and  ten 
Danish  lasster  corn.3  King  Frederick  had  under  his  hand 
and  seal  promised  him  the  first  vacant  prebend  in  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Lund,  but  this  had  been  ignored  afterwards.  He 
had  met  with  these  and  other  troubles,  which  he  did  not 
wish  to  put  in  writing,  and  he  could  only  conclude  that 
there  was  no  good-will  in  Denmark  towards  him  or  his 
science,  though  he  was  willing  to  excuse  the  king,  and  to 
believe  that  all  arose  from  the  envy  and  hatred  of  his  enemies. 
He  would  therefore  leave  all  to  God,  and  pray  for  His  help 
and  blessing  to  continue  his  work. 

1  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  pp.  344-349.  "  Die  Vrsachen  warumb  Tycho  Brahe  sich 
aus  Bennemarck  in  Teutschlandt  begeben,  kiirtzlich  zu  vermelden,  sein  cliese." 

2  He  must  mean  exclusive  of  his  annual  income  from  the  various  endow- 
ments. 

3  About  300  hectolitres.     In  ready  money  Tycho,  therefore,  had  2400  daler 
(^533)  a  yeari  including  the  rent  from  the  eleven  farms  at  Kullen.    See  above, 
p.  235,  footnote. 

17 


258  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

On  the  25th  January  1598,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
(who  had  just  succeeded  to  this  dignity  on  the  death  of  his 
father)  wrote  to  King  Christian  enclosing  Tycho's  letter, 
which  he  asked  his  son-in-law  to  consider  favourably.  He 
also  wrote  to  his  daughter,  and  asked  her  to  put  in  a  good 
word  for  Tycho.  These  letters  were  sent  under  cover  to 
Friis  and  Yalkendorf,  with  a  short  note  asking  them  to  do 
whatever  they  could  in  this  matter.  On  the  4th  February 
the  Electress  wrote  to  the  king  asking  him  to  give  a  gra- 
cious answer  to  Tycho  Brahe's  petition,  and  to  her  daughter 
the  queen  she  wrote  in  nearly  the  same  terms,  asking  her 
to  use  her  influence  with  the  king  to  that  effect.1  What 
answers  were  sent  to  these  letters  is  not  known,  but  at  any 
rate  they  did  not  lead  to  anything. 

In  the  meantime  Tycho  had  resumed  the  observations  at 
Wandsbeck,  the  first  being  made  on  the  2 1st  October  1597. 
During  the  first  few  months  he  only  employed  a  radius,  as 
in  the  early  days  of  his  youth,  before  he  had  got  ;a  number 
of  good  instruments  together,  and  he  was  even  obliged  to 
observe  the  important  opposition  of  Mars  in  this  manner, 
as  he  had  not  yet  got  the  heavier  instruments  transported 
to  Wandsbeck  and  erected  in  suitable  places.  By  the 
beginning  of  February  1598  this  was  done,2  and  he  was 
again  able  to  use  quadrants  for  determining  the  time  by 
altitude  observations,  instead  of  (as  during  the  previous 
months)  by  watching  when  the  pole-star  and  another  star 
were  in  the  same  vertical.  He  also  laid  aside  the  radius 
for  the  more  accurate  sextant,  and  set  up  an  equatorial 
armilla  for  observing  the  sun.  On  the  25th  February  1598 
a  solar  eclipse  took  place,  which  was  total  in  the  middle  of 
Germany,  while  in  Holstein  about  nine-twelfths  of  the  solar 
diameter  was  eclipsed.  Tycho  observed  this  eclipse,  and 

1  Danslce  Magazin,  ii.  pp.  349~35i  (Weistritz,  ii.  pp.  348  et  seq.}. 

2  Barretti  Hist.  CceL,  p.  822. 


TYCHO  AT  WANDSBECK.  259 

received  observations  from  his  former  pupils,  Longomontanus, 
who  at  that  time  was  staying  at  Rostock,  and  Christen  Hansen 
of  Ribe,  who  observed  it  in  Jutland,  and  who  had  formerly 
observed  the  comet  of  1593  at  Zerbst.  It  appears  that 
Tycho  got  some  kind  of  information  about  this  eclvpse  from 
somebody  at  Hveen,  perhaps  from  David  Petri  (Pedersen), 
whom  he  had  left  in  charge  of  the  buildings  and  other 
property  on  the  island,  as  Tycho  afterwards  wrote  both  to 
Magini  and  Kepler  that  the  eclipse  had  been  observed  at 
Hveen  from  beginning  to  end  (while  only  the  beginning 
was  seen  at  Wandsbeck  owing  to  clouds),  and  that  the  time 
of  beginning  and  end  agreed  well  with  his  own  tables.1 
With  the  exception  of  this  eclipse  of  the  sun  and  two  of  the 
moon,  and  a  few  meridian  altitudes  of  the  sun,  the  planets 
only  were  observed  at  Wandsbeck.  Tycho  felt  that  the 
thousand  star-places  were  enough  to  have  to  show  to  the 
world,  and  he  felt  that  observations  of  the  planets  were  of 
greater  value  to  complete  the  material  accumulated  at  Hveen. 
He  was  assisted  at  Wandsbeck  by  Johannes  Miiller,  mathe- 
matician to  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  who  had  visited 
him  at  Hveen  in  I  596,  and  whom  he  was  requested  by  the 
Electress  to  train  not  only  in  chemistry  but  also  in  the 

1  In  the  letter  to  Magini  (28th  November  1598,  Carteggto,  p.  222,  also  p. 
238),  Tycho  says  that  the  middle  of  the  eclipse  at  Uraniborg  was  observed  at 
nh.  5m.  A.M.,  magn.  of  eclipse  between  9  and  10  digits.  In  the  letter  to 
Kepler  he  wrote  (Dec.  9,  1599,  Opera,  i.  225)  that  the  observer  at  Hveen  found 
by  the  large  armillse  the  beginning,  end,  and  middle,  in  accordance  with 
Tycho's  tables.  In  his  Optics  Kepler  made  use  of  this  observation,  and 
gave  the  contacts  as  having  occurred  at  10.3  and  12.32  (Opera,  ii.  367),  but  in 
the  Tab.  Rudolph.,  p.  no,  he  says  that  Origanus  had  observed  lOg  and  12.32, 
and  that  the  figures  given  in  the  Optics  must  have  been  copied  from  Origanus, 
putting  10.3  for  10^  (compare  Opera,  ii.  441).  But  if  so,  this  is  no  fault  of 
Tycho's,  as  he  did  not  give  any  observed  contacts.  There  is  nothing  about 
this  observation  in  the  Historia  Coslestis,  nor  could  I  find  it  in  the  original 
volume  for  1596-97.  Tycho  does  not  mention  the  name  of  the  observer  at 
Hveen,  only  in  the  letter  to  Kepler  he  says  the  observation  was  made  "a 
quodam  iatic  relicto  studioso." 


260  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

preparation  of  medicines.1  The  distinguished  astronomer 
David  Fabricius  of  Ostfriesland  also  visited  Tycho  at  Wands- 
beck,  but  probably  only  for  a  short  time. 

In  addition  to  the  observations,  Tycho  devoted  his  time 
at  Wandsbeck  to  the  preparation  of  the  illustrated  descrip- 
tion of  his  instruments,  which  he  had  for  years  intended 
to  publish,  and  which  it  seemed  particularly  desirable  to 
issue  now,  in  order  to  sustain  his  reputation  and  impress 
learned  and  influential  men  with  the  magnitude  of  his 
scientific  work  and  its  great  superiority  over  that  of  previous 
observers.  Woodcuts  of  a  number  of  the  instruments  had 
already  been  prepared  at  Uraniborg,  and  some  of  them  had 
been  inserted  in  his  books  on  the  new  star  and  the  comet 
of  1577.  Some  engravings  were  now  made  of  other  instru- 
ments not  yet  figured,  and  the  text  was  soon  put  together 
by  enlarging  the  account  formerly  prepared  for  the  Land- 
grave. As  Tycho  had  brought  his  printing-press  with  him, 
he  was  able  to  have  the  book  printed  under  his  own  eyes 
at  Wandsbeck  by  Philip  von  Ohr,  a  printer  from  Hamburg. 
Early  in  1598  the  Astronomice  instauratce  Mechanica  was 
ready,  a  handsome  thin  folio  volume,  slightly  larger  than 
the  reprint  of  1602,  and  now  extremely  scarce,  so  that  the 
number  of  copies  printed  can  hardly  have  been  considerable.2 

1  Letter    from  the  Electress  to  Tycho  of  I4th  February   1598.      Danske 
Magazin,  ii.  p.  352  (Weistritz,  ii.  p.  353). 

2  Tychonis  Brake  Astronomice  Instauratce,  Mechanica,   in  the  centre   the 
vignette  "  Suspiciendo  despicio,"  underneath,  "  Wandesburgi,  Anno  CIO  10  HO. 
Cum   Csesaris   et   Regum    quorundam    Privilegiis."      Colophon  :    Vignette 
Despictendo  suspicio,   and  under  that :  "  Impressum  Wandesburgi  |  in  Arce 
Ranzoviana  prope  Hamburgum   sita,  |  propria  Authoris  typographia  |  opera 
Philippi  de  Ohr  Chalcographi  |  Hamburgensis  |  Ineunte  Anno  MDIIC."     This 
original  edition  now  only  exists  in  a  few  great  libraries.     In  the  Royal  Library 
of  Copenhagen  are  two  copies  with  all  the  pictures  beautifully  illuminated  and 
gilt,  the  one  presented  to  Grand  Duke  Ferdinand  de  Medici,  the  other  to  the 
Bohemian  nobleman  "  Peter  Vok  Ursinus,  Dominus  a  Rosenberg  ; "  in  the 
Strahofer  Stiftsbibliothek  at  Prague  is  one  presented  to  Baron  Hasenburg 
(Astr.  NacTir.,  iii.  p.  256) ;  in  the  British  Museum  is  a  copy  presented  to 


TYCHO  AT  WANDSBECK.  261 

The  book  was  dedicated  to  the  Emperor  Rudolph  II., 
whom  Tycho  was  now  specially  anxious  to  interest  in  his 
labours.  The  dedication,  which  is  dated  the  3  I  st  December 
1  597>  refers  shortly  to  the  instruments  of  the  ancients  and 
the  limited  accuracy  attainable  with  them,  and  gives  a 
summary  of  the  contents  of  the  book.  Then  follow  (after 
a  poem  by  Holger  Rosenkrands)  figures  and  descriptions  of 
the  seventeen  principal  instruments  used  at  Uraniborg  and 
Stjerneborg;  of  the  sextant  used  in  1572—73  (two  figures), 
of  the  great  quadrant  at  Augsburg,  and  of  a  mounting  once 
used  for  the  largest  azimuthal  quadrant,  and  superseded  by 
the  one  figured  as  No.  7.  We  shall  not  here  dwell  on 
these  descriptions  of  Tycho's  instruments,  as  they  will  be 
considered  in  some  detail  in  the  last  chapter,  and  some  of 
them  have  already  been  alluded  to  in  previous  chapters.  It 
was  natural  that  Tycho  should  at  that  time,  with  an  un- 
certain future  before  him,  point  with  some  satisfaction  to 
the  convenient  construction  even  of  the  larger  instruments, 
which  enabled  him  to  take  them  asunder  for  the  sake  of 
transportation  to  different  parts  of  the  world.  For  an  astro- 
nomer must  be  cosmopolitan  ("  Oportebit  enim  Astronomum 
esse  Koa-jui07ro\iTrjv "),  as  among  statesmen  there  are  rarely 
found  any  who  admire  his  studies,  but  frequently  those 
who  despise  them.  But  the  student  of  this  divine  art  should 
not  care  about  the  opinions  of  ignorant  people,  but  only 
think  of  his  studies,  and  if  interfered  with  by  politicians  or 
others,  let  him  move  himself  and  his  belongings  to  some 

Hagecius,  &c.  On  the  front  cover  of  these  presentation  copies  is  Tycho's 
portrait  stamped  in  gold,  with  the  inscription  round  it : 

"  Hie  patet  exterior  Tychonis  forma  Brahei,] 
Pulchrius  eniteat,  qvse  latet  interior." 

The  back  shows  his  coat  of  arms  (a  golden  pale  on  azure  ground),  with  the 
distich  round  it : 

"  Arma,  genus,  f undi  pereunt,  Durabile  virtus 
Et  doctrina  decus  nobilitatis  habent." 


262  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

other  place,  preferring  his  heavenly  and  sublime  endeavours 
even  to  his  native  soil,  and  remembering  that — 

"  Undique  terra  infra,  ccelum  patet  undique  supra 
Et  patria  est  forti  quselibet  ora  viro."  1 

After  the  illustrated  description  of  instruments  follows  a 
short  account  of  six  smaller  portable  instruments  and  an 
engraving  and  description  of  the  great  globe.  Tycho  next 
gives  a  sketch  of  his  life  from  his  youth  onwards,  his  travels, 
and  how  he  became  settled  at  Hveen,  and  passes  in  review 
the  principal  results  of  his  observations ;  2  the  improved 
elements  of  the  solar  orbit ;  the  discovery  of  a  new  in- 
equality in  the  moon's  motion  ;  the  variability  of  the  inclina- 
tion of  the  lunar  orbit  and  of  the  motion  of  the  nodes ;  the 
observed  accurate  positions  of  a  thousand  fixed  stars ;  the 
explosion  of  the  time-honoured  error  about  the  irregularity 
in  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes  (trepidatio)  ;  the  accumu- 
lation of  a  vast  mass  of  carefully  planned  observations  of 
the  planets  in  order  to  have  new  tables  of  their  motions 
constructed ;  and  lastly,  the  observations  of  comets  proving 
them  to  be  much  farther  away  from  the  earth  than  the 
moon.  This  was  indeed  a  proud  record  of  the  twenty 
years'  work  at  Hveen,  and  was  sufficient  to  show  the  world 
that  Tycho  Brahe  was  worthy  to  rank  with  Hipparchus, 
Ptolemy,  and  Copernicus. 

After  this  review  of  his  labours,  Tycho  prints  a  letter 
from  the  late  Imperial  Vice- Chancellor  Curtius  and  several 
from  Magini,3  and  a  short  abstract  of  a  letter  from  Padua 
(of  December  1592),  "from  a  certain  Doctor  of  Medicine 
then  staying  there  "  (he  did  not  like  to  add,  "  of  the  name  of 
Gellius  ").  From  this  it  appeared  that  the  Government  of 

1  Astr.  inst.  Mech ,  fol.  A.  6,  and  fol.  D.  verso. 

2  He   divides   his   observations   into  "pueriles  et   dubitse"    (at   Leipzig), 
"juveniles  et  mediocriter  se  habentes "  (up  to  1574),  and  "viriles,  ratse  et 
certissimae  "  (from  1576). 

3  See  above  pp.  213  and  223. 


TYCHO  AT  WANDSBECK.  263 

Venice  intended  to  send  an  observer  to  Egypt,  and  Tycho 
takes  occasion  to  address  a  suggestion  to  the  Venetians 
that  they  should  cause  the  latitude  of  Alexandria  to  be 
redetermined,  to  see  whether  there  had  been  any  change 
in  this  quantity  since  the  time  of  Ptolemy,  as  maintained  by 
some,  and  he  offered  to  assist  them  in  this  undertaking  with 
instruments  and  advice.  The  book  is  then  wound  up  with 
a  description,  with  views  and  plans,  of  Uraniborg  and 
Stjerneborg  (to  which  he  adds  some  remarks  about  the 
necessity  of  a  good  site  for  an  observatory),  a  map  of 
Hveen,  and  a  short  account  of  his  transversal  divisions  and 
improved  sights.1 

In  the  original  edition  of  this  book  there  was  no  en- 
graved portrait  of  Tycho,  but  in  several  of  the  copies 
which  he  presented  to  distinguished  or  influential  persons 
a  portrait  in  water-colours  is  pasted  on  the  back  of 
the  title-page.  This  portrait  is  much  larger  than  any- 
published  portraits,  and  represents  him  bareheaded,  very 
bald  (with  a  small  tuft  of  hair  over  the  middle  of  the  fore- 
head), and  a  very  woe-begone  countenance.  It  does  not 
offer  much  resemblance  to  the  well-known  engraving  by 
Geyn  of  Amsterdam  of  158  6,  which  appears  in  Tycho's 
Epistolce  and  in  the  edition  of  the  Progymnasmata  of  1610, 
which  represents  him  standing  in  a  kind  of  arch  on  which 
the  arms  of  the  families  of  Brahe  and  Bille,  and  of  the 
families  connected  with  them,  are  suspended.  This  en- 
graving has  been  reproduced  in  Gassendi's  book.2  Another 

1  The  figures  in  our  Chapter  V.  are  reduced  copies   of  Tycho's  figures. 
The  principal  contents  of  the  Mechanica  are  given  in  the  introduction  to 
Flamsteed's  Hist.  Ccel.  Brit.y  vol.  iii.,  and  the  figures  of  the  instruments  are 
copied  in  the  Memoires  de  I'Acadtmie  for  1763. 

2  In  the  first  issue  of  the  Progymnasmata  (1602)  there  is  quite  a  different 
portrait,  not  resembling  any  other,  but  standing  in  the  same  arch.     In  Hof- 
man's  Portraits  historiques  there  is  another  engraving  by  Haas  of  Copenhagen, 
apparently  a  copy  (reversed)  of  Geyn's,  which  is  reproduced  in  Weistritz's 
book. 


264  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

portrait  of  Tycho  Brahe,  but  of  unknown  date,  was  an  oil- 
painting  in  the  historical  portrait  gallery  at  Frederiksborg 
Castle,  which  was  destroyed  in  the  great  fire  of  that  castle 
in  1859. x  In  the  letter  (quoted  above)  which  Tycho  wrote 
to  Rosenkrands  from  Rostock,  he  mentioned  that  he  had 
ordered  a  painter  to  paint  his  portrait,  and  would  send  it 
to  Rosenkrands  when  it  was  ready.  This  picture  is  pro- 
bably the  same  which  in  the  following  century  was  preserved 
in  the  library  of  King  Frederick  III.,  and  in  the  corner  of 
which  was  an  emblematic  design  with  the  following  in- 
scription : — 

"  Stans  tegor  in  solido,  Ventus  fremat,  ignis  &  nnda. 

Vandesbechi 

Anno  MIOXCVII,  quo  post  diutinum  in  patria 
Exilium  demum  pristinse  libertati  restitutus  fui 
Tyclio  Brahe  Ot. " 2 

This  portrait  (or  a  copy  of  it)  was  found  in  England  in 
1876,  and  now  belongs  to  the  Royal  Observatory,  Edin- 
burgh.3 A  full  figure  portrait  occurs  in  Baretti  Historia 
Ccelestis,  representing  Tycho  leaning  on  a  large  sextant ; 
the  face  resembles  the  engraving  by  Geyn,  and  the  picture 
is  apparently  copied  from  a  water-colour  drawing  on  parch- 
ment in  a  copy  of  Tycho's  Progymnasmata  in  the  Strahof 
Monastery  at  Prague.4 

Tycho  was  not  content  with  issuing  the  description  of 
his  instruments,  but  as  the  first  volume  of  his  book  (Pro- 

1  There  is  a  copy  of  this  portrait  in  Friis'  book,  Tyge  Brahe  (1871). 

2  The  first  line  ("I  am  protected,  standing  on  solid  ground,  let  wind,  fire, 
and  waves  rage  ")  is  evidently  intended  to  express  Tycho's  trust  in  the  future, 
notwithstanding  the  threatening  aspect  of  the  time.     Ot.  means  Ottonides. 
The  inscription  is  given  in  Resenii  Inscriptiones  Hafnicnses,  p.  335,  Weistritz 
ii.  p.  334,  and  identifies  the  picture. 

*  It  was  first  noticed  by  Dr.  S.  Crompton  (Proc.  Manchester  Lit.  and  Ph. 
Soc.,  vol.  vi.,  1876),  and  was  in  iSSi  purchased  by  the  Earl  of  Crawford,  who 
in  1888  presented  it  with  his  great  astronomical  library  and  all  his  instru- 
ments to  the  Royal  Observatory,  Edinburgh.  See  frontispiece. 

4  Viertdjahrsschrift  der  astron.  Gesellschaft,  xvi.  p.  273  (iSSi),  Safarik. 


TYCHO  AT  WANDSBECK.  2G5 

gymnasmata),  in  which  the  catalogue  of  777  stars  occurred, 
was  still  unfinished,  he  thought  it  desirable  to  distribute  a 
limited  number  of  manuscript  copies  of  his  catalogue  of 
stars.  It  was  probably  for  this  purpose  only  that  he  had 
before  leaving  Hveen  got  a  number  of  stars  hastily  observed 
in  order  to  exhibit  the  places  of  a  thousand  stars,  and  not 
be  inferior  to  Ptolemy  with  his  1028  stars.  This  cata- 
logue of  longitudes  and  latitudes  of  IOOO  stars  for  the  year 
1 600  was  now  neatly  copied  on  paper  or  parchment  by  his 
assistants,  and  to  it  were  added  tables  of  refraction  and 
precession,  of  the  right  ascension,  and  declination  of  a  hun- 
dred stars  for  the  epoch  1600  and  1700,  and  a  catalogue 
of  longitude,  latitude,  right  ascension,  and  declination  of 
thirty-six  stars  according  to  Alphonso,  Copernicus,  and 
himself,  for  the  sake  of  comparison.1  The  lengthy  intro- 
duction to  this  manuscript  work  was  in  the  form  of  a 
dedication  to  the  Emperor  Eudolph  II.,  dated  the  2nd 
January  I598.2  In  this  Tycho  reviews  the  successive  star- 
catalogues  of  Hipparchus  and  his  successors  down  to  and 
including  "  incomparabilis  vir  Nicolaus  Copernicus,"  and 
he  remarks  that  in  reality  nobody  after  Hipparchus  has 
observed  any  great  number  of  stars,  but  that  Ptolemy, 
Albattani,  Alphonso,  and  Copernicus  had  merely  added  pre- 
cession to  the  longitudes,  which  circumstance  in  connexion 
with  the  limited  accuracy  of  the  catalogue  of  Hipparchus, 
and  the  numerous  great  errors  which  had  crept  into  it,  made 
it  desirable  to  have  a  new  star-catalogue  prepared,  in  which 
the  positions  of  the  stars  were  given  with  the  greatest  accu- 
racy now  attainable.  This  Tycho  had  done,  and  offered  it  as 
a  New  Year's  gift  to  the  Emperor.  The  catalogue  and  the 
printed  book,  Mechanica,  were  sent  to  the  Emperor  by  the 
hands  of  Tycho's  eldest  son,  who  also  was  the  bearer  of  a 

1  The  three  first-mentioned  tables  are  printed  in  the  Progymnasmata. 

2  This  introduction  is  printed  by  Gassendi,  pp.  247-256. 


266  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

letter,  dated  2nd  January  1598,  in  which  Tycho  stated  that 
he  had  been  obliged  to  leave  his  country  and  had  come  to  Ger- 
many, where  he  hoped  it  might  be  granted  him  to  complete 
his  labours  under  the  auspices  of  the  Emperor.1  About  the 
same  time  Tycho  sent  magnificently  bound  copies  of  the 
star-catalogue  to  the  Archduke  Matthias,  to  the  Vice- 
Chancellor  Corraducius,  to  Wolfgang  Theodore,  Archbishop 
of  Salzburg,2  the  Bishop  of  Liibeck,  and  to  other  influential 
men  in  Austria  and  Germany,  to  the  King  of  Denmark, 
Prince  Maurice  of  Orange,3  Joseph  Scaliger,4  Magini,  Kepler, 
two  years  later  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  &c.  As  already 
remarked,  the  Progymnasmata,  which  was  not  published 
until  after  Tycho's  death,  only  contained  777  stars,  but 
Kepler  in  1627  published  the  thousand  star-places  in  his 
Tabulce  Eudolphince  ;  while  it  is  most  significant  that  Longo- 
montanus,  Tycho's  principal  assistant,  in  his  Astronomia 
Danica,  only  inserted  the  777  stars,  doubtless  because  he 
knew  well  how  worthless  the  additional  star-places  were. 
The  handsome  manuscript  volumes  entitled  "  TycJionis  Brahe 
Stellarum  octavi  orbis  inerrantium  accurata  restitutio,  Wan- 
desburgi,  Anno  cioioiic,"  were  chiefly  intended  as  Advertise- 
ments, and  it  would  be  perfect  waste  of  time  to  collate  the 
various  copies  with  a  view  to  correcting  Kepler's  edition.5 

When   Tycho   sent   a   copy   of  this   catalogue   to   King 
Christian,6  he  probably  also  sent  a  letter  to  the  king,  of 

1  Printed  in  Breve  og  Aktstyklcer,  p.  31  (from  two  draughts  in  the  Univer- 
sity Library  at  Basle). 

2  This  is  the  copy  which  afterwards  came  into  the  possession  of  Gassendi, 
who  gives  (pp.  257-259)  a  list  of  remarkable  discrepancies  between  star-places 
in  it  and  in  the  Tab.  Rudolph. 

3  Astron.  Jahrbuchfur  1786,  p.  2 1 6. 

4  This   copy  is   now  in   the  University  Library  at  Leyden  ("Descriptio 
stellarum  octavi  orbis   inerrantium ").     There  is  a  copy  of  the  catalogue  in 
the  Bodleian  Library,  presented  to  a  Venetian  nobleman. 

6  As  suggested  by  Baily  in  his  reprint  of  the  catalogue,  Mem.  R.  Astron. 
Soc.,  xiii.  ;  compare  his  A  ccount  of  the  Rev.  J.  Flamsteed,  p.  368. 

6  Now  in  the  Royal  Library,  Copenhagen.    In  a  letter  from  Henrik  Ramel 


TYCHO  AT  WANDSBECK.  267 

which  a  draught  is  now  preserved  in  the  University  Library 
at  Basle,  dated  the  7th  February  I598.1  In  this  Tycho, 
after  offering  his  congratulations  on  the  king's  marriage, 
remarks  that  the  troubles  which  he  had  met  with  in  the  pre- 
ceding year  were  perhaps  ordained  by  fate,  since  it  was  the 
third  annus  climactericus  (i.e.,  the  twenty-first  year),  since  the 
foundation  of  Uraniborg.  He,  however,  thanked  the  king 
for  not  having  impeded  his  journey  when  he  found  it 
necessary  for  his  studies  to  go  abroad,  though  he  regretted 
that  his  letter  from  Kostock  had  not  been  found  satisfac- 
tory ;  but  to  show  his  feeling  for  his  country  and  king,  he 
now  forwarded  two  books  which  had  been  recently  completed. 
While  Tycho  in  this  manner  paid  his  respects  to  the  king, 
notwithstanding  the  want  of  consideration  with  which  the 
latter  had  treated  him,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  write  to 
Valkendorf  to  try  to  obtain  some  arrears  of  rent  still  due  to 
him.  In  this  letter,  dated  the  28th  May  1598,  Tycho  first 
thanks  the  Treasurer  for  all  the  kindness  he  has  shown  him, 
and  for  the  help  he  has  given  the  steward  at  Hveen,  who 
had  informed  Tycho  that  he  had  in  several  cases  concerning 
the  tenants  there  been  supported  by  the  authority  of  the 
Treasurer.  "If  it  were  known  how  contrary  and  disobe- 
dient the  peasants  on  that  little  land  are,  and  what  I  have 
suffered  from  them  all  the  time  I  lived  there,  and  yet  had 
patience  with  them,  and  been  more  kind  to  them  than  they 
deserve,  then  perhaps  people  would  think  differently  about 
them  than  they  have  done."  Tycho  next  asks  the  Treasurer 
to  instruct  the  Governor  of  Bergen  to  order  half  a  year's 
rent  of  the  Nordfjord  estate  to  be  paid  to  him  or  his  agent, 

to  Sophia  Brahe  (of  2Oth  September  1599)  the  former  writes  that  he  would 
have  sent  her  the  books,  but  had  to  ask  the  king  first,  and  his  Majesty  had 
said  that  though  he  did  not  understand  or  care  much  about  them,  still  he 
would  keep  them  as  they  were  presented  to  him  by  Tycho  Brahe  (Breve  og 
Aktstylcker,  p.  39).  These  books  were  possibly  the  Mechanica  and  the  Catalogue 
of  Stars.  •  1  Breve  og  Aktstykkcr,  p.  34. 


268  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

as  it  is  still  owing  to  him ;  and  in  conclusion  he  apologises 
for  giving  so  much  trouble,  but  he  expects  everything  good 
from  Yalkendorf ,  and  is  sure  that  the  latter  will  help  him  in 
everything  just,  and  right,  and  feasible.1  The  whole  tone 
of  this  letter  seems  to  show  with  certainty  that  Valkendorf 
cannot  have  been  a  declared  enemy  of  Tycho's,  as  the  latter 
was  of  too  haughty  a  disposition  to  condescend  to  write  so 
pleasantly  to  an  avowed  and  open  enemy ;  but  on  the  other 
hand,  this  does  not  prove  that  Yalkendorf  did  not  assist  in 
depriving  Tycho  of  his  great  endowments. 

Some  time  before  this  last  appeal  was  dispatched  to 
Denmark,  Tycho  had  on  the  24th  March  1598  written  to 
Longomontanus.  He  had  heard  from  the  Jesuit  Monavius 
of  Breslau  that  Longomontanus  had  arrived  there  and  had 
had  a  look  at  Wittich's  books,  and  Tycho  therefore  wished 
to  know  whether  there  were  any  manuscripts  among  them, 
and  whether  they  were  to  be  sold.  He  also  inquired 
whether  Longomontanus  had  seen  the  recent  slanderous 
publication  of  Keymers  Bar,  which  was  too  far  beyond  the 
limits  of  decency  to  deserve  a  refutation ;  still  it  might  be 
well  for  Longomontanus  to  put  in  writing  all  he  had  heard 
from  his  colleagues  at  Hveen  about  that  person  and  his 
doings,  as  he  himself  might  have  forgotten  some  of  the 
circumstances  through  all  the  troubles  he  had  met  with. 
Finally,  he  desired  Longomontanus  to  come  to  him  at 
Wandsbeck  as  quickly  as  possible,  as  he  had  something 
very  important  to  discuss  with  him,  and  if  he  had  not 
sufficient  money,  he  was  to  borrow  some  or  pawn  something, 
and  Tycho  would  settle  about  it  afterwards,  and  he  would 
not  detain  him  long,  as  he  did  not  himself  intend  to 
remain  long  at  Wandsbeck.  He  had  Johannes  Miiller  from 
Brandenburg  with  him  in  charge  of  his  observatory,  but 
he  hoped  Longomontanus  would  not  disappoint  him,  and 

1  This  letter  is  printed  in  the  Danske  Magazin,  3rd  Series,  iii.  pp.  79-80. 


TYCHO  AT  WANDSBECK.  269 

he  might  bring  with  him  a  copy  of  Everhard's  IZphemerides, 
which  he  had  seen  mentioned  in  a  Frankfurt  book-list,  but 
which  could  not  be  had  at  Hamburg.1  Gassendi  suggests 
that  Tycho  may  have  wanted  the  help  of  Longomontanus 
to  complete  the  chapter  of  the  Progymnasmata  on  the  lunar 
theory,  where  some  sheets  were  still  unfinished,  while  the 
recent  eclipses  had  shown  that  this  theory  was  still  capable 
of  further  improvement. 

While  Tycho  Brahe  was  living  at  Wandsbeck,  his  host 
not  only  tried  to  make  his  stay  there  agreeable,2  but  also 
did  his  best  to  assist  him  in  finding  a  permanent  abode,  and 
the  pecuniary  support  necessary  to  enable  him  to  resume 
his  labours  on  the  same  scale  as  formerly.  Eantzov  wrote 
to  the  Elector  of  Cologne,  and  asked  him,  to  use  his  influence 
with  the  Emperor  in  favour  of  Tycho,  and  to  endeavour  to 
interest  the  Austrian  Privy  Councillor,  Barwitz,  in  the  cause 
of  the  exiled  astronomer.  At  the  same  time  Tycho  wrote 
himself  to  his  friend  Hagecius,  and  explained  how  he  was 
situated,  in  order  that  the  physician  to  the  Emperor  might 
speak  to  his  master,  and  also  enlist  the  sympathy  of  the 
Vice-Chancellor  Corraduc.  In  order  not  to  neglect  any 
chance,  Tycho  also  sent  one  of  his  disciples,  Franz  Teng- 
nagel,  a  native  of  Westphalia,  to  Prince  Maurice  of  Orange 
to  present  copies  of  the  Meclianica  and  the  star-catalogue 
to  the  Prince,  together  with  a  letter  from  the  author.  The 
Prince  answered  that  he  would  endeavour  to  persuade  the 
States  General  to  invite  Tycho  to  settle  in  the  Netherlands, 
and  a  similar  answer  was  sent  by  the  Advocate  of  Holland 

••v 

1  Martini  Everarti  Ephemeridcs  novce  et  exactce  1590-1610  ex  novis  tabulis 
JBelgicis.     Lugduni  Batav.,  1597. 

2  In  the  Museum  of  Northern  Antiquities  at  Copenhagen  there  is  a  watch 
which  is  said  to  have  been  presented  to  Tycho  Brahe  by  Rantzov.     It  is 
oval  in  shape,  has  two  dials,  one  for  hours  and  one  for  minutes,  and  Tycho's 
name,  arms,  and  the  motto,  "  Qvo  fata  me  trahunt,  A.D.  1597,"  are  engraved 
on  the  inner  case.     In  the  same  museum  is  a  wooden  easy-chair  which  is  sup- 
posed to  have  belonged  to  T.  Brahe. 


270  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

(or  Grand  Pensionary,  as  he  was  afterwards  called),  Olden 
Barneveld,  to  whom  Tycho,  as  a  prudent  politician,  had  also 
written  and  sent  his  books.  Joseph  Scaliger,  who  five  years 
before  had  been  called  to  Ley  den  as  a  professor,  also  wrote 
that  he  would  do  his  best,  but  he  feared  that  the  slow  pro- 
cedure of  the  States  General  would  deprive  the  country  of 
so  great  an  honour  and  himself  of  the  pleasure  of  being 
associated  with  a  great  man.  In  the  meantime  the  Em- 
peror had  desired  Corraduc  to  answer  Tycho  that  he  would 
willingly  receive  him  and  see  that  he  should  want  nothing 
for  the  furtherance  of  his  studies.  In  the  course  of  the 
summer  Tycho  not  only  learned  this  from  Corraduc,  but 
also  received  a  letter  from  Hagecius  urging  him  to  come  to 
Bohemia  as  soon  as  possible,  while  the  Elector  of  Cologne 
replied  to  Eantzov  that  he  had  every  hope  of  Tycho's  being 
well  received  by  the  Emperor,  and  added  that  if  Tycho, 
against  all  expectation,  should  not  find  his  work  liberally 
enough  supported  by  the  Emperor,  then  he  would  himself 
promote  it  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  Tycho  therefore,  on 
the  23rd  August,  wrote  to  Scaliger,  sending  him  his  books 
(even  the  unfinished  one),  and  thanked  him  for  his  kind- 
ness, and  assured  him  that  he  would  not  have  been  disin- 
clined to  go  to  Holland,  but  that  he  had  now  been  invited 
by  the  Emperor  and  would  soon  set  out  for  Prague.  But 
if  this  journey  should  not  lead  to  the  expected  result,  and 
the  States  would  make  him  a  liberal  offer,  then  he  would 
willingly  come  to  them  with  his  astronomical  apparatus.1 

Tycho  was  still  at  Wandsbeck  on  the  1 4th  September 
1598,  on  which  day  he  wrote  to  Duke  Ulrich  of  Mecklen- 
burg to  thank  him  for  a  letter  of  recommendation  to  the  Em- 
peror, and  to  ask  him  to  accept  a  copy  of  the  star-catalogue, 

1  Gassendi,  pp.  156-157.  In  return  for  these  books,  Scaliger  some  months 
later  sent  Tycho  a  copy  of  his  Oonjecturce  et  notce  in  Varronem,  which  Tycho 
gave  or  lent  to  Taubmann,  Professor  of  Poetry  at  Wittenberg.  Kastner, 
Gcsch.  d.  Math.,  ii.  p.  409. 


TYCHO  AT  WITTENBERG.  271 

with  the  same  favour  with  which  he  had  received  his  book 
on  instruments.1  Not  long  afterwards  Tycho  left  Wands- 
beck  with  his  sons,  his  students,  and  a  few  small  instru- 
ments, leaving  for  a  while  longer  his  wife  and  daughters 
and  the  greater  part  of  his  luggage  in  the  kind  charge  of 
his  host,  who,  however,  died  on  the  1st  January  following. 
He  travelled  himself  as  far  as  Dresden,  where  he  learned 
that  there  was  pestilence  and  dysentery  at  Prague,  and 
that  the  Emperor  had  retired  with  his  court  to  Pilsen  ;  and 
when  he  wrote  to  Corraduc  to  announce  his  arrival,  the 
Vice- Chancellor,  at  the  Emperor's  command,  requested  him 
to  remain  at  Dresden  until  the  epidemic  was  over.  From 
Dresden  Tycho  wrote  on  the  28th  November  to  Magini, 
with  whom  he  had  held  no  communication  for  about  seven 
years,  and  told  him  that  he  had  not  finished  his  book  yet, 
as  the  theories  of  the  planets  were  not  yet  complete.  He 
also  gave  a  short  account  of  the  cause  of  his  leaving  Den- 
mark, and  added  in  a  postscript  that  Tengnagel,  who  was 
the  bearer  of  the  letter,  would  verbally  communicate  some- 
thing secret.  This  turned  out  to  be  that  Tycho  would  like 
some  Italian  to  write  a  eulogy  of  him,  for  which  Magini 
two  years  later  recommended  Bernardino  Baldi,  who  was 
going  to  write  the  lives  of  great  mathematicians.2 

Tycho  did  not  remain  long  at  Dresden,  but  preferred  to 
spend  the  winter  at  Wittenberg,  where  he  had  still  friends 
from  his  two  former  visits.  In  the  first  week  of  December 
1598  3  he  went  to  Wittenberg  with  his  sons  and  assistants, 
entered  his  own  name  and  those  of  his  two  sons  on  the  roll 
of  students  in  the  University,4  and  was  lodged  in  the  house 

1  Letter  (in  the  archives  at  Sehwerin)  printed    in  Friis,   Tyge  Bralie,  p. 

319. 

2  Carteggio  inedito  di  Magini,  pp.  217  and  230.    Baldi's  Ddle  Vite  de'  Mate- 
matici  was  never  published  (Kastner,  ii.  140). 

•  3  He  observed  the  meridian  altitude  of  the  sun  on  the  Qth  December  at 
Wittenberg. 

4  Mulleri  Cimbria  lilerata,  vol.  ii.  p.  105. 


272  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

which  formerly  had  belonged  to  Melanchthon,  and  now 
belonged  to  his  son-in-law,  Peucer,  and  where  the  physician 
Jessenius  (Johannes  Jessinsky)  lived  at  that  time.  In  the 
meanwhile  Longomontanus  had  proceeded  to  Wandsbeck, 
but  on  his  arrival  he  only  found  Tycho's  wife  and  daughters 
there.  He  remained  with  them  until  Tycho's  servant  Andreas 
arrived  with  letters  requesting  them  to  set  out  for  Witten- 
berg, upon  which  Longomontanus  accompanied  the  ladies  as 
far  as  Magdeburg,  and  then  returned  to  Denmark,  where  he 
observed  the  lunar  eclipse  on  the  3  I  st  January  following  in 
his  native  village.  On  the  3  I  st  December  1598  Tycho  wrote 
to  him  in  reply  to  a  letter  he  had  just  received,  in  which 
Longomontanus  had  informed  him  that  a  printer  at  Ham- 
burg, who  had  been  intrusted  with  the  printing  of  the  sheets 
relating  to  the  lunar  theory,  had  performed  his  task  very 
badly,  so  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  do  it  over  again. 
Tycho  therefore  wrote  that  he  would  get  it  done  at  Witten- 
berg.1 He  thanked  Longomontanus  for  his  attention  to  the 
ladies,  and  offered  to  supply  him  with  means  for  studying 
at  some  German  University  until  he  had  himself  become 
quite  settled  at  the  Emperor's  court.  He  also  expressed  his 
pleasure  at  hearing  that  Longomontanus  intended  to  write 
a  refutation  of  the  so-called  defence  of  the  Scotch  opponent, 
and  he  wished  that  it  might  be  finished  soon,  so  that  it 
might  be  printed  at  Wittenberg  as  an  appendix  to  the 
volume  on  the  comet  of  I57/.2  On  the  I  ith  January 
1599  Tycho  again  wrote  to  Longomontanus  asking  him 

1  He  afterwards  abandoned  this  idea,  because  the  eclipse  of  January  31, 
1599,  did  not  agree  with  his  theory,  although  he  had  expected  that  it  should 
agree  as  well  as  that  of  January  1582,  as  they  both  took  place  near  the  apogee 
and  at  the  same  time  of  year.     (Letter  to  Longomontanus  of  2 1st  March  1699, 
Gassendi,  p.  159).     This  shows  that  he  had  at  that  time  an  idea  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  annual  equation.     (See  next  chapter.) 

2  We  have  already  mentioned  (p.  209)  that  this  refutation  was  never  pub- 
lished.    It  appears  from  a  letter  to  Scultetus,  written  in  January  1600,  that 
Tycho  was  still  thinking  of  adding  an  appendix  to  the  book  on  comets. 


TYCHO  AT  WITTENBERG.  273 

soon  to  come  to  Wittenberg  at  his  expense,  and  offering  to 
get  him  the  professorship  at  Prague  now  held  by  Reymers 
Bar,  who  would  doubtless  soon  make  himself  invisible ;  or 
if  Longomontanus  would  prefer  a  post  at  Wittenberg, 
Tycho  would  see  that  a  professor  there,  who  was  not  dis- 
inclined to  go  to  Prague,  was  appointed  to  Reymers'  post, 
and  Longomontanus  might  then  get  the  post  vacated  at 
Wittenberg.  None  of  these  proposals  were,  however,  ac- 
cepted, and  Longomontanus  did  not  join  his  old  master 
until  the  latter  had  been  at  Prague  for  some  time.1 

It  was  not  difficult  for  Tycho  to  foresee  that  Reymers 
would  not  care  to  await  his  arrival  at  Prague.  When  the 
former  swineherd  saw  the  expressions  which  Tycho  and 
Rothmann  had  used  about  him  in  their  letters,  and  which 
were  made  public  by  the  printing  of  these,  he  naturally 
became  furious,  and  in  1597  he  published  at  Prague,  where 
he  had  in  the  meantime  become  Professor  of  Mathematics, 
a  book  De  astronomicis  hypothesibus,  in  which  he  gave  his 
fury  full  play.2  The  title-page  shows  the  motto  (in  Greek), 
'  •  I  will  meet  them  as  a  bear  bereaved  of  her  whelps " 
(Hosea  xiii.),  and  indeed  the  language  of  the  author  is  bear- 
like  enough.  First  he  tells  how  he  discovered  the  Tychonic 
system  on  the  I  st  October  1585,  and  explained  it  to  the 
Landgrave  on  the  1st  May  1586,  after  which  a  brass  model 
of  it  was  made  by  Biirgi,  and  he  suggests  that  Tycho  may 
have  heard  of  it  through  Rothmann  (or,  as  he  calls  him 
throughout  the  book,  Rotzmann,  i.e.,  Snivehnan).  After- 

1  Gassendi,  pp.  158,  159. 

2  "Nicolai  Raimari  Vrsi'  Dithmarsi  S.  Cses.  Maj.  Mathematici  de  astrono- 
micis hypothesibus  seu  systemate  mundano  tractatus  astronomicus  et  cosmo- 
graphicus  scitu  cum  iucuudus  turn  vtilissimus.     Item  astronomicarum  hypo- 
thesium  a  se  inuentarum,  oblatarum  et  editarum  contra  quosdam  eas  sibi 
temerario  vel  potius  nefario  ausu  arrogantes,   vendicatio   et  defensio.  .   .  . 
Pragse  Bohemorum  apud  auctorem.     Absque  omni  priuilegio.     Anno  1597." 
78  pp.,  4to.     Kastner,  iii.  p.  469.    Delambre,  Astr.  mod.,  i.  p.  294.     I  have  not 
seen  this  book  myself. 

18 


274  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

wards  lie  maintains  that  Tycho  had  merely  imitated  the 
system  of  Apollonius  of  Perga,  and  that  Helisseus  Roslin 
had  recently  with  equal  coolness  claimed  the  same  as  his 
own.1  He  attacks  Tycho  and  Kothmann  with  the  coarsest 
abuse,  and  is  very  anxious  to  disprove  that  he  was  ever  in 
Tycho's  employment,  as  Rothmann  had  believed,  and  tells 
how  he  came  to  Hveen  with  Erik  Lange.  It  appears  that 
Tycho  cut  him  short  during  a  dispute  with  the  remark  that 
"  those  German  fellows  were  all  half -cracked," 2  and  that  he 
generally  went  by  the  appellation  of  "Erik's  Dreng"  (i.e., 
Erik's  boy),  and  he  adds  proudly,  "Jam  non  sum  Jerix 
Dreng  sed  Imp.  Rudolphi  II.  Mathematicus."  To  Tycho's 
accusation  that  Reymers  had  stolen  the  idea  of  the  new 
system  during  his  stay  at  Uraniborg,  he  answers  that  in 
that  case  it  would  have  been  stolen  from  him  again,  since 
Tycho,  before  his  departure,  got  somebody  to  search  his 
papers  at  night,  when  nothing  was  found  but  some  plans  of 
the  buildings.  The  only  way  he  could  ever  have  spoken 
ill  of  Tycho  must  have  been  by  joking  about  his  nose,  of 
which  the  upper  part  had  been  cut  off,  and  he  indulges  in 
some  scurrilous  remarks  about  the  facilities  which  Tycho 
possessed  for  taking  observations  through  his  nose  with- 
out sights  or  instruments.  But  other  parts  of  the  book, 
like  the  "  Fundamentum  astronomicum," 3  showed  that 
Reymers  was  a  very  skilful  mathematician,  who  deserves 
every  credit  for  having  by  his  own  exertions,  and  appa- 
rently without  enjoying  the  advantages  of  regular  teach- 
ing, raised  himself  from  the  position  of  a  swineherd  to 

1  Helisseus  Rceslinus  in  1597  published  a  book,  De  opere  Dei  Creatoris,  in 
which  he  stated  that  he  had  independently  found  the  same  system  as  Tycho 
Brahe,  and  in  a  later  publication  he  stated  in  detail  how  he  did  this  after 
reading  Ursus'  book  of  1588.     (See  Frisch  in  vol.  i.  p.  228  of  his  edition  of 
Keplcri  Opera.) 

2  Reymers  writes  this  in  broken  Danish  :  "  Den  Tyske  Karle  er  allsammell 
all  gall "  (should  be  :  "  de  Tydske  Karle  ere  allesammen  halv  gale  "). 

3  See  above,  p.  183. 


TYCHO  AT  WITTENBE11G.  275 

that  of  a  professor  at  Prague.  It  is  easy  to  understand 
that  his  venomous  attack  must  have  been  doubly  annoying 
to  Tycho  at  the  particular  moment  when  it  was  published 
and  when  he  was  anxiously  seeking  a  new  home.  Tycho 
therefore  began  to  collect  evideoce  to  show  that  his  enemy 
had  really  behaved  in  a  suspicious  manner  while  at  Hveen, 
and  a  document  has  been  preserved,  drawn  up  and  signed 
before  a  notary  at  Cassel  by  Michael  Walter,  secretary  to 
Reymers'  former  master,  Lange.  In  this  the  writer  states 
that  Reymers,  when  Lange  at  his  urgent  request  had  con- 
sented to  take  him  to  Hveen,  continued  to  poke  and  pry 
among  Tycho's  instruments  and  books  whenever  nobody  was 
near,  and  to  make  drawings  of  everything ;  that  one  of 
Tycho's  pupils  warned  his  master  about  this,  and  mentioned 
it  to  a  certain  Andreas  1  who  then  went  to  sleep  at  night 
in  the  room  with  Reymers,  and  while  the  latter  slept  took 
a  handful  of  papers  out  of  one  of  his  breeches-pockets,  but 
was  afraid  to  search  the  other  for  fear  of  waking  him ;  that 
Reymers  on  discovering  his  loss  behaved  like  a  maniac, 
upon  which  he  received  back  those  of  his  papers  which  did 
not  concern  Tycho  Brahe.  The  secretary  also  states  that 
Reymers,  after  Lange's  return  to  Bygholm  Castle  in  Jutland 
continued  to  behave  more  and  more  like  a  madman,  and  told 
everybody  that  Lange  was  going  to  hang  him,  until  his 
master  got  tired  of  all  this  and  dismissed  him.2 

Though  it  could  not  possibly  be  proved  that  Reymers 
had  copied  the  idea  of  his  planetary  system  from  Tycho 
Brahe,  it  must  be  conceded  that  the  latter  had  good  reasons 
for  suspecting  him,  even  before  he  published  his  system  in 
1588,  and  we  must  remember  that  the  scientific  men  of 
the  age  were  always  afraid  of  being  robbed  of  their  dis- 
coveries, and  often  took  great  pains  to  secure  priority  by 

1  Perhaps  No.  5  en  the  list  of  pupils  (Note  B.). 

2  This  document  is  printed  in  Kepleri  Opera,  i.  p.  230. 


276  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

hiding  them  in  anagrams.  But  on  the  other  hand,  Reymers 
certainly  was  an  original  thinker,  and  he  may  quite  inde- 
pendently have  come  to  the  same  idea  which  Tycho  had 
already  conceived.  But  the  whole  question  is  not  of  much 
consequence,  and  we  have  merely  dwelt  so  long  on  it  be- 
cause it  attracted  a  good  deal  of  attention  at  the  time,  and 
because  the  steps  which  Tycho  afterwards  took  against 
Eeymers  throw  considerable  light  on  his  own  character. 

Having  spent  the  winter  1598—99  at  Wittenberg,  where 
his  family  had  joined  him,  Tycho  was  further  delayed  by 
the  illness  of  his  eldest  daughter ;  but  shortly  after  Easter 
he  at  last  set  out  for  Prague,  letting  his  family,  however, 
stop  for  a  while  half  way,  at  Dresden,  until  he  had  himself 
seen  the  state  of  things  at  Prague. 


CHAPTER  XL 
TYCHO  BRAHE  IN  BOHEMIA— HIS  DEATH.1 

THE  German  Emperor,  Eudolph  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.  Totally  devoid  of  energy 
and  taking  no  interest  in  political  matters,  he  let  public 
affairs  drift  in  whatever  direction  they  liked,  ignorant  or 
careless  of  the  fact  that  his  apathy  was  hastening  the 
catastrophe  which  a  few  years  after  his  death  plunged 
Central  Europe  into  the  war  which  turned  Germany  into  a 
desert  and  almost  annihilated  the  Imperial  power.  The 
times  were  certainly  most  serious,  and  the  difficulty  of 
settling  the  religious  -question  almost  overwhelming,  but  a 
monarch  of  spirit  and  determination  might  have  done  much 
to  counteract  the  intrigues  of  the  Spanish  and  Jesuitical 
party,  who  blindly  pursued  their  narrow-minded  policy,  and 
finally  brought  on  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  But,  regard- 
less of  the  duties  imposed  on  him  by  his  station,  the  Em- 
peror reluctantly  devoted  a  moment  to  business  of  any  kind, 
while  he  willingly  gave  his  time  and  the  limited  pecuniary 
means  of  his  impoverished  dominions  to  collecting  art 
treasures  and  promoting  science — the  real  science  repre- 
sented by  Tycho  and  Kepler,  as  well  as  the  imaginary  ones 

1  In  addition  to  Gassendi  and  Tycho's  letters  to  Vedel  and  Longomontanus, 
the  sources  for  this  period  are  :  Frisch's  Vita  Kepleri,  in  vol.  viii.  of  Joh. 
Kepleri  Opera  Omnia,  and  Joseph  v.  Hasner,  Tycho  Brahe  und  J.  Kepler  in 
Prag.  Einc  Studie,  Prag,  1872. 

277 


278  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

taught  by  the  disciples  of  Cornelius  Agrippa  and  Cardanus. 
Prague,  where  he  usually  resided,  was  not  a  very  favour- 
able place  for  the  growth  of  science  and  art,  as  Bohemia 
had  never  settled  down  since  the  Hussite  disturbances. 
The  Germans  and  the  Czechs  were  sharply  separated  by 
race  and  language ;  Catholics  were  opposed  to  Lutherans, 
Moravians,  and  Utraquists,  the  last-mentioned  differing  from 
the  Catholics  only  by  partaking  both  of  bread  and  wine  in 
the  Eucharist.  But  notwithstanding  this  state  of  things 
and  the  miserable  condition  of  the  University,  Eudolph 
succeeded  in  bringing  together  a  number  of  men  of  culture 
in  Prague,  and  for  a  short  time  he  made  the  city  one  of 
the  centres  of  civilisation — a  distinction  which  was  un- 
fortunately destined  to  be  but  very  short-lived.  Long 
before  his  death,  the  Emperor's  mind  had  been  so  persis- 
tently influenced  by  the  intrigues  of  the  Spanish  party, 
that  he  had  no  feeling  but  distrust  and  suspicion  for  his 
surroundings,  and  scarcely  felt  relieved  from  the  burden  of 
government  in  the  circle  of  his  scientific  friends.  But 
while  Tycho  Brahe  lived,  Kudolph  was  still  comparatively 
free  from  political  anxiety,  and  ready  to  do  his  utmost  to 
befriend  the  distinguished  foreigner  who  had  sought  shelter 
under  his  roof. 

When  Tycho  arrived  at  Prague  in  June  1599,  the 
Emperor  sent  the  Secretary  Barvitz  to  conduct  him  to  the 
house  of  the  late  Vice- Chancellor  Curtz,  where  the  widow 
was  still  residing.  He  had  only  a  few  instruments  with 
him,  as  most  of  those  he  had  brought  away  from  Hveen 
were  still  at  Magdeburg.  He  was  shortly  afterwards  received 
in  audience  by  the  Emperor,  who  welcomed  him  to  Prague, 
begged  him  to  let  his  family  come  from  Dresden,  and  con- 
versed with  him  for  a  long  time  in  Latin.  Tycho  presented 
the  Emperor  with '  three  volumes  of  his  works,  and  was 
afterwards  told  by  Barwitz  that  the  Emperor  often  read  in 


TYCHO  BRAHE  IN  BOHEMIA.  279 

them  till  very  late  at  night.  As  Tycho  left  it  to  the 
Emperor  to  fix  the  amount  of  his  salary,  it  was  settled  that 
this  was  to  be  3000  florins  a  year,  in  addition  to  some 
"  uncertain  income  which  might  amount  to  some  thousands." 
Tycho  tells  all  this  in  a  long  letter  to  his  old  friend  Yedel, 
which  he  wrote  on  the  1 8th  September  following,  in  which  he 
adds  that  some  councillors  were  against  these  arrangements, 
pointing  out  that  there  was  nobody  at  court,  not  even 
among  counts  and  barons  of  long  service,  who  enjoyed  so 
large  an  income ;  but  as  the  Emperor  insisted  on  it,  and 
neither  the  Secretary  of  State,  Kumph,  nor  the  Chamberlain, 
Trautson,  spoke  against  it,  it  was  settled,  and  2000  florins 
were  at  once  paid  to  Tycho.  The  Emperor  even  ordered 
that  the  salary  should  date  from  the  time  when  Tycho  had 
been  invited  to  Prague,  as  he  had  not  accepted  service  else- 
where since  then.  The  Emperor  also  of  his  own  accord 
promised  him  an  hereditary  estate  whenever  one  should  fall 
to  the  Crown,  in  order  that  he  and  his  family  might  feel 
secure.1  It  was  afterwards  ordered  that  2000  florins  a 
year  were  to  be  paid  to  Tycho  from  the  Treasury,  and  I  ooo 
from  the  estates  of  Benatky  or  Brandeis,  both  dating  from 
the  1st  May  I599.2 

In  the  meantime  Tycho  had  unpacked  the  few  instru- 
ments he  had  brought  with  him,  which  were  examined 
with  great  interest  by  Corraduc,  Hagecius,  and  other  men 
of  learning,  as  well  as  by  the  Emperor,  who  desired  him  to 
send  for  the  remainder  as  soon  as  possible.  Wishing  to 
display  the  same  taste  and  elegance  in  his  arrangements  as 
formerly  at  Uraniborg,  Tycho  had  a  pedestal  made  on  which 
instruments  might  be  placed,  and  the  four  sides  of  this 


1  Bang's  Samlinger,  ii.  p.  511  ;  Weistritz,  i.  p.  175. 

2  One  florin  (schock  meissn.)  =  5  mark  81  pf . ;  1000  florins  therefore  about 
^300 ;  but  the  value  of  money  in  Bohemia  appears  at  that  time  to  have  been 
about  four  times  as  great  as  now. 


280  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

pedestal  were  adorned  with  pictures  of  King  Alphonso,  with 
Ptolemy  and  Al  Battani  sitting  below  him ;  Charles  the 
Fifth  with  Copernicus  and  Apianus ;  Kudolph  the  Second, 
and  below  him  Tycho,  seated  at  a  table  looking  towards  the 
Emperor ;  and  lastly,  Frederick  the  Second  with  Uraniborg. 
Under  the  last  picture  was  an  epigram  by  the  Imperial 
poet-laureate.1 

In  his  as  yet  unsettled  state  Tycho  was  not  able  to  com- 
mence observations  with  the  vigour  of  former  days,  the  only 
observation  of  any  interest  made  at  this  time  being  one  of 
the  end  of  a  small  solar  eclipse  at  sunrise  on  the  22nd  July 
(new  style,  which  Tycho  used  from  henceforth).  One  of  his 
pupils,  Johannes  from  Hamburg,  observed  this  eclipse  with 
the  little  gilt  quadrant,  from  the  tower  of  a  neighbouring 
college.2 

But  Tycho  did  not  wish  to  settle  within  the  city  of  Prague. 
In  his  letters  he  states  that  he  did  not  like  that  the  widow 
of  Curtius  should  leave  her  house  for  his  sake,  and  he  feared 
to  be  too  much  disturbed  by  visitors.  Tradition  speaks  of 
his  being  annoyed  by  the  constant  ringing  of  bells  at  night 
in  the  neighbouring  Capuchin  monastery,3  but  this  may  more 
probably  refer  to  his  stay  in  the  city  during  the  last  year 
of  his  life,  or  it  may  never  have  happened ;  at  any  rate,  it 
is  not  mentioned  by  Tycho  himself.  But  he  was  accustomed 
to  a  country  residence,  with  plenty  of  fresh  air,  and  he  pro- 
bably longed  to  get  away  from  the  city,  which  was  not  very 
clean,  if  we  may  believe  Fynes  Moryson,  who  had  visited  it 
only  seven  years  before  Tycho's  arrival,  and  who  gives  the 

1  Gassendi,  p.  161,  where  another  poem  composed  on  the  same  occasion  is 
also  given. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  162  ;  Barrettus,  p.  844.    The  quadrant  is  described  above,  p.  102. 

3  Madler,  Pop.  Astronomic,  1st  edit.,  1841,  p.  561  (not  in  the  latest  edi- 
tions), and  Heiberg,  Urania,  Aarbog  for  1846,  p.  131.     According  to  another 
tradition,  the  monks  did  not  like  the  neighbourhood  of  the  heretic,  and  got  up 
an  apparition  of  a  ghost  to  persuade  the  Emperor  to  turn  him  out. 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  281 

following  description  of  it : — "  On  the  west  side  of  Molda  is 
the  Emperour's  castle,  seated  on  a  most  high  mountaine,1  in 
the  fall  whereof  is  the  suburbe  called  Kleinseit  or  little  side. 
From  this  suburbe  to  go  into  the  city,  a  long  stone  bridge 
is  to  be  passed  over  Molda,  which  runnes  from  the  south  to 
the  north  and  diuides  the  suburbe  from  the  city,  to  which 
as  you  goe,  on  the  left  side  is  a  little  city  of  Jewes,  com- 
passed with  wals,  and  before  your  eies  towards  the  east  is 
the  city  called  new  Prague,  both  which  cities  are  compassed 
about  with  a  third,  called  old  Prague.  So  as  Prague  con- 
sists of  three  cities,  all  compassed  with  wals,  yet  is  nothing 
less  than  strong,  and  except  the  stinch  of  the  streetes  driue 
backe  the  Turks  or  they  meet  them  in  open  field,  there  is 
small  hope  in  the  fortifications  thereof.  The  streets  are 
filthy,  there  be  diuers  large  market  places,  the  building  of 
some  houses  is  of  free  stone,  but  the  most  part  are  of 
timber  and  clay,  and  are  built  with  little  beauty  or  art,  the 
walles  being  all  of  whole  trees  as  they  come  out  of  the  wood, 
the  which  with  the  barke  are  laid  so  rudely  as  they  may  on 
both  sides  be  seen." 

When  the  Emperor  learned  that  Tycho  Brahe  wished  to 
reside  outside  Prague,  he  gave  him  his  choice  between  the 
three  castles  of  Lyssa,  Brandeis,  and  Benatky,  "  zur  Exer- 
cirung  seines  Studii."  Having  seen  them  all,  and  having 
learned  that  Brandeis  (which  was  situated  rather  low)  was 
the  Emperor's  favourite  hunting-lodge,  Tycho  selected 
Benatky  on  the  River  Iser  (a  tributary  to  the  Elbe),  about 
twenty-two  miles  north-east  of  Prague.  The  Castle  of 
Benatky,  which  the  Emperor  had  recently  purchased  from 
Count  Dohnin,  had  been  erected  in  1522  in  the  place  of 
an  older  castle  which  had  been  destroyed  during  the  Hussite 
wars.  It  has  since  Tycho's  time  been  considerably  enlarged, 
so  that  the  building  inhabited  by  him  now  only  forms  the 

i  Hradschin,  where  the  house  of  Curtius  was  situated,  west  of  the  castle. 


282  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

western  wing.  The  present  church  tower  is  also  a  later 
addition.  The  castle  is  situated  close  to  the  town  of  Nove" 
Benatky  (in  German,  Neu  Benatek)  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Iser,  on  a  hill  raised  about  two  hundred  feet  over  the 
river.  The  castle  commands  a  fine  view  of  the  vineyards 
and  orchards  on  the  hilly  northern  (right)  bank  and  tilled 
fields  and  pasture-lands  on  the  southern,  which  latter  are 
not  seldom  flooded  by  the  Iser,  so  that  the  inhabitants  on 
such  occasions  are  surrounded  by  a  lake.1  This  may  account 
for  the  name  of  Venetise  Bohemorum  by  which  Benatky  has 
•frequently  been  called,  though  Tycho  believes  that  the 
general  beauty  of  the  surroundings  has  also  contributed  to 
the  use  of  this  name.2  On  the  way  to  Benatky,  Tycho  sent 
from  Brandeis  a  letter  to  Longomontanus  at  Kostock,  dated 
the  2Oth  August,  in  which  he  mentioned  that  the  road  was 
level,  and  that  the  journey  took  about  six  hours ;  an  official 
from  Brandeis  was  that  day  or  the  next  to  conduct  him  and 
his  belongings  to  Benatky,  where  he  expected  to  remain 
until  he  got  the  estate  which  the  Emperor  intended  to 
confer  on  him  in  fief.3  As  soon  as  Tycho  arrived  at 
Benatky  he  set  about  altering  the  building  and  construct- 
ing an  observatory  and  a  laboratory.  As  usual,  he  ex- 
pressed his  pleasure  at  having  at  last  found  a  resting- 
place  in  various  Latin  poems,  two  of  which  were  inscribed 
over  the  entrances  to  the  observatory  and  the  laboratory.4 
The  principal  instruments  were  to  be  placed  in  separate  rooms, 
as  at  Hveen,  all  connected  with  each  other,  and  with  the 
laboratory  and  residence,  and  a  separate  entrance  was  to  be 

1  Description  of  Benatky  by  David.     See  Zach's  Monatliche  Correspondenz, 
vi.  p.  475  (1802).     On  the  appended  plate  the  wing  in  the  centre  and  the 
church-spire  were  added  after  Tycho's  time. 

2  Letter  to  Pinelli,  Aus  Tycho  Brahms  Briefwechsel,  p.  12.     Tycho  always 
calls  the  place  Benach. 

3  Gassendi,  p.  163 ;  Bang's  Samlinger,  ii.  p.  501  (Weistritz,  i.  p.  164). 
*  Gassendi,  p.  164. 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  283 

made  for  the  Emperor,  who  had  reserved  an  adjoining  house 
for  his  own  use  whenever  he  visited  Benatky.1  Whether 
Kudolph  ever  came  to  Benatky  while  Tycho  was  there  is 
not  known,  but  it  is  not  likely,  as  he  was  again  in  the 
autumn  of  1599  driven  from  Prague  to  Pilsen  by  the 
plague,  and  did  not  return  till  July  1600.  Tycho  also  left 
home  for  the  same  reason  towards  the  end  of  I599>  an(^ 
lived  for  six  or  seven  weeks  at  an  Imperial  residence  at  the 
village  of  Girsitz,  a  few  miles  south  of  Benatky,  where  some 
observations  were  made  in  December.2  It  was  during  this 
new  visitation  of  the  plague  that  the  Emperor  desired  Tycho 
to  give  him  the  prescription  for  his  "  elixir "  against  epi- 
demic diseases,  as  already  mentioned.3 

In  the  meantime  the  family  had  arrived  from  Dresden, 
and  as  everything  now  appeared  to  promise  Tycho  that  he 
had  found  a  haven  for  the  remainder  of  his  days,  he  sent 
about  the  end  of  September  his  eldest  son,  together  with  a 
certain  Glaus  Mule,  to  Denmark,  to  remove  the  four  large 
instruments  which  were  still  at  Hveen,  and  took  this  oppor- 
tunity of  sending  a  number  of  letters  to  his  family  and 
friends.  Among  these  letters  was  one  to  Valkendorf,  asking 
him  to  facilitate  the  transport  of  the  instruments,4  one  to 
his  own  brother,  Axel,  to  the  same  purport,  another  to  Longo- 
montanus,  and  a  very  long  one  to  his  old  friend  Vedel.  In 
this  he  gave  a  very  full  account  of  his  doings  since  he  left 
Hveen,  which  he  asked  Yedel  to  incorporate  in  his  Danish 
history,  so  that  it  might  be  handed  down  to  posterity, 
whether  printed  or  not.5  Tycho's  daughter  Magdalene 

1  Letter  to  Sophia  Brahe  in  Breve  og  Aktstykker,  pp.  85-86. 

2  Barrettus,  pp.  850  and  856  ;  Breve  og  AktstyTcTcer,  pp.  98  and  108. 

3  See  above,  p.  130. 

4  The  letter  is  not  extant,  but  Tycho  alludes  to  it  in  the  letter  to  Longo- 
montanus  (Gassendi,  p.  167  ;  Weistritz,  i.  p.  186).     The  Emperor  had  directed 
Barwitz  to  write  to  the  Danish  Privy  Councillor,  Henrik  Ramel,  on  the  same 
matter. 

5  This  letter  was  published  at  Jena  in  1730  (23  pp.  4to)  by  G.  B.  Casseburg, 


284  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

sent  a  letter  to  Glaus  Mule's  mother,  in  which,  she  also 
described  the  travels  of  the  family.1  To  his  kinsman  Eske 
Bille,  who  seems  to  have  done  his  best  for  Tycho  in  the 
way  of  executing  commissions  and  looking  after  his  affairs 
at  Hveen  and  elsewhere  in  Denmark,  Tycho  also  wrote  on 
this  occasion.  Bille  had  some  months  before  sent  him  700 
daler,  which  however  did  not  reach  Prague  till  a  short  time 
before  Christmas,  and  he  was  to  receive  some  money  which 
Tycho's  cousin,  Axel  Gyldenstjerne  (Governor  of  Norway), 
owed  him;  and  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  to  pay  5000 
daler  which  Tycho  owed  to  the  widow  of  Heinrich  Kantzov, 
which  he  did  in  the  course  of  the  year  i6oo.2  Tycho's  son 
got  the  instruments  at  Hveen  dismounted  and  sent  by  sea 
to  Llibeck,  after  which  he  returned  to  Bohemia,  where  he 
arrived  in  January  1600  with  a  supply  of  salt  fish  from 
Hveen,  which  island  Tycho  continued  to  hold  in  fee  till 
his  death.  He  was  also  the  bearer  of  a  great  many  letters 
from  relatives  and  friends — among  others,  of  one  from 
Tycho  Brahe's  aged  mother. 

At  that  time  the  instruments  were  still  at  Liibeck,  pro- 
bably because  Tycho's  agent  there  was  unable  to  get  them 
sent  on  to  Hamburg,  where  they  did  not  arrive  till  the 
following  April.  On  the  8th  September  1599  the  Em- 
peror had  written  to  the  Burgomaster  and  Senate  of  Ham- 
burg, desiring  them  to  forward  the  instruments  by  ship  on 
the  Elbe,  and  Tycho  himself  had  written  to  them  on  the 
29th  September,  requesting  them  to  get  the  instruments 
under  way  before  the  Elbe  froze  over,  but  these  letters  were 

Tychonis  Brake  Relatio  de  statu  suo  post  discessum  ex  patria,  and  more 
accurately  in  the  Ddniscke  Billiothek,  iii.  1740,  p.  180  et  seq.  Translated  in 
Weistritz,  i.  p.  169  et  seq. 

1  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  359  ;  Weistritz,  ii.  p.  365.     Glaus  Mule  was  a  son 
of  the  Burgomaster  of  Odense  in  Denmark.     A  letter  from  Tycho  to  him  (ap- 
parently written  while  Mule  was  abroad,  perhaps  at  Rostock,  as  it  alludes  to 
Professor  Caselius)  is  quoted  above  p.  240,  footnote. 

2  Breve  og  Aktstykker,  pp.  50,  57,  93,  101,  117,  148. 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  285 

not  read  in  the  Senate  till  the  2  I  st  April  following,  when 
the  agent  at  Ltibeck  had  at  last  forwarded  the  instru- 
ments to  Hamburg,  i  A  similar  delay  occurred  with  the  bulk 
of  the  instruments,  books,  &c.,  which  Tycho  had  himself 
brought  from  Denmark  as  far  as  Magdeburg.  About  the 
transport  of  these  to  Prague  by  the  Elbe  the  Emperor  had 
also  written  in  September  1599  to  the  civic  authorities  at 
Magdeburg,  and  he  wrote  a  reminder  to  them  some  time 
after ;  but  the  Town  Council  coolly  replied  that  they  were 
unable  to  do  anything,  and,  among  other  excuses,  they 
mentioned  the  great  damage  done  to  the  town  when  the 
celebrated  Elector  Maurice  of  Saxony,  as  commander  of  the 
Catholic  forces,  had  besieged  it  some  fifty  years  before. 
Having,  to  the  disgust  of  his  Austrian  councillors,  swallowed 
this  affront,  which  showed  how  little  the  Imperial  authority 
was  respected  in  the  North  of  Germany,  Eudolph  addressed 
himself  to  the  Chapter  of  Magdeburg,  and  Tycho  forward- 
ing this  letter  by  a  servant  of  his  in  April  1 600,  also  wrote 
to  the  Chapter  begging  them  to  help  him  in  the  matter.2 
It  appears  from  a  letter  which  Tycho  wrote  in  September 
1 600  to  Duke  Otto  of  Brunswick  (who  wanted  his  horo- 
scope prepared)  that  the  instruments  and  books  had  then 
only  got  as  far  as  Leitmerits,  in  Bohemia,  and  in  November 
1600  Tycho  wrote  to  Landgrave  Maurice  that  he  had  at 
last  got  all  his  twenty-eight  instruments  at  Prague.3  But 
he  had  then  long  ago  left  Benatky. 

"While   the  instruments  were  on  their  way  to  Bohemia, 
Tycho  was  endeavouring  to  push  forward  the  alteration  of 

1  The  two  letters  (in  the  city  archives  of  Hamburg),  printed  in  Friis,  Tyge 
Brake,  pp.  320  and  324.     Letter  from  Tycho  to  Vincent  Miiller,  Burgomaster 
of  Hamburg,  of  April  24,  1600,  in  Breve  og  Aktstykker,  p.  125. 

2  Tycho's   letter   to  the  Chapter,  Aus  Tycho  Brake  s  Briej wechsel,  p.  21  ; 
compare  Breve  og  AktstykJcer,  p.  114. 

3  Breve  og  Aktstykker,  pp.    141  and  143.     Tycho  wrote  to  Eske  Bille  on 
November  16,  that  on  looking  over  his  things,  he  noticed  that  some  articles 
were  missing  which  might  still  be  at  Copenhagen  or  at  Liibeck.     Ibid.,  p.  149. 


286  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

and  addition  to  the  Castle  of  Benatky;  but  he  had  a 
good  many  obstacles  to  contend  with,  which  must  often 
have  made  him  think  with  bitter  regret  of  the  easy  times 
he  had  had  in  Denmark,  where  an  order  on  the  Exchequer 
was  at  once  exchanged  for  cash  without  any  trouble.  At 
Benatky  everything  had  to  be  done  through  Kaspar  von 
Mlihlstein,  manager  of  the  crown  estates  of  Brandeis 
and  Benatky;  and  as  the  estates  were  in  a  sad  condition, 
and  the  Bohemian  Exchequer  was  always  empty,  the 
manager  was  in  a  bad  plight,  as  Tycho  wanted  money, 
and  thought  the  Emperor's  orders  should  produce  the 
money  immediately.  On  the  2nd  December  1599,  Miihl- 
stein  wrote  to  the  President  of  the  Bohemian  Treasury, 
announcing  that  the  building  operations  were  in  progress, 
but  that  Tycho  continued  to  make  new  plans,  so  that  the 
cost  would  very  far  exceed  the  estimate.  As  Miihlstein 
could  not  consent  to  this  without  orders  from  the  Treasury, 
Tycho  had  threatened  him  with  the  Emperor's  displeasure, 
and  said  that  he  would  leave  Bohemia  again,  and  let  the 
world  know  the  reason  why.  Miihlstein  had  now  received 
a  letter  from  Barwitz,  in  which  the  latter  informed  him  that 
his  Majesty  had  taken  Tycho  into  special  favour,  and  ordered 
to  let  him,  in  addition  to  the  buildings  commenced,  erect  a 
wooden  dwelling-room  and  a  furnace,  for  which  eighty  florins 
were  granted.  Miihlstein  wrote  back  that  he  could  not  do 
this  without  an  order  from  the  Treasury.  Tycho  had  also 
shown  him  a  communication  from  Barwitz  to  the  effect  that 
the  Emperor  granted  him  a  thousand  florins  from  the  estate  of 
Benatky,  and  Tycho  now  demanded  the  money.  Miihlstein 
answered  that  he  had  neither  got  instructions  from  the 
Emperor  nor  from  the  Treasury,  and  even  if  he  had,  he 
did  not  know  where  to  get  so  much  money  from,  and  it 
would  be  much  better  to  spend  it  on  improving  ponds, 
stocking  the  land,  &c.  He  had  also  to  mention  that  he 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  287 

had  every  week  to  supply  Tycho  with  wood  from  the  Im- 
perial forest,  and  with  charcoal  for  distilling  water.  Miihl- 
stein  therefore  requested  the  President  to  consider  all  this ; 
he  would  soon  send  a  specification  of  the  outlay  already 
incurred. 

The  matter  was  referred  by  the  Treasury  to  the  Emperor, 
who  from  Pilsen  on  the  loth  December  issued  a  decree, 
countersigned  by  Barwitz,  in  which  he  informed  the  Trea- 
sury that  he  had  taken  the  mathematician  Tycho  Brahe 
into  his  service,  and  granted  him  the  Castle  of  Benatky  for 
his  use  until  further  orders,  and  directed  that  he  was  to  be 
paid  one  thousand  florins  annually  from  the  1st  May  1599 
from  Benatky  or  Brandeis,  and  the  cost  of  building  some 
small  rooms  (but  not  more  than  already  granted,  as  was 
known  to  the  manager  at  Benatky).1  This  decree  having 
pacified  the  conscience  of  Miihlstein,  the  building  opera- 
tions were  proceeded  with,  and  Tycho  and  he  seem  to  have 
got  on  better  afterwards ;  at  least  Tycho  went  to  Prague  in 
the  following  spring  to  attend  Miihlstein's  wedding. 

While  the  new  observing  rooms  were  being  prepared, 
Tycho  kept  up  his  correspondence  with  scientific  men,  and 
endeavoured  to  enlist  assistants  for  the  new  observatory. 
In  the  above-mentioned  letter  to  Longomontanus,  Tycho 
wrote  (after  requesting  him  to  help  in  packing  the  instru- 
ments) that  he  hoped  his  old  pupil  would  come  back  to 
him  ;  he  was  expecting  Johann  Miiller  from  Brandenburg, 
and  he  had  got  the  Emperor  to  write  to  the  Elector  to 
permit  Miiller  to  go  to  Prague,  as  they  had  agreed  at 

1  Hasner,  p.  7  et  seq. 

2  Where  these  were  situated  is  not  known,  and  there  are  no  remains  of 
Tycho's  buildings  or  inscriptions,  &c.,  as  the  Castle  of  Benatky  has  changed 
owners   many  times    since    then.       In    March   1801  Professor  Aloys  David 
determined   the   latitude  of    Benatky  and    found  50°  17'  24"  (Tycho  gives 
50°  1 8'  15")  and  longitude  5001.  os.  east  of  Paris.     Monatl.  Correspondenz,  vi. 
(1802),  p.  477.     Tradition  attributes  a  still  existing  sundial  at  Benatky  to 
Tycho,  but  there  is  no  proof  of  its  having  been  constructed  by  him. 


288  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

Wittenberg.  He  also  hoped  that  David  Fabricius,  from 
Ostfriesland,  whom  Longomontanus  had  met  at  Wandsbeck, 
would  come  to  act  both  as  domestic  chaplain  and  as  observer  ; 
and  he  was  getting  two  students  from  Wittenberg,  who  had 
offered  themselves  through  Jostelius,  as  he  hoped  to  start 
aganTan  astronomical  school  for  the  benefit  of  posterity  and 
for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  credit  of  the  Emperor.  Pos- 
sibly Christopher  Kothmann  would  also  come,  as  he  had 
recently  written  to  Rollenhagen  of  Magdeburg  (a  well- 
known  writer  on  astrology  and  many  other  things),  so  that 
he  was  not  dead,  as  Tycho  had  for  some  time  believed  ;  but 
that  bear-like  and  Dithmarsian  brute  (ursina  ista  et  Dithmar- 
sica  lestia)  had  told  a  double  lie  when  he  had  spread  the 
rumours  that  Tycho  had  fled  from  Denmark  for  some  great 
act  of  villainy,  and  that  Rothmann  had  died  from  debauchery. 
The  same  Eeymers  had  secretly  absconded  lately  from  Prague, 
but  he  would  yet  meet  the  punishment  he  deserved.1  The 
sheets  which  were  still  wanting  in  the  first  volume  of  the 
Progymnasmata,  and  which  the  Hamburg  printer  had  done 
so  badly,  were  soon  to  be  printed,  and  when  Longomontanus 
came,  all  might  be  settled,  so  that  the  book  might  be  issued 
together  with  the  second  volume  (on  the  comet  of  1577), 
while  the  third  volume  on  the  other  comets  might  follow.2 

Several  of  the  collaborators  whom  Tycho  in  this  letter 
hoped  to  secure  did  not  put  in  an  appearance.  Longomon- 
tanus arrived  in  January  1600  with  Tycho's  son,3  but  Roth- 
mann never  came;  Fabricius  only  came  in  June  1601  for  a 
couple  of  weeks,4  and  Miiller  did  not  arrive  till  after  March 

1  In  the  letter  to  Vedel,  Tycho  also  mentions  this,  and  adds  that  Eeymers 
had  left  his  wife  behind,  who  (of  course)  enjoyed  an  evil  reputation. 

2  In  January  1600  Tycho  inquired  from    Scultetus  whether  the  printing 
could  not  be  done  at  Gorlitz  (Aus  Tyclio  Brake's  Briefweclisel,  p.  16). 

3  Kepleri  Opera,  viii.  p.  715. 

4  Apelt,  Die  Reformation  der  Sternkunde,  p.  271.     Fabricius  went  with  a 
message  from  the  Count  of  Ostfriesland  to  his  envoy  at  Prague.     A  letter 
which  he  wrote  to  Kepler  from  Prague  is  printed,  Opera,  i.  p.  305. 


TYCHO  BRAHE  IN  BOHEMIA.  289 

I6OO,1  and  left  again  in  the  spring  of  1 60 1,  after  which  he 
disappears  from  the  history  of  science  altogether.  But  in 
the  meantime  negotiations  had  been  entered  into  with  a  far 
greater  man  than  any  of  these,  which  terminated  in  the 
removal  of  Kepler  from  Gratz  to  Prague,  an  event  which 
produced  the  happiest  results. 

Johann  Kepler  was  born  on  the  2 7th  December  1571,  at 
Weilderstadt,  in  Wiirtemberg,  and  studied  from  1589  at  the 
University  of  Tubingen  under  the  talented  mathematician 
Michael  Mastlin,  through  whom  he  became  acquainted  with 
the  Copernican  system,  and  convinced  himself  of  its  being 
the  only  true  representation  of  the  planetary  system.      He 
completed  his  studies  in  the  faculty  of  Arts,  and  took  the 
Master's  degree  in  1591,  after  which  he  entered  the  theo- 
logical faculty,  and  spent  the  next  two  years  in  studying  the 
intensely  narrow-minded  dogmas  which  then  prevailed  in 
the  Lutheran  Church,  and  which  were  so  distasteful  to  him 
that  he  was  soon  known  among  theologians  as  one  unfit  for 
a   clerical  career.      When,  therefore,  in    1594  the   post   of 
"  provincial  mathematician  "  of  Styria  was  offered  to  him, 
he  was  urged  by  his  friends  to  accept  it ;  and  though  he 
hesitated  somewhat,  as  he  had  not  particularly  devoted  him- 
self to  the  study  of  mathematics,  he  yielded  in  the  end,  as 
it  might  not  be  easy  for  him  to  find  suitable  employment 
in  Wiirtemberg,  while  the  lively  intercourse  between  the 
numerous  Protestants  in  Styria  and  their  co-religionists  at 
Tiibingen  helped  to  bridge  over  the  distance  of  Gratz  from 
his  home.     In   Gratz  the  young  professor  lectured  less  on 
mathematics  than  on  classics  and  rhetoric,  while  from  I  594 
he  prepared  annual  calendars,  with  the  usual  meteorological 
predictions  and  hints  on  the  political  events  of  the  coming 
year.     In  1596  his  first   great  work  appeared,  Prodromus 
Dissertationum  Cosmographicarum  continens  Mysterium   Cos- 

1  Breve  og  Akstykker,  p.  no. 

19 


290  TYCHO  BRAKE. 


j  in  which  he  set  fortli  a  relation  between  the 
five  regular  polyhedra  and  the  distances  which  then  were 
assumed  between  the  planets  and  the  sun  in  the  Coper- 
nican  system.  The  genius  of  the  writer  was  conspicuously 
displayed  in  this  book  and  at  once  attracted  attention. 
Kepler  had  already  in  November  1595  addressed  a  letter  to 
Reymers,  in  which  he  explained  the  ideas  contained  in  his 
forthcoming  work,  but  the  "  Caesarean  mathematician  "  took 
no  notice  of  the  letter  of  the  unknown  young  man  until 
June  1597,  when  he  had  probably  heard  the  book  well 
spoken  of,  and  wrote  to  Kepler  to  ask  for  a  copy.1  In  the 
mad  book  which  he  published  in  the  same  year,  Reymers 
inserted  Kepler's  letter  of  1595,  at  which  Tycho  did  not 
feel  particularly  pleased,  though  he  had  sense  enough  to 
acknowledge  that  Kepler  had  merely  been  civil  to  a  man 
whom  he  only  knew  through  his  scientific  writings.  In  a 
letter  which  Tycho  wrote  from  Wandsbeck  on  the  1st  April 
1598,  to  thank  him  for  a  copy  of  the  Prodromus  (which 
Kepler  had  recently  sent  with  a  respectful  letter),  he 
expressed  himself  to  that  effect.  At  the  same  time  he  gave 
due  praise  to  the  ingenious  speculations  of  Kepler,  though 
he  had  some  doubts  as  to  the  numerical  data  employed,  and 
of  course  he  could  not  help  regretting  that  the  Copernican 
system  was  the  foundation  on  which  Kepler  had  built.  He 
expressed,  however,  the  hope  that  Kepler  would  yet  adopt 
something  similar  to  the  Tychonic  system,  which  made 
Kepler  (who  throughout  furnished  the  letter  with  marginal 
notes)  remark:  "  Quilibet  se  amat"2  Shortly  afterwards  Tycho 

1  Ursus  had  just  published  a  work  on  chronology,  Chronotkeatrum  sive 
Theatrum  temporis  annorum  4000,  of  which  he  sent  Kepler  a  copy  with  the 
letter  (the  full  title  is  given  by  Hanisch,  Epist.  ad  I.  Kcplerum,  p.  90  ;  it  must 
be  an  extremely  scarce  book).     Kepler  was  so  little  aware  of  the  enmity 
between  Tycho  and  Ursus  that  he  even  asked  Ursus  to  forward  a  copy  of  the 
Prodromus  to  Tycho  (Opera,  i.  p.  233). 

2  Epist.  Kepleri,  p.  102  ;  Opera,  i.  p.  43  and  p.  219  ;  Kepler's  marginal  notes, 
p.  189. 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  291 

also  wrote  to  Mastlin  (to  whom  he  had  ten  years  previously 
sent  his  book  on  the  comet  of  1577  without  hearing  from 
Mastlin  since  then),  and  repeated  some  of  the  doubts  he 
had  already  expressed  to  Kepler.1  The  latter  was,  however, 
not  discouraged  by  these  doubts,  and  wrote  to  Mastlin  that 
he  could  in  no  way  accept  the  Tychonic  system,  and  that 
Tycho  had  abundance  of  riches  which  he  did  not  use  properly, 
as  was  generally  the  way  with  rich  people,  and  it  would  be 
well  to  extort  his  riches  from  him  by  getting  him  to  publish 
all  his  observations.2  To  Tycho  himself  Kepler  addressed 
a  letter  in  which  he,  with  manly  and  unaffected  eloquence, 
protested  against  the  crafty  use  which  Keymers  had  made 
of  his  complimentary  letter,  which  he  had  written  simply 
because  he  had  read  Reymers'  Fundamentum  astronomicum 
with  much  profit,  had  been  advised  by  some  Styrian  noble- 
men to  make  a  friend  of  this  man  on  account  of  his  influ- 
ential position  (though  they  called  him  a  new  Diogenes), 
and  had  felt  a  desire  of  communing  with  a  mathematician, 
since  there  were  none  in  his  own  neighbourhood.3  The 
whole  letter  evidently  made  a  good  impression  on  Tycho,  as 
Kepler's  open  and  noble  mind  is  reflected  in  every  line,  and 
Tycho  wrote  in  reply  that  he  had  not  required  so  elaborate 
an  apology. 

The  literary  intercourse  which  had  thus  been  opened 
between  Tycho  Brahe  and  Kepler  was  soon  to  become  a 
personal  one.  The  very  numerous  Protestants  in  Styria 
had  hitherto  been  perfectly  unmolested  by  their  Catholic 
rulers,  but  during  a  pilgrimage  to  Loretto  which  Archduke 
Ferdinand  (afterwards  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  II.)  under- 
took in  1598,  he  vowed  to  root  out  the  heretics  from  his 
dominions,  and  on  the  28th  September  all  preachers  and  the 
teachers  at  the  Gymnasium  of  Gratz  were  ordered  to  leave 

1  Opera,  i.  p.  45  et  scq.  2  Ibid.,  p.  48  et  seq. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  220  et  scq.;  Epist.  ed.  Hanscldus,  p.  106. 


292  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

the  town  before  sunset.  Kepler  had  to  leave  liis  family  (he 
had  eighteen  months  before  married  a  young  widow,  who 
was  the  mother  of  a  girl  seven  years  old)  and  depart  for 
Hungary.  He  was,  however,  recalled  within  a  month,  as 
some  of  the  Jesuits  were  much  interested  in  his  scientific 
work,  and  hoped  that  he  might  be  persuaded  to  change  his 
faith.  He  soon  saw  that  he  could  not  hope  to  be  left 
in  peace  very  long,  and  he  made  vain  attempts  to  obtain 
some  employment  at  Tiibingen.  Mastlin  was,  however, 
unable  to  help  his  former  pupil,  and  Kepler  saw  no  other 
opening  elsewhere.  Meanwhile  Tycho  had  been  invited  to 
Prague,  and  Kepler,  who  had  already  been  anxious  to  meet 
him,  was  now  more  than  ever  desirous  of  doing  so,  and 
thought  of  undertaking  a  journey  to  Wittenberg  for  the 
purpose  of  conferring  with  Tycho.  In  August  1599  he 
learned  from  Herwart  von  Hohenburg,  Chancellor  to  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria,  who  was  a  correspondent  of  Kepler's,  and 
had  frequently  consulted  the  rising  astronomer  on  matters 
connected  with  chronology,1  that  Tycho  had  arrived  at 
Prague  and  was  to  have  a  salary  of  3000  florins.  Herwart 
ended  the  letter  by  saying,  "  I  wish  you  had  such  a  chance, 
and  who  knows  what  fate  may  have  in  store  for  you." 
Kepler  now  consulted  a  number  of  friends  and  some  men 
of  influence  at  Prague,  among  whom  was  Baron  Hoffman, 
a  privy  councillor  who  was  well  acquainted  with  Tycho,  but 
who  would  at  first  give  only  an  evasive  answer.  The  most 
sensible  advice  was  given  by  Papius,  a  physician,  who  had 
been  obliged  to  leave  Gratz  as  a  Protestant,  and  was  then 
practising  his  art  at  Tubingen.  He  suggested  that  Kepler 
should  make  all  possible  inquiries  at  Prague  about  the  con- 

1  Tycho  had  also  for  some  time  corresponded  with  Herwart,  to  whom  he, 
on  the  3 1st  August,  wrote  a  letter  explaining  his  lunar  theory,  and  particularly 
the  calculation  of  eclipses.  About  this  letter  and  Herwart's  answer,  see 
Gassendi,  p.  165. 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  293 

ditions  on  which  he  might  become  associated  with  Tycho, 
and  that  he  should  let  his  literary  productions  be  shown 
at  Prague  in  order  to  pave  the  way  for  him  there.1  The 
latter  part  of  the  advice  was  certainly  superfluous,  and  Tycho 
himself  was  more  than  willing  to  accept  Kepler's  services. 
In  a  long  letter  which  Tycho  wrote  from  Benatky  on  the 
9th  December  I  599?  he  expressed  his  hope  of  soon  meeting 
Kepler,  though  he  did  not  wish  that  the  latter  should  be 
driven  to  him  by  misfortune,  but  by  his  own  free  will  and 
his  love  of  science,  and  he  assured  Kepler  that  he  would 
find  in  him  a  friend  who  would  always  stand  by  him  with 
help  and  counsel.2 

Tycho's  letter  did  not  find  Kepler  at  Gratz.  He  had 
at  last  made  up  his  mind  to  examine  the  state  of  things 
at  Prague  with  his  own  eyes,  and,  encouraged  by  Baron 
Hoffmann,  he  started  with  this  nobleman  from  Gratz  on  the 
6th  January  1600,  and  arrived  at  Prague  about  a  fort- 
night later.  On  the  26th  Tycho  wrote  to  Hoffmann  that 
he  had  with  great  pleasure  heard  of  their  arrival,  and 
thanked  Hoffmann  for  being  the  means  of  introducing  Kepler 
to  him.  Tengnagel  (who  had  just  returned  from  his  home 
in  Westphalia)  and  Tycho's  eldest-  son  were  the  bearers  of 
this  letter,  as  well  as  of  another  for  Kepler,  in  which  Tycho 
apologised  for  not  welcoming  him  in  person,  but  he  rarely 
went  to  Prague  except  when  called  by  the  Emperor ;  the 
oppositions  of  Mars  and  Jupiter  were  now  to  be  observed, 
and  the  other  three  planets  and  a  lunar  eclipse  likewise, 
so  that  he  did  not  like  to  interrupt  his  work,  but  he  would 
receive  Kepler,  not  as  a  guest,  but  as  a  dear  friend  and 
colleague.3  On  the  3rd  February  Kepler  arrived  at  Benatky 
with  a  civil  answer  from  Hoffmann,  warmly  recommending 

1  Kepleri  Opera,  viii.  p.  709. 

2  Epist.  ed.  tfanschius,  p.  1 08  et  seq. ;  Opera,  i.  p.  223  and  p.  47. 

3  Kepleri  Opera,  viii.  p.  716;  Aus  Tycho  Brake's  Briefwechscl,  p.  18. 


294  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

him  to  Tycho.1  Within  a  few  days  some  preliminary 
arrangements  were  made  with  regard  to  the  distribution 
of  work  between  the  various  assistants.  Tycho's  younger 
son,  Jorgen,  was  to  have  charge  of  the  laboratory ;  Longo- 
montanus  had  the  theory  of  Mars  in  hand ;  Kepler  at  first 
had  to  put  up  with  the  promise  of  the  next  planet  which 
was  taken  up,  but  afterwards  Mars  was  intrusted  to  him, 
as  he  was  particularly  eager  to  attack  this  most  difficult 
planet,  while  Longomontanus  undertook  the  lunar  theory.2 
But  though  Tycho  was  most  cordial  to  Kepler,  he  did  not 
enter  very  much  into  learned  discourses,  so  that  Kepler  had 
often  to  coax  him  into  answering  some  question  while  they 
were  at  table.  He  had  a  feeling  that  he  was  not  looked 
upon  as  a  man  of  recognised  scientific  standing,  but  merely 
as  an  ordinary  assistant  to  the  world-famed  Tycho  Brahe, 
and  yet  he  felt  that  he  ought  to  have  full  access  to  the 
great  treasure  of  observations  which  Tycho  possessed.  In 
a  document  which  Kepler  drew  up  for  the  information  of 
his  friends,3  he  remarks  that  Tycho  had  hitherto,  by  the 
magnitude  of  his  undertakings,  been  prevented  from  dis- 
cussing his  observations,  and  now  that  old  age  was  approach- 
ing and  soon  would  enervate  him,  he  would  hardly  be  able 
to  undertake  that  great  work  himself.  If  the  journey  from 
Gratz  was  not  to  have  been  made  in  vain,  either  Tycho 
should  allow  him  to  copy  the  observations,  which  he  doubt- 
less would  refuse,  since  they  were  his  treasure  to  which  he 
had  devoted  all  his  life,  or  he  should  admit  Kepler  to  a 
share  in  the  working  out  of  the  results  from  them.  And 
the  Emperor  should  do  as  King  Alphonso  had  done,  and 
associate  others  with  Tycho.  He  himself  ran  the  risk  of 
losing  his  post  at  Gratz,  for  if  Tycho  took  offence  at  some- 

1  Opera,  pp.  716,  717  ;  Briefwechsel,  p.  19. 

2  Kepler,  De  Stella  Martis,  chap.  vii.  (Opera,  iii.  p.  210). 

3  Opera,  viii.  p.  Ji8  et  seq. 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  295 

tiling  in  Bohemia  and  went  away,  or  if  something  happened 
to  him,  what  would  then  become  of  himself  (Kepler),  and 
perhaps  the  observations  would  be  lost  or  become  inacces- 
sible. 

Influenced  by  these  considerations  as  well  as  by  the 
possible  difficulty  of  getting  the  consent  of  his  wife's  rela- 
tions to  her  removal  from  Gratz,  where  she  had  a  small  pro- 
perty near  the  town,  to  Benatky,  where  she  would  have  to 
live  among  foreigners,  Kepler  drew  up  several  different  pro- 
posals for  a  formal  agreement  with  Tycho  Brahe,  in  which 
he  most  carefully  tried  to  secure  his  future  position,  both  as 
regards  the  lodging  of  his  family  at  Prague,  or  at  least  in  an 
upper  storey  at  Benatky,  with  separate  kitchen,  supply  of 
fuel  and  victuals,  &c.,  as  also  with  regard  to  his  scientific 
work.1  He  added  that  he  would  not  be  content  with  general 
promises,  which  was  a  rather  superfluous  remark,  since  the 
minuteness  with  which  he  had  specified  his  demands  made 
this  very  evident.  On  the  5th  of  April  the  matter  was  dis- 
cussed verbally  between  Tycho  and  Kepler  in  the  presence 
of  Jessenius  of  Wittenberg,  and  in  answer  to  Kepler's 
written  demands,  Tycho  partly  read  himself,  partly  let 
Jessenius  read,  a  written  answer  which  followed  Kepler's 
demands  point  for  point.2  Tycho  took  the  whole  matter  far 
more  quietly  than  might  have  been  expected  from  a  man  of 
his  hot  temper  and  imperious  ways,  but  though  he  offered  to 
bear  part  of  Kepler's  travelling  expenses,  and  to  do  his 
utmost  to  get  him  settled  at  Prague  (if  he  absolutely  wanted 
to  live  there),  or  in  a  separate  house  in  or  near  Benatky,  he 
was  unable  to  guarantee  anything  about  salary  or  the  keep- 
ing open  of  Kepler's  Styrian  post,  until  he  could  communi- 
cate with  the  Emperor  and  with  Corraduc  and  Barwitz. 
Though  Tycho  begged  Kepler  to  wait  until  his  servant 
Daniel  came  back  from  Pilsen  with  replies  to  letters  which 
1  Opera,  viii.  pp.  721-724.  2  Ibid.,  p.  725. 


296  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

Tycho  had  written  to  Corraduc,  Kepler  refused  to  listen  to 
reason,  and  left  Benatky  the  following  day  with  Jessenius  to 
return  to  Baron  Hoffmann  at  Prague.1 

There  had  evidently  for  several  weeks  been  some  mis- 
understanding between  the  two  astronomers,  as  Tycho 
already,  on  the  6th  March,  had  written  to  Hoffmann  that 
as  soon  as  he  could  find  time  from  other  occupations,  they 
would  both  drive  to  Prague  to  discuss  with  Hoffmann  the 
question  as  to  Kepler's  position.  It  cannot,  however,  have 
been  Kepler's  uncertain  prospects  alone  which  brought  about 
the  crisis  on  the  5th  April,  for  it  appears  that  Kepler  on  the 
following  day  wrote  a  very  violent  letter  to  Tycho,  of  which 
the  latter  took  no  notice  beyond  sending  it  to  Jessenius.2 
It  seems,  therefore,  probable  that  Kepler,  as  we  hinted 
above,  felt  himself  treated  too  much  as  an  inferior  and  a  mere 
beginner,  while  he,  conscious  of  his  genius,  expected  to  be 
regarded  as  an  independent  investigator.  Tycho,  however, 
always  expressed  himself  most  kindly  of  Kepler  in  his  letters, 
and  it  probably  never  occurred  to  him  that  he  ought  not  to 
place  Kepler  on  the  same  footing  as  his  assistants.  He  now, 
on  the  6th  April,  wrote  a  short  letter  to  Hoffmann,  in  which 
he  referred  him  to  Jessenius  for  information  as  to  the  differ- 
ence between  Kepler  and  himself,  and  expressed  the  hope 
that  Hoffmann,  with  his  prudent  advice,  would  endeavour  to 

1  Among  the  Kepler  MSS.  in  the  Hof  bibliothek  at  Vienna  is  a  declaration 
written  and  signed  by  Kepler  on  the  5th  April  1600,  in  which  he,  having  been 
hospitably  received  by  Tycho  Brahe,  "auch  diese  gantze  zeit  vber  aller  miig- 
licheit  nach  also  tractirt  worden,  das  ich  mich  hingegen  iederzeit,  zue  aller 
Vnderthaniger  Danckbarkheit  schuldig  erkhennen  " — pledges  himself  to  keep 
secret  all  observations  or  inventions  which  Tycho  Brahe  had  communicated  or 
might  communicate  to  him.     (Friis,  Tyge  Brahe,  p.  327).     This  MS.  is  not 
mentioned  by  Frisch.     If  the  date  is  correctly  given,  this  document  may  have 
been  an  attempt  on  Kepler's  part  to  conciliate  Tycho,  in  order  that  the  latter 
might  make  some  concession  as  to  the  scientific  work. 

2  Kepler's  letter  is  only  known  from  Tycho's  letter  to  Jessenius.     Opera, 
viii.  p.  728.     In  this  letter  Tycho  asks  Jessenius  to  find  out  whether  Kepler 
had  now  taken  up  with  Reymers  Bar,  who  had  returned  to  Prague. 


TYCHO  BRAHE  IN  BOHEMIA.  297 

settle  the  matter.  He  was  not  disappointed,  for  the  remon- 
strances of  Hoffmann,  who  was  anxious  to  see  Tycho  and 
Kepler  co-operate  in  the  service  of  science,  succeeded  in 
softening  Kepler,  to  which  Jessenius,  as  a  friend  of  both 
parties,  also  contributed.  About  three  weeks  after  his  de- 
parture from  Benatky,  Kepler  therefore  wrote  a  repentant 
letter  to  Tycho,  in  which  he  acknowledged  that  he  had  met 
with  nothing  but  kindness  from  Tycho,  and  begged  to  be 
forgiven  for  his  conduct,  which  was  the  result  of  a  youthful 
and  choleric  temper  and  his  shaken  health.1  The  two 
astronomers  met  at  Prague,  were  reconciled,  and  went  back 
to  Benatky  together,  where  Kepler  now  stayed  four  weeks, 
until  at  the  beginning  of  June  he  left  Bohemia  for  a  while  to 
settle  his  affairs  at  Gratz.  At  parting,  Tycho  gave  him  a 
most  nattering  testimonial,  in  which  he  spoke  in  the  highest 
terms  of  the  manner  in  which  Kepler  had  devoted  himself 
to  scientific  work  at  Benatky.2 

Kepler  had  hoped  to  be  able  to  retain  his  appointment  at 
Gratz  and  get  leave  for  a  year  or  two  to  work  with  Tycho. 
To  settle  permanently  with  him  he  was  not  inclined,  but  he 
soon  had  very  little  choice  in  the  matter.  Early  in  August 
an  Ecclesiastical  Commission  arrived  at  Gratz,  and  every 
official  had  to  appear  before  it  and  to  state  whether  he  would 
become  a  Roman  Catholic  or  not.  Those  who  refused  were 
ordered  to  dispose  of  their  goods  and  to  leave  the  Austrian 
provinces  within  forty-five  days.  Among  these  was  Kepler, 
who  again  applied  to  Mast!  in  and  Her  wart  for  advice. 
But  at  Tubingen  there  was  no  opening,  and  Herwart 
strongly  advised  him  to  go  to  Prague.  There  seemed  to 
be  no  help  for  it  now,  and  no  matter  what  doubts  Kepler 
might  have  as  to  the  feasibility  of  living  in  the  same  house 
with  Tycho  and  his  family,  or  of  preparing  planetary  tables 
in  concert  with  a  man  from  whom  he  differed  on  the  most 
1  Opera,  viii.  p.  729.  2  Ibid.,  p.  730. 


298  TYCIIO  BEAHE. 

fundamental    questions,   lie   had   no   choice   but    to    go   to 
Prague. 

In  the  meantime  the  Emperor  had  returned  from  Pilsen 
to  Prague  in  July  1600,  and  about  the  same  time,  or 
shortly  afterwards,  Barwitz  advised  Tycho  to  leave  Benatky 
and  move  to  Prague,  as  the  Emperor  would  like  to  have  his 
astronomer  near  him.  Probably  Tycho  was  not  sorry  to 
leave  Benatky,  where  he  and  Miihlstein  still  kept  up  a 
running  fight  about  money  matters  and  building  operations. 
'He  therefore  left  Benatky  and  took  up  his  quarters  tempo- 
rarily in  the  hotel  Beim  goldenen  G-reif,  on  the  Hradschin,1 
while  his  instruments  were  placed  in  Ferdinand  I.'s  villa, 
not  far  from  the  castle,2  A  few  days  after  his  arrival, 
Tycho  was  received  in  audience  by  the  Emperor,  who  con- 
versed with  him  for  an  hour  and  a  half.  The  Emperor 
inquired  about  Tycho's  work,  upon  which  Tycho  remarked 
that  he  necessarily  required  more  help,  and  suggested  that 
Kepler  might  be  attached  to  the  observatory  for  a  year  or 
two.  The  Emperor  nodded  his  consent  to  this,  and  desired 
Tycho  to  mention  this  proposal  in  a  memorial  about  his 
requirements,  which  was  to  be  sent  to  Barwitz.  Tycho 
afterwards  spoke  to  Corraduc,  and  asked  that  the  Styrian 
authorities  might  be  requested  officially  to  give  Kepler  leave 
of  absence  for  two  years,  and  let  him  retain  his  salary,  to 
which  the  Emperor  would  add  a  hundred  florins  on  account 
of  the  expense  of  living  at  Prague.  Tycho  wrote  to  Kepler 

1  Hasner,  p.  10.     The  house  "  Zum  goldenen  Greif "  is  still  in  existence 
(Neuweltgasse,  No.  76),  but  is  no  longer  an  inn  or  a  hotel.     This  quarter  of 
Prague  was  then  the  most  aristocratic  one,  being  close  to  the  castle.     It  was 
thoroughly  devastated  by  the  Prussians  in  1757  by  bombardment,  and  has 
since  been  the  poorest  part  of  the  city. 

2  Now  called  the  Imperial  Belvedere.     On  January  24,  1 60 1,  Tycho  wrote 
to  Magini  that  he  had  now  all  his  twenty-eight  instruments  "  non  longe  ab 
Arce,  in  Caesaris  quadam  magnifice  extructa  domo."    Carteggio,  p.  241.     The 
observations  at  Benatky  had  been  stopped  at  the  end  of  June  1600,  and  they 
were  not  resumed  till  the  2nd  December,  "  in  domo  Cse.saris  horto  vicina  ubi 
instrumenta  mea  adhuc  disponebantur."     Barrettus,  p.  860. 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  299 

on  the  2Qth  August,  and  gave  him  an  account  of  all  this,1 
and  as  Tycho's  removal  from  Benatky  to  Prague  promised 
to  do  away  with  some  of  the  difficulties,  Kepler,  though 
still  hesitatingly,  set  out  for  Prague  early  in  September. 
Troubled  not  only  by  his  anxiety  for  the  future,  but  also  by 
an  intermittent  fever  which  clung  to  him  for  nearly  a  year, 
he  left  most  of  his  luggage  half-way  at  Linz,  in  case  he 
should  yet  want  to  go  to  Wiirtemberg.  Ill  and  miserable, 
he  arrived  with  his  family  at  Prague  in  October,  and  was 
hospitably  received  in  Hoffmann's  house.  His  first  com- 
munication with  Tycho  was  by  a  letter  (on  the  i/th  Octo- 
ber2), in  which  he  wrote  that  his  hopes  of  retaining  his 
Styrian  salary  were  now  at  an  end,  and  their  former  agree- 
ment consequently  also  ;  but  as  Tycho  had  laid  the  matter 
before  the  Emperor,  he  had  thought  it  best  to  come.  He 
had,  however,  very  little  money  left,  and  could  only  wait 
four  weeks,  and  if  his  position  at  Prague  could  not  be  made 
secure  within  that  time,  he  would  have  to  look  out  for  him- 
selt  elsewhere. 

Tycho  was  much  pleased  to  see  Kepler  return  to  Prague, 
the  more  so  as  he  had  lost  his  most  experienced  assistant, 
Longomontanus,  who  had  wished  to  return  to  Denmark,  and 
had  received  his  discharge  on  the  4th  August,  when  Tycho 
at  parting  gave  him  a  very  kind  letter  of  recommendation.3 
It  took  a  long  time  to  get  the  question  about  Kepler's 
salary  settled  by  the  Government,  but  he  and  his  family 
soon  removed  from  Hoffmann's  to  Tycho' s  house,  and  he 
began  work.  This  was  probably  not  until  the  Emperor  had 
purchased  Curtius'  house  from  the  widow  for  10,000  thaler, 

1  Opera,  viii.  p.  732.  2  Ibid.,  pp.  734-737- 

3  Printed  by  Gassendi,  p.  174.  In  1603  Longomontanus  became  head- 
master of  Viborg  school,  in  Jutland  (where  he  had  been  educated  himself); 
in  1605  Professor  at  the  University  of  Copenhagen  ;  in  1607  Professor  mathe- 
matum  superiorum.  He  died  in  1647,  before  the  University  Observatory  on 
the  Round  Tower  (which  existed  till  1861] 


300  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

and  Tycho  had  taken  possession  of  it,  which  he  did  on  the 
25th  February  1 60 1.1  Kepler  still  could  learn  nothing 
about  his  salary,  and  continued,  though  in  vain,  to  look 
out  for  an  appointment  in  Germany,  while  Tycho  now  and 
then  helped  him  with  money.  His  health  also  gave  him 
cause  for  anxiety,  as  he  could  not  get  rid  of  the  intermittent 
fever,  and  early  in  1601  he  was  troubled  with  a  bad  cough, 
which  even  made  him  fear  that  he  was  consumptive.  In 
April  he  was  obliged  to  go  to  Gratz  to  arrange  some  affairs 
connected  with  his  wife's  property,  whence  he  did  not  return 
until  August,  having  failed  to  accomplish  his  object,  but 
having  recovered  his  health.  A  curious  letter  has  been 
preserved 2  which  Kepler's  wife  wrote  to  him  on  the  3 1  st 
May,  in  which  she  tells  him  that  Johann  Miiller  had  left 
again ;  that  Tengnagel  had  not  yet  given  her  any  money, 
but  that  he  and  Tycho  were  friends  again,  and  that  his 
wedding  (with  Tycho's  second  daughter,  Elisabeth)  was  to 
take  place  a  week  after  Whitsuntide.3  This  cannot  have 
been  the  first  complaint  Kepler  received  from  his  wife  about 
her  getting  no  money,  for  he  had  already  on  the  3Oth  May 
written  an  indignant  letter  to  Tycho,  blaming  him  for  not 
having  given  her  the  twenty  thaler  which  had  been 
promised.  Tycho  did  not  trouble  himself  to  answer  this, 

1  Gassendi,  p.  176.     The  site  of  Curtius'  house  on  the  Loretto  Place   is 
now  occupied  by  the  Cernin  Palace.     Canon  David  determined  the  geogra- 
phical position,  lat.  +50°  5'  28",  32°  3'  37"  east  of  Ferro.     In  1804-5  an 
old  tower  was  pulled  down,  which  probably  had  been  part  of  Tycho's  obser 
vatory. 

2  Opera,  \iii.  pp.  739-741. 

3  "Der  hanss  Miller  ist  den  29  Mai  mit  seiner  frau  darvon  vnd  haim,  der 
diho  Prei  (Tycho  Brahe)  hat  jra  abgefortigt  vnd  hat  jm  goben  was  er  jm  hat 
zuegesagt,  aber  vom  khaiser  ist  jra  khain  heler  nit  worten.     Der  Diho  hat  jm 
sein  hantl    verdorbt   beim  khaiser  er  het  sonst  woll  ein  guette  Verehrung 
bekhurnen  so  hat  ehr  des  Diho  muessen  engelten.     Der  franz  (Tengnagel)  vnd 
der  Diho  sint  witer  einss  sie  rihten  ietz  zu  der  hochzeit  zue,  der  franz  hat 
mier  noh  khein  gelt  goben."  .  .  .  Miiller  left  on  the  26th,  according  to  a  letter 
from  Eriksen  to  Kepler  (Epistolce,  ed.  Hanscldus,  p.  176). 


TYCHO  BKAHE  IN  BOHEMIA.  301 

but  let  one  of  his  pupils,  Johannes  Eriksen,1  write  to 
Kepler  that  he  had  unasked,  through  his  daughter,  promised 
her  ten  thaler  soon  after  Kepler's  departure,  which  she 
also  got  on  asking  for  them,  and  when  she  a  fortnight 
later  again  requested  ten  more,  Tycho  sent  to  her  by 
Eriksen  six  thaler  and  promised  her  more,  though  he  had 
not  much  cash  at  the  time.  All  this  he  had  done  without 
grumbling,  and  both  he  and  his  family  had  been  kind  and 
obliging  to  Kepler's  wife  and  her  daughter.  Tycho  therefore 
desired  Eriksen  to  beg  of  Kepler  to  have  more  confidence  in 
him,  and  to  conduct  himself  in  future  with  more  prudence 
and  moderation  towards  his  benefactor,  who  had  been  very 
patient  with  him,  and  wished  him  and  his  well.2  This 
letter  had  probably  the  desired  effect,  and  Kepler,  who  at 
heart  was  most  generous  and  noble,  but  whose  weak  point 
it  was  always  to  complain  to  everybody  about  money 
matters,  no  doubt  acknowledged  having  been  too  hasty. 
When  he  returned  to  Prague  in  August,  Tycho  brought 
him  to  the  Emperor,  who  congratulated  him  on  his  recovery, 
and  promised  him  the  office  of  Imperial  mathematician  on . 
condition  that  he  should  work  jointly  with  Tycho  on  the 
new  planetary  tables,  which  Tycho  begged  the  Emperor's 
permission  to  call  the  Rudolphean  or  Kudolphine  tables.3 

It  was  mentioned  above  that  Tengnagel  was  engaged  to 
be  married  to  Tycho  Brahe's  second  daughter,  Elisabeth. 
On  the  5th  April  1 60 1,  Tycho  wrote  a  letter  (in  Danish)  to 
his  friend  Holger  Rosenkrands,  inviting  him  to  the  wedding, 
which  was  to  take  place  between  Easter  and  Whitsuntide, 
and  the  following  day  he  wrote  another  letter  (in  Latin),  in 

1  This  name  occurs  here  for  the  first  time.     Perhaps  he  had  come  to  Tycho 
on  the  1 5th  August  1596,  as  we  read  in  the  diary  :  "  Rediit  Tycho  Hafnia,  cum 
eo  duo  studiosi,  alter  Germanus  comrnendatus  a  Landtgravio,  alter  Danus, 
Joannes  nomine." 

2  Opera,  viii.  p.  741.  8  Gassendi,  p.  177. 


302  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

which  he  mentioned  that  he  expected  his  sister  Sophia.1 
Neither  she  nor  Eosenkrands  came,  however,  to  the  wedding, 
which  was  celebrated  on  the  i/th  June,  after  which  the 
married  couple  set  out  for  Westphalia,  the  home  of  the 
bridegroom,  accompanied  by  Eriksen.2 

Tengnagel  does  not  seem  to  have  occupied  himself  much 
with  astronomy,  and  probably  did  not  take  an  active  part  in 
the  scientific  work  in  Tycho's  house.  At  Prague,  Tycho 
had  not  as  many  assistants  as  at  Hveen.  In  addition  to 
Longomontanus,  Miiller,  and  Eriksen,  he  was  assisted  for 
some  time  by  Melchior  Joestelius,  Professor  of  Mathematics 
at  Wittenberg ; 3  by  Ambrosius  Rhodius,  who  left  Prague 
shortly  before  Tycho's  death,  and  likewise  became  Professor 
at  Wittenberg ;  by  a  certain  Matthias  Seiffart,  who  after- 
wards for  some  years  assisted  Kepler  in  computing  and 
observing;  and  from  June  1 60 1  by  a  young  Dane,  Poul 
Jensen  Colding.4  It  appears  also  that  Simon  Marius 
(Mayer),  who  afterwards  obtained  some  notoriety  by  laying 
claim  to  various  discoveries  and  inventions  long  after  they 
had  been  published  by  others,  spent  some  time  at  Prague 
with  Tycho  and  Kepler  in  the  summer  of  1 60 1.5  The 
Imperial  physician,  Hagecius,  with  whom  Tycho  had  corre- 
sponded for  so  many  years,  died  on  the  I  st  September  1 600, 

1  The  Danish  letter  is  printed  in  Danske  Magazin,  ii,  p.  360  (translated  in 
Weistritz,  ii.  p.  366) ;  the  Latin  one  is  only  alluded  to  ibid,  and  iii.  p.  23. 

2  Epist.  ed.  Ilanschius,  p.  179,  and  Opera,  viii.  p.  741. 

8  Joestelius  must  have  returned  to  Wittenberg  before  June  1600,  when  he 
observed  the  solar  eclipse  there  (Kepler,  i.  p.  56). 

4  Son  of  a  wealthy  citizen  at  Kolding,  in  Jutland;  born  1581,  died  1640  as 
a  clergyman  in  Seeland.  Came  to  Tycho  in  June  1600,  and  was  with  him  till 
his  death ;  wrote  an  elegy  on  him,  which  is  printed  by  Gassendi,  p.  241. 
About  him  see  Norsk  Historisk  Tidskrift,  ii.  p.  338  (1872). 

6  On  the  27th  May  1601  Eriksen  wrote  to  Kepler  that  Marggravii  Anspach- 
ensis  Mathematicus,  Simon  Marius,  was  expected  in  a  day  or  two,  and  would, 
the  writer  hoped,  relieve  him  of  some  of  the  observing  (Epist.  ed.  HanscJiius, 
p.  176),  but  I  cannot  find  any  evidence  that  Mayer  really  came.  He  had 
rxlready  in  1 596  published  a  small  pamphlet  of  the  ordinary  type  on  the  comet 
of  that  year. 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  303 

after  a  prolonged  illness,  but  Tycho  found  other  scientific 
friends  at  Prague,  among  whom  were  Martin  Bachazek, 
Hector  of  the  University,  Peter  Wok  Ursinus  of  Bosenberg, 
Baron  Johan  von  Hasenburg  (who  was  an  ardent  alchemist), 
and  the  Jewish  chronologist,  David  Ganz. 

As  Tycho  at  Benatky  or  at  Prague  had  never  more  than 
a  few  assistants  at  a  time,  and  most  of  his  instruments  did 
not  reach  him  till  October  or  November  1 600,  the  observa- 
tions made  in  Bohemia  cannot  compare  in  fulness  and  extent 
with  those  made  during  an  equal  period  of  time  at  Hveen,  to 
which  disparity  the  interruptions  caused  by  Tycho's  various 
removals  also  contributed.  In  December  1600,  and  the 
first  week  of  January  1601,  observations  were  made  in  the 
Emperor  Ferdinand's  villa,  and  on  the  3rd  March  the  work 
was  resumed  in  Curtius'  house,  where  Tycho  had  just  become 
settled.  Kepler  hardly  took  an  active  part  in  the  observa- 
tions, but  he  began  preparing  for  the  great  work  to  which 
he  afterwards  devoted  his  life.  When  he  arrived  at  Benatky 
in  February  1600,  Mars  had  just  been  in  opposition  to  the 
sun,  and  a  table  of  the  oppositions  observed  since  1580  had 
been  prepared,  and  a  theory  worked  out  which  represented 
the  motion  in  longitude  very  well,  the  remaining  errors 
being  only  about  2f.1  On  this  a  table  of  the  mean  motion 
of  Mars  and  the  mean  motions  of  the  apogee  and  node  for 
400  years  had  been  founded  (as  was  done  for  the  sun  and 
moon  in  the  Progymnasmata).  But  the  latitudes  and 
annual  parallax  at  opposition  (or  the  difference  between  the 
heliocentric  and  geocentric  longitude)  gave  trouble,  and 
Longomontanus  was  just  then  occupied  with  this  matter.2 

1  Kepler,  De  Stella  Martis,  cap.  viii.  ;  Opera,  iii.  p.  210.    Apelt  (Reformation 
der  Sternkunde,  p.  276),  quoting  Gassendi,  believes  his  "  duo  ininuta  "  to  be  a 
misprint  for  "duodecim;"  but  Kepler  distinctly  says  "intra  duorum  scrupu- 
lorum  propinquitatem." 

2  The  greatest  drawback  of  the  Tychonic  system  was  the  difficulty  of  dis- 
tinguishing between  the  real  and  apparent  orbit  of  a  planet  j   the  greatest 


304  TYCHO  BRAHE.    , 

Kepler  therefore  began  to  consider  whether  the  theory 
might  not  after  all  be  wrong,  though  it  represented  the 
longitudes  so  well ;  but  during  the  short  time  he  was  at 
Benatky  he  was  unable  to  make  any  progress  in  this 
problem,  which  it  eventually  took  him  four  years  to 
solve. 

During  Kepler's  residence  with  Tycho  at  Prague  between 
October  1600  and  April  1 60 1,  he  seems  to  have  been 
mainly  occupied  with  a  piece  of  work  which  cannot  have 
been  congenial  to  him — a  refutation  of  the  book  of  Rey- 
\mers  Bar.  Shortly  after  his  arrival  in  Bohemia,  Tycho 
began  to  take  legal  proceedings  for  libel  against  this  person, 
who  had  fled  to  Silesia,  from  whence  he,  however,  secretly 
came  back  some  time  afterwards.1  In  the  summer  of  1 600 
Tycho  learned  that  there  was  periculum  in  mora,  as  Reymers 
was  very  ill ;  but  even  this  did  not  soften  Tycho's  heart,  and 
he  persisted  in  having  the  poor  wretch  punished,  and  per- 
suaded the  Emperor  to  appoint  a  commission  of  four  members, 
two  barons  and  two  Doctors  of  Law,  to  try  the  libeller.  But 
just  as  the  trial  was  about  to  commence,  Reymers  died,  on  the 
I  5th  August  1600.  The  Emperor  directed  the  Archbishop 
of  Prague  to  have  every  obtainable  copy  of  the  book  confis- 
cated and  burned,  while  Tycho,  who  was  rather  unduly 
proud  of  his  system  of  the  world,  wished  to  publish  a  book 
which  was  to  contain  all  the  documents  on  the  subject  of 
the  alleged  plagiarism,  as  well  as  a  scientific  refutation  of 
Reymers'  book.  The  preparation  of  the  latter  had  to  be 
undertaken  by  Kepler,  who,  while  battling  with  intermittent 
fever  in  1601,  wrote  his  Apologia  Tychonis  contra  Ursum, 
in  which  he  showed  that  neither  Apollonius  of  Perga  nor 

observed  latitude  at  opposition  was  naturally  assumed  to  be  the  inclination  of 
the  orbit,  and  this  turned  out  to  have  a  different  value  at  different  times,  as  if 
the  Ptolemean  oscillations  of  the  orbit  really  existed. 

1  Kepler  spoke  to  him  at  Prague  in  January  1600,  without  revealing  his 
own  name  (Opera,  i.  p.  237). 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  305 

any  one  else  before  Tycho  had  proposed  the  Tychonic  system. 
Tycho's  death  made  this  memoir  superfluous,  and  Kepler 
laid  it  aside,  so  that  it  has  only  recently  been  published 
in  the  complete  edition  of  his  works.1  The  same  was  the 
case  with  an  unfinished  reply  to  the  attack  of  Craig  on 
Tycho's  book  on  the  comet  of  I  57?.2 

In  1 60 1  Kepler  also  occupied  himself  with  the  theories 
of  Mercury,  Venus,  and  Mars,  and  noticed  that  it  was  not 
possible  to  represent  the  apparent  motion  of  the  planets  by 
assuming  for  the  orbit  of  the  sun  (or  the  earth)  a  simple 
excentric  circle  with  uniform  motion,  as  had  always  hitherto 
been  done,  but  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  recourse 
to  an  equant  as  in  the  planetary  theories  of  Ptolemy.  When 
Kepler  asked  Tycho  if  he  would  not  mention  this  in  the 
Progymnasmata,  he  declined  to  do  so,  as  it  would  take  time 
to  investigate  the  equal  motion,  and  he  wanted  the  book 
published  at  once.  The  subject  was  therefore  merely  alluded 
to  by  Kepler  in  the  Appendix  with  which  he  wound  up  the 
book  after  Tycho's  death.3 

While  Kepler  was  thus  reconnoitring  the  ground  for  his 
future  work  on  the  planets,  Longornontanus  had  before  his 
departure  finished  the  lunar  theory  and  tables,  the  incom- 
plete state  of  which  had  so  long  delayed  the  publication  of 
the  Progymnasmata.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the 

1  Opera,  i.  pp.  236-276.     It  is  curious  that  Gassendi  should  have  fallen 
into  the  same  error  with  regard  to  Apollonius  (  Vita  Copernici,  p.  297).     Kepler 
had  already,  in  March  1600,  at  Benatky,  written  a  short  refutation,  which  is 
printed  i.  p.  281  et  scq. 

2  Opera,  i.  pp.  279-281. 

3  In  a  letter  to  Longomontanus,  Kepler  wrote  in  1605  : — "  Ab  Octobri  1600 
in  Augustum  1 60 1  quartana  me  tenuit.    Interim  scripsi  contra  Ursum  jubente 
Tychone,  &   alia   ipsius   studia   pro   ipsius   arbitrio    &   meis  viribus  adjuvi. 
Speculatus   sum,  indignante   Tychone,  in  Venere,   Mercurio,   Luna,  in  illis 
utiliter,  in  Luna  plane  fru.stra  :  Speculatus  sum  et  in  Marte,  correxi  insequali- 
tatemprimam,  .  .  .  ASeptembri,  inquam,  coepilaboriosissimeinquirereexcen- 
tricitatem  solis,  in  quo  labore  Tycho  mortuus  est."    Epist.  ed.  Hanschius,  p.  171. 
About  the  solar  excentricity,  see  below,  Chapter  xii. 

20 


306  TYCHO  BKAHE. 

account  of  Tycho' s  lunar  theory  is  very  short,  and  gives  no 
account  of  the  successive  steps  which  led  Tycho  to  his  great 
discoveries  in  this  branch  of  astronomy.  When  he  wrote 
the  report  on  his  labours  at  Hveen  for  his  Mechanica,  he  was 
already  in  possession  of  the  discovery  of  the  third  inequality 
in  longitude  (variation),  and  of  the  periodical  change  of  the 
inclination  and  of  the  motion  of  the  node.  During  his  stay 
at  Wittenberg  (if  not  before)  he  had  from  observations  of 
eclipses  perceived  the  necessity  of  introducing  an  equation 
in  longitude  with  a  period  of  a  year,  but  the  theory  had 
already  required  so  many  circles  and  epicycles  that  Longo- 
montanus  thought  it  simplest  to  allow  for  this  equation  by 
using  a  different  equation  of  time  for  the  moon ;  and  when 
Tycho  did  not  appear  very  delighted  with  this  makeshift, 
the  pupil  answered  his  master  somewhat  rudely,  that  he 
might  try  to  find  another  method  himself,  which  would  agree 
better  with  the  observations.1 

It  must  have  been  a  great  satisfaction  to  Tycho  to  see  his 
researches  on  the  moon  reach  at  least  a  temporary  conclu- 
sion, as  his  mind  had  of  late  years  been  so  full  of  anxiety  for 
the  future  that  he  could  doubly  enjoy  a  ray  of  sunshine. 
The  Emperor  appears  always  to  have  been  most  friendly  to 
him,  and  Tycho  wrote  in  March  1600  to  his  sister  Sophia 
that  Kudolph  had  not  only  been  very  kind  to  him  while 
the  plague  was  raging  during  the  previous  winter,  and  had 
offered  to  send  him  and  his  family  to  Vienna  while  it  lasted, 
but  that  the  Emperor  also  took  the  greatest  interest  in  his 

1  "Tu  ergo  ipse  aliud  inveni,  quod  cum  tuis  consentiat  observatis  "  (see  a 
letter  from  Kepler  to  Odontius  on  Tycho's  lunar  theory,  Opera,  viii.  p.  627). 
That  Longomontanus  had  enjoyed  the  advice  of  Kepler  on  many  points  in  the 
lunar  theory  appears  from  the  letters  exchanged  between  them  in  1604  and 
1605,  in  one  of  which  Longomontanus  counts  up  the  various  steps  in  the 
work,  while  Kepler  after  each  item  put  a  mark,  and  wrote  in  the  margin, 
"  Vide  etiam  atqve  etiam,  hsec  me  svadente  et  prseeunte  exemplo. "  Epist.  cd. 
ffansckius,  p.  165.  We  shall  consider  the  lunar  theory  in  more  detail  in 
Chapter  xii. 


TYCHO  BRAKE  IN  BOHEMIA.  307 

work,  Lad  read  the  unfinished  Progymnasmata,  and  had  con- 
sented to  let  it  be  dedicated  to  him.1  But  however  pleasant 
his  relations  with  the  Emperor  were,  Tycho  had  often  prac- 
tical experience  of  the  scarcity  of  money  in  Bohemia,  and  he^ 
could  not  be  blind  to  the  shaky  condition  of  the  Imperial 
Government,  caused  by  the  religious  and  political  flames 
which,  though  as  yet  only  smouldering,  were  certain  ere  long 
to  burst  out  in  their  fury,  and  for  the  quenching  of  which 
the  weakness  of  the  Emperor  did  not  promise  well.  Perhaps 
he  may  sometimes  have  wondered  in  his  own  mind  whether 
it  might  not  have  been  wiser  to  have  remained  in  peaceful 
Denmark,  even  without  an  endowment  for  his  observatory, 
instead  of  coming  to  the  stormy  Bohemia,  where  he  had  no 
guarantee  for  the  continuance  of  his  salary  but  the  life  of  his 
patron,  just  as  in  the  old  days  at  Hveen.  His  health  would 
also  seem  to  have  become  shaken,  if  we  may  judge  from 
Kepler's  remark  that  the  feebleness  of  old  age  was  approach- 
ing, 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  1 60 1  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. 
It  is  not  known  whether  this  matter  was  considered  by  the 
Estates,  but  the  name  of  Brahe  does  not  occur  in  their  pro- 
ceedings, so  that  Tycho  must  have  died  before  he  could  get 
his  wish  fulfilled.2  In  several  of  his  letters  Tycho  alludes  to 
his  intention  of  buying  landed  property  in  Bohemia,  and  in 
order  to  do  so  he  took  steps  to  get  back  the  money  which  he 

1  Breve  og  AUstyWcer,  p.  85. 

2  F.  Dvorsky,  Nove  zpravy  o  Tych^nu  Brahovi  ajeho  rodine  (New  particulars 
about  Tvcho  Brahe  and  his  family),  Casopis  Musea  Krdlovstvi  tfeskeho,  vol. 
Ivii.,  1883,  pp.  60-77. 


308  TYCHO  BKAHE. 

had  lent  in  I  597  to  the  Dukes  of  Mecklenburg.  In  accord- 
ance with  the  terms  of  the  bond,  he  had,  about  Michaelmas 
1600,  through  his  kinsman  Eske  Bille,  given  notice  to 
the  agent  of  the  Dukes  to  repay  the  capital  sum  of  10,000 
thaler  at  Easter  1 60 1  ;  and  for  fear  of  his  letter  to  Bille 
having  been  lost,  he  took  the  further  precaution  of  giving 
notice  himself  to  the  "  Landrentmeister,"  Andreas  Mayer, 
to  pay  the  money  at  Michaelmas  1601,  if  Bille  had  not 
already  carried  out  his  instructions.1  He  stated  expressly 
that  he  required  the  money  for  buying  property  in  Bohemia, 
and  wrote  to  this  effect  to  Duke  Ulrich  in  April  1601,  as 
he  had  been  informed  that  Mayer  had  stated  that  he  could 
not  get  the  money  together  so  soon.  At  Easter  the  money 
was  not  forthcoming,  as  Mayer  "  at  the  last  moment "  was 
disappointed  about  some  money  which  should  have  been 
paid  to  him,  but  Tycho's  money  was  promised  for  St.  John's 
Day.  Bille  now  sent  his  own  servant  to  Doberan,  where 
Duke  Ulrich  was  then  staying,  to  receive  the  money,  but 
he  was  again  disappointed,  and  Tycho  had  on  the  i8th 
July  to  send  off  another  reminder,  to  which  the  Duke 
answered  that  the  money  had  been  ready,  but  that  Bille's 
servant  had  not  called  again.  Before  the  9th  August  Bille 
had  himself  arrived  at  Kostock  to  receive  the  money,  which 
the  Duke  on  that  day  ordered  to  be  paid  to  him  "  before 
his  departure  on  Tuesday  morning."  This  must  have  been 
done,  as  the  cancelled  bond  is  still  in  the  archives  at 
Schwerin.2 

There  appears  to  be  nothing  known  as  to  whether  Tycho 

1  Breve  og  Aktstylckcr,  p.  145.     It  appears  from  this  letter  that  an  annual 
interest  of  6  per  cent,  was  paid  on  the  capital  to  Tycho's  friend,  Professor 
Backmeister,  in  Rostock  (in  whose  house  the  quarrel  with  Parsbjerg  had  begun 
in  1566  which  led  to  the  loss  of  part  of  Tycho's  nose). 

2  Lisch,  T.  Brake  u.  seine  Verh.  zu  MeUenburg,  pp.  n,  18.     In  the  letter 
of  loth  April  1601,  Tycho  mentions  that  all  his  instruments  are  now  con- 
veniently placed  in  Curtius'  house. 


HIS  DEATH.  309 

actually  purchased  land  in  Bohemia  after  receiving  back  his 
money  from  Mecklenburg,  but  it  is  not  likely  that  he  did  so, 
as  his  life  terminated  very  suddenly  soon  after.  On  the  1 3th 
October  1601  (new  style)  he  was  invited  to  supper  at  the 
house  of  the  Baron  of  Rosenberg,1  and  went  there  in  company 
with  the  Imperial  Councillor,  Ernfried  Minkawitz.  During 
supper  he  was  seized  with  illness,  which  was  aggravated  by  his 
remaining  at  table.  On  returning  home,  he  suffered  greatly 
for  five  days,  when  he  became  somewhat  relieved,  although 
sleeplessness  and  fever  continued  to  harass  him.  He  was 
frequently  delirious,  and  at  other  times  refused  to  keep  the 
prescribed  diet,  but  demanded  to  be  given  to  eat  anything 
he  fancied.  Five  more  days  elapsed  in  this  manner.  During 
the  night  before  the  24th  October  he  was  frequently  heard 
to  exclaim  that  he  hoped  he  should  not  appear  to  have  lived 
in  vain  ("  ne  frustra  vixisse  videar  ").  When  the  morning 
came,  the  delirium  had  left  him,  but  his  strength  was  ex- 
hausted and  he  felt  the  approach  of  death.  His  eldest  son 
was  absent,  and  his  second  daughter  and  her  husband  also ; 2 
but  he  now  charged  his  younger  son  and  the  pupils  to  con- 
tinue their  studies,  and  he  begged  Kepler  to  finish  the 
Rudolphine  tables  as  soon  as  possible,  adding  the  hope  that 
he  would  demonstrate  their  theory  according  to  the  Tychonic 
system  and  not  by  that  of  Copernicus.3  Among  those  pre- 

1  Kepler  dedicated  his  little  book  De  Fundamentis  Astrologies  to  "Petro 
Wok  Ursino,  Domus  Rosembergicae  Gubernatori." 

2  The  younger  Tycho  Brahe  had  in  January  1601  started  for  Italy  in  com- 
pany with  Robert  Sherley,  ambassador  from  the  Shah  of  Persia  to  various 
European  courts.     Carteggio  di  Magini,  p.  237. 

3  "  Ego  in  sequentibus  demonstrationibus  omnes  tres  auctorum  formas  con- 
jungam.     Nam   et  Tycho,  me  hoc   quandoque  suadente  id  se  ultro  vel  me 
tacente  facturum  fuisse  respondit  (fecissetque  si  supervixisset)  et  moriens  a 
me,  quern  in  Copernici  sententia  esse  sciebat,  petiit,  uti  in  sua  hypothesi  omnia 
demonstrarem."     Kepler,  DC  Stella  Martis,  cap.  vi.  ;  Opera,  iii.  p.  193.     Gas- 
sendi  (p.  179)  gives  it  in  these  words  : — "Quaeso  te,  mi  Joannes,  ut  quando 
quod  tu  Soli  pellicienti,  ego  ipsis  Planetis  ultro  affectantibus  et  quasi  adulan- 
tibus  tribuo,  velis  eadem  omnia  in  mea  demonstrare  hypothesi,  quse  in  Coper- 
nicana  declarare  tibi  est  cordi." 


310  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

sent  at  his  bedside  was  a  namesake  of  Tycho's,  Erik  Brahe, 
Count  Visingsborg,  a  Swede  by  birth,  but  in  the  service 
of  the  King  of  Poland,  whom  Tycho  thanked  for  all  the 
kindness  he  had  shown  to  him  during  his  illness,  asking 
him  to  carry  his  last  remembrances  to  his  relations  in  Den- 
mark. Soon  afterwards  he  peacefully  drew  his  last  breath, 
amidst  the  tearful  prayers  of  his  family  and  pupils.  He 
had  only  reached  the  age  of  fifty -four  years  and  ten  months  ; 
a  short  span  of  time  (as  Gassendi  remarks)  if  we  look  to 
the  age  which  he  might  have  attained,  but  a  lengthy  one  ii 
we  consider  the  magnitude  of  his  works,  which  will  live  in 
the  recollection  of  mankind  as  long  as  the  love  of  astronomy 
remains  among  us.1 

On  the  4th  November  the  body  of  the  renowned  astrono- 
mer was  with  great  pomp  brought  to  its  last  resting-place 
in  the  Teynkirche  (Tynskykostel),  in  which  a  semi-Protestant 
(utraquistic)  service  was  still  tolerated.  The  funeral  proces- 
sion was  headed  by  persons  carrying  candles  embellished 
with  the  arms  of  the  Brahe  family  ;  next  was  carried  a 
banner  of  black  damask  with  the  arms  and  name  of  the 
deceased  embroidered  in  gold  ;  then  came  his  favourite  horse, 
succeeded  by  another  banner  and  a  second  horse,  after  which 
came  persons  bearing  a  helmet  with  feathers  in  the  colours 
of  his  family,  a  pair  of  gilt  spurs,  and  a  shield  with  the 
Brahe  coat  of  arms.  Then  followed  the  coffin,  covered  with 
a  velvet  cloth,  and  carried  by  twelve  Imperial  gentlemen- 
at-arms.  Next  after  the  coffin  came  the  younger  son  or 
the  deceased,  walking  between  Count  Erik  Brahe  and  the 
Imperial  Councillor,  Ernfried  Minkawitz,  and  followed  by 
councillors  and  nobles,  and  Tycho's  pupils.  Then  came  the 

1  Kepler  wrote  in  the  observing  ledger  a  short  account  of  Tycho's  last 
illness,  which  was  printed  by  Snellius  in  his  Observations  Hassiacce,  Lug- 
duni  Bat.,  1618,  pp.  83-84,  and  in  this  volume,  Note  D.  Kepler  also  wrote 
an  elegy  over  Tycho  Brahe,  which  is  printed  by  Gassendi,  p.  235  et  seq. ,  and 
in  Kepler's  Opera,  viii.  p.  138  et  seq. 


TOMB    OF    TYCHO    KRAHE. 


HIS  DEATH. 


widow,  walking  between  two  aged  gentlemen  of  high  rank, 
followed  by  her  three  daughters  similarly  attended.  A  long 
funeral  oration  was  delivered  by  Dr.  Jessinsky  of  Witten- 
berg, with  whom  Tycho  Brahe  had  lived  for  some  months 
two  years  before.  He  praised  him  for  having  led  a  life 
befitting  a  Christian  and  a  learned  man,  living  happily  with 
his  wife  and  family,  keeping  his  sons  to  their  studies,  and 
his  daughters  to  spinning  and  sewing,  for  being  civil  to 
strangers,  charitable  to  the  poor.  He  was  open  and  honest 
in  his  dealings,  was  never  hypocritical,  but  always  spoke  his 
mind,  by  which  he  sometimes  made  enemies.  The  speaker 
also  dwelt  on  his  scientific  merits,  and  the  favour  shown  to 
him  by  many  princes  ;  and  it  is  characteristic  of  the  time 
that  a  reference  to  his  deformed  nose  and  the  plagiarism 
and  calumnies  of  Keymers,  as  well  as  a  detailed  account  of 
his  last  illness,  were  included  in  the  oration.1  The  tomb  is 
at  the  first  pillar  on  the  left  side  in  the  nave,  next  the 
chancel,  where  Tycho's  children  some  years  later  erected 
over  it  a  handsome  monument  of  red  marble,  which  still 
marks  the  spot.  It  consists  of  a  tablet  standing  upright 
against  the  pillar,  with  a  full  figure  in  relief  of  Tycho 
Brahe  clad  in  armour,  with  the  left  hand  on  his  sword-hilt 
and  the  right  on  a  globe,  underneath  which  is  a  shield 
with  the  arms  of  Brahe,  Bille,  and  the  families  of  his  two 
grandmothers,  Ulfstand  and  Bud.  The  helmet  stands  at 
his  feet.  Bound  the  tablet  runs  an  inscription  recording  the 

1  "  De  vita  et  morte  D.  Tychonis  Brake  Oratio  Funebris  D.  Johannis  Jessenii, 
Pragae,  1601,  4to,  Hamburg!,  1610,  and  reprinted  by  Gassendi,  pp.  224-235. 
In  May  1602  the  King  of  Denmark  wrote  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony  to  com- 
plain of  the  unfair  way  in  which  Jessenius  had  alluded  to  the  broken  nose 
("  facies  decora  et  aperta,  quam  ante  annos  triginta  Rostochii  quidam  noctu 
ausu  prorsus  sicario  laesit,  vestigio  ad  mortem  usque  semper  conspicuo  ").  The 
duel,  he  added,  had  been  a  fair  fight,  and  the  two  adversaries  had  always 
afterwards  been  good  friends,  and  though  Parsbjerg's  name  had  not  been 
mentioned,  the  story  was  so  well  known,  that  the  remarks  of  the  orator  were 
most  insulting,  and  ought  publicly  to  be  retracted.  Danske  Magazin,  4th 
Series,  ii.  p.  325. 


312  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

name  and  date  of  the  death  of  the  deceased.1  Above  is  a 
smaller  tablet  with  his  motto,  Esse  potius  quam  liciberi?  and 
a  lengthy  Latin  inscription  recording  his  life  and  merits, 
and  mentioning  that  his  -wife  is  also  buried  here ;  while  at 
the  foot  stands  an  inscription  from  Stjerneborg,  "  Non  fasces 
nee  opes,  sola  artis  sceptra  perennant."  3 

It  is  scarcely  worth  mentioning  that  a  silly  rumour  very 
soon  began  to  spread  that  Tycho  Brahe  had  died  from 
poison,  administered  by  some  envious  courtier  at  Prague, 
or,  as  others  thought,  by  his  old  enemy  Keymers  Bar.  As 
the  latter  died  fourteen  months  before  his  supposed  victim, 
it  would  indeed  have  been  a  remarkably  slow  poison.4 

The  most  important  inheritance  which  Tycho  left  to 
Kepler  and  to  posterity  was  the  vast  mass  of  observations, 
of  which  Kepler  justly  said  that  they  deserved  to  be  kept 
among  the  royal  treasures,  as  the  reform  of  astronomy  could 
not  be  accomplished  without  them.  He  even  added  that 
there  was  no  hope  of  any  one  ever  making  more  accurate 
observations,  for  it  was  a  most  tedious  and  lengthy  business  ! 
This  would  have  been  perfectly  true  if  the  telescope  had  not 
afterwards  been  invented.  It  is  not  here  the  place  to  set  forth 
how  Kepler,  when  Tengnagel  had  given  up  pretending  that 
he  was  going  to  work  out  the  theory  of  the  planets,  took  up  the 
work,  and  how  his  mighty  genius  mastered  it  and  gave  to  the 
world  the  great  laws  of  Kepler,  at  one  breath  blowing  away 
the  epicycles  and  other  musty  appendages  which  disfigured 

1  Anno  Domini  MDCI  die  24  Octobris  obiit  illustris  et  generosus  Dnus 
Tycho  Brahe,  Dhus  in  Knudstrup  et  Prseses  Uraniburgi,  &  Sacrse  Csesarese 
Maiestatis  Consiliarius,  cujus  ossa  hie  requiescunt. 

2  Sometimes  he  wrote  it  "  Non  haberi  sed  esse." 

3  The  inscription  is  printed  in  Danske  Mayazin,  ii.  p.  357  ;   Weistritz,  ii. 
p.  362,  where  the  tombstone  is  also  figured. 

4  Andreas  Foss,  Bishop  of  Bergen,  who  had  visited  Tycho  in  1596,  wrote 
to  Longomontanus  in  February  1602  to  inquire  if  the  rumour  had  any  founda- 
tion (Bang's  Samlinger,  ii.  p.  529  ;  Weistritz,  i.  p.  195).     The  astrologer  Rol- 
lenhagen  wrote  at  the  same  time  to  Kepler  that  Tycho  evidently  died  "per 
Ursianum  quoddam  venenum  "  (Epist.  Kepleri,  ed.  Uanschius,  p.  193). 


HIS  DEATH.  313 

the  Copernican  system.  But  Kepler  was  not  only  a  great 
genius,  he  was  also  a  pure  and  noble  character,  and  he 
never  forgot  in  his  writings  to  do  honour  to  the  man 
without  whose  labours  he  never  could  have  found  out  the 
secrets  of  the  planetary  motions.  On  the  title-page  of  his 
Astronomia  nova  de  motibus  stellce  Martis,  he  states  that 
it  is  founded  on  Tycho's  observations,  and  on  that  of  the 
Tabulae  Eudolphince  he  mentions  Tycho  as  a  phoenix  among 
astronomers.1  And  it  was  no  exaggeration.  Archimedes 
of  old  had  said,  "  Give  me  a  place  to  stand  on,  and  I  shall 
move  the  world."  Tycho  Brahe  had  given  Kepler  the 
place  to  stand  on,  and  Kepler  did  move  the  world !  And 
so  it  was  with  Kepler's  labours  in  other  fields,  as  we  may 
see  in  that  wonderfully  interesting  book,  Ad  Vitellionem 
Paralipomena,  sive  Astronomice  Pars  Optica,  where  Tycho's 
name  is  quoted  so  constantly  as  having  supplied  the  materials. 
Kepler  and  Tycho  had  squabbled  often  enough  while  the 
latter  was  alive,  but  after  his  death  this  was  forgotten,  and 
Kepler's  mind  had  only  room  for  gratitude  for  having 
become  heir  to  the  great  treasures  left  by  Tycho.  But  on 
the  other  hand,  it  must  be  conceded  that  it  was  fortunate  for 
Tycho's  glory  that  his  observations  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Kepler.  Longomontanus  would  doubtless  have  hoarded  them 


1  "Tabulae  Rudolphinse,  quibus  astronomicae  scientiae,  temporum  longin- 
quitate  collapsae,  restauratio  continetur,  a  Phoenice  illo  Astronomorum 
TYCHONE  ex  illustri  et  generosa  Braheorum  in  Regno  Daniae  familia 
oriundo  equite,  primum  aniino  concepta  et  destinata  anno  Christ!  MDLXIV., 
exinde  observationibus  siderum  accuratissimis,  post  annum  praecipue  MDLXXIL, 
quo  sidus  in  Cassiopeiae  constellatione  novum  effulsit,  serio  affectata,  variisque 
operibus,  cum  mechanicis,  turn  librariis,  impenso  patrimonio  amplissimo, 
accedentibus  etiam  subsidies  Friderici  II.  Danise  Regis,  regali  magnificent!* 
dignis,  tracta  per  annos  xxv.  potissimum  in  insula  freti  Sundici  Huenna  et 
arce  Uraniburgo,  in  hos  usus  a  fundamentis  exstructa,  tandem  traducta  in 
Germaniam  inque  aulam  et  nomen  Rudolph!  Imp.  anno  WDIIC.  Tabulas 
ipsas,  jam  et  nuncupatas  et  afFeotas,  sed  morte  auctoris  sui  anno  MDCI.  desertas, 
.  .  .  perfecit,  absolvit  adque  causarutn  et  calculi  perennis  formulam  traduxit 
Johannes  Kepplerus."  (Ulm,  1627.) 


314  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

carefully  as  a  great  treasure,  but  he  would  most  certainly 
not  have  discovered  the  laws  of  planetary  motion,  and 
Tycho's  exile  thus  turned  out  to  be  of  vast  advantage  to 


science.1 


1  Delarnbre  has  made  this  remark  in  a  somewhat  exaggerated  form,  Hist, 
de  VAstr.  modcrne,  ii.  p.  xiv.  :  "  Si  Tycho  fut  reste  dans  son  ile,  jamais  Kepler 
ne  se  fut  rendu  a  ses  invitations  ;  nous  n'aurions  certainement  pas  la  Theorie 
de  Mars,  et  nous  iguorerions  peut-etre  encore  le  veritable  systeme  du  Monde." 


CHAPTER   XII. 
CONCLUSION. 

TYCHO  BRA  HE'S  SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS. 

AMONG  the  most  important  instruments  in  use  at  Alexandria 
were  the  so-called  spheres  or  arrnillse.  These  are  said  to  have 
been  used  in  China  at  an  early  date,1  but  the  invention  has 
doubtless  been  made  independently  by  the  Greek  astronomers. 
They  were  probably  known  at  the  time  of  Timocharis  and 
Aristillus  (about  300  B.C.),  and  it  is  certain  that  Hipparchus 
employed  them.  In  the  complicated  form  used  by  him  and  his 
successors  (called  by  Tycho  "  armillse  zodiacales  ")  the  instru- 
ment consisted  of  six  circles,  of  which  the  largest  represented 
the  meridian,  and  was  carefully  placed  in  position  on  a  solid 
stand.  On  the  inner  rim  it  was  furnished  with  two  pivots, 
representing  the  north  and  south  poles,  on  which  turned 
a  slightly  smaller  circle,  the  solstitial  colure,  to  which  was 
fixed  immovably  and  at  right  angles  another  of  the  same  size, 
representing  the  ecliptic.  The  colure  was  furnished  with 
pivots  representing  the  poles  of  the  ecliptic,  and  on  these 
turned  two  circles,  one  larger  than  the  colure,  another  smaller 
than  it,  while  the  latter  enclosed  a  sixth  circle,  which  could 
slide  inside  it,  and  was  furnished  with  two  sights  diametrically 
opposite  to  each  other.  With  this  instrument  the  difference 
of  longitude  and  latitude  could  be  measured,  the  circles  being 
divided  to  one-sixth  degree,  while  half  that  quantity  could 
be  estimated. 

1  About  the  armillae  (equatorial)  of  the  Chinese,  see  Observations  mathemati- 
ques,  astronomiques,  <fcc.  tirees  dcs  anciens  livres  Chinois,  red.  par  Soucict, 
ii.  p.  5,  iii.  p.  105,  and  my  paper  on  the  instruments  at  Peking  in  Copernicus, 

vol.  i.  (i  88 1),  p.  134^^  seq. 

315 


316  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

The  Arabs  constructed  similar  instruments,  and  already 
Mashallah,  who  lived  about  the  year  775  (before  the  time  of 
Al  Mamun),  wrote  about  astrolabes  and  armillse,  and  these 
were  used  by  Ibn  Yunis,  Abul  Wefa,  and  others.1  Alhazen 


GEMMA'S  ASTRONOMICAL  KING. 

also  made  use  of  armillge  for  his  investigations  on  refraction, 
and  it  has  even  been  assumed  that  he  is  the  inventor  of  the  far 
simpler  equatorial  armilloe,  which  are  generally  ascribed  to 
Tycho  Brahe,  who  also  considers  himself  as  their  inventor.2 
But  in  any  case,  it  is  certain  that  equatorial  armillse  were  not 
known  in  Europe;  that  Walther,  the  principal  observer  be- 
fore Tycho,  only  knew  zodiacal  armillge  ;  and  that  the  principle 
of  equatorial  ones  was  first  described  in  1534  by  Gemma 
Frisius,  who,  however,  only  designed  an  instrument  of  very 

1  Sddillot,  Prole'gomenes  des  tables  astron.  d'Oloug-Beg,  Paris,  1847,  p.  xvi. 
Memoire  sur  les  instruments  astron.  des  Arabes,  Paris,   1841,  p.  198.     Abul 
Wefa  used  only  five  circles,  the  smaller  latitude  circle  being  crossed  diamet- 
rically by  a  pointer  or  by  a  tube  carrying  the  sights. 

2  S^dillot,  ProUgomenes,  p.  cxxxiv.  ;  Memoire  sur  les  instr.,  p.  198  ;  but  the 
"  armille  equatoriale  "  mentioned  in  the  latter  place  is  evidently  nothing  but 
Ptolemy's  instrument  for  observing  the  solstices,  i.e.,  a  graduated  circle  in  the 
plane  of  the  meridian. 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.        317 

small  dimensions,  intended  to  be  held  in  the  hand.1  Tycho 
remarks  that  the  instruments  of  the  ancients  were  of  solid 
metal,  and  as  they  had  to  be  very  large  to  allow  spaces  of  10' 
to  be  marked  on  them,  they  must  have  been  very  cumber- 
some ;  2  and  it  is  deserving  of  particular  notice  that  he  has  an 
open  eye  to  the  importance  of  perfect  symmetry  in  the  instru- 
ment. He  points  out  that  the  poles  of  the  ecliptic  at  different 
times  occupy  different  positions  with  regard  to  the  meridian, 
and  that  the  instrument  therefore  must  be  subject  to  severe 
strains,  which  would  seriously  affect  the  accuracy  of  the 
observations,  even  if  the  circles  are  of  moderate  dimensions 
and  not  too  heavy.  For  the  same  reasons  he  rejected  the 
clumsy  "Torquetuni"  of  Eegiomontanus,  which  had  never 
been  much  used.3 

Although  Tycho  possessed  a  zodiacal  instrument  which  had 
the  advantage  of  consisting  only  of  four  circles,  he  chiefly 
made  use  of  equatorial  armillse,  which  instruments  represent 
a  great  step  forward,  on  account  of  their  comparative  simplicity 
and  perfect  symmetry.  He  constructed  three  instruments  of 
this  kind,  which  are  all  figured  in  his  Mechanica.  The  first 
one,  which  was  mounted  in  the  small  northern  observatory  of 
Uraniborg,  consisted  of  three  circles  of  steel,  of  which  the  me- 
ridian and  the  equator  were  firmly  joined  together,  and  both 
the  equator  and  the  movable  declination  circle  were  furnished 
with  sights  (made  of  brass),  which  could  be  moved  along  the 
circles,  and  to  which  the  observer  applied  his  eye,  while  a 
small  cylinder  in  the  centre  of,  and  perpendicular  to,  the  polar 
axis  served  as  objective  sight.  The  second  instrument  was 
placed  in  the  small  southern  observatory,  and  only  differed 

1  Tractatus  de  annulo  aslronomico.  The  author  possesses  a  scarce  little 
book  in  which  the  various  uses  of  simple  circles,  quadrants,  and  systems  of 
circles  (including  Gemma's  rings)  are  described.  Annuli  astronomicl,  instru- 
menti  cum  certiasimi  turn  commodissimi  usus,  ex  variis  authoribus.  Lutetiee, 
1557,  small  8vo.,  159  ff. 

-  Proyymn.,  i.  p.  140 ;  Epist.,  p.  9. 

3  Mechanica,  fol.  C.  4 ;  Proyymn.,  i.  p.  141. 


318  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

from  the  first  one  by  the  equator  being  movable  and  attached 
to  a  revolving  (but  not  graduated)  declination  circle,  while 
a  smaller  and  graduated  declination  circle  carried  sights. 
The  undivided  circle  might  very  well  have  been  left  out  and 
the  graduated  one  fixed  to  the  equator.  The  outer  circle 
(meridian)  was  nearly  five  feet  in  diameter.1 

The  third  and  most  important  instrument  of  this  kind  was 
mounted  in  the  largest  crypt  of  Stjerneborg  and  was  far 
more  extensively  used  by  Tycho,  who  considered  it  one  of 
his  most  accurate  instruments.  It  consisted  merely  of  a 
declination  circle  g\  feet  in  diameter,  and  a  semicircle,  which 
represented  the  part  of  the  equator  below  the  horizon,  and 
rested  on  eight  stone  piers.  The  former  has  two  pointers 
turning  round  a  small  cylinder  in  the  centre  of  the  polar 
axis,  and  perpendicular  to  the  plane  of  the  circle,  and  each 
furnished  with  an  eye-piece  sight,  while  a  third  sight  slides 
along  the  equator.  The  polar  axis  (of  iron,  but  hollow)  could 
be  adjusted  in  inclination  and  azimuth  by  screws,  which  acted 
on  a  square  plate  in  a  hole  in  which  the  lower  pointed  end 
of  the  axis  fitted.  By  reversing  the  circle  double  observations 
of  declination  might  be  taken,  using  first  one  sight  and  then 
the  other,  and  Tycho  remarks  that  this  instrument  had  the 
further  advantage  over  the  two  others  that  stars  near  the 
equator  were  as  easily  observed  as  those  more  distant  from  it, 
as  the  equatorial  arc  was  at  some  distance  behind  the  decli- 
nation circle. 

Circles  and  semicircles  had  naturally  been  in  use  from  a 
very  early  date.  We  need  only  refer  to  the  astrolabium  of 
Ptolemy,  which  consisted  of  a  graduated  circle  inside  which 
another  circle  could  slide,  carrying  two  small  cylinders  dia- 
metrically opposite  to  each  other,  while  the  instrument  was 
kept  vertical  by  a  plumb-line.  This  astrolabium  was  imitated 
by  many  successive  astronomers  ;  among  others,  by  Abul  Wefa, 

1  Also  figured  in  Proyymn.,  i.  p.  251. 


TYCHO  BRAKE'S  SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.        319 

who  has  described  a  meridian  circle  for  observing  the  sun,1 


ARMILL.E  A  J£QUATORLE  MAXIMJE. 
while  smaller  circles  became  extensively  used,  particularly 

1  Sddillot,  Mtmoire,  p.  196  ;  Wolf's  Geschickte  der  Astronomic,  p.  132. 


320  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

by  navigators.  Nonius  suggested  attaching  the  pointer  or 
alidade  to  some  point  on  the  circumference  instead  of  to  the 
centre,  as  the  divisions  on  this  plan  might  be  made  twice  as 
large  as  usual.1  I  only  mention  this  proposal  because  Tycho 
(who  does  not  allude  to  Nonius)  constructed  a  large  semi- 
circle revolving  round  a  vertical  axis,  with  a  long  ruler 
turning  on  a  pivot  at  one  end  of  the  horizontal  diameter. 

In  addition  to  complete  circles,  quadrants  were  also  used 
long  before  Tycho's  time,  though  not  extensively.  Ptolemy 
describes  a  meridian  quadrant  attached  to  a  cube  of  stone  or 
wood,  with  a  small  cylinder  in  the  centre  of  the  arc,  of  which 
the  shadow  indicated  the  altitude  of  the  sun  on  the  gradua- 
tion.2 Among  the  numerous  instruments  which  Nasir  al-din 
Tusi  erected  in  the  splendid  observatory  at  Meragha,  in  the 
north-west  of  Persia  (about  A.D.  1260),  was  a  Pfcolemean 
mural  quadrant,  made  of  hard  wood,  and  with  a  radius  of 
about  twelve  feet.  The  limb  was  of  copper,  on  which  three 
arcs  were  drawn ;  the  middle  one  was  divided  into  degrees, 
while  of  the  others,  one  showed  every  fifth  degree,  the  other 
the  minutes  (all  of  them  ?).  Nasir  al-din  mentions  the  in- 
strument of  Ptolemy,  which  evidently  had  served  him  as  a 
model.3 

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  descrip- 

1  Delambre,  Astr.  du  moyen  age,  p.  399. 

2  As  remarked  by  Delambre  (Astr.  ancicnne,  ii.  p.  75),  it  appears  doubtful 
whether  Ptolemy 'ever  actually  used  an  instrument  of  this  kind,  as  he  only 
quotes  one  observation  made  with  it,  the  difference  between  the  sun's  altitude 
at  the  two  solstices,  for  which  he  gives  exactly  the  same  value  as  had  been 
found  by  Eratosthenes  ;  and  as  his  latitude  was  15'  wrong,  his  quadrant  (if  he 
used  it)  must  have  been  very  small. 

3  Monatliche  Correspondenz,    xxiii.    (1811),    p.    346.      A    perfectly   similar 
description  from  an  Arabian  MS.  by  Muvayad  al-Oredhi  of  Damascus  is  given 
by  Se*dillot,  Memoire,  p.  194. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  321 

tion  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.  Hagecius  had  even  observed  the  altitude  and 
time  of  transit  of  the  new  star  over  the  meridian,1  but  nobody 
had  erected  an  instrument  permanently  in  the  meridian. 
The  great  superiority  as  to  stability  which  a  mural  quadrant 
possessed  over  the  armillas  did  not  escape  Tycho ;  and  as  he 
was  the  first  thoroughly  to  perceive  the  influence  of  refrac- 
tion in  altering  the  apparent  positions  of  stars,  the  wish 
naturally  arose  to  observe  the  stars  at  their  greatest  altitude 
on  the  meridian,  where  that  influence  was  smallest.2 

From  the  meridian  quadrant  to  quadrants  which  could  be 
placed  in  any  azimuth  the  transition  was  simple  enough,  and 
we  find  accordingly  among  the  instruments  at  Meragah  an 
"  instrument  des  quarts  de  circles  mobiles."  This  consisted 
of  an  azimuth  circle  on  which  were  two  quadrants  turning 
on  a  common  vertical  axis,  by  which  two  observers  could 
find  the  altitudes  and  difference  of  azimuth  of  two  objects.3 
In  Europe  an  azimuth  instrument  seems  to  have  been  first 
used  by  Landgrave  Wilhelm  IV.,  who  observed  altitudes  and 
azimuths  of  the  new  star  of  1572,  apparently  by  setting  the 
instrument  to  a  certain  whole  or  half  degree  of  azimuth,  and 
measuring  the  altitude  when  the  star  reached  that  azimuth.4 
Quadrants  capable  of  being  turned  round  a  vertical  axis  had 

1  Progym.,  p.  521.     Tycho  did  not  approve  of  this  method,  as  it  involved 
the  use  of  clocks. 

2  For  a  description  of  the  Tychonic  quadrant,  see  above,  p.  101. 

3  Mon.  Corresp.,  xxiii.  p.  355.     The  instrument  is  doubtless  the  same  as 
described  by  Sedillot,  Memoire,  p.  2OO.     An  azimuth  circle  of  copper,  10  cubits 
in  diameter,  was  in  the  year  513  after  Hedschra  erected  at  Cairo  for  observa- 
tions of  the  sun.     Caussin,  Le  livre  de  la  grande  Table  Haktmite  (Notices  des 
manuscrits,  torn,  vii.),  Paris,  an.  xii.  p.  21. 

4  Progymn.,  p.  491.     At  Kremsniiinster  observatory  there  is  a  small  azi- 
muth circle  with  a  vertical  semicircle  of  ivory,  dating   from  1570.     Wolf's 
Geschichte  dcr  Astronomic,  p.  112. 

21 


322  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

been  known  long  before,1  but  as  it  was  so  much  easier  to 
graduate  a  straight  line  than  an  arc,  the  triquetrum  con- 
tinued to  be  the  favourite  instrument  for  measuring  altitudes 
down  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Tycho  did  not 
think  much  of  this  instrument,  which  he  calls  "  instrumen- 
tum  parallacticum  sive  regularum,"  and  he  did  not  make 
much  use  of  the  two  he  had  constructed,  and  one  of  which 
was  of  large  dimensions,  and  furnished  with  an  azimuth 
circle  1 6  feet  in  diameter.2  He  preferred  the  "  quadrans 
azimuthalis,"  and  constructed  four  instruments  of  this  kind? 
which  were  extensively  used,  though  chiefly  for  merely 
observing  altitudes,  while  the  azimuths  were  rarely  taken, 
especially  during  his  later  years.  The  largest  quadrant 
(quadrans  magnus  chalibeus)  was  enclosed  in  a  square  (also 
of  steel),  of  which  the  side  was  equal  to  the  radius  of  the 
quadrant.  Two  of  the  sides  were  graduated,  and  the  alidade 
pointed  to  these  graduations  as  well  as  to  those  on  the  arc, 
so  that  the  instrument  was  a  combination  of  a  quadrant  and 
the  "  quadratum  geometricum  "  of  Purbach  (which  the  Ara- 
bians had  also  known),  which  increased  the  solidity  of  the 
instrument. 

An  important  use  to  which  the  quadrants  were  put  at 
Uraniborg  was  the  determination  of  time.  At  Alexandria 
the  beginning,  middle,  or  end  of  the  hour  was  generally  the 
only  indication  of  time  which  accompanied  the  observations 
of  planets,  which  was  perhaps  sufficient,  owing  to  the  limited 
accuracy  of  the  observations.  The  time  was  found  by  water- 
or  sand-clocks,  which  were  verified  by  observing  the  culmi- 
nation of  some  of  the  forty-four  stars  which  Hipparchus  had 
selected  so  well  that  the  time  could  be  determined  with  an 


1  The  "instrument  aux  deux  piliers"  at  Me'ragah  was  a  modification  of 
Ptolemy's  quadrant  (Se'dillot,  L  c.,  fig.  113),  but  it  could  also  be  arranged  so  as 
to  be  movable  in  azimuth  (see  also  Monatl.  Corresp.,  xxiii.  p.  359). 

2  Progymn.,  pp.  142  and  636  ;  Eplstolce,  p.  75.] 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  323 

error  not  much  exceeding  a  minute.1  An  important  step 
forward  as  regards  the  accurate  determination  of  time  was 
made  by  the  Arabs  in  the  ninth  century.  Ibn  Yunis  men- 
tions a  solar  eclipse  observed  at  Bagdad  on  the  3Oth  Novem- 
ber 829  by  Ahmed  Ibn  Abdallah,  called  Habash,  who  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eclipse  found  the  altitude  of  the  sun  to  be 
7°,  while  at  the  end  the  altitude  was  24°.  This  seems  to 
have  been  the  earliest  though  crude  attempt  to  use  observa- 
tions of  altitude  to  indicate  time,  but  the  advantage  of  the 
method  was  evident,  and  at  the  lunar  eclipse  on  the  I2th 
August  854  the  altitude  of  Aldebaran  was  measured  equal 
to  45°  30'.  Ibn  Yunis  adds  that  he  from  this  made  out  the 
hour-angle  to  be  44°  by  means  of  a  planisphere.  Ibn  Yunis 
communicates  a  number  of  other  instances  from  the  tenth 
century,2  but  the  instruments  used  were  very  small,  and  only 
divided  into  degrees ;  and  though  Al  Battani  gave  formulas 
for  the  computation  of  the  hour-angle,  the  Arabians  generally 
contented  themselves  with  the  approximate  graphical  deter- 
mination by  the  so-called  astrolabe  or  planisphere. 

In  Europe  the  use  of  observations  of  altitude  for  determin- 
ing time  was  introduced  in  1457  by  Purbach,  who,  at  the 
beginning  and  end  of  the  lunar  eclipse  on  the  3rd  Septem- 
ber, measured  the  altitude  of  "  penultima  ex  Plejadibus."  3 
Bernhard  Walther  was  the  first  to  introduce  in  observatories 
the  use  of  clocks  driven  by  weights.  Thus  we  find  among 
his  observations  one  of  the  rising  of  Mercury.  At  the  time 
of  rising  he  attached  the  weight  to  a  clock  of  which  the 
hour-wheel  had  fifty-six  teeth,  and  as  one  hour  and  thirty- 
five  teeth  passed  before  the  sun  rose,  he  concluded  that  the 
interval  had  been  one  hour  thirty- seven  minutes.  Walther 

1  Schjellerup,  Sur  le  ckronometre  celeste  d'Hipparque  (Copernicus,  vol.  i., 
1881,  p.  25). 

2  Caussin,  1.  c.,  p.  100  et  scq.     About  some  errors  of  copying,  by  which  some 
of  the  observations  were  affected,  see  Knobel's  paper  on  Ulugh  Beigh's  Cata- 
logue, in  the  Monthly  Notices  of  the  Roy.  Astr.  Soc.,  xxxix.  p.  339. 

3  Scripta  cl.  mathematici  J.  Rcgiomontani,  Norimb.,  1544,  fol.  36. 


324  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

adds  that  this  clock  was  a  very  good  one,  and  indicated 
correctly  the  interval  between  two  successive  noons ;  but  all 
the  same  he  must  have  seen  how  unreliable  it  was,  for 
though  he  used  the  clock  during  the  lunar  eclipse  in  1487, 
he  at  the  same  time  measured  some  altitudes.1 

In  Tycho  Brahe's  observatory  the  clocks  never  played  an 
important  part.  Though  he  possessed  three  or  four  clocks, 
he  does  not  anywhere  describe  them  in  detail,  while  he  in 
several  places  remarks  that  he  did  not  depend  on  them,  as 
their  rate  varied  considerably  even  during  short  intervals, 
which  he  attributed  to  atmospherical  changes  (although  he 
kept  them  in  heated  rooms  in  winter),  as  well  as  to  imperfec- 
tions in  the  wheels.  At  the  side  of  the  mural  quadrant  he 
had  placed  two  clocks,  indicating  both  minutes  and  seconds, 
in  order  that  one  might  control  the  other,  and  in  the 
southern  observatory  was  a  large  clock  (liorologium  mafus) 
with  all  the  wheels  of  brass.  Whether  Biirgi,  during 
Tycho's  residence  at  Prague,  supplied  him  with  a  pendulum 
•clock,  as  stated  by  a  later  writer,2  must  remain  very  doubtful, 
but  that  Tycho  did  not  possess  such  a  clock  at  Uraniborg 
seems  certain,  as  he  would  not  have  neglected  to  describe  so 
important  an  addition  to  his  stock  of  instruments.  As  he 
found  the  clocks  so  uncertain,  Tycho  also  tried  time-keepers 
similar  to  the  clepsydrse  of  the  ancients,  which  measured 
time  by  a  quantity  of  mercury  flowing  out  through  a  small 
hole  in  the  bottom  of  a  vessel,  in  which  the  mercury  was 
kept  at  a  constant  height,  in  order  that  the  outflow  might 
not  vary  with  the  varying  weight  of  the  mercury.  By 
ascertaining  the  quantity  of  mercury  which  flowed  out  in 

1  Ibid.,  fol.  50  et  seq.     The  mere  statement,  what  degree  of  the  zodiac 
was  on  the  meridian  (medium  coeli)  when  an  observation  was  made,  was,  how- 
ever, still  very  often  the  only  indication  of  time  given,  even  by  Walther. 
See,  for  instance,  Tycho's  first  observation  at  Hveen,  above,  p.  86  footnote. 

2  Joachim  Becher,    De  nova  temporis  demetiendi  ratione  tlieoria   (1680), 
buoted  by  R.  Wolf,  GescJtichte  d.  Astr.,  p.  370. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  325 

twenty-four  hours,  it  was  easy  to  make  out  tlie  interval 
which  passed  between  the  culmination  of  the  sun  and  a  star 
by  starting  the  time- keeper  when  the  former  passed  the 
meridian,  and  letting  it  run  until  the  latter  passed,  and  then 
weighing  the  amount  which  had  flowed  out.  Instead  of 
mercury,  Tycho  also  tried  lead  monoxide  powder,  and  adds 
to  his  account  of  these  experiments  some  remarks  about 
Mercury  and  Saturn  (lead),  and  their  astrological  relations, 
which  naturally  suggested  themselves  to  his  mind.1  But 
he  does  not  seem  to  have  used  these  clepsydrae  except  by 
way  of  experiment,  and  his  methods  of  observing  made 
him  in  most  cases  independent  both  of  them  and  of  the 
clocks.  In  addition  to  the  altitudes  (about  which  he  justly 
remarks  that  they  must  not  be  taken  too  near  the  meridian, 
where  they  vary  very  slowly,  nor  near  the  horizon,  where 
they  are  much  affected  by  refraction),  he  observed  hour- 
angles  of  the  sun  or  standard  stars  with  the  armillse  to  con- 
trol the  indications  of  his  clocks,  and  his  observations  ot 
the  moon,  comets,  eclipses,  &c.,  where  accurate  time  deter- 
minations are  indispensable,  were  thereby  doubly  valuable. 
Occasionally  azimuths  were  also  observed  for  the  same  pur- 
pose, the  zero  of  the  azimuth  circle  having  been  found  by 
observing  the  east  and  west  elongation  of  the  Pole  Star.2 

For  observations  of  altitude  Tycho  also  used  a  sextant 
of  5j  feet  radius,  turning  on  a  vertical  axis,  with  one  end- 
radius  kept  horizontal  by  means  of  a  plumb-line  attached  to 
the  centre  of  the  radius.  We  have  already  mentioned  that 

1  "  Est  in  Mercuric,  quicquid  quoorunt  Sapientes    .    .   .    Sicque  Saturnus 
et   Mercurius   coniunctis  operibus  hanc   inquisitionem   expedirent  :    cum   & 
secundum    Astrologos,    illorum    coniunctio   aut   benevola    invicem    radiatio 
.  .  .  aut  etiam  intuitus  beneuolentior,  prge  ceteris  aliis  signifi cation i bus  ad 
ingenii  et   solertise  contemplationisque  profunditatem,   laborisque   invictam 
constantiam,  plurimurn  conducere  credantur."     Progym.,  p.  151. 

2  Epist.,  p.  73.     Rothmann  was,  therefore,  not  the  inventor  of  this  method 
of  finding  the  meridian,  as  supposed  by  Wolf  (Geschichte,  pp.  374  and  598). 
Tycho  had  already  used  the  Pole  Star  for  azimuth  in  1578,  as  appears  from 
his  MS.  journals  and  Observ.  comet.,  p.  16. 


326  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

Tycho,  driven  by  necessity,  had  observed  altitudes  of  the  new 
star  with  a  sextant,  and  as  the  planets  never  could  attain  an 
altitude  above  60°,  he  found  a  sextant  a  convenient  instru- 
ment for  many  purposes,  and  specially  mentions  that  it  was 
easily  taken  asunder  and  transported  wherever  required. 
Though  Tycho  believed  himself  to  be  the  inventor  of  this 
instrument,  he  had  been  anticipated  by  the  Arabs,  as  Al 
Chogandi  in  992  at  Bagdad  erected  a  sextant  (which  is  even 
said  to  have  been  of  sixty  feet  radius)  for  measuring  the  in- 
clination of  the  ecliptic.1 

The  sextant  was  with  Tycho  Brache  a  favourite  instrument, 
which  he  had  already  constructed  for  Paul  Hainzel  in  1569 
for  measuring  the  angular  distances  of  stars.  At  Hveen  he 
constructed  three  large  sextants  for  this  purpose.  One  of 
these,  which  was  placed  in  the  great  northern  observatory, 
and  was  made  entirely  of  brass,  was  on  the  same  plan  as  the 
Augsburg  instrument,  the  arc  being  attached  to  the  end  of 
one  arm,  the  two  arms  being  placed  at  the  proper  angle 
v  by  a  screw,  the  eye  of  the  observer  being  at  the  hinge  on 
which  the  arms  turned.2  The  second  was  placed  in  one  of 
the  crypts  of  Stjerneborg,  and  was  a  solid  sextant  of  wood, 
covered  with  painted  canvas,  and  a  brass  arc  5  J-  feet  radius, 
braced  with  stays  and  supported  on  a  globe  sheeted  with 
copper,  which  enabled  the  two  observers  to  place  it  in  the 
plane  through  the  two  stars  to  be  measured,  while  they 
steadied  it  in  the  position  required  by  two  long  rods  with 
pointed  ends  which  rested  on  the  floor.  One  of  the  observers 
sighted  one  star  through  a  fixed  sight  at  one  end  of  the  arc 

1  L.   A.  Sedillot,   Memoire,  p.   204  ;    Materiaux  pour  servir  d  Vhist.   dcs 
sciences  chez  les  Grecs  et  les  Orientaux,  i.  p.  358.  Prolegomenes  (1847),  p.  xlii. 
Sarafedaula,  who  founded  the  Bagdad  observatory,  was  not  a  Chaliph,   as 
supposed  by  Bailly  and  Wolf,  but  Emir-ul-umara. 

2  Sextans  chalyleus,  used  already  in  1577;  Mechanica,  fol.  E. ;  De  mundi 
aeth.  rec.  phen,,  p.  460.     The  sextant  at  Cassel  (constructed  from  Wittich's 
description)  also  required  one  observer  only,  who  placed  his  eye  at  the  centre 
of  the  arc. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS. 


327 


(C),  while  the  other  observer  pointed  to  the  other  star  through 
a  sight  at  the  end  of  a  movable  radius.     Both  observers  em- 


SEXTANS  TRIGOXICUS. 


ployed  the  same  object-sight,  a  small  cylinder  (A)  at  the  centre 
of  the  arc  and  perpendicular  to  the  plane  of  the  sextant.  As 
the  observers  when  measuring  very  small  distances  would 


328  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

get  their  heads  too  close  together,  there  was  for  that  purpose 
a  second  cylinder  on  one  of  the  end-radii  (F),  and  a  removable 
sight  on  the  arc  (G),  placed  so  that  the  line  through  them  was 
parallel  to  a  line  from  the  centre  to  the  middle  of  the  arc. 
One  observer  then  sighted  along  these,  and  the  other  along 
the  movable  arm  as  usual.1 

For  measuring  small  distances  (less  than  30°)  Tycho  also 
constructed  an  "  arc  us  bipartitus,"  consisting  of  a  rod  5  J-  feet 
long,  with  a  cross-bar  at  one  end,  having  at  each  extremity  a 
small  cylinder,  and  two  arcs  of  30°  at  the  other  end,  of  which 
the  cylinders  occupied  the  centres.  With  this  instrument, 
which  was  placed  in  the  great  northern  observatory,  the  dis- 
tances of  the  principal  stars  of  Cassiopea  inter  se  were  mea- 
sured in  order  to  fix  the  position  of  the  new  star  by  the 
measures  taken  in  1 5 72-7 3. 2 

The  size  of  these  various  instruments,  as  well  as  their  solid 
construction,  would  not  have  been  sufficient  to  ensure  the 
accuracy  in  the  observations  which  Tycho  actually  attained, 
and  which  so  much  exceeded  that  reached  by  previous 
observers,  if  he  had  not  added  special  contrivances  for  that 
purpose.  Before  Tycho's  time  there  was  only  one  way  of 
making  small  fractions  of  a  degree  distinguishable — by 
making  the  instrument  as  large  as  possible.  In  addition  to 
Al  Chogandi's  60- foot  sextant,  a  quadrant  of  2 1  feet  radius  is 
said  to  have  been  constructed  by  Al  Sagani  (about  the  year 
1000),  and  the  value  which  the  Arabs  were  obliged  to  attach 
to  large  instruments  was  expressed  in  the  remark  of  Ibn 
Carfa,  that  if  he  were  able  to  build  a  circle  which  was  sup- 
ported on  one  side  by  the  Pyramids  and  on  the  other  by  the 
Mocattam  mountain,  he  would  do  it.3 

1  Sextans  trigonicus.     Mech.,  fol.  D.  5  ;  Progymn,  p.  248. 

2  Arcus  bipartitus.     Mfzli.,  fol.  D.  4. 

3  Se'dillot,  Prolfyom&nes,  pp.  Ivii.  and  cxxix.      The  i8o-foot  quadrant  of 
Ulugh  Bey  was  doubtless  a  kind  of  sundial,  such  as  are  also  found  in  India. 
Ibn  Yunis  quotes  an  observation  of  the  autumnal  equinox  of  851  at  Nisapur 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  329 

The  first  to  suggest  a  method  of  subdividing  an  arc  ot 
moderate  dimensions  was  Pedro  Nunez,  whose  work,  De 
Crepusculis,  was  published  in  1542.  He  proposed  inside 
the  graduated  arc  of  a  quadrant  to  draw  44  concentric  arcs, 
and  divide  them  respectively  into  89,  88,  87  .  .  .  46  equal 
parts,  so  that  the  alidade  in  any  position  would  (more  or 
less  accurately)  touch  a  division  mark  on  one  of  the  45 
circles.  The  indication  of  this  mark  was  multiplied  by 
— ?  where  n  is  the  number  of  divisions  on  the  arc  on  which 
the  mark  touched  by  the  alidade  is.  But  however  ingenious 
this  proposal  was,  it  was  anything  but  a  practical  one,  as 
it  is  not  easy  to  divide  an  arc  into  87  or  71  equal  parts, 
and  the  observer  would  generally  be  in  doubt  which  division 
was  nearest  the  alidade.1  Tycho  Brahe  tried  this  plan  on 
three  of  the  instruments  first  constructed  at  Hveen  (the 
two  smallest  quadrants  and  a  sextant),  but  abandoned  it 
again  as  far  inferior  to  the  one  he  subsequently  adopted.2 
By  a  strange  misunderstanding,  the  name  of  Nonius  is  even 
at  the  present  day  often  applied  to  the  beautiful  and  prac- 
tical invention  of  Vernier  (1631),  with  which  it  has  nothing 
whatever  in  common.  A  step  towards  the  idea  of  Vernier 
was  made  by  Christopher  Clavius  and  the  Vice-Chancellor 
Curtius,  and  the  latter  communicated  this  plan  to  Tycho 
in  1590,  but  it  was  not  much  more  practical  than  that  of 
Nunez,  and  was  probably  never  carried  out  in  practice.3 

We  have  seen  that  Tycho  Brahe  in  his  youth  followed 
the  example  of  the  Arabians  by  constructing  a  large  quad- 
rant at  Augsburg,  with  a  radius  of  19  feet.  But  already 

(Khorassan)  with  a  great  armilla  which   showed   single  minutes  (Caussin, 
p.  148). 

1  The  limited  accuracy  attainable  is  shown  in  tabular  form  by  Delambre, 
Moyen  Age,  p.  404. 

2  Mechanica,  fol.  A.   2  ;    Epist.,  p.   62.      The  quadrans  mediocris  was,  in 
addition  to  the  arcs  of  Nonius,  divided  by  transversals,  and  on  the  sextant 
Tycho  removed  the  Nonian  division  altogether. 

3  Mechanica,  fol.  G.  5  ;  compare  CTir.  davii  Opera  (1612),  t.  iii.  p.  10. 


330  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

before  that  time  lie  had  in  1564  obtained  a  cross-staff 
divided  by  transversals.1  He  says  himself  that  Bartholo- 
mseus  Scultetus  had  got  the  idea  of  this  method  of  subdivi- 
sion from  his  teacher  Homilius,  and  now  taught  it  to  him ; 
but  in  a  letter  to  the  Landgrave  (of  1 5  87)  Tycho  states  that 
he  was  seventeen  years  of  age  when  he  at  Leipzig  learned 
the  use  of  transversals  for  subdividing  a  straight  line  from 
Homilius.2  The  latter  died,  however,  in  July  1562,  when 
Tycho  was  only  15  J  years  old,  and  had  only  been  a  few 
months  at  Leipzig,  and  it  is  therefore  more  probable  that 
Scultetus  really  was  the  means  of  imparting  the  idea  to 
Tycho.  At  all  events,  Tycho  did  not  attempt  to  claim 
the  invention  for  himself,  though  it  was  afterwards  often 
attributed  to  him.  But  whether  Homilius  really  was  the 
first  inventor  is  more  than  doubtful,  and  Scultetus  himself 
has  even  stated  that  the  method  was  already  known  to 
Purbach  and  Regiomontanus.3  We  can,  however,  scarcely 
believe  this  to  have  been  the  case,  as  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  explain  why  the  method  had  never  come  to  light, 
even  though  Walther  notoriously  guarded  the  belongings 
of  Regiomontanus  with  a  curious  fear  of  their  being  known  ; 
and  in  the  Scripta  of  Regiomontanus  there  is  no  trace  of 
his  having  used  so  excellent  a  method.  Curiously  enough, 
there  are  two  other  names  mentioned  in  connection  with 
this  invention.  In  his  book  Alee  seu  scalce  mathematical 4 
Digges  states  that  transversals  were  first  applied  to  the 
divisions  on  the  cross-staff  by  the  English  instrument-maker 
Eichard  Chanzler,  and  Reyrners  Bar  mentions  that  the 

1  Mechanica,  fol.  G.,  2nd  page;  Progymn.,  p.  671. 

2  Epist.t  p.  62. 

3  "  Von  allerlei  Solarien,  das  ist,  himmlischen  Circeln  und  Uhren  .  .  .  durch 
Bart.  Scultetum,  Gorlitz,   1572,"  quoted   by  R.  Wolf,  Astr.   Mittheilungen, 
xxxiii.  p.  90. 

4  London,  1573,  fol.  I.  3,  where  there  is  a  drawing  of  a  rectilinear  scale 
with  transversals. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS. 


331 


method  was  described  in  Puehler's  Geometry,  published  in. 
I56:.1 

Under  any  circumstances,  it  was  Tycho  Brache  who  intro- 
duced the  use  of  transversals  on  the  graduated  arcs  of 
astronomical  instruments.  He  did  not  use  transversal  lines, 
such  as  afterwards  became  universally  used,  but  rows  of  dots, 
which  were  fully  as  convenient,  and  he  showed  that  the  error 


TRANSVERSAL  DIVISIONS. 

introduced  by  employing  these  rectilinear  transversals  for 
the  division  of  arcs  would  not  exceed  3",  which  would  be  im- 
perceptible.2 When  Wittich  had  brought  the  news  of  this 
contrivance  to  Cassel,  Biirgi  modified  it  a  little  by  using 
lines  instead  of  the  rows  of  dots,  and  adding  a  scale  on  the 
alidade,  the  section  of  which  with  a  transversal  line  showed 
the  number  of  minutes  to  be  added  to  the  indication  of  the 
preceding  division  line,  while  on  Tycho's  instruments  each 
of  the  dots  corresponded  to  i'. 

But  it  was  not  sufficient  to  find  means  to  read  off  the 
measured  angle  accurately ;  it  was  also  of  great  importance 
to  point  the  instrument  to  a  star  with  greater  precision  than 
hitherto,  and  here  Tycho  had  nobody  to  show  the  way.  Up 
to  his  time  an  alidade  had  been  furnished  with  two  pinnules, 
one  at  each  end,  consisting  of  a  brass  plate  with  a  small  hole 
in  the  middle,  and  if  this  hole  was  made  too  small,  a  faint 

1  Kastner,  Gesch.  der  Math.,  in.  p.  479 ;  Delambre,  Astr.  mod.,  i.  p.  299. 

2  De  mundi  aeth.  rec.  phen.,  p.  461  ;  Mechanica,  fol.  I.  2.     According  to 
K.  Wolf  (I.  c. ),  Rothmann  has  in  an  unpublished  MS.  made  the  same  investi- 
gation. 


332  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

star  could  not  be  seen,  while  a  larger  hole  made  the  observa- 
tion too  uncertain.  To  meet  this  difficulty  Tycho  introduced 
a  special  pinnule  at  the  eye-end  of  the  alidade,  consisting  of 
a  square  plate  with  a  narrow  slit  close  to  the  side  next  the 
alidade,  while  there  were  three  other  slits  between  the  three 
other  sides  and  small  movable  pieces  of  metal  parallel  to  them. 
By  moving  these  pieces  the  slits  could  be  made  wide  or  nar- 
row according  as  faint  or  bright  stars  were  observed.  At  the 
object-end  was  a  small  square  plate  exactly  of  the  same  size  as 
the  plate  at  the  eye-end.  When  the  alidade  was  pointed  to  a 
star,  and  the  latter  through  the  four  slits  was  seen  to  touch 
the  three  sides  of  the  object-pinnule  and  shine  through  a  slit 
along  the  side  next  the  alidade,  the  observer  knew  that  the 
alidade  accurately  and  without  any  parallax  represented  the 
straight  line  between  his  eye  and  the  star.  For  observa- 
tions of  the  sun  there  was  in  the  centre  of  the  objective 
pinnule  a  round  hole  through  which  the  light  fell  on  a  small 
circle  on  the  eye-pinnule,  and  the  sunlight  was  generally 
conducted  "through  a  canal"  to  keep  off  extraneous  light. 
In  many  cases,  Tycho  (as  we  have  already  seen)  modified 
the  arrangement  by  substituting  a  small  cylinder  (per- 
pendicular on  the  alidade)  for  the  objective  pinnule.  On 
the  armillse  this  cylinder  was  placed  in  the  centre  of  the 
axis,  while  the  eye-pinnules  could  slide  along  the  graduated 
circles. 

Like  the  transversal  divisions,  the  improved  sights  were 
introduced  at  Cassel  by  Paul  Wittich,  and  the  value  of 
these  improvements  was  found  to  be  so  great,  that  while 
the  observers  could  formerly  scarcely  observe  within  2', 
the  attainable  accuracy  was  now  J'  or  J'.  It  appears  that 
Wittich  had  not  described  the  pinnules  accurately,  as  he 
had  only  given  them  two  slits  instead  of  four,  which  Koth- 
mann  (or  probably  Biirgi)  soon  found  preferable.1 

1  Epiat.,  pp.  21,  28-29 ;  T.  Bralid  et  doct.  vir.  Epist.,  p.  100. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  333 

Before  Tycho  settled  at  Hveen  he  had  never  regularly 
observed  the  sun,1  but  (as  we  have  already  mentioned)  from 
his  birthday,  the  I4th  December  1576,  he  took  regular 
observations  of  the  meridian  altitude  of  the  sun,  and  later, 
when  his  stock  of  instruments  increased,  several  quadrants 
were  simultaneously  employed  for  this  purpose.  Above  all, 
he  employed  from  March  1582  the  great  mural  quadrant  for 
observing  the  sun  on  the  meridian,  while  the  declination 
was  also  very  frequently  measured  with  the  armillae.  These 
observations  were  made  with  the  object  of  improving  the 
theory  of  the  sun's  apparent  motion.  The  equinoxes  of  the  • 
years  1584-88  were  carefully  determined,  but  owing  to  the 
difficulty  of  fixing  the  moment  of  solstice  on  account  of  the 
very  slow  change  of  declination  at  maximum  and  minimum, 
he  did  not  make  use  of  the  solstices  to  find  the  position  of 
the  apogee  and  the  amount  of  the  excentricity  of  the  orbit, 
but  determined  the  time  when  the  sun  was  45°  from  the 
equinoxes,  in  the  centre  of  the  signs  of  Taurus  and  Leo. 
Copernicus  had  followed  the  same  plan,  but  had  made  use  of 
the  signs  of  Scorpio  and  Aquarius,  while  Tycho  objected  to 
these  that  the  sun  was  too  low  in  the  sky,  and  the  influence 
of  refraction  and  parallax  too  great.  He  found  the  longitude 
of  the  apogee  =  95°  30',  with  an  annual  motion  of  45"  (should 
be  61",  Copernicus  had  only  found  24"),  and  the  excentricity 
of  the  solar  orbit  =  0.03584,  the  greatest  equation  of  centre  , 
being  2°  3J'.  In  the  determination  of  the  apogee  he  was 
more  successful  than  Copernicus ;  but  while  the  latter  made 
the  equation  of  the  centre  too  small,  Tycho  made  it  too  great. 
The  length  of  the  tropical  year  he  found  by  combining  some 
observations  by  Walther  (reduced  anew  after  determining 
the  latitude  of  Niirnberg)  with  his  own  to  be  equal  to  365d 
5h  48™  45s,  only  about  a  second  two  small.  With  his  new 

1  Only  in  1574  he  had  at  Heridsvad  observed  the  meridian  altitude  of  the 
sun  on  seven  days  in  March  and  on  two  days  in  May. 


334  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

numerical  data  lie  computed  tables  for  the  apparent  motion 
of  the  sun,  which  he  remarks  are  worthy  of  considerable  con- 
fidence, as  they  depend  on  observations  made  with  three  or 
four  large  instruments  made  of  metal,  and  capable  of  deter- 
mining the  position  of  the  sun  within  10",  or  at  most  20" ; 
and  by  comparing  the  tables  with  observations  by  Regiomon- 
tanus,  Walther,  the  Landgrave,  and  Hainzel,  he  shows  that 
they  represent  the  observed  places  within  a  small  fraction  of 
a  minute,  while  the  Alphonsine  tables  and  those  of  Copernicus 
are  often  15'  or  20'  in  error.1 

The  solar  observations  at  Uraniborg  led  to  a  result  which 
Tycho  does  not  seem  to  have  anticipated.  The  colatitude,  as 
found  by  the  greatest  and  smallest  altitude  of  the  sun  at  the 
solstices,  differed  from  that  deduced  from  observations  of 
the  Pole  Star  by  a  considerable  quantity,  which  sometimes 
amounted  to  4'.  Having  ascertained  that  the  discrepancy 
did  not  arise  from  instrumental  errors,  he  was  led  to  attribute 
it  to  the  effect  of  refraction.  As  soon  as  the  great  armillse 
at  Stjerneborg  were  finished,  he  instituted  systematic  obser- 
vations to  prove  this,  and  to  determine  the  amount  of  refrac- 
tions at  various  altitudes.  Having  first  found,  by  following 
the  sun  throughout  the  day  with  the  armillaB,  that  the  decli- 
nation apparently  varied,  as  stated  by  Alhazen  in  his  book  on 
optics,  he  repeatedly  in  the  years  1585  to  1589  devoted  a 
whole  day,  generally  in  June,  when  the  declination  of  the 
sun  changed  very  slowly,  to  investigations  on  refraction. 
With  an  altazimuth  quadrant  he  measured  at  frequent  in- 
tervals the  altitude  and  azimuth,  and  from  the  latitude  of  the 
observatory,  the  azimuth  and  the  decimation,  he  computed 
the  altitude,  which,  deducted  from  the  observed  altitude, 
gave  the  amount  of  refraction.  Another  method  was  by 
observing  simultaneously  with  the  quadrant  and  with  the 
armillse.  In  the  triangle  between  the  pole  and  the  true  and 

1  Progym.,  pp.  1-78. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  335 

apparent  places  of  the  sun,  two  sides  (real  and  apparent 
declination)  and  one  angle  ( 1 80°  minus  the  parallactic  angle) 
were  known,  from  which  the  third  side  could  be  computed, 
which  was  the  effect  of  refraction  in  altitude.  This  is  a  most 
inconvenient  and  troublesome  method,  and  must  have  given 
the  computers  plenty  to  do,  if  the  observations  were  really 
extensively  used  in  this  way  for  the  construction  of  his 
refraction  tables.  For  these  investigations  he  assumed  the 
real  declination  (i.e.,  corrected  for  refraction)  as  equal  to  the 
declination  as  observed  on  the  meridian,  as  he  thought  the 
refraction  at  the  meridian  altitude  at  summer  solstice  (57J°) 
insensible.  He  assumed,  in  fact,  that  refraction  disappeared 
already  at  45°,  where  it  in  reality  amounts  to  58".  Unluckily 
Tycho  spoiled  the  refraction  table  which  he  constructed  from 
his  solar  observations  by  assuming,  with  all  previous  astrono- 
mers, from  Ptolemy  down  to  Copernicus,  that  the  horizontal 
parallax  of  the  sun  was  equal  to  3'.  It  is  remarkably  strange 
that  Tycho  should  not  have  endeavoured  to  deduce  this 
important  constant  from  new  observations  which  ought  to 
have  shown  him  that  it  was  for  his  instruments  insensible. 
This  was  the  only  astronomical  quantity  which  he  borrowed 
from  his  predecessors,  and  it  was  a  wrong  one.1  The  re- 
fractions, as  given  by  him,  must  therefore  be  diminished  by 
3'  X  cosine  of  altitude,  and  it  is  interesting  to  see  that  he 
was  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  refractions  as  found  by  the 
stars  were  different  from  those  which  he  had  mixed  up  with  the 
imaginary  solar  parallax,  as  he  gives  a  separate  table  of  stellar 
refraction,  in  which  the  quantities  are  smaller  than  those  in 
the  solar  refraction  table  by  4'  30" ;  so  that  according  to  him 
refraction  becomes  insensible  in  the  case  of  stars  at  20° 
altitude  (where  it  is  in  reality  2'  37").  Possibly  the  refraction 
of  stars  was  not  as  carefully  looked  into  as  that  of  the  sun, 

1  Among  Tycho's  original  observations  there  is  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1581  a  table  of  solar  parallax  for  every  degree  (beginning  with  2'  58"  at  1°) 
up  to  60°^ altitude.  Compare  Progymn.,  p.  80. 


336  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

though  the  observations  "  pro  refractionibus  fixarum  in- 
dagandis"  are  numerous,  particularly  in  the  year  1589,  and 
are  similar  to  those  of  the  sun.1 

Imperfect  though  Tycho's  researches  on  refraction  were, 
they  represent  a  great  step  forward,  as  he  was  the  first  to 
determine  from  observations  the  actual  amount  of  refraction, 
and  to  correct  his  results  for  it.  This  was  among  the  earlier 
achievements  at  Uraniborg,  and  showed  the  great  superiority 
of  the  new  instruments  over  the  earlier  ones.  Though  not 
unknown  to  the  ancients,  and  theoretically  examined  to  some 
extent  by  Alhazen  and  Yitello  (whom  Tycho  quotes,  though 
he  doubts  whether  they  really  carried  out  the  experiments 
mentioned  by  them,  as  their  armillse  could  not  have  been 
large  or  accurate),  the  only  astronomer  who  nad  practically 
noticed  the  effect  of  refraction  was  Walther.  He  found,  by 
observing  the  sun  when  setting,  by  means  of  his  zodiacal 
armillse,  that  the  sun  seemed  to  be  outside  the  ecliptic,  and 
explained  this  as  being  caused  by  refraction  ;  but  he  thought 
this  could  only  be  appreciable  very  near  the  horizon,  and  did 
not  attempt  to  investigate  its  laws,  for  which  his  instruments 
would  hardly  have  been  accurate  enough. 

As  to  the  cause  of  refraction,  Tycho  did  not  think  that  the 
difference  of  density  of  the  ether  and  the  atmosphere  was  of 
much  importance,  as  he  points  out  that  in  that  case  refraction 
should  not  disappear  except  at  the  zenith,  while  he  imagined 
it  to  become  insensible  half-way  towards  the  zenith.  He 
therefore  ascribed  refraction  chiefly  to  atmospheric  vapours, 
though  he  believed  that  the  atmosphere  gradually  decreased 
in  density  and  was  essentially  different  from  the  ether,  and 
he  naturally  rejected  as  absurd  the  Aristotelean  idea  of  a 

1  Table  of  solar  refraction,  Progymn.,  p.  79.  For  comparison  with  modern 
refractions  (after  deducting  Tycho's  parallax)  see  Delambre,  Astr.  mod.,  i.  p. 
156.  The  table  of  stellar  refraction  in  Progymn.,  p.  280.  On  p.  124  Tycho  gives 
a  table  of  lunar  refraction,  not  differing  much  from  the  solar  one.  In  Barretti 
Hist.  CceL,  p.  221,  there  is  a  table  of  refraction  in  A.  R.  and  Decl.  for  the  star 
Spica  Virginis. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  337 

sphere  of  fire  encircling  the  earth.  He  had  in  his  correspon- 
dence with  Rothraann  several  times  discussed  questions  con- 
nected with  refraction,  not  only  because  the  observer  at  Cassel 
only  made  the  quantity  of  refraction  about  half  as  great  as 
Tycho  did,  but  also  because  Rothmann  thought  that  there 
was  no  difference  between  the  celestial  ether  and  the  air 
except  density.1 

Tycho  recognised  as  an  effect  of  neglected  refraction  various 
discrepancies  between  the  elements  of  the  solar  orbit  deter- 
mined by  Copernicus  and  his  own  results.  We  have  already 
mentioned2  that  he  sent  one  of  his  pupils  to  Frauenburg, 
and  found  that  the  latitude  had  been  assumed  2%'  too  small, 
which,  together  with  the  neglect  of  refraction,  accounted  for 
the  errors  in  Copernicus'  determination  of  the  obliquity  and 
the  other  elements  of  the  solar  orbit,  as  the  longitude  con- 
cluded from  the  erroneous  declinations  would  be  as  much  as 
13"  in  error  at  45°  from  the  equinox. 

Among  Tycho's  "  puerile  and  juvenile"  observations  there 
are  very  few  indeed  of  the  moon ;  only  now  and  then  the 
approach  of  the  moon  to  some  bright  star  is  mentioned,  and 
the  distance  measured  with  the  "radius"  or  sextant.  At 
Hveen  he  gradually  came  to  devote  more  attention  to  the 
moon,  and  from  1582  his  lunar  observations  are  very  regular, 
and  become  year  by  year  more  numerous.  They  include  dis- 
tances from  fixed  stars,  altitudes,  declinations,  and  differences 
of  right  ascension  from  fixed  stars,  and  as  often  as  prac- 
ticable the  moon  was  observed  in  the  nonagesimal  or  that 
point  of  her  daily  course  in  which  the  effect  of  parallax  took 
place  only  in  latitude.  Eclipses  were  carefully  attended  to 
whenever  they  occurred ; 3  but,  unlike  the  ancient  astrono- 
mers, Tycho  did  not  confine  himself  to  observing  the  moon 

1  Progymn.,  p.  91  ;  Epist.,  pp.  83,  91,  106.     Compare  above,  p.  206. 

2  See  above,  p.  123. 

3  The  materials  at  Tycho's  disposal  included  observations  of  twenty-one 
lunar  and  nine  solar  eclipses. 

22 


338  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

at  the  syzygies  and  quadratures,  but  followed  lier  throughout 
her  monthly  course  year  after  year,  determining  her  position 
both  on  and  off  the  meridian,  and  not  forgetting  to  observe 
her  at  apogee,  or,  as  he  called  it,  "  in  maxima  remotione 
utriusque  epicycli."  He  thus  succeeded  in  detecting  the  third 
inequality  in  the  motion  in  longitude,  the  variation,  which 
reaches  its  maximum  of  39'. 5  (Tycho  found  40'.  5)  in  the 
octants,  when  the  difference  of  longitude  of  sun  and  moon  is 
45°5  135°>  &c<  -But  apart  from  this,  he  could  not  be  satisfied 
with  the  way  in  which  Ptolemy  had  represented  the  motion 
in  longitude  (by  a  deferent  and  one  epicycle,  the  centre  of 
the  former  moving  in  a  circle  round  the  earth  in  a  retrograde 
direction),  because  it  represented  the  apparent  diameters  of 
the  moon  very  badly.  In  fact,  the  moon  ought,  according  to 
the  theory  of  Ptolemy,  to  appear  nearly  twice  as  great  at 
perigee  as  at  apogee.  This  had  not  escaped  Copernicus,  who 
avoided  it  by  making  the  deferent  concentric  with  the  earth, 
and  adding  a  second  epicycle  with  a  motion  twice  as  rapid 
as  the  first  one.1  Tycho  chose  another  way  of  representing 
the  motion  in  longitude.  The  deferent  (radius  =  i)  accord- 
ing to  him  had  its  centre  in  a  circle  with  radius  0.02174,  in 
the  circumference  of  which  the  earth  was  placed,  so  that  the 
centre  of  the  deferent  was  in  the  earth  in  the  syzygies,  and 
farthest  from  it  at  the  quadratures.  There  were  two  epi- 
cycles with  radii  0.058  and  0.029,  the  period  in  the  former 
being  the  anomalistic  month,  and  the  moon  moving  in  the 
latter  twice  as  rapidly  and  in  the  opposite  direction,  in  such 
a  manner  that  at  apogee  the  moon  was  0.029  outside  the 
deferent,  at  perigee  0.058  +  0.029  =  0.087  inside  it.  The 
effect  of  the  two  epicycles  gave  the  maximum  of  the  first 
inequality  4°  59'  30",  while  the  circle  through  the  earth  gave 

1  For  further  details  of  Ptolemy's  lunar  theory,  see,  in  particular,  P.  Kempf, 
Untersuchung  uber  die  Ptolemdische  Theorie  der  Mundbewegung,  Inaugural 
Dissertation,  Berlin,  1878.  Godfray's  Lunar  Theory  (chap,  viii.)  gives  short 
sketches  of  Ptolemy's  and  Copernicus'  theories. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  339 

an  equation  of  i°  14'  45"  (evection),  not  differing  much  from 
Ptolemy's  values,  though  somewhat  more  accurate.1 

So  far  Tycho  had  not  made  much  advance,  but  the  dis- 
covery of  the  third  and  fourth  inequalities  was  a  very 
great  step  in  advance.  He  probably  thought  that  there  were 
epicycles  enough  in  his  theory,  and  therefore  he  did  not 
attempt  to  account  for  the  variation  by  adding  another.  He 
merely  let  the  centre  of  the  first  epicycle  oscillate  (librate) 
backwards  and  forwards  on  the  deferent  to  the  extent  of  40'.  5 
on  each  side  of  its  mean  position,  the  latter  moving  along 
the  deferent  with  the  moon's  mean  motion  in  anomaly,  and 
the  centre  of  the  epicycle  being  in  its  mean  position  at  the 
syzygies  and  quadratures,  and  farthest  from  it  at  the  octants, 
the  period  of  a  complete  libration  being  half  a  synodical 
revelation.2  At  the  same  time  Tycho's  observations  showed 

1  We  have  mentioned  (p.  272)  that  Tycho  had  got  part  of  the  appendix  on 
the  lunar  theory  printed  at  Hamburg,  but  did  not  make  use  of  the  sheets  thus 
printed,  giving  as  reason  that  the  printer  had  done  his  work  badly.  Tengnagel 
had  given  a  copy  to  Magini,  who  in  1600  pointed  out  some  discrepancies,  the 
two  first  inequalities  being  stated  to  amount  at  most  to  7°  41'  15",  while  the 
dimensions  of  the  circles,  so  far  as  Magini  could  make  out,  gave  ii'  or  14' less. 
Tycho  replied  that  the  whole  had  been  recast,  partly  at  Wittenberg,  partly  in 
.Bohemia,  and  that  new  tables  had  been  calculated  (Carteggio,  pp.  232  and 
238).  In  his  Astronomia  Danica,  2nd  edit.,  Amstel.,  1640,  p.  242,  Longomon- 
tanus  talks  of  the  lunar  hypothesis  described  above  as  one  "  quam  anno  Sal- 
vatoris  nostri  1600  apud  Nobilissimum  et  omnium  prsestantissimum  astrono- 
mum  Dn.  Tychonem  Brahe  invenimus." 

a  I  shall  not  here  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  well-nigh  thrashed  out 
question  whether  Abul  Wefa's  mokadzat  is  the  lunar  variation  or  not,  but 
only  point  out  the  utter  absurdity  of  the  suggestion  of  L.  A.  Sedillot 
Materiaux,  i.  p.  216)  that  Tycho  might  possibly  have  seen  a  translation  of 
the  Almegist  from  the  Arabian,  in  which  some  abstract  from  Abul  Wefa's 
book  might  have  been  given.  If  so,  why  has  nobody  else  known  this  book 
until  the  present  century  ?  Tycho's  discovery  was  not,  as  Se"diltot  believed, 
found  among  his  papers  and  published  by  Kepler  in  1610;  it  is  distinctly 
announced  in  his  Mechanica  (fol.  G.  2  verso),  published  in  1598,  as  a  new 
inequality  :  "  Nam  &  aliam  quandam  habet  ea  insequalitatis  insinuationem 
secundum  Longitudinem,  quam  ab  iis  animadversum  est."  Kepler  in  many 
places  mentions  Tycho  as  the  discoverer  of  the  variation,  and  the  insinuation 
that  Tycho  himself  did  not  claim  the  discovery,  but  merely  called  his  lunar 
theory  "  hypothesis  redintegrata,"  is  groundless,  as  Tycho  used  the  same 
expression  of  his  planetary  system,  which  he  most  assuredly  did  claim  as  hia 
own  (e.g.,  in  a  letter  to  Mastlin,  Kcpleri  Opera,  i.  p.  45). 


340  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

the  existence  of  another  inequality,  the  fourth  one  in  longi- 
tude, of  which  the  solar  year  was  the  period,  so  that  the 
observed  place  was  behind  the  computed  one,  while  the  sun 
moved  from  perigee  to  apogee,  and  before  it  during  the  other 
six  months.  We  have  already  mentioned  that  the  solar  and 
lunar  eclipses  continued  to  be  carefully  observed  by  Tycho, 
and  at  the  latest  during  his  stay  at  Wittenberg,  he  had 
clearly  grasped  the  peculiarity  in  the  lunar  motion  just 
described,  since  Herwart  von  Hohenburg  wrote  to  Kepler 
(in  July  1600)  that  he  had  probably  heard  from  Brahe  him- 
self how  the  latter  in  the  paper  he  had  printed  at  Witten- 
berg1 had  introduced  a  "circellum  annuse  variationis,  cujus 
initium  statuitur  sole  versante  in  principio  Cancri,  ita  ut 
in  priori  semicirculo  hujus  circelli  verus  locus  Lunae  pro- 
moveatur  in  consequentia,  et  in  posteriori  retrotrahatur  in 
prsecedentia."  Kepler  also  bears  witness  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  this  circellus  during  Tycho's  stay  at  Wittenberg.2 
But  the  representation  of  the  lunar  motion  had  become  so 
complicated  that  Tycho  shrank  from  introducing  more  circles 
(for  which  reason  he  had  adopted  a  mere  libratory  motion  to 
account  for  the  variation),  and  the  idea  of  a  really  unequal 
motion  was  too  much  opposed  to  the  time-honoured  concep- 
tion of  uniform  circular  motion.  He  (or  rather  Longomon- 
tanus)  therefore  ultimately  allowed  for  the  annual  equation 
by  using  a  separate  equation  of  time  for  the  moon,  differing 
by  8m.  133.  multiplied  by  sine  of  the  solar  anomaly  from  the 
ordinary  one,  even  though  this  left  5'  or  6'  of  the  irregularity 
unaccounted  for.3  The  correct  amount  of  the  equation  ( 1 1 ', 

1  "  In  dem  deliquio  Lunse,  so  sie  zu  Wittenberg  drucken  lassen "  (Kep- 
eri  Opera,  iii.  p.  28).     We  have  seen  (p.  272)  that  Tycho  gave  up  the  idea  of 
printing  the  lunar  theory  at  Wittenberg. 

2  Kejleri  Opera,  viii.  p.  627. 

3  Ibid.     In  a  letter  to  Archduke  Ferdinand,  written  early  in  July  1 600, 
Kepler  gives  an  account  of  Tycho's  researches  on  the  moon,  and  alludes  to 
the  annual  equation  in  the  following  words  (ii.  p.  9)  :  "  Solent  ceteri  astronomi 
non   experientia  sed   rations   moniti   optima   tempus   aequare   propter   duas 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  341 

and  not  4'. 5)  was  found  by  Horrox,  but  he  applied  it  in  the 
same  manner  as  Tycho  had  done. 

It  is  very  interesting  to  see  that  Kepler  had  indepen- 
dently discovered  the  annual  equation  about  the  same  time  as 
Tycho  did.  In  the  calendar  for  1 598,  which  he  had  to  prepare 
as  provincial  mathematician  for  Styria,  Kepler  had  in  detail 
described  the  solar  eclipse  of  the  7th  March  (25th  Feb- 
ruary) 1598,  making  use  of  Magini's  tables.1  But  the  phe- 
nomenon turned  out  very  different  from  what  he  expected,  as 
the  eclipse  not  only  was  very  far  from  being  total  (or  nearly 
so),  but  occurred  an  hour  and  a  half  later  than  expected. 
As  the  only  reservation  taken  by  Kepler  had  been  that  the 
eclipse  might  possibly  occur  half  an  hour  earlier,  he  had  to 
say  something  about  the  cause  of  this  error  in  the  calendar 
for  1599-  In  this  he  therefore  stated  that  the  solar  eclipse, 
as  well  as  the  lunar  eclipse  in  February  and  the  Paschal  full 
moon,  had  been  more  than  an  hour  late ;  but  the  lunar 
eclipse  in  August  had  been  too  early,  and  it  appeared  to  him 
that  one  would  have  to  assume  "that  a  natural  month  or 
period  of  the  moon  with  regard  to  the  sun  in  winter,  ccteris 
paribus,  is  a  little  longer  and  slower  than  in  summer,  and 
the  fault  is  the  moon's  and  not  the  sun's,  as  nothing  can  be 
reformed  as  to  the  latter  without  great  confusion ;  but  whether 
the  inequality  is  to  be  applied  to  the  moon  itself  or  to  the 
length  of  the  day,  and  what  cause  it  may  have  in  nature  and 
the  Copernican  philosophy,  cannot  be  explained  in  a  few 
words."2  A  letter  to  Miistlin  of  December  1598  shows 
that  Kepler  had  not  thought  further  about  the  matter,  and 

causas,  primo  propter  inaequales  partium  signiferi  ascensiones  rectas,  deinde 
propter  motus  Solis  diurnos  inaequales.  Hanc  posteriorem  Tycho  negligit, 
causam  afferens  experientiam,  qua  depreheridatur  in  collatione  eclipsium 
aequalitatis  rationem  iniri  non  posse,  nisi  aut  haec  negligatur  aequatio,  aut 
annuus  circellus  tot  epicyclis  Lunse  insuper  adjiciatur."  In  1603  Kepler  had 
also  to  explain  to  Fabricius  that  experience  had  shown  Tycho  the  necessity  of 
omitting  part  of  the  equation  of  time  in  the  lunar  motion  (ii.  p.  96). 
1  Opera,  i.  p.  396.  '2  Ibid.,  i.  p.  409. 


342  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

merely  threw  out  this  solution  because  he  thought  it  easier 
to  defend  than  one  founded  on  corrections  to  the  solar  theory, 
and  he  adds  that  his  calendar  was  not  written  for  learned 
men,  and  would  never  be  seen  outside  Styria.1  It  happened, 
however,  that  the  calendar  was  read  by  Herwart  von  Hohen- 
burg,  who  in  January  1599  requested  Kepler  to  give  him 
further  information  about  the  solar  eclipse.  Being  thus 
obliged  to  consider  the  matter  more  fully,  Kepler  did  so  in 
his  reply,  in  which  his  wonderful  genius  displays  itself  by 
the  way  in  which  he  suggests  that  the  moon  might  be  retarded 
in  its  motion  by  a  force  emanating  from  the  sun,  which 
would  be  greatest  in  winter,  when  the  moon  and  earth  are 
nearer  to  the  sun  than  they  are  in  the  summer.2  At  the  same 
time  he  suggests  that  the  phenomenon  might  also  be  caused 
by  an  irregularity  in  the  rotatory  velocity  of  the  earth,  and 
in  after  years  he  accepted  this  idea,  and  did  not  consider  the 
phenomenon  as  caused  by  an  equation  in  the  lunar  motion.3 

Tycho  Brahe's  discoveries  as  regards  the  lunar  motion  in 
latitude  were  as  important  as  those  he  made  of  inequalities 
in  longitude.  The  inclination  of  the  lunar '  orbit  to  the 
ecliptic  had  by  Hipparchus  been  found  to  be  5°,  which  value 
had  been  retained  even  by  Copernicus.  Several  of  the 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  409-411. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  412  et  seq.     Compare  another  letter  from  Kepler  to  Herwart 
of   April    1599,   published    in  UngedrucMe   wissenschaftliche    Correspond enz 
zwischen  J.  Kepler  und  JL  von  Ilohenburg,  1599.     Edirt  von  C.  Anschiitz. 
Prag  (Altenburg,  S.  A.),  1886. 

3  This  idea  is  particularly  developed  in  Epitome  Astr.  Copern.,  Liber  IV. 
(Opera,  vi.  pp.  359  et  seq.}.    See  also  an  interesting  paper  by  Anschutz  in  Zeit- 
schriftfur  Mathematik  und  Physik,  Jahrgang  xxxi.  and  xxxii.,  1886-87.     In 
this  the  author  maintains  that  Tycho  Brahe  cannot  be  considered  as  the  dis- 
coverer of  the  annual  equation,  because  he  did  not  distinctly  announce  it  as  a 
separate  inequality  like  the  variation,  but  allowed  for  the  effect  of  it  by  leaving 
out  part  of  the  equation  of  time.     I  confess  myself  unable  to  follow  this 
reasoning.     Tycho  clearly  perceived  the  effect  of  the  annual  equation,  and 
only  adopted  the  peculiar  dodge  about  the  equation  of  time  for  fear  of  making 
his  theory  too  complicated.   We  might  as  well  deny  that  Columbus  discovered 
America  because  he  lived  and  died  in  the  belief  that  he  had'  merely  come  to 
the  eastern  extremity  of  Asia. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  343 

Arabian  astronomers  had,  however,  noticed  that  this  was  not 
correct.  Thus  Abul  Hassan  Ali  ben  Amadjour  early  in  the 
tenth  century  stated  that  he  had  often  measured  the  greatest 
latitude  of  the  moon,  and  found  results  greater  than  that  of 
Hipparchus,  but  varying  considerably  and  irregularly.  Ibn 
Yunis,  who  quotes  this,  adds  that  he  had  himself  found  5°  3' 
or  5°  8'.  Other  Arabians  are,  however,  said  to  have  found 
from  4°  45'  to  4°  58',  which  does  not  speak  well  for  the 
accuracy  of  their  observations.1  Tycho  first  began  to  sus- 
pect that  the  value  of  Hipparchus  was  wrong  when  examin- 
ing an  observation  of  the  comet  of  1577.  On  November  13 
he  had  measured  the  distance  of  the  comet  from  the  moon, 
and  found  1 8°  30',  while  the  observed  distances  of  the  comet 
from  stars  by  computation  gave  its  distance  from  the  moon 
equal  to  1 8°  9',  allowing  for  the  lunar  parallax.  At  first  he 
attributed  the  difference  to  refraction,  but  in  1587,  when  the 
moon  attained  its  greatest  latitude  about  Cancer,  so  that 
neither  errors  in  the  parallax  nor  refraction  could  influence  the 
result  much,  he  found  the  lunar  inclination  to  be  5°  15',  and 
thought  it  might  have  increased  since  the  days  of  Ptolemy, 
just  as  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  had  diminished.2  The 
examination  of  all  his  observations  showed  him,  however, 
later,  that  the  inclination  varied  between  4°  58'  30"  and  5° 
17'  30",  while  the  retrograde  motion  of  the  nodes  was  found 
not  to  be  uniform,  so  that  the  true  places  of  the  nodes  were 
sometimes  as  much  as  i°  46'  before  or  behind  the  mean  ones. 
This  inequality  of  the  nodes  had  not  been  detected  by  the 
aucients,  because  it  disappears  in  the  syzygies  and  quadratures, 
where  they  alone  observed  the  moon.  Tycho  explained  this 
and  the  change  of  inclination  by  assuming  that  the  true  pole 

1  L.  A.  Sedillot,  Mattriaux  pour  scrvir,  &c.,  t.  i.  p.  283  et  seq.    The  sons  of 
Musa  ben  Schaker  (about  850)  seem  to  have  been  the  first  to  find  a  value 
differing  from  that  of  the  ancients.     Some  Chinese  observers  found  5°  2'. 
Copernicus,  an  Internat.  Journal  of  Astronomy,  vol.  ii.  (1882),  p.  128. 

2  De  mundi  aeth.  rec.  [hen.,  p.  40. 


344  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

of  the  lunar  orbit  described  a  circle  round  the  mean  pole  with 
a  radius  of  9'  30",  so  that  the  inclination  reaches  its  minimum 
at  syzygy  and  its  maximum  at  quadrature.1  He  applied  cor- 
rections separately  to  the  latitude  for.  equation  of  node  and 
for  change  of  inclination,  a  form  which  was  retained  even  by 
Newton  and  Euler,  until  Tobias  Mayer  showed  that  the  two 
equations  can  be  combined  into  one,  varying  with  the  double 
distance  of  the  moon  from  the  sun,  less  the  argument  of 
latitude  of  the  moon.2 

It  would  lead  us  too  far  if  we  were  in  this  place  to  enter 
into  a  description  of  Tycho's  lunar  tables,  or  of  his  precepts 
for  finding  the  longitude  from  his  theory.3  We  shall  only 
mention  that  he  was  the  first  to  tabulate  the  reduction,  or 
the  difference  between  the  moon's  motion  along  its  orbit, 
and  the  same  referred  to  the  ecliptic.  The  table  of  parallax 
makes  this  quantity  vary  between  66'  6"  and  56'  21",  the 
apparent  diameter  varying  from  32'  to  36'  at  full  moon, 
while  he  believed  to  have  found  from  his  observations  of 
eclipses  that  the  diameter  appears  less  at  new  moon  (25'  36" 
to  28'  48"),  owing  to  the  limb  being  "extenuated"  by  the 
solar  rays.  He  therefore  denied  the  possibility  of  a  total 
solar  eclipse,  to  some  extent  also  misled  by  the  accounts 

1  Copernicus  had  employed  a  similar  construction  to  explain  the  trepidatio 
or  (imaginary)  oscillation  of  the  equinoxes. 

2  In  Godfray's  Lunar  Theory,  chap,  viii.,  Tycho's  hypothesis  is  described  as  if 
he  supposed  the  lunar  pole  to  move  in  the  small  circle  with  double  the  synodical 
velocity  of  the  node.     Though  this,  of  course,  is  the  correct  representation  of 
the  perturbations  in  latitude,  it  is  not  Tycho's  idea,  as  he  took  no  notice  what- 
ever of  the  position  of  the  node  with  regard  to  the  sun,  but  let  the  pole  move 
with  double  the  synodical  velocity  of  the  moon.      In  the  well-known  term 
9'  sin  (({  -  2  ©  +  &),  if  we,  instead  of  the  quantity  within  the  bracket,  write 
2(d  -0)  -  (d  -  &),  we  get  Tycho's  period,  as  the  inclination  will  vary  by 
-  9'  cos  2  ((I  -  ©).     But  if  we  put  ((I  -  Q  )  -  2  (©  -  &),  the  inclination 
will  vary  by  +  9'  cos  2  (©  -  &),  and  the  period  is  173  days.     That  Kepler 
had  remarked  the  importance  of  the  position  of  the  sun  with  regard  to  the 
node  may  be  seen  from  Tab.  Rudolph.,  pp.  89-90 ;  Opera,  vi.  pp.  588  and  648. 
Of  modern  authors,  Montucla  seems  to  be  the  only  one  who  has  remarked  that 
Tycho  paid  no  attention  to  the  node  (Histoire  des  Math.,  i.  p.  666). 

3  For  an  account  of  these,  see  Delarnbre,  Hist,  de  VAstr.  mod.,  i.  p.  164. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  345 

of  the  luminosity  seen  round  the    sun  at  the   eclipses  of 
1560,  1567,  and  I598.1 

The  planets  had  been,  favourite  objects  with  Tycho  from 
his  youth.  His  very  first  attempts  at  observing  had  been 
sufficient  to  show  him  how  imperfectly  the  existing  theories 
of  the  planetary  motions  agreed  with  the  actually  observed 
positions  of  the  planets,  and  throughout  his  life  he  never 
neglected  to  take  regular  observations  of  the  five  planets.2 
His  early  observations  of  planets  were  of  course  similar  to 
those  made  by  his  predecessors.  The  ancients  had  generally 
fixed  the  position  of  a  planet  by  mere  alignment,  or,  if  the 
distance  from  a  star  was  small,  by  expressing  it  in  lunar 
diameters,  while  conjunctions  of  planets  inter  se  or  near 
approaches  to  fixed  stars  were  greatly  valued  as  tests  of 
theory.  As  long  as  Tycho  only  possessed  few  and  small 
instruments,  he  naturally  often  had  recourse  to  these  old 
methods,  but  he  commenced  also  very  early  to  adopt  the 
method,  first  used  by  Walther,  of  measuring  the  distance 
of  a  planet  from  two  well-known  fixed  stars.3  At  Hveen 
he  never  quite  gave  up  this  method,  but  he  chiefly  depended 
on  meridian  altitudes  and  observations  with  the  armillce, 
and  even  the  difficult  planet  Mercury  was  carefully  watched 
for  and  observed  on  every  opportunity.4 

Though  Tycho  did  not  live  long  enough  to  try  his  hand 
seriously  at  the  theory  of  the  planetary  motions,  we  have 

1  Progym.,  p.  134;  Kepler,  Ad  Vitell.  Pared.,  chap.  viii.  (Opera,  ii.  p.  309) ; 
Riccioli,  Almag.  novum,  ii.  p.  372.      See  also  Tycho's  letter  to  Mastlin  in 
1598  (Opera,  i.  p.  46).     About  Tycho's  observations  of  the   solar  and  lunar 
diameters,  see  above,  chapter  viii.  p.  191. 

2  In  a  letter  to  Rothmann  (Epist.,  p.  114)  Tycho  expressed  his  regret  that 
so  little  attention  was  paid  to  the  planets  at  Cassel,  since  the  positions  of  fixed 
stars  were  principally  of  interest  by  enabling  an  observer  to  follow  the  course 
of  the  planets. 

3  At  first  the  youthful  observer  generally  only  measured  the  distance  from 
one  star  ;  but  from  December  1564  two  stars  are  often,  and  from  1569  always 
employed. 

4  The  earliest  observation  of  Mercury  seems  to  be  of  April  17,   1574,  fit 
Heridsvad. 


346  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

seen  that  lie  was  at  Benatky  occupied  with  the  theory  of 
Mars,  and  succeeded  in  representing  the  longitudes  well 
(Kepler  says  within  2'),  while  the  latitudes  gave  more 
trouble.1  But  already  at  Uraniborg  he  had  not  contented 
himself  with  a  mere  accumulation  of  material,  but  had  drawn 
some  conclusions  from  the  comparison  of  his  results  with 
the  tabular  places  of  the  planets.  We  have  seen  that  Tycho, 
like  Ptolemy  and  Copernicus,  assumed  the  solar  orbit  to 
be  simply  an  excentric  circle  with  uniform  motion.  But 
already  in  1591,  he  might  have  perceived  from  the  motion 
of  Mars  that  this  could  not  be  sufficient,  as  he  wrote  to  the 
Landgrave  that  "  it  is  evident  that  there  is  another  in- 
equality, arising  from  the  solar  excentricity,  which  insinuates 
itself  into  the  apparent  motion  of  the  planets,  and  is  more 
perceptible  in  the  case  of  Mars,  because  his  orbit  is  much 
smaller  than  those  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn."2  He  concluded 
(strangely  enough)  that  his  own  planetary  system  alone 
could  account  for  this,  and  he  can  therefore  not  have  had  a 
clear  idea  of  the  cause  of  the  phenomenon.  Again,  in  his 
letter  to  Kepler  of  April  I,  1598,  he  mentioned  that  the 
annual  orbit  of  Mars  (according  to  Copernicus)  or  the 
epicycle  of  Ptolemy  was  not  always  of  the  same  size  with 
regard  to  the  excentric,  but  varied  to  the  extent  of  i°  40'. 3 
This  eventually  led  Kepler  to  the  discovery  of  the  elliptic 
orbits,  but  it  showed  him  already  in  Tycho's  lifetime  that 
the  solar  excentricity  was  only  half  as  great  as  hitherto  sup- 
posed, and  that  the  remainder  of  the  equation  of  centre 
would  have  to  be  accounted  for  by  a  uniform  motion  round  a 
punctum  cequans  (that  is,  as  long  as  only  circular  orbits  were 

1  Above,  p.  303. 

2  Epist.  Astr.,  p.  206.     Magini  had  also  noticed  this  apparent  inequality  in 
Mars  ;  see  above,  chap.  ix.  p.  2 1 3.     Tycho  also  alludes  to  it  in  Mechanica,  f ol. 
Gr.  3  :  "  Turn  quoque  circuitum  ilium  annuum,  quern  Copernicus  per  motum 
Terras   in   orbe   magno,  veteres  secundum  Epicycles   excusarunt,    variation! 
cuidam  obnoxiura  esse  perspeximus." 

3  Opera,  i.  p.  44,  iii.  p.  267  ( De  Stella  Marti s,  xxii.). 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  347 

admissible).1  There  was  another  important  matter  in  which 
Kepler's  suggestion  was  acted  upon.  Soon  after  his  arrival 
at  Benatky,  he  found  that  Tycho,  like  his  predecessors, 
referred  all  the  planetary  motions  to  the  mean  place  of 
the  sun,  while  he  had  himself  in  his  Mysterium  Cosmogra- 
pliicum  referred  them  to  the  actual  place  of  the  sun.  He 
gave  the  impulse  to  this  being  done  in  the  lunar  theory  by 
Longomontanus,  and  he  mentions  in  the  Appendix  to  the 
Progymnasmata  that  the  necessity  of  this  step  had  also 
become  evident  in  the  case  of  Mars. 

With  regard  to  Tycho's  observations  and  researches  on 
comets,  we  need  only  refer  to  Chapter  VII.,  where  they  have 
been  examined  in  sufficient  detail.  It  is  not  among  the 
least  of  Tycho's  scientific  merits  that  he  finally  proved 
comets  to  be  celestial  bodies. 

That  a  new  catalogue  of  accurate  positions  of  fixed  stars 
was  urgently  needed  had  early  been  felt  by  Tycho  Brahe. 
The  Ptolemean  catalogue  of  stars  was  fourteen  hundred  years 
old,  and  was  probably  little  more  than  a  reproduction  of 
the  still  older  catalogue  of  Hipparchus.  None  of  the  Arabian 
astronomers  had  observed  fixed  stars,  but  had  contented 
themselves  with  adding  the  precession  to  the  longitudes 
of  Ptolemy ;  and  the  only  independent  catalogue,  that  of 
Ulugh  Beg,  was  not  yet  known  in  Europe.  The  co-ordi- 
nates of  stars  given  in  Ptolemy's  catalogue  were  known  at 
Tycho's  time  through  the  two  Latin  editions  of  the  Almegist 
of  1515  and  1528  and  the  Greek  edition  of  1558;  but  to 
the  original  errors  of  observation  had  been  added  a  goodly 
number  of  errors  of  copying,  so  that  the  discrepancies  of  the 
various  editions  inter  se  were  numerous  and  lar^e.  The 


1  Progymn.,  p.  821.  In  the  Tubulce  Rudolph.,  p.  57,  Kepler  says  of  Tycho  : 
"  De  soils  quidem  Eccentrico  simplici,  cum  videret,  ilium  non  tolerari  ab 
observationibus  planetarum  caeterorum,  desciscere  ultimis  temporibus  cepit, 
eumque  parem  caeteris  planetis  concessit ;  quacunque  ea  res  explicanda  esset 
Hypothesi." 


348  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

observations  of  the  new  star  and  of  the  successive  comets 
made  Tycho  feel  the  necessity  of  getting  accurate  places 
for  his  stars  of  comparison,  and  when  his  observatory  was 
complete,  he  took  up  the  work  of  forming  a  new  star  cata- 
logue with  great  energy. 

By  Hipparchus  the  longitudes  of  stars  had  been  deduced 
from  the  longitude  of  the  sun  by  using  the  moon  as  inter- 
mediate link,  which  method  is  described  by  Ptolemy,  who 
gives  a  full  account  of  the  manipulation  of  the  zodiacal 
armillas.  Unfortunately  Ptolemy  does  not  say  a  word 
about  the  manner  in  which  the  standard  stars  (Regulus 
and  Spica)  were  connected  with  the  other  stars,  nor  does 
he  give  any  details  about  the  actual  observations  on  which 
the  adopted  places  of  the  stars  were  founded.  It  is,  there- 
fore, not  known  whether  every  single  star  was  connected 
with  a  standard  star,  or  whether  he  perhaps  also  made  use 
of  conjunctions  of  stars  with  the  moon  (which  had  been  of 
great  value  for  the  deduction  of  stellar  positions  for  earlier 
epochs  for  the  determination  of  the  constant  of  precession),1 
and  nothing  but  a  slight  sketch  of  the  method  was  handed 
down  to  posterity.  The  Arabs,  as  already  remarked,  did 
not  observe  fixed  stars,  and  here,  as  in  several  other  branches 
of  practical  astronomy,  Walther  was  the  first  to  recommence 
work.  At  the  Niirnberg  observatory  he  introduced  a  very 
important  improvement  on  the  method  of  Hipparchus  by 
substituting  Venus  for  the  moon,  as  the  small  diameter,  slow 
motion,  and  very  small  parallax  made  the  planet  far  more 
suitable  for  the  purpose  than  the  moon.  Among  the  observa- 

1  The  statement  by  Copernicus  (De  Revolut.,  lib.  ii.),  that  Menelaus  used 
lunar  conjunctions  to  determine  a  number  of  star-places,  arises  perhaps  from 
a  mixing  up  of  two  circumstances,  viz.,  the  observations  by  Menelaus  of  two 
conjunctions  in  A.D.  98  (recorded  by  Ptolemy,  vii.  cap.  3),  and  the  tradition 
mentioned  by  several  authors,  according  to  which  Menelaus  in  the  first  year 
of  Trajan  had  compiled  a  star  catalogue  which  Ptolemy  had  adopted,  after 
adding  25'  to  the  longitudes  (Schjellerup's  Al  Sdji,  p.  42  ;  Albohazzin,  quoted 
by  Riccius,  Delambre,  Moyen  Age,  p.  380). 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  349 

tions  published  in  the  Scripta  of  Kegiomontanus,  the  first 
observation  of  this  kind  is  from  the  6th  March  1489,  and 
there  are  several  from  the  following  years ;  and  as  the  book 
was  published  in  1 544,  Tycho  Brahe  has  known  Walther's 
plan,  while  the  further  development  of  it  is  due  to  himself.1 
The  method  recommended  itself  to  Tycho  because  it  did  not 
involve  the  accurate  knowledge  of  time  by  clocks  or  clep- 
sydrae, while  he  made  this  objection  to  the  method  followed 
by  the  Landgrave  of  observing  the  altitude  of  stars,  together 
with  their  transits  over  the  meridian  or  a  certain  azimuth. 
The  meridian  method  had  been  used  by  Tycho  to  determine 
the  places  of  twelve  stars  observed  with  the  comet  of  1577, 
and  for  this  purpose  he  made  use  of  a  Aquilse  as  funda- 
mental star,  determining  its  right  ascension  by  observing 
the  meridian  transits  of  it  and  the  moon  when  not  too  far 
apart.  He  knew,  therefore,  by  experience  how  undesirable 
it  was  to  trust  to  the  clocks.2 

In  the  spring  of  1582  Venus  was  most  favourably 
situated,  and  from  the  26th  February  it  was  for  about  six 
weeks  clearly  visible  in  full  daylight  even  before  it  passed 
the  meridian,  so  that  it  could  be  observed  at  a  sufficient 
height  above  the  horizon  to  make  errors  in  the  adopted 
refractions  harmless.3  With  the  sextans  trigonicus  two 
observers  measured  the  distance  between  Venus  and  the 
sun,  the  shadow  of  the  little  cylinder  at  the  centre  of  the 
arc  falling  on  the  movable  pinnule  ;  at  the  same  time  the 

1  Tycho  does  not  allude  to  Walther,  but  mentions  that  Cardan  had  in  1537 
determined  the  place  of  a  Librae  by  means  of  Venus  (though  apparently  with- 
out reference  to  the  sun),  which  he  found  absurd.     Copernicus  and  Werner 
had  determined  the  place  of  a  few  fixed  stars  (particularly  of  Spica)  by  measur- 
ing the  declination,  borrowing  the  latitude  from  the  catalogue  of  Ptolemy,  and 
from  these  calculating  the  longitude  and  right  ascension.    Progymn.,  i.  p.  146. 

2  De  mundi  ceth.  rec.  phen.,  p.  32. 

3  Therefore  Tycho  gladly  turned  from  the  morose  Saturn  and  the  deceitful 
Mercury  (i.e.,  from  the  use  of  timekeepers  regulated  by  lead  or  mercury)  to 
the  charming  Venus  (Progymn.,  p.  153). 


350  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

altitudes  of  the  two  celestial  bodies  were  measured,  and 
occasionally  their  azimuths,  while  their  declinations  were 
observed  by  the  armillae,  and  their  meridian  altitudes  as  often 
as  opportunity  offered.  After  sunset  the  same  sextant  was 
employed  to  measure  the  distance  of  Venus  from  certain 
conspicuous  stars  near  the  zodiac  (Aldebaran,  Pollux,  and 
some  others  in  the  same  constellations),  while,  as  before, 
altitudes  and  declinations  were  also  observed.  In  deducing 
the  positions  of  the  stars  observed,  the  motion  of  Venus  and 
the  sun  in  the  interval  between  the  day  and  night  observa- 
tions was  taken  into  account.  By  simple  trigonometrical 
operations  the  difference  of  right  ascension  between  the  sun 
and  a  zodiacal  star  was  computed,  and  as  the  right  ascen- 
sion of  the  sun  was  known  from  the  solar  tables,  the  absolute 
right  ascension  of  the  star  was  thus  found  from  the 
observations,  while  the  declination  was  directly  measured. 
All  the  stars  thus  determined  were  connected  by  distance 
measures  with  the  star  a  Arietis,  which  he  preferred  to  y 
Arietis,  which  by  Copernicus  had  been  adopted  as  principal 
standard  star,  as  being  nearest  to  the  vernal  equinox,  but 
which  Tycho  found  too  faint  to  be  conveniently  observed  by 
moonlight.  Each  observation  thus  gave  a  value  for  the  right 
ascension  of  a  Arietis.  During  the  following  six  years 
Tycho  repeated  these  observations  as  often  as  an  oppor- 
tunity offered,  and,  in  order  to  eliminate  the  effect  of  parallax 
and  refraction,  he  combined  the  results  in  groups  of  two,  so 
that  one  was  founded  on  an  observation  of  Venus  while  east 
of  the  sun,  the  other  on  an  observation  of  Venus  west  of  the 
sun ;  while  the  observations  were  selected  so  that  Venus  and 
the  sun  as  far  as  possible  had  the  same  altitude,  decimation, 
and  distance  from  the  earth  in  the  two  cases.  From  the 
observations  of  1582  Tycho  selects  three  single  determina- 
tions, and  from  the  years  1582—88  twelve  results,  each 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  351 

being  the  mean  of  two  results  found  in  the  manner  just 
described.  The  fifteen  values  of  the  right  ascension  of  a 
Arietis  agree  wonderfully  well  inter  se,  the  probable  error 
of  the  mean  being  only  ±6",  but  the  twenty-four  single 
results  in  the  twelve  groups  show  rather  considerable  dis- 
cordances, the  greatest  and  smallest  differing  by  16'  30". 
But  anyhow  the  final  mean  adopted  by  Tycho  is  an  exceed- 
ingly good  one,  agreeing  well  with  the  best  modern 
determinations.  He  adopts  for  the  end  of  the  year  1585 
26°  c/  30",  the  modern  value  for  the  same  date  being 
26°  o'  45".1 

From  the  absolute  right  ascension  of  a  Arietis  thus 
determined,  and  the  directly  observed  declination,  Tycho 
determined  the  co-ordinates  of  other  stars  by  measuring  the 
distance  from  a  Arietis  and  the  declination,  after  which  the 
spherical  triangle  between  the  pole  and  the  two  stars  (in 
which  the  three  sides  were  known)  gave  the  angle  at  the 
pole  or  the  difference  of  right  ascension.  Proceeding  thus 
from  one  star  to  another  round  the  heavens,  Tycho  deter- 
mined the  right  ascensions  first  for  four,  then  for  six,  and 
finally  for  eight  principal  standard  stars  ;  and  as  the  sums 
of  the  differences  of  right  ascension  in  the  three  cases  only 
differ  a  few  seconds  from  360°,  he  imagined  that  he  had 
proved  his  results  to  be  extremely  accurate.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  the  accuracy  cannot  be  so  great  as  Tycho  fondly 
hoped,  as  the  errors  of  observation  would  be  increased  by 
neglect  of  refraction  and  by  his  ignorance  of  the  existence 
of  aberration  and  nutation.  But  it  must  be  conceded  that 
Tycho's  results  were  an  immense  improvement  on  the  posi- 
tions of  fixed  stars  as  previously  known,  as  the  comparison 
with  the  best  modern  star-places  for  the  nine  stars  reduced 
to  the  end  of  1585  gives  the  probable  error  of  Tycho's 
standard  right  ascensions  equal  to  ±24.".  I,  and  that  of  his 

1  For  details  see  Note  E. 


352  TYCHO  BKAHE. 

standard  declinations  (after  correcting  them  for  refraction) 

=  ±25".9.1 

It  is  interesting  to  see  that  observations  of  absolute  right 
ascension  were  made  at  Cassel  about  the  same  time,  and 
by  the  same  method,  except  that  Jupiter  was  at  first  used 
instead  of  Venus.  As  Jupiter  could  not  be  observed  with 
the  sun  above  the  horizon,  this  involved  trusting  to  the  rate 
of  the  clocks  for  many  hours,  which  perhaps  was  more 
feasible  at  Cassel,  where  Biirgi  introduced  the  use  of  the 
pendulum  for  controlling  the  clocks.  In  1587  Venus  was, 
however,  made  use  of,  the  altitude  and  azimuth  of  the 
sun,  Venus,  and  Aldebaran  being  observed  in  succession. 
The  results  thus  found  for  the  right  ascension  of  the  latter 
star  agreed  well  inter  se,  fixing  it  at  63°  I  o7  for  the  begin- 
ning of  1586,  or  more  than  6'  greater  than  that  found  by 
Tycho.  This  systematic  error,  with  which  all  the  right 
ascensions  determined  by  means  of  Aldebaran  became 
affected,  and  which  also,  with  nearly  the  same  amount, 
entered  into  the  longitudes,  was  discussed  in  several  letters 
between  the  Landgrave,  Eothmann,  and  Tycho.  The  Land- 
grave thought  5'  or  6'  a  very  trifling  quantity,  not  worth 
mentioning,  as  nobody  hitherto  had  been  able  to  determine 
longitudes  with  that  accuracy.2  Tycho  at  first  suggested 
that  the  discrepancy  might  be  caused  by  an  error  in  the  solar 
declination,  caused  by  a  faulty  suspension  of  the  plumb- 
line  which  marked  the  zero  point  on  the  quadrant  at  Cassel, 
and  to  which  Kothmann  had  referred  in  a  former  letter.3 
Afterwards  he  concluded  that  the  error  was  caused  by  all 
the  observations  being  made  in  the  evening,  when  refraction 

1  See  Note  E.    Adopting  the  star-places  given  in  Woldstedt's  paper  on 
the  comet  of  1577,  the  probable  errors  in  longitude  and  latitude  of  the  stars 
on  p.  32  of  De  mundi  ceth.  rec.  phen.  turn  out  to  be  +  i'.i8.  and  +  i'.25. 

2  Epist.  Astron.,  p.  78. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  45  ;  compare  p.  33.    Rothmann  suggested  that  perhaps  the  appre- 
ciable size  of  Venus  might  have  something  to  do  with  it  (p.  88). 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  353 

would  tend  to  make  the  longitude  of  Venus  appear  greater.1 
It  seems,  however,  that  the  real  cause  was  the  unlucky  solar 
parallax  of  3'  which  Eothmann  (like  Tycho)  had  borrowed 
from  the  ancients,  and  which  would  act  particularly  injuri- 
ously on  his  results,  as  his  observations  were  all  made  in 
winter,  and  at  low  altitudes  of  both  the  sun  and  Yenus,  and 
not  combined,  like  those  at  Hveen,  to  eliminate  errors  as 
much  as  possible.2 

On  the  basis  of  the  nine  standard  stars  and  twelve  addi- 
tional stars  near  the  zodiac,  Tycho  Brahe  built  up  his  star 
catalogue.  Of  a  star  to  be  determined,  the  declination  was 
measured  directly  by  the  armillse  or  a  meridian  quadrant, 
and  the  distance  from  a  known  star  was  measured  with  a 
sextant.  This  furnished,  as  before,  a  spherical  triangle,  with 
the  three  sides  known,  from  which  the  angle  at  the  pole 
or  the  difference  of  right  ascension  could  be  computed. 
Generally  the  star  was  connected  with  two  known  stars,  one 
preceding  and  one  following  it,  which  gave  two  results  for 
the  right  ascension  as  a  control.  Tycho  communicates 
twelve  examples  of  this  double  determination,  the  results 
always  agreeing  within  a  minute.3  For  stars  in  higher 
declinations  the  additional  precaution  was  taken  of  connect- 
ing them  with  three  stars,  as  in  the  case  of  the  constellation 
of  Cassiopea,  in  which  Tycho  was  specially  interested  on 
account  of  the  new  star,  and  which  he  observed  in  1578 
and  1583.  The  other  constellations  were  all  observed  in 
the  years  1586  to  1591.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the 

1  Profjymn.,  p.  274. 

2  R.  Wolf,  Astron.  Mitth.,  xlv.  (1878),  p.  131.     The  Hessian  star  catalogue 
was  to  contain  1032  stars,  but  was  never  finished.     In  its  incomplete  state  it 
is  published  in  Barretti  Historia  Ccelestis,  under  the  year  1593,  which  the 
editor  has  erroneously  assumed  to  be  the  epoch  (instead  of  1586),  probably 
because  the  longitudes  are  about  6'  too  great  (as  7  x  50"  =  $'  50").     Compare 
Flamsteed's  Hist.   Coel.  Brit.,  vol.  iii.,  Proleg.,  p.  90,  and  p.  21  et  seq.,  where 
Tycho's  and  the  Landgrave's  star-places  are  given  side  by  side. 

3  Proyymn.,  p.  224  et  scq. 

23 


354  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

twenty-one  standard  stars  were  not  sufficient,  but  that  it 
became  necessary  to  build  further  on  the  stars  determined 
by  them.  Magnitudes  were  frequently  noted,  and  in  the 
final  star  catalogue  they  were  entered,  occasionally  with  two 
dots  added  (:)  or  one  (.),  to  show  that  the  star  was  slightly 
brighter  or  fainter  than  indicated  by  the  figure.  But  these 
estimates  of  magnitude  were  probably  not  made  with  parti- 
cular care,  so  that  it  would  be  risky  to  draw  conclusions 
from  a  comparison  of  them  with  the  more  systematically 
made  observations  of  relative  brightness  of  Ptolemy,  Al 
Sufi,  and  astronomers  of  the  nineteenth  century.1 

In  reducing  his  observations,  Tycho  adopted  51"  as  the 
value  of  the  constant  of  precession,  which  he  deduced  from 
a  comparison  of  his  own  places  for  Regulus  and  Spica  with 
those  found  by  Hipparchus,  Al  Battani,  and  Copernicus.2 
Although  the  places  of  Spica  recorded  by  Timocharis  and 
Ptolemy  gave  respectively  49^"  and-  5  3^",  he  had  sense 
enough  to  attribute  this  to  the  crudeness  of  earlier  observa- 
tions, and  pointed  out  that  these  often  erred  very  greatly 
as  to  the  relative  positions  of  stars  which  were  supposed  to 
have  been  well  observed,  so  that  there  was  no  need  of 
assuming  any  irregularity  in  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes 
in  order  to  reconcile  discrepancies  in  the  absolute  longitudes. 
The  origin  of  this  old  idea,  that  the  equinoxes  did  not  recede 
with  uniform  velocity  on  the  ecliptic,  but  were  also  subject 
to  an  oscillating  motion,  is  shrouded  in  mystery.  The  name 
of  Tabit  ben  Korra  (who  lived  in  the  second  half  of  the  ninth 
century)  is  usually  associated  with  this  trepidatio,  but  the  idea 
seems  to  be  very  old,  and  is  first  mentioned  by  Theon,  the 
commentator  of  Ptolemy,  according  to  whom  "  some  ancient- 
astrologers"  had  found  that  the  stars  had  an  oscillating 

1  Tycho's  star  catalogue  was  reprinted  by  Kepler  in  the  Tabulae  Rudolpldnce 
(1627),  and  by  Baily  in  Memoirs  R.  Astron.  Soc.,  vol.  xiii. 

2  Progymn.,  pp.  253-255. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  355 

motion  8°  backwards  and  forwards  in  672  years  ;  and  accord- 
ing to  Al  Batraki  (Alpetragius  in  the  twelfth  century),  the 
erroneous  value  of  36"  which  Ptolemy  had  found  for  the 
constant  of  precession,  gave  rise  to  the  whole  mischief,  as  his 
successors  could  not  believe  that  he  had  found  an  erroneous 
value.      Al  Battani  was  the  only  Arabian  astronomer  of  note 
who  was  not  an  implicit  believer  in  trepidation,  but  from  the 
time  of  Al  Zerkali  of  Cordova  (about   1060)  the  theory  of 
this  wholly  imaginary  phenomenon  was  developed  minutely. 
In   the  Alphonsine   tables  the  period  of  the  inequality  of 
precession  was  assumed  to  be   7000   years,  though   King 
Alphonso  personally  seems  to  have  believed  precession  to  be 
uniform.      From  these  tables  and  the  Arabian  authors  the 
theory  was  spread  to  Europe,  and  was  further  investigated 
by  Purbach   and  Regiomontanus,  who  assumed  with  Tabit 
that  the  apparent  equinox  moved   in  a  small  circle  with  a 
radius  of  4°  1 8'  round  the  mean  equinox,  whereby  the  annual 
precession  was  sometimes  accelerated  and  sometimes  retarded. 
In  the  sixteenth  century  trepidation  was  made  the  subject 
of   two  treatises  by   Johannes    Werner  of  Nlirnberg,    and 
in  the  third  book  of  his  great  work  Copernicus  has  also 
examined  it  in  detail,  and  showed  how  annual  precession 
had  always  varied  from  the  time  of  Timocharis  (300  B.C.) 
till  his  own  time.      It  was  a   natural  consequence   of  the 
belief  in  the  motion  of  the  equinox  on  a  small  circle  that 
the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  should  also  vary  irregularly  ;  and 
though  it  had  been  steadily  diminishing  since  the  days  of 
Eratosthenes,  even  Copernicus  considered  such  irregularities 
proved  by  the  observations  of  the  ancients  and  the  Arabians. 
The  first  to  see  that  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  had  always 
diminished  at  a  regular  rate  since  the  commencement  of 
history  seems  to  have  been  Fracastoro   (1538),  after  whom 
the  same  was  asserted  by  Egnazio  Danti  in  I578.1 

1  Primo  volume  delV  Uso  e  Fabrica  dell'  AstrolaUo  e  del  Planisfcrio.    Firenze, 
1578. 


356  TYCHO  BRAHE. 

The  authority  of  Tycho  Brahe  was  so  great,  that  the 
mere  fact  of  his  having  ignored  the  phenomenon  of  trepida- 
tion was  sufficient  to  lay  this  spectre,  which  had  haunted 
the  precincts  of  Urania  for  a  thousand  years,  and  possibly 
much  longer.  Though  he  had  expressed  himself  somewhat 
guardedly  (promising  to  discuss  the  matter  further  in  the 
great  work  which  he  did  not  live  to  write),  he  had  done 
enough  by  making  his  contemporaries  aware  of  the  vast 
difference  between  the  accuracy  of  ancient  observations  and 
that  of  his  own,  and  trepidation  was  never  again  heard  of.1 

It  would  not  convey  a  correct  idea  of  the  accuracy  which 
Tycho  attained  in  his  observations  if  we  were  to  compare 
the  positions  of  stars  given  in  his  catalogue  with  those 
resulting  from  modern  observations.  It  would  certainly  be 
possible  to  reconstruct  his  catalogue  from  his  original 
observations,  but  as  this  considerable  labour  would  not 
benefit  modern  astronomy,  for  which  a  recurrence  to  Tycho 
Brahe's  observations  would  hardly  ever  be  of  value  except  in 
very  special  cases,  it  is  not  likely  to  be  undertaken.  We 
are,  however,  able  to  form  a  conception  of  the  accuracy  of 
his  results  in  other  ways.  First,  the  star  of  1572  was,  as 
we  have  seen,  connected  by  distance  measures  with  nine 
stars  in  Cassiopea.  Computing  the  positions  of  these  from 
modern  data,  Argelander  found  the  probable  error  of  one 
distance  of  the  new  star  (with  the  sextant  of  1572)  to  be 
±  i8/7.2,  while  the  distances  between  the  stars  of  Cassiopea 
measured  with  the  arcus  Hpartitiis  gave  ±  4i//.o.2  The 
first  result  seems  rather  too  small,  but  as  we  do  not  possess 
the  original  individual  observations  of  Nova,  we  have  no 
way  of  knowing  how  many  such  are  embodied  in  the  mean 

1  About   the   successive    development    of    the   ideas   on    trepidation,    see 
Delambre,  Moy en  Age,  passim,  particularly  pp.  53,  73,  186,  250,  264;  Kastner, 
Gesch.  d.  Math. ,  ii.  p.  60 ;  Mittheilungen  des  Coppernicus  Vereins  zu  Thorn,  ii. 
(1880),  p.  3  et  seq. 

2  Astron.  Nachrichten,  Ixii.  p.  273  (1864). 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  357 

results.  From  the  distance  measures  of  the  comet  of  1577 
Woldstedt  found  the  probable  error  of  one  observed  distance 
=  ±  4/.2,1  but  as  he  mixed  the  sextant  measures  with 
those  obtained  with  the  cross-staff,  which  Tycho  always 
mentions  as  an  untrustworthy  instrument,  this  large  prob- 
able error  is  not  surprising.  The  most  valuable  investiga- 
tion which  we  possess  concerning  Tycho's  instruments  is 
the  discussion  of  the  observations  of  the  comet  of  1585 
by  C.  A.  F.  Peters.2  When  this  comet  appeared,  Tycho's 
collection  of  instruments  was  complete,  and  we  may  assume 
that  the  observations  are  typical.  Tycho  states  that  his 
indications  of  time  have  been  corrected  by  the  observed 
hour-angles  of  stars,  and  by  recomputing  these  the  mean 
correction  of  -f-  2  2s.  5  was  found,  with  a  probable  error  of 
±  3/s.  This  only  shows,  as  Tycho  merely  gave  the  time 
in  whole  minutes,  that  the  great  armillge  of  Stjerneborg 
were  well  adjusted.  But  a  very  much  better  proof  of  this 
is  furnished  by  the  observations.  By  the  armillae  the  comet 
was  compared  in  right  ascension  with  certain  standard  stars, 
while  its  declination  was  observed  with  the  same  instrument. 
From  the  total  of  these  observations  Peters  found  that  the 
polar  axis  of  the  armillse  was  inclined  to  the  horizon  by  an 
angle  which  exceeded  the  latitude  by  only  65"  ±  33", 
and  formed  with  the  meridian  an  angle  of  only  36"  ±  I  3". 
The  probable  error  of  one  observation  of  declination  was 
±  49/;,  that  of  one  right  ascension  =  Si/f,  and  consequently 
that  of  one  observed  hour-angle  =  +  57".  The  error  of 
collimation  (or  parallax,  as  Tycho  called  it)  was  —  3O//.I,  by 
which  amount  the  observed  declinations  were  too  large. 
The  comet  was  also  observed  with  the  sextans  trigonicus, 
and  the  probable  error  of  one  observed  distance  was  found 

1  F.    Woldstedt,  De  yradu  praecisionis  positionum   cometce  1577.      Hel- 
singfors,  1844. 

2  Astron.  Nachr.,  xxix.  p.  209  et  scq.  (1849). 


358  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

equal  to  ±  45",  the  collimation  error  being  —  n^.6.1 
These  results  are  sufficient  to  show  that  Tycho's  instruments 
were  really  made  with  the  great  care  which  he  declares  he 
had  always  bestowed  on  them,2  and  in  connection  with  the 
above  results  as  to  Tycho's  standard  stars,  they  exhibit  the 
vast  stride  forward  which  observing  astronomy  made  at 
Uraniborg,  and  which  but  for  the  invention  of  the  telescope 
could  hardly  have  been  much  exceeded  by  his  successors.3 

It  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  say  a  few  words  here  about 
a  time-honoured  absurdity  which  has  attributed  great  care- 
lessness to  Tycho  Brahe  in  the  adjustment  of  his  instruments 
in  azimuth.  In  1671,  Picard,  when  determining  the  lati- 
tude of  Uraniborg,  measured  the  azimuths  of  the  principal 
church  spires  in  Seeland  and  Scania  visible  from  the  site 
of  Uraniborg.  At  Copenhagen  he  found  among  Tycho's 
manuscripts  similar  observations  which  showed  considerable 
differences  from  his  own.4  Picard  did  not  lay  any  stress 
on  this  discrepancy  when  mentioning  it  in  the  account  of 

1  By  computing  the  orbit  from  the  sextant  observations  alone,  Peters  found 
the  probable  error  of  one  distance  =  iio".5,  which  result,  however,  is  less 
certain  than  the  one  given  above. 

2  "Plura  enim  hie  quam  ipsa  magnitude  necessaria  sunt.     Nam  et  materise 
soliditas,  ae'ris  mutation!  nihil  cedens,  &  preparationis  concinnitas,  diuisionum 
subtilitas,  pinnacidiorum  atque  perpendiculi   iusta   applicatio,  firma  fulcra, 
debita  dispositio,  conueniens  &  obsecundans  tractatio,  accurata  collimatio  & 
numeratio  :  &  pleraque  eiusmodi,  adesse  oportet.     Quorum  tamen  vix  omnia 
instrumento  ligneo,  quantaecunque  iragnitudinis,  competere,  aut  sane  non  diu 
in  eo  sarta  tecta  perdurare  possunt.     Longe  igitur  prseferendum  censeo  e 
solida  metallica  materia  confectum  instrumentum."  .    .    .  Proyymn.,  p.  635. 

3  By  using  verniers,  improved  pinnules,  &c.,Hevelius  (without  using  tele- 
scopes) reduced   the   probable   error   of  a   distance   measure   to  1 8",  to  the 
amazement  both  of   contemporaries   and    of   posterity   (Lindelof,    Ueber   die 
Genauigkeit  der  von  Hevelius  gemcss.   Sternabstande,  St.  Petersburg  Bulletin, 

1853). 

4  They  occur  in  a  rough  volume  of  observations,  1578-81,  and  are  copied 
into  the  volume  for  1563-81,  so  often  quoted  above  in  Chapter  ii.     They  are 
entered  at  the  end  of  the  year  1578,  but  it  is  not  stated  when  they  were  made. 
There  are  also  azimuths  measured  from  a  hill  and  from  the  church  at  Hveen, 
probably  with  a  cross-staff,  and  they  are  headed,  "  Observations  geographies 
in  insula  Huena  factse." 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  359 

his  journey,  probably  because  he  saw  from  the  MS.  that 
Tycho  had  merely  measured  these  approximate  azimuths 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  constructing  a  map  of  the  island. 
By  others  the  matter  was,  however,  misunderstood ;  and  by 
some  the  discrepancy  was  even  supposed  to  prove  a  shifting 
of  the  meridian  line  between  the  times  of  Tycho  and  Picard ; 
while  others  have  pointed  to  Tycho  as  a  blunderer  in  com- 
parison with  the  builder  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  who  was 
able  to  orient  the  sides  of  that  remarkable  structure  with 
considerable  accuracy.1  It  was,  however,  shown  by  a  Danish 
writer,  Augustin,  that  Tycho  and  Picard  had  in  two  cases 
pointed  to  different  spires.  At  Elsinore  Tycho  had  pointed 
to  St.  Mary's  Church,  while  Picard  had  pointed  to  the  taller 
spire  of  the  church  of  St.  Olaus,  built  in  1614;  and  the 
cathedral  of  Lund  has  two  towers,  of  which  Tycho  had  taken 
the  southern  one,  while  Picard  pointed  midway  between  the 
two.  This  accounted  for  the  most  serious  differences,  and 
the  remaining  measures  would  agree  well  by  assuming  an 
error  of  14',  by  which  amount  Tycho's  meridian  line  should 
have  deviated  from  the  true  south  point  towards  the  east. 
Augustin  even  imagined  that  he  had  found  in  the  printed 
observations  the  proof  that  Tycho  detected  this  error  on 
the  2nd  November  I586.2  It  is,  however,  evident  from 
the  words  used  by  Tycho  that  he  must  on  this  occasion 
have  referred  to  a  recent  readjustment  (in  novo  meridiano) 
of  the  instruments  at  Stjerneborg  only,  and  not  to  some  meri- 
dian line  adopted  since  1579,  at  which  time  (at  the  latest) 
the  azimuths  of  the  church  spires  were  measured.3  The 

1  In  his  doge  of  Chazelles,  Fontenelle  had  already  in  1710  remarked  the 
absurdity  of  attributing  such  an  error  to  Tycho,  and  Montucla  had  expressed 
himself  to  the  same  effect.     Hist,  des  Math.,  i.  p.  669. 

2  Skrifter  som   udi  det  Kong.   Videnslcabernes  Selskab   ere  fremlagte,  xii., 
1779,  p.  191  et  seq. ;  rtsum6  in  the  Connaissance  des  Temps  pour  Van  1820, 
p.  (385).     Compare  Corresp.  astron.  du  Baron  de  Zach,  vol.  i.  p.  402. 

3  Tycho's  words  are  (Hist.  Cod.,  p.  170) :  "In  novo  meridiano  nionstrabant 
armillse   15  M.  ante   verum  meridianum.      Quare  omnia  tempora  hactenus 


350  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

observations  of  the  comet  of  1585,  as  we  have  just  seen, 
prove  conclusively  that  in  that  year  the  great  armillse  were 
in  excellent  adjustment,  so  that  Tycho  cannot  have  made 
use  of  any  badly  placed  meridian  mark.  I  have  also  com- 
puted a  number  of  observed  altitudes  and  azimuths  of  stars 
from  1582,  and  from  these  it  is  evident  that  the  zero  line 
of  the  azimuth  circle  was  within  i'  of  the  meridian.1  As 
Tycho  never  once  alludes  to  the  use  of  meridian  marks  or 
terrestrial  azimuth  marks  (which  he  could  not  possibly  have 
seen  from  the  subterranean  observatory,  where  stars  near 
the  horizon  could  only  be  observed  with  portable  instru- 
ments in  the  open  air),  while  he  frequently  states  that  he 
verified  his  instruments  by  observations,  it  is  impossible 
that  he  can,  even  before  1586,  have  made  a  mistake  of 
14'  in  azimuth  in  the  adjustment  of  his  numerous  instru- 
ments. 

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, 
Eegiomontanus,  Copernicus,  and  others,  both  as  regards  the 
solution  of  triangles  and  tables  of  sines  and  tangents.  But 

observata  uno  minuto  tardiora  sunt  debito,  non  tamen  ubique  unius  minuti 
est  differentia,  quia  non  semper  eodem  modo  se  habuit ;  ubique  dimidii."  The 
instrument  here  referred  to  is  the  great  equatorial  at  Stjerneborg ;  the  hour 
circle  had  probably  been  found  to  be  set  15'  wrong.  On  p.  210  (same  date) 
Tycho  adds  to  some  observations  with  the  quadrans  volubilis  (also  at  Stjerne- 
borg) the  remark  :  "  Azimutha  sunt  ex  nova  restitutione  meridiani  ante  biduum 
facta."  In  the  Connaissance  des  Temps  for  1816,  p.  (230),  Delambre  quotes 
the  note  to  the  observation  with  the  mural  quadrant  of  3rd  December  1582 
(Hist.  CfeZ.,  p.  4),  and  assumes  from  this  that  Tycho  in  1582  had  found  an 
error  in  his  azimuths.  The  note  in  question  has,  however,  nothing  to  do  with 
this  matter,  as  it  only  explains  that  the  recently  mounted  quadrant  had  not 
yet  been  properly  fixed  to  the  wall. 

1  See  Note  F.  at  the  end  of  this  volume. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  361 

logarithms  had  not  yet  been  invented,  and  great  inconveni- 
ence was  therefore  felt  whenever  it  became  necessary  to 
multiply  or  divide  trigonometrical  quantities.  To  obviate 
this  difficulty  a  method  was  invented,  the  so-called  Prosta- 
phaeresis,1  by  which  addition  and  subtraction  were  sub- 
stituted for  multiplication  and  division,  and  in  the  history 
of  this  invention,  which  was  made  independently  by  several 
mathematicians,  the  name  of  Tycho  is  also  mentioned.  The 
Arabs  had  had  an  idea  of  this  method ;  at  least,  Ibn  Tunis 
makes  use  of  the  formula2 

cos  A  cos  B  =  |  [cos  (A-B)  +  cos  (A  +  B)] 

but,  like  many  other  discoveries  of  the  Arabs,  this  formula 
had  to  be  deduced  anew  in  Europe.  It  was  found  by  Yiete, 
as  well  as  the  corresponding  formula : 

sin  A  sin  B  =  |  [cos  (A-B)  -  cos  (A  +  B)  ] 

but  as  Yiete's  Canon  Mathematicus,  which  was  published  in 
1579,  seems  only  to  have  been  printed  in  a  few  copies  at 
his  own  expense,  it  is  very  possible  that  Tycho  Brahe 
never  saw  it,  or  at  least  that  he  had  not  seen  it  in  1580, 
when,  according  to  Longomontanus,  he  and  Wittich  invented 
Prostapheeresis.8  This  was  among  the  inventions  which 
"Wittich  a  few  years  later  brought  to  Cassel,  where  Blirgi 
soon  developed  the  method  further.  It  appears  that  "Wittich 
merely  had  shown  him  the  above  formula  for  sin  A  sin  B  ; 
but  Biirgi  applied  the  principle  to  the  formulae  of  spherical 
trigonometry,  and  ultimately  was  led  to  discover  logarithms 

1  Astronomers  need  hardly  be  reminded  that  this  word  (formed  from  ?r/)6cr#e<Tij, 
addition,  and  afiaipeais,  subtraction)  had  originally  signified  the  equation  of 
the  centre,  in  which  sense  it  was  still  used  by  Tycho. 

2  Delambre,  Astr.  du  Moyen  Age,  pp.  112  and  164. 

3  Si  autem  de  hujus  compendii   inventore   quis   quaorat,  nee  Arabes   aut 
Joannem    Regiomontanum   fuisse,    scripta   eorum   analemmatica    declarent ; 
neminem  certe  habeo  Tychone  nostro  &  Vitichio  Vratislaviensi  antiquiorem  : 
quorum  scilicet  mutua  opera  primuin  anno  1582  [should  be  1580]  in  Huaena, 
sphserica   qusedam   triangula    tali    pragmatise    pro   studiosis   Vranicis   sunt 
subjecta." — Longomontani  Astr.  Danica,  p.  8. 


362  TYCHO  BRAKE. 

years  before  Napier  did ;  but,  as  is  always  the  case  with  that 
remarkable  man,  without  securing  the  priority  by  a  timely 
publication.1  At  Uraniborg  the  method  did  not  make  any 
progress  after  the  departure  of  Wittich,  and  it  is  therefore 
more  likely  that  it  was  he,  and  not  Tycho,  who  was  the 
inventor,  as  he  is  known  to  us  (through  the  repeated 
testimony  of  Tycho)  as  an  able  mathematician.  In  1591 
a  short  treatise  on  plane  and  spherical  trigonometry  was 
drawn  up  at  Uraniborg,  but  it  does  not  indicate  that  Tycho 
had  developed  trigonometry  in  any  way,  as  the  rules  are 
similar  to  those  given  in  other  treatises  of  that  day,  and 
are  frequently  expressed  in  even  clumsier  language  than 
usual  at  that  time.2  The  demand  for  the  facilities  offered 
by  the  Prostaphseresis  was,  however,  so  great,  that  Reymers 
Bar,  Clavius,  Joestelius,  Magini,  and  others,  with  more  or 
less  success,  continued  to  work  in  this  direction,  until  the 
method  was  driven  from  the  field  by  the  discovery  of 
Napier. 

We  have  followed  Tycho  Brahe  through  his  chequered 
career,  and  we  have  reviewed  his  scientific  labours.  No 
doubt  his  contemporaries  were  not  uninfluenced  in  their 
estimation  of  him  by  his  princely  residence,  with  its  tasteful 
decoration  and  wonderful  observatories,  and  also  by  its  singu- 
lar situation  on  the  little  island,  which  contributed  to  exhibit 
the  noble  astronomer  in  a  romantic  light.  But  while  these 
circumstances  threw  a  halo  over  Tycho  even  before  his  works 
had  become  known  beyond  a  limited  circle,  posterity  has 
hardly  been  influenced  by  considerations  like  these  when 

1  K.   Wolf,  Astr.   Mittheilungen,  No.   32 ;    Gesch.    d.    Astronomic,  p.   348 
et  seq. 

2  In  the  University  Library  at  Prague,  published  in  facsimile  by  Studnicka 
at  Prague  in  1886  :  "  [Tychonis  Brahe]  Triangulorum  planorum  et  sphaericorum 
Praxis  arithmetica."    The  original  is  written  on  twenty  leaves,  inserted  at  the 
end  of  a  copy  of  Rhetici  Canon  doctrince  triangulorum.    Tycho  has  written  his 
name  under  the  title  of  the  MS.,  but  the  handwriting  of  the  remainder  does 
not  seem  to  be  his. 


SCIENTIFIC  ACHIEVEMENTS.  363 

affirming  the  judgment  of  his  time.  He  not  only  conceived 
the  necessity  of  supplying  materials  for  the  discovery  of  the 
true  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  by  his  improve- 
ment of  instruments  and  accumulation  of  observations  made 
it  possible  for  Kepler  to  reach  this  goal,  but  in  almost  all 
the  branches  of  practical  and  spherical  astronomy  he  opened 
new  paths,  and  made  the  first  serious  advance  since  the  days 
of  the  Alexandrian  school.  Hereby  he  showed  his  superi- 
ority to  the  Landgrave  ;  for  though  the  latter  had  perceived 
the  necessity  of  systematic  observations  at  least  as  early  as 
Tycho  did,  he  confined  his  attention  almost  entirely  to  the 
fixed  stars,  and  had  to  borrow  the  improvements  in  instru- 
ments from  Tycho,  and  let  them  be  worked  out  by  the  great 
mechanical  talents  of  his  assistant,  Burgi,  before  his  observa- 
tions could  rival  those  of  Tycho  in  accuracy.  It  was, 
therefore,  not  at  Cassel,  but  at  Uraniborg  that  the  reform  of 
practical  astronomy  was  carried  out,  and  posterity  has  not 
thought  it  an  exaggeration  when  one  of  the  greatest 
astronomers  of  the  nineteenth  century  spoke  of  Tycho  Brahe 
as  a  king  among  astronomers.1 

1  Bessel,  Populdre  Vorlesunyen,  p.  422. 


APPENDIX. 


TYCHO  BRAHE'S  FAMILY,  AND  THE  FATE  OF  HIS 
SCIENTIFIC  COLLECTIONS. 

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.  The  Emperor  soon 
agreed  with  Tycho's  family  to  purchase  the  instruments  for 
the  sum  of  20,000  thaler;  but  when  Tengnagel  came  back 
to  Prague  in  the  summer  of  1 602,  he  assumed  the  position 
of  Tycho's  scientific  heir,  promised  the  Emperor  to  have 
the  Eudolphine  tables  finished  within  four  years,  and  though 
Kepler  had  commenced  to  observe  Mars,  he  was  deprived 
of  the  instruments,  which  were  stored  away  in  a  vault  under 
Curtius'  house.  Kepler  never  got  access  to  them  again, 
of  which  he  complains  repeatedly  in  his  writings.1  They 
seem  to  have  been  preserved  in  this  manner  until  the  year 
1619,  when  the  Bohemians  rose  against  the  House  of  Habs- 
burg  and  elected  Frederic  V.,  Elector  Palatine,  their  king, 
and  during  the  disturbances  which  followed,  some  of  the 
rebels  are  said  to  have  destroyed  the  instruments  as  Imperial 

1  Opera,  ii.  p.  760  (in  the  dedication  to  Hoffmann  of  the  book  on  the  star 
in  Cygnus),  and  p.  755.  In  the  book  on  the  star  in  Serpentarins  (ibid.,  ii.  656) 
Kepler  quotes  a  few  observations  by  Tengnagel,  "in  viridario  Caesaris,  ubi 
deposita  habebantur  instrumenta  Braheana."  Perhaps  they  had  then  (October 
1604)  been  brought  back  to  Ferdinand  I.'s  villa.  In  December  1601  and  May 
1603  Kepler  used  one  of  Tycho's  clocks  in  observing  two  lunar  eclipses  (Opera, 
ii.  P-  3^o). 

365 


366  APPENDIX. 

property.1  The  great  globe  alone  was  saved,  and  was  in 
1632  found  at  Neisse,  in  Silesia,  at  the  College  of  the 
Jesuits,  by  Prince  Ulrik,  a  son  of  King  Christian  IV.  of 
Denmark,  who  was  in  the  service  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
and  had  taken  Neisse  by  storm.  How  or  when  the  globe 
had  been  sent  there  is  not  known,  but  Prince  Ulrik  now 
sent  it  to  Denmark,  where  it  was  first  kept  at  the  Castle 
of  Rosenborg,  then  at  the  University,2  and  afterwards  in 
a  room  of  the  Round  Tower  which  had  been  erected  in 
Copenhagen  to  serve  as  a  University  observatory,  and  was 
finished  in  1656.  An  inscription,  composed  by  Longo- 
montanus,  was  attached  to  the  globe  or  to  the  wall  of  the 
room,  and  the  beautiful  monument  of  the  great  astronomer 
remained  at  the  Round  Tower  till  October  1728,  when  it 
was  unfortunately  destroyed  in  the  great  conflagration,  in 
which,  among  many  other  things,  Ole  Romer's  unpublished 
observations  perished.  At  the  present  day  there  is  neither 
at  Prague  nor  at  Copenhagen  the  smallest  vestige  of  Tycho's 
celebrated  instruments.3 

Tycho's  wife  .and  children  all  remained  in  Bohemia,  pro- 
bably because  they  were  honoured  and  respected  there,  while 
the  difficulty  which  they  found  in  obtaining  payment  for 
the  instruments  must  also  have  tied  them  to  Bohemia,  as 
they  must  have  known  well  that  they  would  have  no  chance 
of  getting  their  money  unless  they  remained  on  the  spot. 
Tycho's  widow  died  in  1604,  and  was  buried  beside  her 
husband,  as  we  have  already  mentioned.  A  year  or  two 
before  her  death  she  had  purchased  a  country  property 
towards  the  Saxon  frontier,  and  her  eldest  son,  Tycho,  had 
in  March  1604  married  the  widow  of  a  country  gentleman 
in  the  same  neighbourhood.  He  became  the  father  of  five 
children,  and  died  in  1627.  His  younger  brother  Jorgen 
(George),  died  in  1640.  Magdalene  Brahe,  Tycho's  eldest 
daughter,  apparently  never  married  ;  of  the  second  daughter, 
Sophia,  nothing  is  known  except  that  she  became  a  Roman 

1  Gassendi,  p.  216.' 

2  Where  Huet  saw  it  in  1652  (Commcntarius,  p.  81). 

3  The  inscription  is  given  by  Gassendi,  p.  217  ;  Weistritz,  i.  p.  217.     At 
the  Prague  observatory  (founded  in  1751  in  the  Clementinum,  far  from  Tycho 
Brahe's  observatory)  there  are  two  sextants  and  a  clock  showing  the  Tychonic 
system,  which  are  supposed  to  have  belonged  to  Tycho  Brahe  ;  but  they  show 
no  sign  of  Tycho's  refined  workmanship,  and  the  two  sextants  (the  larger  of 
which  is  said  to  have  been  made  for  him  in  1600  by  Erasmus  Habermel)  have 
not  his  peculiar  pinnules.     There  is  no  proof  of  their  ever  having  belonged 
to  Tycho  Brahe  (Astron.  meteorol.  und  magn.  Beobachtunrjen  an  der  Sternwarte 
zu  Pray  im  Jahre  1880,  p.  iv. ). 


APPENDIX.  367 

Catholic.  The  youngest  daughter,  Cecily,  married  a  Swede, 
Baron  Gustaff  Sparre,  colonel  of  a  German  regiment,  and 
died  at  Krakau.  In  1630  some  of  Tycho  Brahe's  nearest 
relations  in  Denmark,  among  whom  was  his  sister  Sophia, 
issued  a  declaration,  stating  that  Christine,  by  the  ancient 
laws  of  the  kingdom,  "on  account  of  the  open,  unchanged, 
and  honourable  life  of  both  of  them,  must  be  acknowledged 
as  his  wedded  wife." 1 

Tengnagel  very  soon  gave  up  the  idea  of  working  at  the 
Rudolphine  tables.  He  had  probably  only  been  a  short 
time  at  Uraniborg  (he  is  mentioned  as  an  unpractised 
observer  in  September  1595),  and  there  are  no  signs  of  his 
having  occupied  himself  seriously  with  astronomy  during 
Tycho's  lifetime,  so  that  probably  it  was  only  jealousy  of 
Kepler  which  induced  him  to  prevent  the  latter  from  taking 
up  Tycho's  work  at  once.  He  was  in  1605,  by  the  Emperor, 
made  a  Councillor  of  Appeal,  and  received  a  grant  from  the 
Benatky  estate  "  for  his  astronomical  observations,"  and  he 
was  also  employed  on  various  foreign  embassies — among 
others,  to  England,  whither  he  was  accompanied  by  Eriksen, 
who  also  gave  up  astronomy.2  Tengnagel  was  appointed 
Councillor  to  Eudolph's  cousin,  Leopold,  Bishop  of  Passau, 
and  afterwards  became  a  privy  Councillor  to  Ferdinand  II. 
He  was  the  only  one  of  the  family  who  was  allowed  to 
remain  in  Bohemia  after  the  battle  of  Prague  (November 
1620),  when  the  Protestants  were  driven  from  the  Austrian 
possessions.  His  wife,  Elizabeth  Brahe,  had  died  in  1613, 
leaving  several  children.  He  died  in  1622. 

Notwithstanding  his  connection  with  the  two  Emperors, 
Tengnagel  had  been  unable  to  get  the  purchase-money  for 
the  instruments  paid  in  full.  From  a  letter  which  Magda- 
lene Brahe  wrote  to  Eske  Bille  in  July  1602  we  learn  that, 
although  the  Emperor  soon  after  Tycho's  death  had  agreed 
to  purchase  the  instruments  for  2O,COO  thaler,  he  was,  as 

1  The  document  was  written  in  German,  so  that  the  children  of  Tycho 
could  make  use  of  it  in  Bohemia  and  Saxony,  where  they  all  lived.     Danske 
Maijazin,  ii.  p.  367  ;  Weistritz,  ii.  p  375.     Sophia  Brahe  died  in  1643  a*  tne 
age  of  eighty-seven.     She  was  the  only  one  of  Tycho's  brothers  and  sisters  on 
whom  some  of  his  glory  was  reflected,  and  when  she,  nine  years  before  her 
death,  at  Elsinore,  met  a  French  embassy,  the  secretary,  Charles  Oger,  in  the 
description  which  he  afterwards  wrote  of  his  journey,  mentioned  the  meeting 
with  her  among  the  most  remarkable  events. 

2  Eriksen  observed  the  solar  eclipse  of  October  1605  in  London,  and  brought 
letters  backwards  and  forwards  between  Kepler  and  Harriot.     He  had  early 
in  1602  (with  Tengnagel)  visited  Fabricius  in  Ostfriesland,  and  afterwards  for 
some  time  assisted  Kepler  (Opera,  iii.  533,  ii.  432). 


368  APPENDIX. 

usual,  without  money,  and  had  in  vain  tried  to  get  the 
Bohemian  Estates  to  pay  the  sum,  which  they  declined  to  do, 
on  the  plea  that  this  was  a  private  matter  of  the  Emperor's ; 
and  he  attempted  to  persuade  the  heirs  to  accept  some  more 
or  less  doubtful  securities  instead  of  ready  money.1  This, 
however,  they  would  not  do,  and  in  September  1603  they 
got  4000  thaler  paid  from  the  royal  revenues.  Owing  to 
the  disturbed  state  of  Bohemia  and  the  subsequent  great 
war,  the  family  apparently  never  received  any  part  of  the 
remaining  15,000  thaler,  though  they  persevered  for  many 
years  in  their  applications  to  the  Government.  The  last 
time  anything  bearing  on  this  matter  is  mentioned  is  in 
1652,  when  it  is  stated  that  a  married  daughter  of  the 
younger  Tycho  had  been  six  years  in  Bohemia  on  a  safe- 
guard from  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  endeavouring  to  get  her 
share  of  the  money  due  from  the  Treasury.2 

The  first  piece  of  work  which  Kepler  undertook  after 
Tycho's  death  was  to  get  the  Progymnasmata  published. 
The  section  about  the  lunar  theory  was  not  yet  printed, 
but  the  woodcuts  were  ready  and  the  text  completed  in 
manuscript.  A  postscript  seemed  desirable,  explaining  how 
the  book  had  been  written  and  printed  by  degrees,  and 
Kepler  at  once  wrote  this  appendix,  which  fills  six  pages.3 
He  first  explains  how  Tycho's  anxiety  that  the  book  should 
contain  the  latest  results  of  his  investigations  had  made  him 
push  on  with  the  printing  before  the  whole  manuscript  was 
ready  (it  had  been  prepared  in  the  years  1582-92).  A  few 
slight  discrepancies  are  pointed  out  between  these  latest 
results  and  a  few  passages  in  the  book,  concerning  the 
moon,  but  printed  long  before.  It  is  also  remarked  that 
in  the  first  chapter  the  planetary  inequalities  are  referred 
to  the  sun's  mean  place,  while  it  had  recently  been  found 
in  the  case  of  the  moon  and  Mars  that  it  is  the  apparent 

1  Danske  Magazin,  ii.  p.  361  etseq. ;  Weistritz,  ii.  p.  369  et  seq.     From  this 
letter  it  appears  that  the  family  had  previous  to  July  1602  left  Curtius'  house, 
and  lived  in  the  part  of  the  city  called  Altstadt.     They  had  commenced  to 
remove  the  instruments  to  their  new  residence,  as  they  had  not  yet  received 
any  payment ;  and  even  of  Tycho's  salary,  which  the  Emperor  had  ordered  to 
be  paid  up  to  the  date  of  his  death  only,  there  were  still  a  thousand  florins 
owing  to  them.     In  April  1608  Magdalene  wrote  a  letter  to  Longomontanus 
(ibid.)  giving  him  information  about  the  family. 

2  For  full  particulars  about  these  transactions  see  the  paper  by  Dvorsky, 
quoted  above,  p.  307. 

3  That  Kepler  is  the  author  of  this  appendix  is  stated  by  himself  in  a  letter 
to  Magini  (Opera,  iii.  p.  495  ;  Carteggio,  p.  331) ;  it  is  reprinted  in  Opera,  vi. 
p.  568. 


APPENDIX.  369 

place  which  enters  into  the  equations,  so  that  the  same 
doubtless  also  was  the  case  with  the  other  planets.  Lastly, 
the  recently  noticed  fact  that  the  solar  excentricity  is  only 
half  as  great  as  formerly  believed,  is  referred  to.  A  dedica- 
tion to  the  Emperor  from  Tycho's  heirs,  a  short  notice  to 
the  reader  (stating  that  the  author  had  intended  to  write 
a  preface  on  the  utility  and  dignity  of  astronomy),  and  the 
privileges  of  the  Emperor  and  James  VI.  were  also  printed, 
and  the  book  was  published  in  the  autumn  of  1602.  The 
title  is :  "  Tychonis  Brahe  Dani  Astronomies  instauratae 
Progyrnnasmata.  Quorum  haec  Prima  Pars  de  restitutione 
motuum  Solis  &  Lunae,  Stellarumque  inerrantium  tractat. 
Et  praeterea  de  admiranda  noua  Stella  Anno  1572  exorta 
luculenter  agit.  Typis  inchoata  Vraniburgi  Daniae,  absoluta 
Praga9  Bohemias  MDCII  "  (some  copies  have  MDCIII).  The 
book  seems  to  have  been  printed  in  1500  copies,1  and  most 
of  these  appear  to  have  been  afterwards  sold  to  Gottfried 
Tampach,  a  well-known  bookseller  in  Frankfurt,  who,  in 
1610,  issued  the  book  with  a  new  title-page  and  the  begin- 
ning as  far  as  p.  16  reprinted.2 

The  second  volume  of  the  Progymnasmata  had,  as  we  have 
seen,  been  quite  ready  since  1588,  though  Tycho  had  only 
presented  a  few  copies  to  correspondents,  and  had  intended 
to  add  an  appendix  on  Craig's  allegations  about  the  parallax 
of  comets.  This  he  had  never  done,  and  the  book  was  now 
published  in  1603  with  a  new  title-page,  and  a  dedication 
to  Barwitz  from  Tengnagel,  as  well  as  a  preface  to  the 
reader.3  Like  the  first  volume,  it  was  re-issued  by  Tampach 
in  1610  with  a  new  title-page,  and  the  first  seven  leaves 
(including  Tycho's  own  preface)  and  the  two  last  pages 
reprinted.4  The  issue  of  1610  is  generally  found  bound 
together  with  the  first  (and  only)  volume  of  the  Epistolce, 
printed  in  1 596,  furnished  with  a  new  title-page,  but  retain- 
ing the  original  colophon.  Tampach  had  probably  acquired 
the  stock  of  copies  of  the  Epistolce  on  the  death  of  Levin 

1  Tycho  inquired  in  January  1600  if  he  could  get  the  sheets  yet  wanting 
printed  at  Gorlitz  in  1500  copies.     Aus  T.  Brake's  Brief wechsel,  p.  1 6. 

2  The  misprints  so  far  are  corrected  by  the  list  of  errata  at  the  end  of  the 
book. 

3  The  title  is  the  same  as  given  above  on  p.  163,  except  that  instead  of  the 
last  sentence  it  has  :  "  Typis  inchoatus  Vraniburgi  Danise,  absolutus  Pragae 
Bohemise."     The  colophon  is  the  vignette  "Despiciendo  svspicio,"  and  under- 
neath :  "Pragae   Bohemorum.      Absolvebatur  Typis  Schumanianis.      Anno 
Domini  MDCIII." 

4  The  two  volumes  were  reprinted  in  Frankfurt  in  1648  with  the  title  T. 
Brahei  Opera  Omuia.     This  is  a  very  poor  edition  with  very  small  print. 

24 


370  APPENDIX. 

Hulsius  of  Niirnberg,  a  well-known  writer  and  publisher, 
to  whom  the  heirs  would  seem  to  have  sold  them,  as  some 
copies  have  on  the  title-page :  "  Noribergse,  apud  Levinum 
Hulsium  MDCL" 

The  stock  of  copies  of  the  Astronomies  instauratce  Mecha- 
nica  appears  to  have  been  exhausted,  but  most  of  the  wood- 
cuts and  copper-plates  were  in  the  possession  of  the  heirs, 
who  sold  them  to  Levin  Hulsius.  He  printed  a  new  edition 
at  Niirnberg  in  1602,  exactly  like  the  original,  but  with 
narrower  margins,  and  without  the  neat  border  which  in 
the  original  runs  round  the  pages.  Paper  and  print  are 
also  somewhat  inferior,  and  Tycho's  portrait  is  on  the  title- 
page  substituted  for  the  vignette  of  the  original. 

On  the  state  of  Tycho's  other  manuscripts  Kepler  drew 
up  a  short  report,1  from  which  it  appears  that  the  printing 
of  the  second  volume  of  letters  had  been  commenced,  and 
that  Tycho  had  thought  of  adding  some  astronomical  tables 
to  the  volume  to  make  it  more  saleable.  Kepler  suggested 
that  matter  of  astronomical  interest  occurring  in  the  un- 
printed  letters  might  be  extracted  and  printed,  so  that  the 
sheets  already  in  print  would  not  be  wasted.  This  was, 
however,  not  done,  and  only  a  few  of  the  letters  have  yet 
been  published.  For  the  third  volume  of  Proyymnasmata 
(on  the  comets  of  1582,  1585,  &c.),  the  materials  were  ready, 
but  nothing  was  put  into  shape.  As  to  the  Tabulae  Rodol- 
phece,  Kepler  stated  that  the  materials  were  abundant,  "  nee 
deerunt  ingenia,  si  Maecenates  sint,  et  exiguum  aliquid  in 
certis  pensionibus  annuis  in  hunc  usum  erogetur."  The 
Theatrum  astronomicum  (of  which  Tycho  had  sketched  the 
plan  in  his  letter  to  Peucer  in  I5882)  should  contain  the 
theory  on  which  the  tables  were  based,  but  nothing  of  it 
had  been  written. 

It  seems  that  Kepler  received  Tycho's  observations, 
originals  and  copies,  after  signing  a  contract  with  Teng- 
nagel  in  1604.  He  found  them  so  indispensable  to  his 
studies  that  he  never  returned  them,  but  it  was  not  for- 
gotten that  they  were  in  his  possession,  and  in  November 
1621  (when  he  had  been  obliged  to  stay  more  than  a  year 
in  Wlirtemberg  to  watch  the  trial  of  his  mother  for  witch- 
craft) Ferdinand  II  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg 
requesting  him  to  command  Kepler  to  return  the  manu- 
scripts.3 Kepler  was  probably  back  again  at  Linz  (where  he 

1  Kepleri  Opera,  i.  p.  191.  ~  See  above  p.  182. 

3  Breve  og  Alctstylcker,  p.  150. 


APPENDIX.  371 

had  lived  since  1612)  when  the  letter  arrived  in  Wtirtem- 
berg,  and  it  had  no  effect.  After  publishing  the  Tabulcu 
Eudolpliince  in  1627,  he  thought  the  following  year,  while 
living  at  Sagan,  in  Silesia,  under  Wallenstein's  patronage,  of 
getting  the  observations  printed.  He  wrote  on  the  I^th 
August  1628  to  Jorgen  Brahe  that  he  hoped  soon  to  com- 
mence the  printing,  but  as  he  had  found  a  selection  from  the 
observations  of  the  years  1600  and  1601  inserted  in  Snellius' 
edition  of  the  Landgrave's  observations,1  he  inquired  if  Brahe 
still  had  the  originals  for  those  two  years,  or  whether  Snellius 
could  have  got  hold  of  them,  so  that  his  widow  might  have 
them  still.2  Nothing  came,  however,  of  the  intended  edition, 
and  the  original  observations  remained  in  Kepler's  possession, 
and  after  his  death  in  that  of  his  son,  the  physician,  Ludwig 
Kepler.3 

But  while  Kepler  retained  the  originals  as  pledges  for  the 
considerable  arrears  of  salary  due  to  him,  a  set  of  unfinished 
copies  in  quarto  volumes  had  remained  in  Austria.4  These 
volumes  are  alluded  to  by  Tycho  Brahe  in  his  Mechanica  (fol. 
G.  2),  where  he  mentions  that  the  observations  had  been 
entered  in  large  volumes,  and  afterwards,  for  each  year, 
copied  into  separate  volumes  and  sorted  according  to  subject 
— the  sun,  moon,  planets  (beginning  with  Saturn  and  ending 
with  Mercury),  and  the  fixed  stars.  Albert  Curtz,  a  Jesuit, 
and  Rector  of  the  College  of  Dillingen,  on  the  Danube,  who 
had  corresponded  with  Kepler  both  on  scientific  and  religious 
subjects,  conceived  the  idea  of  publishing  Tycho's  observa- 

1  "  Coeli  et  siderum  in  eo  errantium  observationes  Hassiacse  .  .  .  et  speci- 
legium  biennale  ex  observationibus  Bohemicis  V.  N.  Tychonis  Brahe."    Lugd. 
Batav.,  1618,  4to.     Snellius  had  as  a  youth  of  twenty  paid  a  short  visit  to 
Prague  in  1599  or  1600.     See  R.  Wolf's  Astr.  Mitth.,  Ixxii. 

2  Breve  og  Aktstykker,  p.  152.     About  Kepler's  intention  of  publishing  the 
observations,  see  his  Opera,  vi.  pp.  616,  621,  vii.  p.  215  (in  his  book  T.  Brahci 
Hyperaspistes,  Frankfurt,    1625,  against  Scipione   Chiaramonte,   who  in   his 
book  Antitycho  had  tried  to  prove  from  Tycho's  own  works  that  comets  are 
sublunary),  also  viii.  p.  910.     Gassendi,  p.  207. 

3  On  the  outside  of  the  cover  of  the  volume  for  1596-97  (bound  in  old 
music-paper)  there  is  pasted  a  slip  of  paper  on  which  Kepler  has  written  : 
"  Extract  aus  mein  Johan  Kepplers  den  Brahischen  Erben  zugestelter  Erkle- 
rungsschrift.     Entlich  und  zum  funften  sol  auf  einem  jedem  Tomum  herab- 
gemeldeten   Observationen,   sobalt  ich  nach   Linz  komme  ein  offene  Zettel 
auffgeleimet,  und  meinen  Erben,  darinnen  von  mir  anbefohlen  werden,  dasa 
solche  Biicher,  da  ich  etwa  Todtes  verbliche,  absobalden  zu  meinem  Schatz 
oder  Kleinodien  eingesperret  und  vor  der  Eroffnung  Jhr.  Kay.  May.  so  wie 
auch  denen  Brahischen  Erben,  umb  weitere  Vorsorg  und  Verwahrung  dero- 
eelben  angemeldet  werden,  damit  also  die  Erben  auch  auff  diesem  Fall,  de 
abgesetzten  ersten  Puncts  halbt;n  desto  mehr  versichert  sein." 

4  Or  perhaps  they  were  purchased  from  Kepler's  daughter,  if  the  MS.  account 
printed  by  Kastner  is  authentic  (Geschichte  d.  Math.,  ii.  p.  651  et  scq.). 


372  APPENDIX. 

tions  from  these  volumes.  It  is  very  strange  that  he  should 
not  have  made  any  serious  effort  to  obtain  the  originals,  as 
he  was  engaged  on  the  work  already  before  1647,  in  which 
year  Gassendi  heard  of  the  undertaking ;  while  Hevelius  in 
the  following  year  inquired  how  the  rumour  could  be  true 
that  a  Jesuit  had  got  Tycho's  observations  from  the  Emperor 
and  was  about  to  publish  them,  since  Hevelius  with  his  own 
eyes  had  seen  the  original  observations  from  15 64  to  1601 
in  Ludwig  Kepler's  house  at  Konigsberg.  Curtz  himself 
seems,  however,  to  have  believed  that  the  nineteen  annual 
volumes  for  the  years  1582-92  and  1594-1601,  which  he  had 
before  him,  were  originals  and  not  copies,  and  though  he 
suggests  that  they  were  the  set  of  twenty-one  volumes 
referred  to  by  Tycho  in  the  Appendix  to  the  Mechanica  (fol. 
H.  4),  it  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  him  that  in  that 
case  not  only  the  volume  for  1593,  but  five  earlier  volumes 
must  have  been  lost,  since  Tycho  wrote  the  Mechanica  in 
1 597.  The  volumes  which  he  used,  and  which  he  describes 
as  being  ornamented  on  the  cover  with  Tycho's  portrait  and 
arms,1  were  therefore  copied,  and  the  observations  of  1582 
printed  in  1656  as  a  specimen,2  after  which  the  complete 
Historia  Coelestis  was  published  at  Augsburg  in  1666  in  a 
handsome  thick  folio  volume,  on  which  the  editor,  instead  of 
his  own  name,  Albertus  Curtius,  has  called  himself  anagram- 
matically  Lucius  Barrettus.3 

The  various  astronomical  observations,  chiefly  of  eclipses 
anterior  to  Tycho's  time,  as  well  as  the  observations  of  the 

1  Like  the  presentation  copies  of  the  Mechanica  (above,  p.  261).     The  nine- 
teen volumes  are  still  in  the  Hofbibliothek  at  Vienna,  where  there  is  also  a 
miscellaneous  collection  of  loose  leaves  or  small  stitched  books  with  computa- 
tions, notes,  or  letters.     Some  of  the  letters  have  been  published  of  late  years 
(Tychonis  Brahei  et  ad  eum  doct.  vir.  Epist.}.     A  list  of  the  MSS.  was  made  by 
Friis  in  1868,  but  owing  to  his  complete  ignorance  of  the  subjects  referred 
to  in  them,  it  is  of  little  use  (Danske  Samlinger,  iv.,  1869,  p.  250). 

2  "  Sylloge  Ferdinandea  sive  collectanea  historian  coelestis  ex  commentariis 
MS.  obss.  Tychonis  Brahei  ab  anno  1582  ad  annum  1601.     Accessit  epime- 
tron  ex  obs.  Hassiacis,  Wirtenbergicis  et  aliis  .  .  .  vulgavit  Lucius  Barrettus, 
anno  CIO  oic  LVI  Viennee  Austrise."     Contains  the  preface  and  Liber  prolego- 
menus  and  the  observations  of  1582,  headed  on  every  page:  "Sylloge  Ferdi- 
nandea."    Different  print  from  the  Hist.  Ccel.     At  the  end  of  the  volume  is 
the  colophon  :  "  Operis  Davidis  Havtii,  Bibl.  Viermeusis,  anno  1657." 

3  "  Historia  Coelestis   complectens    Obser vationes   astronomicas  varias  ad 
Historiam  Coelestem  spectantes  111.  viri  Tychonis  Brahe,  Babylonicas,  Grsecas, 
Alexandrinas,    Moestlini  observationes   Tubingenses,    Hassiacas,    &c.      Aug. 
Vind.  1666"  (also  with  title-page  on  which  "  Ratiybonoe,  1672  ").    Large  plate 
with  four  emperors,  more  or  less  imaginary  views  of  Uraniborg,  Wandesburg, 
Benatky,  Horti  Csesaris  and  Domus  Curtii,  most  of  Tycho  Brahe's  instru- 
ments, &c.     cxxiv.  +  977  pp.  fol. 


APPENDIX.  373 

Landgrave,  Mastlin,  and  others,  which  Curtz  inserted  in  this 
volume,  are  not  without  value  and  interest,  but  Tycho  Brahe's 
observations  are  presented  in  so  mutilated  and  distorted  a 
shape  as  to  be  well-nigh  useless.  Not  only  is  there  no  ex- 
planation why  the  volume  begins  with  the  year  1582  (which 
has  led  many  writers  to  believe  that  Tycho  had  not  observed 
regularly  until  then),  but  it  is  evident  that  the  copy  at  the 
disposal  of  Curtz  had  never  been  finished  nor  collated  with 
the  originals.  Frequently  several  consecutive  pages  have 
been  passed  over,  so  that  the  volume  is  very  far  from  contain- 
ing a  complete  record  even  for  the  years  it  pretends  to  cover. 
For  instance,  at  the  end  of  1 584,  half  the  observations  made 
by  Elias  at  Frauenburg  and  all  those  he  made  at  Konigsberg 
are  omitted.  Again,  in  1589  and  1591  there  are  several  large 
gaps  in  the  observations  of  fixed  stars,  similarly  in  1595  and 
1 597,  while  the  omissions  of  one  or  two  nights'  work  are  very 
numerous  indeed.  But  this  is  far  from  being  the  worst  fault. 
There  is  scarcely  a  column  which  is  not  full  of  errors,  figures 
misplaced  or  left  out,  words  like  dexter  and  sinister,  borealis 
and  meridionalis,  are  interchanged ;  sometimes  the  signs  of 
the  zodiac  have  even  been  mistaken  for  figures,  so  that  the 
sign  of  Cancer  becomes  69,  &c.  In  short,  the  work  is  not 
far  from  being  an  Augean  stable.  Unfortunately  there  is  no 
other  edition  of  Tycho  Brahe's  observations  except  of  the 
observations  of  planets  made  in  1 593  l  and  of  the  observations 
of  comets.  The  Historia  Ccelestis  gives  the  reader  a  fair  idea 
of  the  general  scope  of  Tycho's  work,  but  it  cannot  be  used 
for  any  scientific  purpose. 

In  the  meantime  the  original  observations,  of  the  existence 
of  which  Curtz  was  ignorant,  were  (at  the  latest  in  the  begin- 
ning of  1662)  by  Ludwig  Kepler  sold  to  King  Frederick 
III.  of  Denmark,  who  deposited  them  in  the  newly  founded 
Eoyal  Library  at  Copenhagen,  where  they  are  still  preserved. 
King  Frederick  soon  after  decided  to  have  them  published 
under  the  direction  of  the  mathematician  Professor  Erasmus 
Bartholin,  under  whom  six  students  were  employed  in  copy- 
ing and  collating,  while  the  necessary  pecuniary  means  were 
liberally  supplied.  A  complete  copy  had  been  made  and 
carefully  read  with  the  originals,  when  Bartholin  heard  of  the 
publication  of  the  Historia  Ccelestis,  and  obtained  a  copy  of  it. 
As  he  found  it  extremely  defective  and  erroneous,  he  pub- 

1  To  account  for  the  absence  of  these,  Curtz  invented  a  fable  about  the 
volume  for  1593  having  been  sent  to  Cassel  and  thereby  lost,  which  has  been 
repeated  by  many  writers. 


374  APPENDIX. 

listed  in  1668  a  critique  of  it,  showing  the  errors  in  the 
observations  of  1582,  and  announcing  the  forthcoming  correct 
edition.1  Bartholin  furthermore  compared  a  copy  of  the 
Historia  Ccelestis  (bound  in  two  volumes)  with  the  originals, 
and  entered  in  it  all  the  corrections  and  smaller  omissions, 
while  he  in  a  third  volume  had  the  observations  previous  to 

1582,  the  longer  omissions,  the  year  1593,  and  the  observa- 
tions  of  comets,   carefully  copied    and    compared   with  the 
originals.2     In  1669  he  caused  inquiries  to  be  made  from 
Blaev,  in  Amsterdam,  about  the  printing  of  the  new  edition, 
which  Blaev  seemed  disposed  to  undertake.3 

Unfortunately,  King  Frederick  III.  died  in  1670,  and  as 
his  son  and  successor  took  no  interest  in  literature  or  science, 
there  was  an  end  to  the  prospect  of  a  correct  edition  of 
Tycho  Brahe's  observations.  In  the  following  year  Picard 
came  to  Copenhagen  to  determine  the  geographical  position 
of  Uraniborg,  and  on  learning  how  matters  stood,  he  begged 
and  obtained  leave  to  take  Bartholin 's  copy  back  with  him 
to  Paris  to  have  it  printed  at  the  expense  of  Louis  XIV.4 
For  the  sake  of  control  during  the  printing,  the  originals 
were  handed  to  Bartholin's  assistant,  Ole  Homer,  whom 
Picard  had  persuaded  to  go  with  him-  to  France.  The 
printing  was  commenced  at  Paris,  but  Louis  XIV.'s  wars 
required  money,  and  the  undertaking  was  eventually  stopped.5 
Inquiries  were  made  for  the  original  manuscripts  by  the 
Danish  Government  in  1696,  and  they  were  found  in  charge 

1  "  Specimen  recognitions  nuper  editarum  observationum  astronomicarum 
n.  v.  Tychonis  Brahe,  in  quo  recensentur  insignes  maxime  errores  in  editione 
Augustana  Historic  Ccelestis  a.  1582  ex  collatione  cum  autographo  .  .  .  ani- 
madversiab  Erasmo  Bartholino."     Hafnise,  1668,   small  410,48  pp.,  of  which 
6  pp.  are  dedication  to  the  King,   II  pp.  introduction,   and  the  remainder 
errata.    Reviewed  by  Kastner,  ii.  p.  656. 

2  Strange  enough,  he  did  not  copy  the  year  1581,  but  instead  of  it  the  year 

1583,  though  this  is  in  the  Hist.  Ccel.     About  this  supplement,  see  Bugge, 
Observations  astronomicce,   1781-83,  Hafnise,   1784,  p.  xviii.,  where    a  cata- 
logue of  Tycho's  original  MSS.  is  given.     See  also  below,  Note  H. 

3  Werlauff,    Historiske    Efterretninger  om    det  store   Tcongdige    Bibliothck, 
Kjobenhavn,  1844,  P-  411- 

*  Picard  gave  the  following  receipt  for  them  (copied  by  Bartholin  into  the 
supplementary  volume)  :  "  Jeconfesse  avoir  recue  de  Mons.  Erasme  Bartholin 
les  observations  de  Tycho  Brahe  escrites  au  net  en  cinq  Volumes  in  folio 
depuis  1'annee  1563  jusques  a  1601  avec  les  Observations  des  Cometes,  a  condi- 
tion qu'ils  seront  imprimis  h  Paris  au  Louvre  aux  depens  du  Roy  de  Prance, 
&  quant  a  la  Dedication  &  Preface  elles  seront  faites  par  le  dit  Mr.  Bar- 
tholin. Je  promets  aussy,  qu'incontinent  apres  1'ouvrage  acheve  d'imprimer, 
il  en  sera  fourny  cinquante  exemplaires,  qui  seront  mis  entre  les  mains  de  qui 
Ton  voudra.  Fait  a  Copenhague,  le  2  Avril  1672.  PICARD." 

5  Sixty-eight  pages  were  printed  (as. far  as  1582).  See  Lalande's  Astronomic 
(2nd  edit.),  i.  p.  198. 


APPENDIX.  375 

of  La  Hire  at  the  Paris  Observatory.1  They  were  handed 
over  to  the  Danish  envoy  in  1697,  but  were  not  sent  back 
to  Copenhagen  till  his  return  to  Denmark  in  1707.  Being 
deposited  in  the  Royal  Library,  they  fortunately  escaped  the 
great  fire  of  1728,  in  which  the  University  Library  and  the 
Observatory  (with  Romer's  observations)  were  destroyed. 
In  1707  it  was  suggested  by  Dr.  Arbuthnot,  physician  to 
Prince  George  of  Denmark,  that  Tycho's  observations  ought 
to  be  printed  in  England,  together  with  those  of  Flam  steed, 
and  Newton  drew  up  a  letter  to  Eomer  on  the  subject,  but 
nothing  further  came  of  it.2  Bartholin's  copy  remained  in 
Paris  at  the  Academic  des  Sciences,  and  is  now  at  the  Paris 
Observatory.3  La  Hire  had  copied  the  observations  of 
1593  from  the  originals,  arid  they  were  published  in  the 
Mdnwires  de  I' Academe  for  1757  and  1763.  De  1'Isle 
had  made  a  copy  of  the  whole  series,  translated  into  French, 
but  with  frequent  omissions,  which  is  now  also  deposited  at 
the  Paris  Observatory.  Pingre  made  extensive  use  of  it  for 
his  Comdtograpliie.^ 

While  Tycho's  observations  were  thus  turned  to  lasting 
account,  there  is  scarcely  a  trace  left  of  the  magnificent  build- 
ings he  raised  at  Hveen. 

"  Est  in  conspectu  Tenedos,  notissima  fama, 
Insula  dives  opum,  Priami  dum  regna  manebant, 
Nunc  tautum  sinus  et  static  male  Ada  carinis." 

It  would  almost  seem  that  Tycho  did  not  build  in  a  very 
substantial  manner,  for  already  in  1599  Eske  Bille  wrote 
to  him  that  the  farm  buildings  would  soon  tumble  down, 
and  that  the  forge  was  also  in  a  very  bad  state,  for  which 
reason  the  clergyman  wanted  to  know  whether  he  might 
use  the  materials  to  repair  the  rectory,  which  already  some 
years  before  had  fallen  into  disrepair.  Tycho  answered 
that  the  clergyman  had  no  claims  on  him,  and  had  behaved 
very  badly,  and  the  peasants  had  been  stealing  building 
materials  from  the  rectory.  "  As  to  the  farm  and  the  castle 
itself  being  in  bad  repair,  I  can  only  say,  as  I  have  done 

1  Ddnische  Bibliotkek,    viii.  p.  684;  Werlauff,  I.  c.,   p.  57  ;    Observations 
scptem  Cometarum  (1867),  p.  iii. 

2  Brewster's  Memoirs  of  Sir  I.  Newton,  ii.  p.  1 68. 

3  M.  Bossert  of  the  Paris  Observatory  informs  me  that  this  copy  is  in  six 
volumes  (which  agrees  with  Picard's  receipt),  in  410,  carefully  written,  the 
observations  of  comets  being  by  themselves.     The  title  is  :    Tychonis  Brake 
Thesaurus  obscrvationum  astronomicarum. 

4  Pingre,  i.  p.  517  ;  Lalande,  i.  p.  199. 


376  APPENDIX. 

before,  that  I  do  not  intend  to  go  to  any  further  expense 
about  it ;  there  was  far  too  much  spent  on  it  before,  and  if 
I  had  the  money  back,  it  should  hardly  be  so  badly  spent." l 

Soon  after  Tycho's  death,  in  May  1602,  Cort  Barleben 
received  Hveen  in  fief,  and  shortly  afterwards  he  was  granted 
permission  to  pull  down  the  forge.  His  successor  was  a 
mistress  of  the  king's,  Karen  Andersdatter,  who  got  the 
island  in  1616,  and  was  followed  by  her  son,  Hans  Ulrik 
Gyldenlove,  who  died  in  1645,  and  seems  to  have  been 
succeeded  by  some  nobleman's  widow.  The  destruction  of 
Uraniborg  had  in  the  meantime  gradually  proceeded,  as  there 
was  nobody  to  look  after  it.  A  new  dwelling-house  was 
erected  on  the  site  of  Tycho's  farm,  called  Kongsgaarden, 
which  stood  for  about  two  hundred  years,  but  has  now  dis- 
appeared, so  that  only  some  farm  buildings  remain.  This 
Kongsgaard  was  built  of  the  bricks  and  stones  of  Uraniborg, 
as  a  mason  in  1623  was  paid  for  6o,OOO  bricks  which  he  had 
"  pulled  down  and  renovated  from  the  old  castle  Oranien- 
borg."  2  In  1645  Jorgen  Brahe,  a  nephew  of  Tycho's,  was 
granted  permission  to  remove  "any  stones  with  inscriptions 
or  other  carved  figures  or  characters  "  which  might  be  found 
at  Hveen.3  Perhaps  Tycho's  nephew  was  anxious  to  secure 
some  slight  relic  of  his  uncle  before  it  was  too  late,  for  a  couple 
of  years  later,  when  Gassendi  inquired  about  the  island,  he 
was  informed  that  there  was  only  a  field  where  Uraniborg  had 
been. 

In  1652  the  island  was  for  the  first  time  after  1597 
visited  by  a  man  of  distinction.  Pierre  Daniel  Huet,  after- 
wards so  well  known  as  the  editor  of  the  classics  "in  usum 
Delphini,"  and  sometime  Bishop  of  Auranches  in  Normandy, 
was  a  young  man  of  twenty-two  when,  in  1652,  he  accom- 
panied the  learned  Bochart,  who  had  been  invited  by  Queen 
Christina  to  join  the  galaxy  of  learned  foreigners  at  Stock- 
holm. 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 

1  Breve  og  Aktstykker,  pp.  53  and  104. 

2  Vandalism  of  that  kind  is  not  confined  to  any  age  or  nation,  but  the  de- 
struction of  many  a  fine  old  monastery  or  chapel  in  the  heat  of  the  Reforma- 
tion had  made  people  at  that  time  particularly  callous  to  the  pulling  down  of 
historical  relics. 

3  Friis,  Tyge  Brahe,  p.  308. 


APPENDIX.  377 

nor  the  other  inhabitants  of  Hveen  had  ever  heard  the  name 
of  Tycho  Brahe,  except  one  old  man,  who  did  not  give  a  flat- 
tering account  of  him.  Successive  writers  down  to  the  present 
day  have  quoted  this  story  without  noticing  the  absurdity  of 
the  idea  that  a  small  community  of  a  few  hundred  people 
should  in  the  course  of  fifty  years  have  quite  forgotten  the 
man  who  raised  such  fine  and  singular  buildings  and  was 
visited  by  kings  and  princes.1 

A  few  years  after,  Hveen  ceased  to  belong  to  Denmark. 
In  February  1658  the  Danish  king  was  forced  to  conclude  the 
humiliating  treaty  of  Roskilde,  by  which  the  provinces  easfc 
of  the  Sound,  which  from  before  the  dawn  of  history  had  been 
Danish,  were  handed  over  to  Sweden.  King  Carl  Gustav, 
who  was  not  content  with  what  he  had  got,  but  soon  after 
made  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  take  the  whole  of  Denmark, 
claimed  Hveen  as  belonging  to  Scania,  because  the  inhabi- 
tants were  now  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court  of  Lund.2 
The  spot  where  Tycho  had  lived  and  worked  was  thus  torn 
from  the  country  which  had  so  little  valued  him,  and,  like 
Scania,  the  island  soon  became  perfectly  Swedish — a  very 
natural  consequence  of  the  close  affinity  between  the  two 
nations,  rivals  for  so  many  centuries,  but  now  animated  only 
by  brotherly  feelings. 

In  1671  the  Academie  des  Sciences  sent  Picard  to  Hveen 
to  determine  the  geographical  position  of  Uraniborg.  The 
foundations  were  still  easily  recognised,  and  the  earthen  walls 
round  Uraniborg  untouched,  except  that  a  stone  wall  had 
been  built  across  the  enclosure,  cutting  off  the  north-eastern 
wall  and  a  little  of  the  two  adjoining  ones,  and  the  parts 
thus  cut  off  had  been  nearly  obliterated  by  ploughing.  Of 
Stjerneborg  he  saw  nothing  except  a  slight  hollow  in  the 
ground,  and  he  did  not  trouble  himself  about  making  exca- 

1  I  have  looked  through  the  Gazette  de  France  for  1652,  in  the  hope  that 
Huet  might  have  sent  a  letter  from  Stockholm  in  which   he   might  have 
described  his  trip  to  Hveen.     But  there  is  nothing  from  him  or  about  him,  so 
that  the  only  account  is  the  one  given  in  his  book   Petri  Danieli   Huctii, 
Episcopi  Abrincensis,  Commentarius  de  rebus  ad  eum  pertinentibus,  Amster- 
dam,  1718,  I2mo,  p.   86  et  seq.     As  perhaps  hardly  one  of  the  writers  who 
have  copied  Huet's  story  from  Weidler's  Historia  Astronomice  have  seen  it, 
I  have  quoted  it  in  Note  G.     The  proverbial  "oldest  man  in  the  parish," 
from   whom   Huet   got   his   information,  attributed   the  destruction   of   the 
buildings  to  weather  and  the  carelessness  of  Tycho's  successors. 

2  Peder  Winstrup,  Bishop  of  Lund  (son  of  the  Bishop  of  Seeland  of  the 
same  name),  is 'said  to  have  produced  many  arguments  to  support  the  claims  of 
the  Swedish  king,  who  had  the  best  possible  argument — the  sword.    Hofmann, 
Portraits  historiques,  vi.  partie,  p.  8.     About  the  change  of  jurisdiction,  see 
above,  p.  88. 


378  APPENDIX. 

vations.1  During  the  eighteenth  century  the  ruins  were 
occasionally  mentioned  by  travellers,  but  nobody  seems  to 
have  explored  them.2  About  1 740  a  stone  with  a  Latin 
inscription  was  removed  from  the  site  of  Tycho's  paper-mill 
to  his  old  home  at  Knudstrup,  from  whence  it  was  later 
brought  to  the  museum  at  Lund.  In  1/47  a  cellar  was 
accidentally  found  on  the  site  of  the  servants'  dwelling,  at 
the  north  angle  of  the  wall  enclosing  Uraniborg.  .  It  is 
still  to  be  seen,  and  if  the  statement  on  Braun's  map  be 
correct,  that  it  was  used  as  a  gaol,  it  can  certainly  not  have 
been  a  pleasant  abode,  though  doubtless  not  worse  than  other 
dungeons  of  those  days. 

Within  the  present  century  the  ruins  at  Hveen  have 
been  more  thoroughly  examined.  They  suffered  a  further 
desecration  about  eighty  years  ago,  when  the  south-western 
enclosure  wall  round  Uraniborg  was  broken  through,  in 
order  to  build  a  schoolhouse  there.  The  Swedish  antiquary 
Sjoborg  visited  the  island  in  1814,  but  was  chiefly  inte- 
rested in  the  various  slight  antiquities  from  long  before 
Tycho's  time.3  But  in  1823  and  1824  the  clergyman  of 
Hveen,  Ekdahl,  examined  the  interesting  spots  carefully. 
At  Uraniborg  he  found  the  deep  well,  which  was  easily 
cleaned  out,  and  still  gives  excellent  water;  also  some 
water-taps  and  pipes  from  the  hydraulic  works  which  had 
sent  the  water  to  various  parts  of  the  house.  Parts  of  the 
foundation  walls  and  some  slight  remains  of  the  laboratory 
were  also  unearthed.  At  Stjerneborg  Ekdahl  was  more 
successful,  and  found  distinct  traces  of  all  the  crypts,  and 
one  of  them  (F.  on  the  plan,  p.  106)  in  perfect  preserva- 
tion, with  all  the  circular  steps,  and  the  low  column  in  the 
middle,  on  which  the  large  quadrant  had  formerly  been 
fixed.  The  only  ornament  or  inscription  found  was  the 
stone  with  the  words  also  put  on  Tycno's  tomb :  "  Nee 

1  Voyage  d' Uranibourg  par  M.  Picard,  Paris,  1680  ;  also  in  Reccuil  d' Obser- 
vations, 1693,  and  in  Picard's  Ouvrages  de  Mathematiques,  Amsterdam,  1736. 
This  little  book  is  remarkable  for  containing  the  first  distinct  description  of 
the  phenomena  of  aberration  and  nutation. 

2  Philos.   Trans.,  xxii.  p.  692,  xxiii.  p.  1407.      Hell's  Reise  nach   Wardoe 
imd  seine  Beobachtung  des  Venus- Durchganyts,  Wien,  1835,  p.  161.     Hell  and 
Sainovics  were  at  Hveen  in  May  1770  on  their  return  journey  from  Wardohus. 
They  give  a  rude  diagram  showing  the  ramparts,  with  a  hole  filled  with  water 
in  the  middle  ;  also  the  site  of  Stjerneborg,  the  cellar  found  in  1747  (errone- 
ously placed),  and  a  hut  where    some  Swedes  had  observed    the  transit  of 
Venus. 

3  Sjoborg,  Samlingar  for  Nordens  Forndlskare,  iii.,  Stockholm,  1830,  4to, 
p.  71  et  seq. 


APPENDIX.  379 

fasces  nee  opes,  sola  artis  sceptra  perennant ; "  so  strikingly 
illustrated  by  the  state  of  Tycho's  works  on  earth  and  his 
labours  in  science.1  Low  stone  walls  form  oval  enclosures 
round  the  sites  of  Uraniborg  and  Stjerneborg,  but  other- 
wise the  scanty  remains  of  the  buildings  are  quite  unpro- 
tected, and  will  soon  entirely  disappear,  being  exposed  to 
wind  and  weather.  It  is  therefore  well  that  they  have  been 
carefully  described,  first  by  the  Danish  poet,  J.  L.  Heiberg, 
in  i845,2  and  by  the  distinguished  astronomer  D' Arrest  in 
i868,3  both  enthusiastic  lovers  of  the  memory  of  Tycho 
Brahe. 

1  "  Fornlemningar  af  Tycho  Brahes  Stjerneborg  och  Uranienborg  pa  On 
Hven,  uptackte  aren  1823  och  1824,"  Stockholm,  1824,  8vo.     The  inscription 
from  the  paper-mill  given  herein  agrees  with  that  of  Danske  Magazin.     See 
above,  p.  1 86. 

2  Urania,  Aarbng  for  1846.     Af  J.  L.  Heiberg,  Copenhagen,  1846  (also  in 
his  Prosaiske  Skriftcr,  vol.  ix.),  with  fourteen  plates,  giving  views  of  the  island. 
On  the  2ist  June  1846  a  great  festival  in  honour  of  the  tercentenary  of  Tycho 
Brahe's  birth  was  held  at  Hveen,  attended  by  many  thousand  Scandinavians. 

3  Astronomische  NachricMcn,  vol.  Ixxii.,  No.  1718.    The  writer  of  the  present 
work  visited  the  island  in  1874,  at  which  time  the  ruins  were  still  exactly  in 
the  state  described  by  D'Arrest. 


NOTES. 


A.— SPECIMEN  OF  TYCHO'S  EARLY  OBSERVATIONS  WITH 
THE  CROSS-STAFF. 

1 564  Oct.  20  mane,  distantia  inter  Saturnum  et  Jovem. 

1.  Posito  transversario  in  loco  stato  qui  est  partium  3500,  reperi 
punctarum  in  transversario,  a  se  invicem  elongationem  1162,  quibus 
juxta  operationem  proveniunt  398^-  cui  numero  in  tabula  gnomonica 
competunt  18  gr.  21  m.  distantia  syderum  qusesita. 

2.  Collocato  eodem  in  puncto  3700  pinnularum  distantia  reperiebatur 
1233  quibus  juxta  operationem  debentur  399ff  hisqve  ex  tabula  respon- 
dent gradus  ut  antea,  sed  minuta  numero  25  fere.     Discrepat  itaqve 
observatio  in  3  [sic]  tantum  circiter  minutis,  quod  admodum  parum  est. 
Erat  autem  sine  dubio  vera  distantia   i8g  22'  infallibiliter.     Stadius 
distantiam  ponit  i8g  8,  differentia  og  14'  parva  (tantum  erroris  facit, 
amborum  semidiameter  additus  og  8  ita  6).     Qvam  Carellus  constituit 
1 5g  20'  diff.  3g  2'  Magna. 

The  above  observations  are  calculated  by  the  rule  of  Gemma  Frisius 
(De  Radio  astronomico  et  geometrico  liber,  Antwerp,  1545,  cap.  15)  : 
Multiplico  igitur  maximum  tabulas  numerum,  nempe  1200  per  pinnul- 
arum interstitium,  producuntur  autem  .  .  .  ,  atqve  hunc  numerum 

divido  per  transversarii  locum.     In  the  first  observation   = 

3500 

398^4  ;  Gemma's  Tabula  gnomonica  G.  Peurbackii  then  gives  the  required 
angle  thus  : — 

398  1 8°  20' 57* 

399  1 8°  23' 32" 

400  1 8°  26'    7" 


B.—  LIST  OF  TYCHO  BRA  HE'S  PUPILS  AND  ASSISTANTS. 

In  the  Danske  Mngazin,  4th  Series,  vol.  ii.  p.  32,  the  Kev.  Dr. 
Rordam  has  communicated  a  list  of  Tycho  Brahe's  pupils,  found  on  a 
loose  sheet  of  paper  (without  heading  or  other  description)  in  the  Koyal 
Library  of  Copenhagen.  The  handwriting  seems  to  be  that  of  Johannes 


NOTES. 


Aurifaber  or  Hans  Crol,  who  had  charge  of  Tycho's  workshop,  and 
whose  writing  frequently  occurs  in  the  volumes  of  original  observations 
(Danske  Magazin,  4th  Series,  vol.  ii.  p.  327).  The  list  must  have 
been  written  in  1588  or  1589,  as  Odd  Einarsen  (No.  13  on  the  list) 
became  Bishop  of  Skalholt  in  1588,  and  Longomontanus,  who  is  not 
mentioned,  arrived  in  1589. 

1.  Petrus  Jacobi.1 

2.  N.  Fionius.2 


7. 
8. 
9. 

10. 


II. 

12. 

13- 

14- 

15- 
1 6. 

17- 
19. 

20. 


Gellius  Sascerides  Hafniensis. 

Andreas  Wiburgensis,agit  nuiic  pastorum  sine  ecclesiasten  Wiburgi 

in  Gutlandia.3 
Jacobus  Hegelius  siue  Hegelun,  agit  hypodidasculum  in  Selandia 

Sorae  ;  bene  scribit  et  est  bonus  music  us,  ingenij  mercurialis. 
Seuerinus  N.,  turbator,  phantasta. 
Elias  Olaj  Cymber. 
M.  Nicolaus  Norwegianus,  prseco  diuini  verbi  Hafnie,  in  arce 

regia.4 
Kudolphus  Groningensis,  in  primis  non  erat  studiosus, 

creatus   procuratione    Tychonis    in    studiosum    Hafnie,   vbi 

deposuit  Bacchanten,  fuit  apud  Tychonem  per  3  annos.6 
Joannes  Buck  Cymber,  natus  non  procul  a  Collingo,  in  pago 

Nabul,  fuit  optimi  ingenij,  occisus  iactu  lapidis  ab  altero 

quodam  studioso  Hafnie. 
Andreas  Jacobi  Lemwicensis  Gutlandus,  siue^ 

Cymber,  fortassealicubi  pastor  in  Gutlandia. 

Otto  Wislandus  Islandus,  episcopus  in  Is-    yj. 
,      ,.  ,.      .  j-         T  Hi  9  uno  eodemque 

landia,  est  mediocris  grammaticus  aliasque 

.  '          „  tempore  accesse- 

non  ignarus.6  * 

Joannes  Wardensis  Cymber,  sacellanus  in  m*     menstrii- 

quodam  pago  in  Gutia J  [    °^Q  SPacif°  f1 

vltra,     petentes 

et  obtinentes 
dimissionem, 
discesserunt. 


1  Peter  Jacobsen  Flemlose. 

2  From  the  island  of  Fyen  ;  name  evidently  forgotten. 

3  His  name  occurs  in  the  observations  of  February  1582  (Hist.  Cod.,  p.  6); 
probably  it  was  he  who  examined  the  pockets  of  Reymers  (see  above,  p.  275). 

*  Niels   Lauridsen    Arctander    died  1616  as  Bishop  of    Viborg  (Jutland). — 
Eordam. 

5  Observed,  among  other  things,  comet  1585  (Obs.  Comet.,  p.  63),  occurs  in  the 
diary  in  1586  and  1588. 

6  Odd  Einarsen,  Bishop  of  Skalholt  in  1588. 

7  Perhaps  this  is  Joannes  Bernsson,  "unus  ex  meis  familiaribus,"  by  whom 
Tycho  sent  a  letter  to  H.  Rantzov  in  1585. 


NOTES.  383 

21.  David  Joannis  Sascerides,  Gellij  f rater,  fuit  liic  per  semissem 

anni. 

22.  Jacobus  N.  Malraogiensis,  egit  in  hac  insula  diaconum,  et  fuit 

studiosus,  is  primus  literas  obligations  dedit  ad  triennium, 
mine  est  sacellanus  Malmogise,  vel  eius  loci  in  vicinia,  degit 
tamen  Malmogiee,  non  fuit  autem  hie  diutius  quam  -sesqui- 
annum. 

23.  Cliristiernus  Joannis   Kipensis,1  accessit  eodem  tempore  quo 

antedictus  Jacobus  N.  Malmogiensis  discessit,  nempe  anno 
1586  circa  finem  Aprilis,  videlicet  27  Aprilis.2  Discedebat 
anno  90,  23  Aprilis.3 

24.  Petrus  Kichterus  Haderslebiensis,  fuit  hie  fere  per  semi  annum. 

25.  luarus  Hemmetensis  Cymber,  de  pago  Hemme  in  Cymbria,  vbi 

pater  eius  pastorein  agit,  fuit  hie  per  semestre,  fuit  poetici 
ingenij.4 

26.  Sebastianus,  regise  mensae  alumnus,  fuit  Borussus,  vertit  librum 

danicum  in  idioma  germanicum,  non  dedit  operam  mathesi, 
fuit  hie  per  mensem  vnum  vel  alterum. 

27.  Joannes  Hamon  Dekent,  Anglus  iiobilis,  fuit  hie  studiosus,  fuit 

hie  per  quadrantem  anni,  et  ingenij  mercurialis,  musicus,  et 
alias  mediocriter  eruditus.5 

28.  Joannes  Joannis  Wensaliensis  Cymber,  fuit  hie  per  sesquianum, 

erat  astrictus  autem  ad  3  annos. 

29.  Ego.6 

30.  M.  Nicolaus  Collingensis. 

31.  Martin  us  Ingelli  Coronensis.7 

32.  Cliristiernus  N.  de  Ebenthod  oppido  Cymbrie,  hue  missus  a 

Falcone  Goye,8  fuit  proximus  qui  post  Christiernum  Joannis 
Eipensem  accessit,  fuit  .  .  .9 

To  supplement  the  above  list  I  add  the  names  of  the  other  pupils  or 
assistants,  as  far  as  their  names  are  known,  with  references  to  places  in 
this  volume  where  further  information  about  them  is  given. 

Paul  Wittich. 

Longomontaiius  ( 1 5  89-97). 

1  Afterwards  Professor  in  the  University ;  born  1567,  died  1642  as  Bishop  of 
Aalborg.     He  was  at  Hveen  1586-90,  observed  the  comet  of  1593  at  Zerbst  in 
Anhalt,  and  the  solar  eclipse  of  1598  in  Jutland  (Hist.  Cad.,  p.  819). 

2  Agrees  with  diary. 

3  Remark  about  departure  added  afterwards  (Rordam). 

4  Died  1629  as  Bishop  of  Ribe  in  Jutland  (Riirdam). 

5  Probably  Dekent  should  be  de  Kent.    In  the  diary  we  read  under  2nd  Novem- 
ber 1587:  "Hamon  abiit."     Could  he  have  been  John  Hammond,  afterwards 
physician  to  Henry,  Prince  of  Wales  ? 

6  Probably  Hans  Crol  (see  above  and  p.  211),  died  3oth  November  1591. 

7  i.e.,  from  Landskrona. 

8  Falk  Gjoe,  a  friend  and  kinsman  of  Tycho,  to  whom  the  latter  addressed  a 
Latin  poem  printed  at  Uraniborg. 

9  Paper  worn  at  the  corner  ;  a  few  words  lost  (Rordam). 


381  NOTES. 

Cort  Axelsen  of  Bergen  (Conradus  Aslacus),  at  Hveen  1590-93, 

afterwards  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Copenhagen,  edited  Tycno's 

Oration  on  Astrology  in  1610. 
Joh.  Isaacsen  Pontanus,  for  three  years  at  Hveen,1  born  at  Elsinore 

of  Dutch  parents  in  1571,  some  time  Danish  historiographer, 

died  in  Holland  1639. 
Willem  Janszoon  Blaeu,  p.  127. 

Franz  Gansneb  Tengnagel  von  Camp,  pp.  242,  301,  &c. 
Georg  Ludwig  Froben,  p.  253. 
Glaus  Mule,  pp.  240  and  283. 

At  Wandsbeck  and  in  Bohemia  Tycho  was  assisted  by  Johannes 
from  Hamburg  (p.  280) ;  Johannes  Miiller  ;  Johannes  Eriksen  ; 
Melchior  Joestelius  ;  Ambrositis  Ehodius  ;  Matthias  Seyffart ; 
Paul  Jensen  Colding  ;  and  Simon  Marius. 


C._ TYCHO'S  OPINION  ABOUT  ASTROLOGICAL  FORECASTS, 
FROM  A  LETTER  TO  HEINRICH  BELOW,\DATED  THE 
7TH  DECEMBER  1587. 

•Jfteinen  freuntttd;)en  grtteg  mitt  onmfcfyung  alTeg  guetteg  atjeitt  beforr.  ©bier, 
©fjrrwejler,  freunbtUcfyer  lieber  (Sdjtoager  snb  befonber  »crtratt>eter  fveunbt. 
9ieben  £)anffagung  fur  yielfeltige  eqeigete  toclttyaten  fan  id)  bir  freunbtlid)er 
toohneinuug  nidjt  serfyalten,  bag  id)  betn  fd)reiben  f)abe  entpfangen  »nb  barinne 
ein  (Sopic  beg  £>urd)(eud)tigen  ^pod)gebornen  ^utften  »nb  ^evren  -^er^og  93lrtd)^ 
ju  SKcc^clBuvg  an  3Mr  gefcf)riebene  brieff^,  it>orau^  ic^  evfaljve,  ba^  ifjr  fuvftlid)c 
©nabe  bege^rett  »on  ntiv  gnebic£)lt(^  $it  toiffen,  it>etc^er  meine^  era^ten^  ttcn  ben 
beiben  Prognosticatoribus  Tobia  Softer  ttttb  Andrea  Kosa  bem  3ctll  nel)er 
^utrifft,  t^nbem  baf  bet  eine  ifyn  btefem  ^ufunftigen  88  Styar  ben  Oiegenten  be^ 
Sfiarg  Jovem  »nb  Venerem,  ber  anber  Saturnum  »nb  Martem  fc^et,  baraf)n 
fte  nicf)t  afleinc  fetn6tl)ei^  einig  fetn,  fonbern  iine  tfir  $urfHid)e  ©nabe  fd^reibet, 
gat)r  iriberinerttger  nteinnng  I)aben ;  ban  ber  eine  tnacfyt  beibe  beneficos  Planetas, 
ber  anber  beibe  maleficos  Ot)ie  fte  bie  Astrologi  nennen)  gum  Oiegenten  im 
fetbigen  3^ar,  tt)et^^  gar  contrarie  bebeuttung  bringett.  ^ierauff  fan  icf)  bir 
frcunblid^cr  meinung  md)t  bergen,  bag  iinen^ofl  tc^  in  bie  Slftrologifdje  ©ad^en, 
»el(f)e  bebeuttung  aiifl  bem  geftirn  ^er^olen  mtb  iueiffagunge  tractiven,  mid)  ntd)t 
gerne  etnlaejje,  biejt»ei({  barauff  nicf)t  sfyitt  ju  batoen  ij^,  ©onbcrn  a((etn  bie  Astro- 
nomiam,  it»e(c£)e  ben  nwnbetltdJKn  taujf  beg  gej^trng  erforfdjett,  in  etnen  gen?i^en 
»nb  re^tmefftgen  orbung  ju  bringen  mic^  e£ltd)e  S^ar  ^er  bemu^et,  ban  barafjn 
fan  burc^  rec£>tgefcE)affene  Snftrumenten  nad)  ®eometrtfc§  »nb  5lvitf)mettfc^  grunbt 
wtb  gewigfjett  bie  eigentlic^e  toar^ettt  burd)  langwirigen  ftetp  unb  arbettt  gefunben 
werben,  @o  fjabe  tc^  bed)  nacfy  t§rer  5ur(ilt(^cr  gnaben  begerung  beibe  Prognos- 
tica,  bie  bu  mt^r  jufc^tcfejl,  (bie  tc^  bcdj  nic^t,  tote  bu  gemeinett  Ijaft  guucr 

1  According  to  Pontoppidan,  quoted  in  Bang's  Samlinger,  ii.  p.  279  (Weistritz, 
i.  P.  73). 


NOTES.  385 

gefjatt  I)aBe,  ban  id)  niematg  ^flege  fctd)e  practicen  unber  ju  fauffen,  nod)  ju 
lefen,  ne  bonas  horas  male  collocem),  burd)gefef)en,  ben  mangel,  toorafjn  eg 
fjafftett,  bag  fie  fo  toibertoertige  Judicia  fleHen,  baraug  jit  fud)en,  ttnb  Befinbe, 
ba^  fie  in  ifyre  9Jed)nung  gar  »nterfd)eibttd)e  fundament  geBraud)t  l)aBen  ;  ban 
ber  eine,  nenttid)   Mollerus,  Batoett  fein  Calculation  auf  beg  t)od)erfarnen 
Copernici  red)nung,  ber  anber,  Rosa,  auff  bie  atte  burd)  beg  Jtontgg  Alphonsi 
in  ^ifyanien  tiBeratitet  gemad)te  XaBetn,  bie  man  barumB  bie  9lfyfyonftnifd)e 
nennett.    «£irau£i  fdntyt  eg,  bag  ber  eine  ben  anfang  beg  Stjarg  in  aequinoctio 
verno  fejjet  atjm  10  tag  2ftartit  Bety  5Jieun  »l)r  nad)  ntittage,  ber  anber  af)m 
fetBtgen  tag,  aBer  »mB  2  ©tunben  nad)  ber  ttorge'fjenbe  5Kitternac^t,  ba^  alfo 
j^tinfc^en  Beibe  i^re  redinung  fd)ier  19  gan^e  Stnnben  yertauffen,  in  iret(^en  ber 
^immef  ftc^  gar  sit  »crenbern  t^ntt,  »nb  fan  gar  ein  anber  Slflrologifc^  Judi- 
cium  baranf  faf(en,  eBenfolrot  atg  teen  bar  ein  gan^eg  31)ar  ober  nod^  me^r 
gwifciien  toefjre :  S)ag  barnmB  nic^t  ju  oortcnnbern  ift,  bag  biefe  Beibe  Astrologi 
in  domino  Anni  nid)t  ttBerein  f^itnttien,  iveit  fie  ben  au§  ber  Figura  Caeli 
introitus  Solis  in  Arietem,  ifan  bafi   oorBemette  aeqvinoctium  veriium 
gefc&tc^t,  fcflcgen  I)erT)olen.    SBieivof  eg  auc^  tidjttidj  gef^e^n  fan,  bag  ttian  fie 
fd>on  gtei^mefftge  XaBeln  »nb  recfynungen  ttofgeten,  bag  fie  gteid§tt)of(  in  Dominis 
Anni  ynb  ifjren  gan^en  it)eiffagnngen  gar  i»ibent)ertige  tneinungen  fontmt  fitr^ 
geBen,  bag  tavoufi  teidjtlid)  ju  ))roBtren  ift,  baf  toan  man  ^unbertt  ber  ^rogno; 
fticfen  tiffet,  fo  Befinbett  fic^  bod)  gatyr  fetten,  bag  einer  mitt  bent  anbern  concovbtrett, 
ban  fte  Ba\ren  nicE)t  af(e  anff  gfeid)formige  grunbt  iT)n  i^ren  Judiciis  »nb  ^aBen 
»ntf)erfcf)eibti(^e  process  »nb  afynreitungen.     @g  fein  an^  biefe  3litrclogtfd)e 
ireiffagitngen  ieie  ein  cothurnus,  ben  man  fan  auff  ein  jeber  S3ein  ^ie^en,  grog 
»nb  f(ein,  trie  man  unff,  barumB  id)  aud)  niemafg  barwon  ethrag  (Sonberticfyg 
geT)atten  f»aBe.     3)ag  i(^  aBer  Jlong.  Wla\.  meinen  ©nebtgften  £erren  iT)arttc^  ein 
fotc^eg  Sljlrotogifi^  Prognosticon  untt)ertenig(i(^  ju^effe,  mug  i(^>  in  bent  nadj 
iT)re  9)?a^.  fcefett  onb  toillcn  t^un,  ivietootf  i$  fetBfi  nic^t  »ttt  barauf  fjatte  tinb 
nid)t  gerne  mitt  fotd)en  jtoeifet^affligcn  praedictionibus  wmBge^e,  barin  man  bie 
eigenttlid)e  irarl)eitt  nidE)t  burd)auf$  erforf^en  mag,  tr-ie  fonf!  in  Geometria  »nb 
Arithmetica,  bavauff  bie  Astronomia  burc^  ^utff  ber  ttfeiffigen  observation 
if)m  tauff  beg  ^pimetg  geBatvet  \t»irtt.    JDennoc^  bietr>etf(  ifyr  ^urftti^e  ®nabe 
gnebigticf>  Begertt  oon  mir  ^u  iriffen,  toet(^en  won  ben  Beiben  id)  BeifeHig  fety,  toag 
ben  dominis  Anni  atfo  tcibertuerttger  toei^  won  it)nen  gefteftet  tfjutt  afinfangen, 
<So  fan  id)  t)ierauff  nii^t  anberg  fagen,  ban  bag  ityrer  Beiben  re^nung  »nb 
iudiciurn  getjtt  au§  ein  oormeinten  onric^tigen  grunbt ;  ban  toeber  bie  Sir^on^ 
ftnif(f)en  noc^  bie  (5cpernianifd)ett  2!aBetn,  twetc^en  fie  fotgen,  geBen  ben  jufien 
tauff  ber  ©onnen,  trie  er  at>n  ftd)  felBll  am  ^pimmet  gefc^tc^tr,  tmb  ift  ^ierinne 
fein  geringe  tmterfd)eibt,  tt»ie  aup  meiner  eigenen  Restitution  »nb  oorneirrung  in 
Otec^nung  beg  tauffg  ber  ©onnen  ju  fel)en  ifl,  tr-efc^e  ic^>  auf  e£lid)e  worge^enbe 
S^aren  burd>  gro^e  »nb  rec^tmeffige  3njirutnenten  augenfc^einti^  »om  -£>imet 
fetBfl  ^cr  aB  burcf>  fteifHge  observation  «nb  ivarnemungen  genomen  fjaBe,  au§ 
iretcf>en  ficf>  Befinbet,  bag  beg  Sfyarg  Slnfang  in  aequinoctio  verno,  barau§  bie 
Astrologi  i1)re  ort^eit  ne^men,  gef^id^t  al)nt  10  tag  SRartii  8^-  f!unbe  nad)  ber 
ttorigen  5Kttterna(f)t,  iretc^g  Bety  7  flunben  fpeber  ifl,  a(g  Slnbreag  {Rofa  gefe^t  ^at, 
unb  12  fhmben  fruer,  atg  XoBiag  3WoUerug  meinett,  barauf  ben  »t)it  ein  anberc 

25 


386  NOTES. 

constitution  beg  fyimetg  jitr  3eitt  beg  aequinoctii  einfettt,  atg  ein  je|ttd)er  ttcn 
ifynen  gefunben  l)at,  tocrauff  and)  ein  ember  yrtl)ei(t  (otgett  ttnb  and)  toot  anbere 
domini  Anni,  toie  fie  eg  nennen,  (baranfj  bod)  nid)t  »t)it  £U  tjoten  ijl),  mogen 
gefe|t  toerben.  SBag  aBer  meine  tneinung  fet)  afyntangenbe  9tilrotca,ifd)e  giving 
»Ber  big  funfftige  88  Sfyar,  1)aBe  id)  Jtonigt.  2ftaty.  nteiuen  gnebigfien  ^>erren  il)tt 
einen  gefdjttefcenen  Prognostick  i)ntertenig(i(^  auffgejeignett,  toe{4^  id?  aucf)  i{)re 
©nabe  gerne  icolte  yntertenigtic^  mitteilen,  aBer  id)  tyab  feme  »6crigc 
barton,  lean  if)v  ^uvftlic^e  @nabe  lafiet  Bc^  if>r  SKa^.  barumB  a^ntan* 
gen,  toivb  i^r  Ourjl.  @na.  toot  ein  aBf^rifft  bar  son  Befcmen.  3^1  Bin  tartnne 
genfclid)  nid)t  ber  ntetnung,  bap  foldje  ga^r  grofe  »orenberunge  in  btefen  negjis 
funfttgen  Sfjar  »crt)anben  (ein,  al3  bie  Astrologi  aup  e|ltd)en  atten  reimen,  bie 
fie  ben  Eegiomontano  junteffen,  furgeBen,  ban  id)  Befinbe  im  Sonjittution  be^ 
^intel0  feine  ©onberUc^e  »rfac^en  barjn,  fonbern  ac^te,  bag  big  fnnffttge  Sfjar 
njtrb  ben  t>ovgef)enben  gteic^me§ig  (ein  »nb  in  jitnlic^en  guten  toe(en  in  atten 
@a^en  (tc^)  erjeigen,  ateine  too  juuor  frteg  $nb  t»neintgfettt  auffertoecft  ijl,  bar 
ttto'cfyte  eg  toot  etttoag  toeitter  einreijjen.  S5nb  fan  i^r  ^itrjilt^e  gnabe  metne 
nteinung  »om  Slilvotogi((^en  judicio  »Ber  bag  gan|e  3t;ar  aufj  »orBentetten 
Prognostico,  toetc^g  ic^>  Jto'ng.  3Ka^.  ntcinen  gnebigjlen  t)erven  wttertettigticfy 
tjaBe  gugeftcflt,  toeitter  evfa^ren.  2)t8  t)aBe  ic^  auff  bein  gutttoilttgeg  ((^reiBen 
»nb  Beger  nict)t  tootten  tontt)ertaf[en  ju  anttoorten.  95ittc  gar  beinfttid),  bu 
tootfejl;  »nBe(cf)toert  (ein  »nb  mitt  erfier  getegen§ettt  tt>r  ^urjltic^e  ©nabe  tjierauff 
nteine  anttoort  »nb  nteinunge  wntertenigtic^en  yon  meinetttoegen  jit  i)or|let)n 
geBen.  SBortn  id)  fon(t  itjre  ^nrfiticf)e  gnaben  jn  toitten  »nb  gefatten  (ein 
fan,  Bin  id)  atjeitt  mitt  after  beinfttid)feitt  »ntertenigtic^  erBottig. 

[The  remainder  of  the  letter  is  about  paper  for  Tycho's  "books  ;  see 
above,  p.  163,  footnote.] 


&.— KEPLER'S  ACCOUNT  OF  TYCHO  BRAHE'S  LAST 
ILLNESS. 

[Written  in  the  volume  of  Observations  for  1600-1601.  Compare  Obssrvationes 
Hassiacce,  publicante  W.  Snelllo,  Lugd.  Bat.,  1618,  p.  83.] 

Die  13  Octobris  Tycho  Brahe  Dominum  a  Mincowitz  ad  coenam 
Illustriss.  Domini  a  Rosenberch  comitatus,  retenta  prseter  morem 
urina  consedit.  Cum  paulo  largius  biberetur  sentiretque  vesicaa  ten- 
sionem  valetudinem  civilitati  posthabuit.  Domum  reversus  urinam 
reddere  amplius  haud  potuit. 

Erat  hujus  morbi  initio  ([  in  opposite  \  ,  &  Q]to  $  in  Q,  &  3  eodem 
loco  quern  sibi  Tycho  orientem  gradum  constituerat. 

Transactis  quinque  diebus  insomnibus,  cum  gravissimo  cruciatu  vix 
tandem  urina  processit,  &  nihilominus  impedita.  Insomnia  sequeban- 
tur  perpetua,  febris  interna  &  paulatim  delirium,  ratione  victus,  a  qua 
prohiberi  non  poterat,  malum  exasperante.  Ita  die  24  Octobris  cum 
delirium  aliquot  horis  remisisset,  victa  natura  inter  consolationes,  preces 
&  suorum  lachrymas  placidissime  expiravit. 


NOTES. 


387 


Ab  hoc  itaque  tempore  series  observationum  Coelestinm  interrupta 
est,  fmisque  impositus  38  annorum  observationibus. 

Nocte,  quam  ultimam  habuit,  per  delirium,  quo  omnia  suavissima 
fuere,  creberrime  hsec  verba  iteravit,  quasi  qui  carmen  texit. 
Nefrustra  vixisse  videar. 

Quern  procul  dubio  ceu  colophonem  operibus  suis  addere,  eaque  his 
verbis  Posteritatis  memorise  &  usibus  dedicare  voluit. 


E.—  COMPARISON  OF  TYCHO  BRAHE'S  POSITIONS  OF 
STANDARD  STARS  WITH  MODERN  RESULTS. 

The  following  table  gives  the  places  for  1586  (anno  1585  com- 
pleto)of  Tycho's  nine  standard  stars  (Progymn.,p.  204),  and  their  posi- 
tions for  the  same  epoch,  computed  from  those  of  Bradley  for  1755, 
with  the  proper  motions  of  Auwers  (Neue  Reduction  der  Bradley'schen 
Beobachtungeji,  vol.  ii.). 


Observed  All. 

Observed  Dec. 

Computed  AR. 

Computed  Dec. 

a  Arietis  . 

26°     o'  30" 

+  21°  28'   30" 

26°    o'  44/'7 

+  2i°27'33".o 

a  Tauri     .     . 

63      3   45 

+  15     36     15 

63     4    1  1.  2 

+  i5   35  35-6 

//,  Geminorum 

89    29    10 

+  22     38     30 

90  28  41.0 

+  22  37  48.5 

/3  Geminorum 

109    58     o 

+  28    57  45 

109  57   47-9 

+  28  56  19.1 

a  Leonis    .     . 

146    32   45 

+  13    57    45 

146  33    19.7 

+  13  56  56.9 

a  Virginis 

195    52    10 

-   8    56   20 

195   52   36.4 

-    8    58    22.0 

5  Ophiuchi    . 

238      1  1     20 

-   2    33    15 

238    ii      9.8 

-   2   33  21.5 

a  Aquilse  . 

292    37   20 

+  7    51    20 

292  38    36.2 

+  7   50  35-8 

a  Pegasi   .     . 

341         2     30 

+  13      o   40 

34i     3      i-3 

+  12  59  47.1 

The  differences  between  Bradley  and  Tycho  are  shown  in  the  next 
table.  The  effect  of  refraction  (which  Tycho  thought  insensible  above 
Zen.  Dist.  70°  or  Declination-  14°  for  Uraniborg),  is  seen  at  a  glance, 
and  I  have  therefore  in  the  last  column  given  the  difference  of  declina- 
tion corrected  for  mean  refraction. 


BRADLEY  MINUS  TYCHO. 

A  a 

A  a  cos  S 

AS 

A  6' 

a  Arietis 

+  14"-  7 

+  1  3"-  7 

-57"-o 

-i7"-4 

a  Tauri 

+  26.2 

+  25.2 

-39-4 

+  9.6 

fji,  Geminorum 

-29.0 

-26.7 

-4i-5 

-   3-6 

j3  Geminorum 

-  I2.I 

-  10.6 

-85.9. 

-56-5 

a  Leonis 

+  347 

+  337 

-48.1 

+  4-4 

a  Virginis      . 
5  Ophiuchi    . 

+  26.4 

-  IO.2 

+  26.1 

-  10.2 

-  I22.O 

+  0.6 
+  88.1 

a  Aquilse 

+  76.2 

+  75-4 

-44.2 

+  19-5 

a  Pegasi 

+  31-3 

+  30.4 

-52.9 

-    O.I 

388  NOTES. 

From  the  third  and  fifth  columns  we  find  the  probable  errors  of 
Tycho's  standard  right  ascensions  =  +  24".!,  and  of  his  standard  declina- 
tions =  +  2  5". 9.  Of  course  the  accuracy  of  most  of  his  star-places  must 
be  much  less,  as  they  were  neither  as  often  nor  as  carefully  determined 
as  those  of  the  standard  stars,  and  were  vitiated  not  only  by  refraction, 
but  also  by  aberration  and  nutation.  See  above,  pp.  351  and  353. 


F.—ON  THE  ALLEGED  ERROR  OF  TYCHO'S  MERIDIAN 
LINE. 

In  order  to  remove  any  doubt  which  the  reader  might  have  as  to  the 
correctness  of  the  opinion  set  forth  above  on  p.  360,  that  the  azimuth 
error  of  15'  detected  in  some  of  the  instruments  in  November  1586  does 
not  prove  all  Tycho's  instruments  to  have  been  erroneously  placed 
during  all  the  years  previous  to  1586,  I  have  tested  the  matter  by 
calculation.  Azimuths  were  never  very  extensively  observed  at  Hveen, 
and  the  only  series  of  observations  sufficient  for  my  purpose  was  that 
made  in  the  beginning  of  1582,  when  a  number  of  altitudes  and  azi- 
muths of  bright  stars  were  measured.  Many  of  these  were  taken  too 
near  the  meridian  to  be  of  any  use  in  this  case,  but  there  are  many 
observations  made  in  the  prime  vertical,  by  which  a  great  error  in  the 
assumed  zero  of  the  azimuth  circle  would  easily  be  detected.  I  have 
made  use  of  all  the  observations  taken  in  or  near  the  prime  vertical 
during  March  1582  (except  of  a  few  which  were  vitiated  by  some  great 
error  of  copying,  observing,  or  in  the  identification  of  the  star),  and  of 
one  observation  of  a  Tauri  in  azimuth  69°  on  February  25.*  The  fol- 
lowing mean  declinations  for  1 582  were  computed  from  Auwers'  Bradley 
the  reductions  to  apparent  declinations  for  ist  March  being  appended : — 

a  Tauri +  15°  35'  o"  +    4" 

|8  Herculis +  22  27  50  -  20 

K  Ophiuchi +  10  5  45  -  17 

a  Herculis +  14  56  20  -  12 

a  Ophiuchi +  12  56  14  -  18 

a  Lyrae +  38  26  50  -  19 

j8  Cygni +  27  8  32  -  10 

i  Cygni +  50  52  36  -  18 

7  Cygni +  38  57  48  -  12 

Assuming  the  observed  altitudes  to  be  correct,  the  azimuth  cor- 
responding to  each  altitude  was  computed  by  the  formula 

»  _  sin  (f)  sin  h  —  sin  § 
cos  0  cos  h 

1  Historia  Ccdestis,  p.  34  et  seq.  My  copy  of  this  work  formerly  belonged  to 
Professor  Schjellerup  of  Copenhagen,  who  corrected  a  great  many  of  the  errors 
in  the  observations  of  fixed  stars  (by  comparing  with  Bartholin's  copy)  including 
fortunately  those  of  1582. 


NOTES.  389 

in  which  8  is  the  apparent  declination,  h  the  observed  altitude  corrected 
for  refraction,  and  $  the  latitude  of  Uraniborg,  55°  54'  26".  The  com- 
puted and  observed  azimuths  were  found  to  be  in  excellent  agreement, 
the  differences  only  in  nine  cases  exceeding  3'.  Thirty-six  observations 
of  nine  stars  gave  the  correction  to  the  observed  azimuths  (counted  from 
o°  to  360°  from  south  through  west)  =  -o'.4  +  o'^o.  Of  course  this 
result  is  affected  by  the  errors  of  observation  in  the  altitudes,  but  at 
any  rate  it  shows  most  conclusively  that  Tycho  Brahe's  azimuth  circles 
were  adjusted  with  the  same  care  which  we  have  seen  he  bestowed  on 
his  other  instruments  ;  and  the  assertion  that  Tycho  from  1579  to  1586 
had  all  his  instruments  set  1 5'  wrong  in  azimuth  is  hereby  proved  to 
have  been  utterly  without  foundation.  , 


G.—HUETS  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  STATE  OF  HVEEN  IN  1652. 

[From  P.  D.  Huetii  Commentarius  de  rebus  ad  eum  pertinentibus,  Amsterdam, 
1718,  i2mo.  After  describing  the  great  celestial  globe,  the  author  relates  how 
he  started  for  Hveen,  with  only  one  companion,  on  the  a6th  May  1652,  and  after 
telling  the  story  about  the  origin  of  the  name  of  Insula  Scarlatina  and  praising  the 
hospitable  reception  by  the  Lutheran  clergyman,  he  continues  on  p.  86.] 

Humaniter  ergo  excepti,  postquam  paululum  interquievimus,  multa 
ab  hospite  nostro,  aliisque  adstantibus  Huense  incolis  percontatus  sum 
de  Tychone,  deque  Vraniburgica  arce,  cujus  visendae  gratia  istuc  venis- 
sem  :  quodque  mirere,  incognita  sibi  esse  hsec  nomina  uno  ore  professi 
sunt  onmes,  nee  quicquam  se  de  iis  accepisse.  At  cum  virum  quemdam 
valde  senem  superesse  rescivissem  in  insula,  misi  qui  eum  ad  me  addu- 
cerent.  Eogatus  ille  a  me  numquid  de  Tychone  Braheo  inaudisset 
aliquando,  deque  condita  olim  ab  eo  istic  arce  quam  Vraniburgi  nomine 
decorasset,  &  per  annos  unum  &  viginti  incoluisset ;  se  vero  respondit 
non  Tychonem  modo  &  Vraniburgum  nosse,  sed  &  in  Tychonis 
famulatu  fuisse  per  aliquod  tempus,  &  operam  quoque  suam  ad  hanc 
exstruendam  arcem  contulisse.  Tychonem  autem  referebat  hominem 
fuisse  violentum,  impotentem,  iracundum,  famulos  &  villicos  male 
multantem,  ebriosum  quoque  et  mulierosum  ;  cum  uxorem  duxisset 
ex  infima  natalis  villse  suse  Knudstrupii  plebe  rustica,  ex  qua  liberos 
multos  suscepisset,  atque  hac  affinitate,  velut  sibi  probrosa,  magnopere 
offensam  fuisse  illustrem  Braheorum  gentem.  Turn  subjecit  bonus  ille 
vir,  si  istuc  venissem  spectandi  Vraniburgi  causa,  irritum  me  laboreiri 
suscepisse,  quippe  solo  sequata  omnia,  vixque  superesse  parietinarum 
vestigia.  Cujus  rei  causas  cum  ab  eo,  &  jam  ante  Hafnise  a  viris  doctis 
exquisivissem,  varias  ac  plane  discrepantes  commemorabant.  Hi  enim 
Tychonem  ipsum,  e  Dania  excedentem  opus  suum  diruisse  dicebant, 
cum  satis  tamen  constet  res  suas  Huenicas  &  Vraniburgicas  colono  & 
fainulis  aliquot  procurandas  reliquisse  ;  quippe  fundi  hujus  fructus  in 
totum  vitse  tempus  fuisse  ei  a  Frederico  Rege  concessos.  Erant  qui 
dicerent  hostiles  Suecorum  copias  pervasisse  in  insulam,  stragemque 


390  NOTES. 

hanc  edidisse  ;  quod  non  ignorasset  profecto  vetus  ille  Huense  incola 
qui  ad  turbidas  Freti  Sundici  tempestates  &  rapidissimos  ventos  rei 
causam  referebat ;  quibus  facile  concussse  fuerant  sedes  leviter  materi- 
atse  :  cum  prsesertim  de  tuendis  sartis  tectis  Astronomicse  domus  parum 
omnino  laborarent  aulici  viri,  quibus  clientelse  jure,  post  Tychonem, 
Eegis  beneficio  obtigerat. 


H.— CATALOGUE  OF  THE  VOLUMES  OF  MANUSCRIPT 
OBSERVATIONS  OF  TYCHO  BRAHE  IN  THE  ROYAL 
LIBRARY,  COPENHAGEN. 

[Compiled  by  means  of  the  list  in  Bugge's  Obsemutiones  astronomicce  (1784), 
compared  with  the  library  catalogues  and  the  volumes  themselves,  with  the  kind 
assistance  of  Dr.  C.  Bruun,  chief  librarian.  The  MSS.  form  part  of  the  so-called 
Old  Royal  collections,  Gamle  Kongelige  Samlinger,  the  numbers  of  which  are 
added  in  brackets.] 

I.  Original  Observations. 

Observationes  astronomies  a  solstitio  Hiberno  anni  1577  ad  annum 
1582  ;  maxima  ex  parte  autographum,  4to,  197  ff.  [No.  1825,  4to.] 

Observationes  ab  anno  1582  usque  ad  annum  1587  ;  ex  parte  autogr. 
In  folio,  500  ff.  [No.  311,  foL] 

Observationes  astronomicse  ab  anno  1587  ad  1590  usque  ad  Jan.  26. 
In  folio,  344  ff.  [No.  312,  fol.] 

Observationes  astronomicse  ab  anno  1590  usque  ad  a.  1595.  In  folio, 
340  ff.  [No.  313  foL] 

Observationes  planetarum  super  annum  1595  institutes.  In  folio,  173 
ff.  [No.  314  fol.] 

Observationes  cometae  anni  1590,  iiec  non  cometae  1596  apparentis. 
[No.  315  fol.] 

Observationes  planetarum  et  fixarum  anno  1596  et  1597  ad  d.  15  Mart.  ; 
narratio  de  occasione  interruptarum  observationum  et  discessus 
mei ;  obs.  continuatse  Wandesburgi  a  20  Oct.  1597.  Adjectus  est 
in  fine  catalogue  fixarum  ad  annum  1588  completum.1  In  folio, 
151  ff  [No.  316  fol.] 

Liber  observationum  Tychoiiis  Brane  pro  1 598  Wandesburgi,  nee  non 
Observationes  astronomicse  factse  Wittebergse  a  solstitio  hyberno 
prsecedente  annum  1599,  et  varise  alise  in  Arce  Benatica  factae 
eodem  anno.  In  folio,  167  ff.  [No.  317  fol.] 

Observationes  astronomicse  annorum  1600  et  1601  in  Arce  Caesarea 
regni  Bohemici  Benatica  &  Pragse  habitae  per  instrument*  Tychonis 
Brahe.  Accedunt  observationes,  quas  anno  1600  factas  Keplerus  e 
Stiria  Tychoni  misit.  In  folio,  171  ff.  [No.  318  fol.] 

Observationes  [autographse]  cometarum  a.  1577  et  a.  I58oet  observa- 

1  The  catalogue  has  columns  for  RA,  Decl.,  Long.,  Lat.,  and  Magn.,  but  very 
little  has  been  filled  in. 


NOTES.  391 

tiones  [apographse]  cometarum  qui  annis  1582,  1585,  1590,  1593  et 
1596  apparuerunt.1     4to.     [No.  1 826,  4to.] 

2.  Copies  of  Observations,  Miscellaneous  Computations,  &c. 

Observationes  Lipsia3  annis  1563-65,  Rostochii  1568,  Augustas  Vinde- 
licorum  1569-70,  Heridsvadi,  Hafniae  et  in  insula  Hvena  1573-81 
factse,  prsemissis  excerptis  ex  observationibus  G.  Frisii  et  Regio- 
montani.2  4to,  280  ff.  modern  binding.  [No.  1824.  4to.] 

Observationes  septem  Cometarum  1577-96.     4to.     [No.  1827,  4to.] 

Fasciculus  continens  theoriam  Solis  per  Observationes  Lunse  ad  ilium 
et  fixas,  Lunaria  1582,  1586,  1590,  1593.  Observationes  Veneris 
1586,  Jovis  1593,  Saturni  1590.  4to,  145  fol.,  modern  binding. 
[No.  1830,  4to.] 

Computatio  observationum  Solis,  Lunse  et  planetarum  1599  et  1600  & 
comparatio  cum  tabulis.  4to.  [No.  1829,  4to.] 

Fasciculus  observationum  Brunei,  variorum  annorum  ex  quibus  1590 
1598,  1599  et  1600  expressi  sunt.  Addita  sunt  excerpta  ex 
quodam  libro  MSo  ex  collegio  Pragensi  a  M.  Baccliatio  Tychon, 
communicata.  4to,  478  ff.,  modern  binding.  [No.  1828,  4to.]  3 

Tyclionis  Brahei  stellarum  octavi  orbis  inerrantium  accurata  resti- 
tutio.  [No.  306,  fol.,  presentation  copy  to  King  Christian  IV.] 

Idem  liber  [No.  307,  fol.,  presented  to  Johannes  Adolph,  Bishop  of 
Liibeck.] 

Observationes  qusedam  astronomicse  habitae  1 5  89  per  Quadrantem  orichal- 
cicum  Tychonis  Brahe,  divisionum  satis  capacem,  in  diversis  locis 
Danise  ad  eruendas  eorum  Poli  elevationes.  4to.  [No.  1831,  4to,  by 
Elias  Olai,  see  above  p.  123,  footnote.] 

Collectio  observationum  Tychonis  Brahei  in  L.  Baretti  Historia  Coel- 
esti  omissarum  per  Erasmum  Bartholinum.  In  Folio.4  [No.  310, 
fol.,  includes  the  observations  of  comets.] 

1  The  original  observations  of  the  comets  of  1582  and  1585  are  in  the  folio 
volume  for  1582-86. 

2  These  excerpts  fill  two  leaves.     There  are  also  some  notes  on  the  comets  after 
the  year  1500,  and  among  the  observations  are  astrological  notes  and  comparisons 
with  ephemerides.     In  several  places  the  observations  have  afterwards  been 
verified  or  reduced  by  means  of  the  great  globe,  e.g.,  under  1570,  5th  March, 
where  there  is  written  in  the  margin  :  "  Manu  Christiani  Severini  Longomontani 
recentius  scriptum  ;"  and  on  the  next  page  :  "Manu  Tychonis,  sed  recentius,  scrip- 
turn."     This  volume  has  often  been  quoted  above  in  Chapters  ii.  to  v.     It  is  the 
volume  referred  to  in  Connaissance  des  Temps  for  1820,  p.  386. 

3  I  have  not  seen  this  volume  myself.     Dr.  Bruun  informs  me  that  it  has 
originally  consisted  of  two  bundles,  the  first  begins  "Observationes  ©  Die  27 
Februarii,"  and  consists  of  260  leaves  ;  the  second  is  headed  "  Astronomic^  Obser- 
vationes anni  1598,"  and  consists  of  218  leaves.     It  is  written  in  the  same  hand 
as  No.  1829,  4to.     Bugge's  No.  6  (p.  xvii.  last  two  lines)  could  not  be  identified, 
and  the  last  and  third  last  items  on  Bartholin's  list  (Werlauff's  Historiske  Efter- 
rctninger  om  del  store  kgl.  BiUinthek,  1844,  p.  54)  are  not  now  at  the  Royal 
Library.     One  of  these  is  an  8vo  volume  of  observations,  1563-74  (originals?), 
which  probably  was  lost  in  Paris,  or  on  the  way  back  in  1707. 

4  Bartholin's  corrected  copy  of  Barrettus  is  mentioned  above  p.  374. 


392  NOTES. 

About  the  copies  of  observations  in  the  Hofbibliothek  at  Vienna  and 
at  the  Paris  Observatory,  see  above,  p.  372  et  seq.  The  three  astro- 
logical MSS.  [No.  1820-21,  1822,  1823,  4to]  are  described  above,  p.  145 


I.— BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  SUMMARY. 

The  titles  of  Tycho  Brahe's  own  publications  (including  the  posthu- 
mous Oratio  de  disciplinis  mathematicis  and  the  observations  published 
by  Snellius  and  in  the  Historia  Ccelestis)  have  already  been  given  in 
full  in  the  text.  The  following  is  a  complete  chronological  catalogue  of 
books  and  memoirs  containing  biographical  details  or  investigations  of 
Tycho's  scientific  work,  omitting  popular  accounts  in  which  nothing  new 
occurs. 

Tychonis  Brahei,  Equitis  Dani,  Astronomorum  Coryphaei,  Vita. 
Authore  Petro  Gassendo,  Regio  Matheseos  Professore.  Accessit 
Nicolai  Copernici,  G.  Peurbachii  &  J.  Regiomontani,  Astrono- 
morum celebrium  Vita.  Editio  secunda,  auctior  &  correction 
Hagse  Comitum  MDCLV.  4to,  Ix.  +  384  pp.  [of  which  287  pp. 
about  Tycho  Brahe ;  ist  edition  published  in  1654  ;  pagination  of 
the  two  editions  agree.  About  Gassendi's  sources,  see  his  letters 
in  his  Opera,  vol.  vi.  pp.  518-527]. 

Encomion  Regni  Daniae.  Det  er  Danmarckes  Riges  Lof.  Af  J.  L. 
Wolf.  Kjobenhavn,  1654.  4to  [pp.  525-529  about  the  island  of 
Hveen]. 

Le  Grand  Atlas  ou  cosmographie  Blaviane,  en  laquelle  est  exactment 
descritte  la  terre,  la  mer  et  le  ciel.  A  Amsterdam,  1663,  fol. 
[Large  map  of  Hveen,  with  letterpress  in  vol.  i.  p.  61  et  seq.,  and 
figures  of  Tycho's  instruments.] 

P.  J.  Resenii  Inscriptions  Hafnienses,  Stellseburgenses,  Uranibur- 
genses,  &c.  Hafnise,  1668.  4to  [p.  310  et  seq.  are  given  a  number 
of  inscriptions  at  Uraniborg  and  Stjerneborg,  and  a  letter  from 
Tycho  Brahe  to  Peucer,  all  of  which  are  reprinted  by  Weistritz 
in  his  first  volume]. 

Voyage  d'Uranibourg  ou  Observations  astronomiques  faites  en  Dane- 
marck,  par  M.  Picard.  Paris,  1681,  fol.  [Reprinted  in  the 
Recueil  des  observations  faites  en  plusieurs  voyages,  Paris, 
1693,  fol.  ;  and  inPicard's  Ouvrages  de  inathematiques,  Amster- 
dam, 1736,  4to,  pp.  61-99.] 

Epistolae  ad  Joannem  Kepplerum  scriptse.  Ed.  M.  G.  Hanschius. 
Lipsiae,  1718,  fol.  [On  pp.  102  et  seq.  letters  from  Tycho,  see 
above,  p.  290  et  seqJ\ 

Pet.  Dan.  Huetii,  Episcopi  Abrincensis,  Commentarius  de  rebus  ad 
eum  pertinentibus.    Amstelodami,  1719.    i2mo  [pp.  81-89  about 
Tycho  Brahe  and  Hveen]. 
Tychonis  Brahe  relatio  de  statu  suo  post  discessum  ex  patria  in  Ger- 


NOTES.  393 

maniam  et  Bohemiam  ad  M.  Andr.  Velleium  ex  manuscripto 
edita  a  G.  B.  Casseburg.  Jenae,  1730.  4to,  23  pp.  [The  same 
is  more  correctly  printed  in  Danische  Bibliothec  oder  Sammlung 
von  alten  und  neuen  gelehrten  Sachen  aus  Danemarck,  III. 
Stuck.  Copenhagen,  1740.  8vo,  p.  177  et  seqJ] 

Singularia  historico-literaria  Lusatica,  oder  historische  und  gelehrte 
Merckwiirdigkeiten  derer  beyden  Marggrafthumer  Ober-  und 
Nieder-Lausitz,  27ete  Sammlung,  1743.  8vo  [contains,  p.  177  et 
seq.,  four  letters  from  Tycho  to  Scultetus,  see  above,  p.  133]. 

Cimbria  Literata.  A  Joh.  Mollero.  Hafnise,  1744.  Tom.  ii.,  fol. 
[contains  on  pp.  103-118  a  biography  of  Tycho  Brahe,  with  some 
interesting  details]. 

Samling  af  adskillige  nyttige  og  opbyggelige  Materier,  saa  vel  gamle 
som  nye.  Kjobenhavn,  1745.  8vo,  v.-vii.  Stykke  [vol.  ii.]  ;  Den 
store  vidtberomte  Danske  Astronomus  .  .  .  Tyge  Brahe  .  .  . 
Hans  Liv  og  Endeligt.  [By  Mag.  Malthe  and  the  editor,  0. 
Bang,  fills  about  183  pp.,  chiefly  founded  on  Gassendi,  but  also 
containing  a  few  new  details]. 

Portraits  historiques  des  hommes  illustres  de  Danemark.  Par  T. 
de  Hofman.  Sixieme  Partie.  Copenhague,  1 746.  4to  [pp.  2-30 
life  of  Tycho  Brahe,  some  new  documents]. 

Danske  Magazin,  indeholdende  allehaande  Smaa-Stykker  og  Anmserk- 
ninger  til  Historiens  og  Sprogets  Oplysning.  Andet  Bind. 
Kjobenhavn,  1746.  4to.  [Nos.  18  to  24,  pp.  161-372,  "Kare  og 
utrykte  Efterretninger  om  Tyge  Brahe,"  by  Jacob  Langebek. 
In  vol.  iii.,  1747,  there  is  an  account  of  Tycho's  sister  Sophia,  pp. 
12-32  and  43-53,  in  which  occurs  the  only  known  Danish  poem 
by  Tycho  Brahe.  The  engravings  in  vol.  ii.  are  borrowed  from 
Hofman's  Portraits.] 

Lebensbeschreibung  des  beriihmten  und  gelehrten  Danischen  Stern- 
sehers,  Tycho  von  Brahe,  aus  der  Danischen  Sprache  in  die 
Deutsche  ubersetzt  von  Philander  von  der  Weistritz.  Kopen- 
hagen  und  Leipzig,  1756.  2  vols.  8vo.  [Vol.  i.  is  a  translation  of 
the  biography  in  Bang's  Samling,  vol.  ii.  of  the  papers  in  Danske 
JMagazin,  vol.  ii. ;  the  Danish  original  mentioned  in  Houzeau 
and  Lancaster's  Bibliographic,  vol.  ii.,  Ko.  6193,  never  existed. 
The  portrait  is  borrowed  from  Hofman.  The  translator's  name 
was  C.  G.  Mengel.] 

Observations  de  Mars  faites  en  1593  par  T.  B.,  tirees  des  manu- 
scrits  par  J.  de  Lalande.  Memoires  de  1'Acad.  des  sc.  de  Paris, 

1757; 

Observations  de  Saturne  et  de  Jupiter  en  1593  par  Tycho.  Ibid, 
1763.  [See  above,  p.  375.] 

Om  Forskiellen  imellem  Tycho  Brahes  og  Picards  Meridian  af 
Uraniborg.  Ved  [J.  S.]  Augustin.  Skrifter,  som  udi  det  Kgl- 
Videnskabernes  Selskab  ere  fremlagde  og  nu  til  Trykken  befor- 
drede.  XII.  Bind.  Kjobenhavn,  1779.  4to>  PP-  191-216. 

Histoire  de  1'Astronomie  inoderne.     Par  M.  Bailly.     Tome  i.     Paris, 


394  NOTES. 

1779.  4to  [pp.  377-389,  398-424  contain  an  account  of  Tycho's 
scientific  work]. 

Samraenligning  mellem  de  1672  af  Hr.  Picard  og  de  nyere  i  Skaane 
gjorte  Observationer  og  Opmaalinger  for  at  bestemme  de  tre 
Punkters,  Uraniborgs,  Rundetaarns  og  Lund's  Observatoriers 
Situation.  Af  C.  C.  Lous.  Nye  Sarnling  af  det  kgl.  Danske 
Videnskabernes  Selskabs  Skrifter.  I.,  1781.  4to,  pp.  142-155. 

Observationes  astronomicae  annis  1781,  1782,  &  1783  institutes  in 
observatorio  Kegio  Hafniensi,  auctore  Thoma  Bugge.  Hauniae, 
1784.  4to  [pp.  xiii.-xix.  about  Tycho's  MS.  observations]. 

De  meritis  Tyclionis  Brahe  in  Astronomiam  Mechanicam.  0.  Schil- 
ling et  A.  P.  Weller.  Upsaliae,  1792.  4to,  13  pp.  [Merely  short 
descriptions  of  Tycho's  instruments,  and  a  plate  with  twelve 
small  figures  of  them.] 

Geschichte  der  Mathematik.  Von  A.  G.  Kastner.  Zweiter  Band. 
Gottingen,  1797.  8vo  [pp.  377-416  life  of  Tycho,  pp.  613-660 
reviews  of  his  books  ;  compare  vol.  iii.  p.  469]. 

Histoire  des  Mathematiques  par  J.  F.  Montucla.  2me  edition.  1798. 
Tome  i.  4to  [pp.  653-674  about  Tycho  and  his  scientific  work]. 

Geographische  Lange  und  Breite  von  Benatek  wo  Tycho  Brahe  vor  203 
Jahren  beobachtet  hat  .  .  .  Von  Aloys  David.  Abhandlungen 
der  Konigl.  Bohm.  Gesellschaft  der  Wissenschaften.  Prag,  1802. 
[Resume  in  Zach's  Monatliche  Correspondenz,  vi.,  1802,  p.  468 
etseq.] 

Trigonometrische  Vermessungen  zur  Verbindung  der  K.  Prager 
Sternwarte  mit  deni  Lorenzberg,  und  zur  Bestimmung  der 
geogr.  Breite  und  Lange  des  Ortes  auf  dem  Hradschin,  wo 
Tycho  Brahe  beobachtet.  Abhandlungen,  &c.  Prag,  1805. 
[Resume  in  Monatl.  Corr.,  xii.  p.  248]. 

Meridienne  d'Uranibourg.  Par  M.  Delambre.  Connaissance  des 
Terns  pour  1'an  1816.  Paris,  1813,  pp.  229-239. 

Extrait  d'urie  lettre  de  M.  Schumacher.  Connaissance  des  Terns  pour 
1'an  1820,  pp.  385-387  [also  about  the  meridian,  compare  Zach's 
Correspondence  astronomique,  Tome  L,  pp.  338  and  402]. 

Histoire  de  1'Astronomie  moderne  par  M.  Delambre.  Tome  i.  Paris, 
1821.  4to  [pp.  148-260  reviews  of  Tycho's  principal  books]. 

Astronomische  Nachrichten,  No.  63  (Band  iii.).  [On  an  album  be- 
longing to  Tycho's  son,  and  on  a  portrait  of  Tycho  in  water- 
colours  (above,  p.  263),  by  Biela.] 

Fornlemningar  af  Tycho  Brahes  Stjerneborg  och  Uraniborg  pa  Oen 
Hven,  aftackte  aren  1823  och  1824.  Stockholm,  1824.  8vo,  27 
pp.,  i  plate. 

Samlingar  for  Nordens.  Fornalskare.  Tredje  Tomen.  Af  N.  H. 
Sjoborg.  Stockholm,  1830.  4to  [pp.  71-83  about  the  state  of 
Hveen  in  1814,  with  2  plates], 

Tycho  de  Brahe  als  Homeopath.  Von  W.  Olbers.  Schumacher's 
Jahrbuch  fiir  1836,  pp.  98-100. 

Letter  from  Tycho  Brahe  to  Thomas  Savelle.     A  collection  of  letters 


NOTES.  395 

illustrative  of  the  progress  of  science  in  England  .  .  .  edited  by 
J.  O.  Halliwell.     London,  1841.    8vo,  pp.  32-33. 

Historiske  Efterretninger  om  clet  store  kongelige  Bibliothek  i  Kjoben- 
havn.  Ved  E.  C.  Werlauff.  2den  Udgave.  Kjobenhavn,  1844. 
8vo  [52-60  and  p.  411,  about  Tycho's  MSS.  at  Copenhagen]. 

Observations  cometae  anni  1585  Uraniburgi  habitse  a  Tychone  Brahe. 
Edidit  H.  C.  Schumacher.  Altonae,  1845.  4to>  32  PP-?  2  plates. 

Urania,  Aarbog  for  1846,  udgiven  af  J.  L.  Heiberg.  Kjobenhavn. 
8vo  [pp.  55-170,  Hveen  tilforn  Danmarks  Observatorium,  on  the 
state  of  the  ruins  at  Hveen  in  1845,  with  14  plates]. 

T.  B.  Mikowec  :  T.  Brahe  ;  ziwotopisni  nastin,  ku  300  lete  pamatce 
jeho  narozeni.  Prag,  1847.  8 vo  [contains  some  information  about 
the  fate  of  Tycho's  relations  after  his  death]. 

Bestimmung  der  Bahn  des  Cometen  von  1585  nach  den  .  .  .  Origi- 
nalbeobachtungen  Tycho's.  Astronomische  Nachrichten,  Band 
xxix.  pp.  209-276.  [By  C.  A.  F.  Peters,  the  most  important 
investigation  of  the  accuracy  of  Tycho's  observations.  About 
the  orbits  of  the  other  comets,  see  above,  p.  159  et  seq.~] 

De  hellige  tre  Konger  Kapel  i  Eoskilde  Domkirke.  Af  E.  C. 
Werlauff.  Kjobenhavn,  1849  [P-  I7  et  se(l-  about  Tycho's  pre- 
bend]. 

Historiske  Efterretninger  om  Anders  Sorensen  Vedel.  Af  C.  F. 
Wegener,  291  pp.  fol.  [Appendix  to  Den  Danske  Kronike  af 
A.  S.  Vedel,  trykt  paany.  Kjobenhavn,  1851.] 

Danske  Magazin.  Tredie  Ksekke.  3die  Bind  [pp.  79-80,  Letter 
from  Tycho  Brahe  to  Valkendorf  of  1 598].  4de  Bind  [pp.  263- 
264,  Royal  Letter  to  Tycho  Brahe  about  the  tenant  Rasmus 
Pedersen,  of  17  November  1592]. 

Ueber  den  neuen  Stern  vom  Jahre  1572.  Von  Prof.  Argelander. 
Astronomische  Nachrichten,  vol.  Ixii.  pp.  273-278. 

Tychonis  Brahe  Dani  Observationes  septem  Cometarum.  Ex  libris 
manuscriptis  qui  Havnise  in  magna  bibliotheca  Regia  adservan- 
tur  nunc  primuin  edidit  F.  R.  Friis.  Havniae,  1867.  4to,  viii.  + 
1 20  pp.,  5  plates. 

Die  Ruinen  von  Uranienborg  und  Stjerneborg  im  Jahre  1868.  Von 
H.  L.  d' Arrest.  Astronomische  Nachrichten,  Ixxii.  pp.  209-224. 

Tycho  Brahe  und  seine  Verhaltnisse  zu  Meklenburg.  Von  G.  C.  F. 
Lisch.  Jahrbiicher  des  Vereins  fur  meklenburgische  Geschichte, 
xxxiv.  20  pp.,  8vo. 

Minder  om  Tyge  Brahes  Ophold  i  Boh  men.  Af  F.  R.  Friis.  Dansk 
Tidsskrift,  i.,  1869,  8vo,  pp.  225-236  and  257-269. 

Tyge  Brahe's  Haandskrifter  i  Wien  og  Prag.  Af  F.  R.  Friis. 
Danske  Samlinger,  iv.,  1869,  8vo,  pp.  250-268. 

Danske  Magazin.  Fjerde  Raekke.  2det  Bind.  Bidrag  til  Tyge 
Brahes  Historic,  af  H.  J.  Rordam,  pp.  16-34  ;  Bidrag  .  .  .  af 
F.  R.  Friis,  pp.  324-328.  [About  Gellius  ;  list  of  some  of 
Tycho's  pupils  ;  the  sale  of  Knudstrup  ;  Parsbjerg's  complaint 
of  Jessenius,  above,  p.  311,  footnote.] 


396  NOTES. 

,  Tyge  Brahe.  rEn  historisk  Fremstilling  efter~  trykte  og  utrykte 
Kilder  af  F.  E.  Friis.  Kjobenhavn,  1871.  8vo,  386  pp. 

"  Tyge  Brahe,  en  historisk  .  .  .  af  F.  R.  Friis,"  kritisk  betragtet  af 
J.  Dreyer.  Kjobenhavn,  1871,  8vo,  19  pp. 

Joannis  Kepleri  Astronomi  Opera  Omnia.  Ed.  C.  Frisch,  8  vols. 
Frankofurti  etErlangse,  1858-71.  8vo.  [Contains  many  abstracts 
from  letters  between  Tycho  and  Kepler,  and  the  Vita  Kepleri  in 
vol.  viii.  is  a  valuable  source  for  the  last  years  of  Tycho's  life.] 

Tycho  Brahe  und  J.  Kepler  in  Prag.  Eine  Studie  von  Dr.  J.  von 
Hasner.  Prag,  1872.  8vo,  47  pp. 

Breve  og  Aktstykker  angaaende  Tyge  Brahe  og  hans  Slsegtninge. 
Samlede  og  udgivne  af  F.  R.  Friis.  Kjobenhavn,  1875,  8vo 
169  pp. 

Tyge  Brahes  meteorologiscke  Dagbog  holdt  paa  Uraniborg  for 
Aarene  1582-1597.  Udgiven  af  det  kgl.  danske  Videnskabernes 
Selskab.  Kjobenhavn,  1876,  8vo,  iv.  +  263  +  Ixxv.  pp. 

On  a  portrait  of  Tycho  Brahe.  By  Samuel  Crompton.  London,  1878 
(Mem.  Lit.  Phil.  Soc.  of  Manchester,  vol.  vi.  pp,  77-81  [compare 
Nature,  xv.  p.  406  and  xvi.  p.  501]. 

Tychonis  Brahei  et  ad  eum  doctorum  virorum  Epistolae  ab  anno 
1568  ad  annum  1587  nunc  primum  collectae  et  editae  a  F.  R.. 
Friis.  Havnise,  1876-86.  4to,  112  pp.,  2  plates. 

Astronomische,  meteor,  und  magn.  Beobachtungen  an  der  K.K. 
Sternwarte  zu  Prag  im  Jahre  1880.  4to  [on  pp.  iii.-iv.  about 
some  instruments  at  Prague  alleged  to  have  been  Tycho's]. 

F.  Dvorsky  :  Nove  zpravy  o  Tychonu  Brahovi  a  jeho  rodine.  Pub- 
lished in  the  6asopis  Musea  Kralovstvi  Ceskeho,  vol.  Ivii.,  1883, 
pp.  60-77. 

Carteggio  inedito  di  Ticone  Brahe,  Giovanni  Keplero  e  di  altri  celebri 
astronomi  e  matematici  dei  secoli  xvi.  e  xvii.  con  Giovanni 
Antonio  Magini.  Tratto  dall'  Archivio  Malvezzi  de'  Medici  in 
Bologna,  pubblicato  ed  illustrato  da  Antonio  Favaro.  Bologna, 
1886.  8vo,  522  pp. 

Tychonis  Brahe  Triangulorum  planorum  et  sphaericorum  Praxis 
Arithmetica.  Qua  maximus  eorum,  praesertim  in  Astronomicis 
usus  compendiose  explicatur.  Nunc  primum  edidit  F.  I.  Stud- 
nifika.  Pragae,  1886,  4to,  2  +  2off.  [Facsimile.] 

Aus  Tycho  Brahe's  Brief wechsel.  Von  F.  Burckhardt.  Wissen- 
schaftliche  Beilage  zum  Bericht  liber  das  Gymnasium  1886-87. 
Basel,  1887.  4to,  28  pp. 

Elias  Olsen  Morsing  og  hans  Observationer.  Ved  F.  R.  Friis. 
Kjobenhavn,  1889.  8vo,  28  pp.  and  4  plates. 


INDEX. 


AALBORG,  friend  of  T.,  23. 

Abul  Hassan,  inclination  of  lunar 

orbit,  343. 
Abul  Wefa,  armillas,  316;  meridian 

circle,  318  ;  lunar  variation,  339. 
Accuracy  of  T.'s  observations,  356, 

387. 

Ahmed  Ibn  Abdallah,  eclipse  of 
year  829,  323. 

Al  Batraki,  trepidation,  355. 

Al  Battani,  time  determinations, 
323 ;  fixed  stars,  354 ;  trepida- 
tion, 355. 

Albumassar,  distance  of  comets,  48. 

Al  Chogandi,  sextant  of,  326,  328. 

Alhazen,  refraction,  80,  334,  336. 

Almegist,  translations  of,  3,  347. 

Alphonsine  tables,  3,  18,  19,  30,  52, 
54,  133,  145,  155,  i75»  334,  355- 

Al  Sagani,  quadrant  of,  328. 

Altitudes  for  time  determinations, 

323,  325: 

Alzerkali,  trepidation,  355. 
Andreas,  servant  of  T.,  272  ;  pupil 

of  T.,  275. 

Annual  equation,  306,  339,  340. 
Apianus,  Peter,  book  on  astronomy, 

6,  79 ;  direction  of  comets'  tails, 

45,   1 66 ;  latitude  of  Konigsberg, 

124. 

Apianus,  Philip,  son  of  Peter,  34. 
Apollonius     of     Perga,     planetary 

system  of,  274,  304. 
Arbuthnot  suggests  to  publish  T.'s 

observations,  375. 
Argelander,    place    of    Nova,    67 ; 

accuracy  of  T.'s  observations,  356. 
Aristarchus,  solar  system,  167. 
Aristillus  used  armillae,  315. 


Aristotle,  ideas  about  comets,  63, 

160. 

Armillas,  315. 
D'Arrest,  region  about  Nova,   67 ; 

ruins  at  Hveen,  379. 
Assistants,  117,  280,  288,  302,  381, 

382. 

Astrolabium,  316,  318. 
Astrology,  practice  of,  21,  24,  49, 

54,  68 ;  oration  on,  74 ;  calendar, 

133;     principles    of,    146;     T.'s 

opinion  of,  155,  384. 
Augsburg,  T.'s  visits  to,  30,  81.    See 

Quadrant. 

Augustin  on  T.'s  meridian  line,  359. 
Aurora  observed  at  Hveen,  206. 
Axelsen,  Cort,  assistant  to  T.,  215, 

384- 
Azimuth,    circles,    321  ;     supposed 

error  of,  358. 

BACHAZEK,  rector,  Prague  Univer- 
sity, 303- 
Bachmeister,  professor  at  Rostock, 

26,  308. 

Barleben  succeeds  T.  at  Hveen,  376. 
Barneweld,  Dutch  statesman,  270. 
Bartholin,  E.,  prepares  to  publish 

T.'s  observations,  373,  374. 
Barwitz,   Austrian  statesman,  269, 

278,  369. 
Basle,  visits  to,  29,  81  ;  T.  proposes 

to  live  at,  84. 

Battus,  professor  at  Rostock,  25. 
Behaim,  geographer,  5. 
Below,  friend  of  T.,  155,  163,  384. 
Benatky   Castle,   description,    281  ; 

new  buildings,   286;     T.  leaves, 

298. 


387 


398 


INDEX. 


Bessarion,  Cardinal,  3. 
Beza  on  new  star,  68. 
Bibliography  of  books  and  memoirs 

of  T.,  392. 
Bille,  Beate,  mother  of  T.,  11,  138, 

284. 

Eske,  relation  of  T.,  284,  308, 

367. 

Steen,  uncle  of  T.,  26,  91,  127, 

201. 
Blaev,  pupil  of  T.,  26,  91,  127;  his 

son  a  printer,  374. 
Bohemia,  state  of,  278. 
Bongars,  French  historian,  137. 
Books  by  T.,  44,  162,  181,  182,  368, 

369,  370. 
Bording,  chancellor  of  Mecklenburg, 

246. 
Brahe,  family,  10. 

Axel,  brother  of  T.,  283. 

Cecily,  daughter  of  T.,  72,  367. 

Christine,  daughter  of  T.,  72. 

Claudius,  son  of  T.,  72. 

Elizabeth,  daughter  of  T.,  72, 

300,  301,  367. 

Erik  (Count  Visingsborg),  310. 

Jorgen,  uncle  of  T.,  12,  22. 

Jorgen,  son  of  T.,  72,  294,  366. 

Jorgen,  nephew  of  T.,  376. 

Magdalene,  daughter  of  T.,  72, 

73,  224,  283,  366,  367. 

Otto,  father  of  T.,  u,  35. 

Sophia,  sister  of  T.,  12,  71,  73, 

201,  302,  306,  367. 

Sophia,   daughter  of  T.,   72, 

366. 

Steen,  brother  of  T.,  35,  223, 

245- 

Tyge  (Tycho),  son  of  T.,  72, 

265,  283,  293,  366. 

Brand eis  Castle,  281. 
Brandenburg,  Elector  of,  intercedes 

for  T.,  255,  258. 
Braun's  map  of  Hveen,  90,  91,  94, 

114. 
Brucaeus,  professor  at  Eostock,  131, 

133,  163,  242. 
Brunswick,  Henry  Julius,  Duke  of, 

visits   T.,   205;    Otto   of,   wants 

horoscope,  285. 
Buchanan,  portrait  of,  100,  203. 


Biirgi,  improves  instruments,  120, 
134,  212,  331;  clocks,  324; 
trigonometrical  formulas,  361. 

Busch  on  new  star,  64. 

GALENDAR  for  1573,  42,  52;  for 
1586,  125  ;  for  King,  156. 

Camerarius,  Joachim,  at  Leipzig, 
17- 

Elias,  at  Frankfurt-on-the- 

Oder,  on  new  star,  60,  61,  63. 

Canonry.     See  Eoskilde. 

Capuchins  at  Prague,  280. 

Cardanus,  69,  166,  349. 

Carellus,  ephemerides,  18. 

Carl  Gustav,  King  of  Sweden,  377. 

Cassel  observatory,  57,  79,  120,  134, 
352. 

Cassiopea,  stars  of,  39,  47,  328,  353. 
See  New  star. 

Chanzler,  inventor  of  transversals, 
330. 

Chemical  studies  of  T.,  36,  128. 

Chiaramonte  on  distance  of  comets, 
160,  371. 

Chinese  observations,  315,  343. 

Christian  IV.  elected  to  the  crown, 
140;  succeeds  to  it,  198;  visits 
Hveen,  214 ;  coronation,  230  ;  T.'s 
letter  to,  243;  reply,  248;  mar- 
riage, 256 ;  T.  sends  books  to,  267. 

Christine,  T.'s  wife,  70,  366. 

Chytraeus,  professor  at  Rostock,  24, 
62,  242. 

Clavius,  subdivision  of  arcs,  223, 
329 ;  trigonometrical  formulae, 
362. 

Clepsydrae,  324. 

Clocks,  324. 

Colding,  pupil  of  T.,  302. 

Cologne,  Elector  of,  T.  applies  to, 
269,  270. 

Comets,  different  classes  of,  45  ; 
nature  of,  63,  160;  parallax,  48, 
131,  165,  208,  305;  direction  of 
tails,  6,  45,  166,  170;  comet  of 
I577>  i3Ji  J58  5  book  on,  162,  272; 
six  other  comets,  160,  161,  162. 

Compass,  T.  repairs  King's,  144. 

Computing,  360. 


INDEX. 


399 


Conjunctions  of  planets,  18,  52,  194, 

195- 

Copenhagen  University,  13, 94,  1 10  ; 
T.'s  house  at,  200,  239. 

Copernicus,  life,  6  ;  commentariolus, 
83  ;  instrument,  103,  125  ;  obser- 
vations, 123  ;  solar  system,  6,  172, 
1 80,  208  ;  T.'s  opinion  of  this,  74  : 
solar  theory,  132,  333,  337  ;  lunar 
theory,  338. 

Corraducius,  German  Vice-Chancel- 
lor, 223,  266,  269,  271,  279,  298. 

Correspondence,  131  ;  with  Land- 
grave and  Rothmann,  134,  135, 
208,  209,  228;  with  Magini,  212, 
271. 

Cosmopolitan  character  of  astro- 
nomy, 115,  261. 

Courland,  Prince  of,  visits  T.,  217. 

Craig,  John,  distance  of  comets,  208, 
305,  369- 

Crol,  T.'s  instrument -maker,  127, 
211. 

Cross-staff,  19,  357,  381. 

Curtius,  Albert,  edits  T/s  observa- 
tions, 371,  372. 

Curtius,  J.,  German  Vice-Chancel- 
lor, 223,  262,  329 ;  his  house  at 
Prague  inhabited  by  T.,  278,  299, 

365. 
Customs  at  Elsinore,  grant  from, 

109,  112. 
Cyprianus.    See  Leovitius. 

DANCEY,  French  envoy,  42,  73,  85, 

93,  I3r- 

Danti,  obliquity  of  ecliptic,  355. 
Dee  on  new  star,  63. 
Diameter   of    sun,   moon,   planets, 

191 ;  of  stars,  191  ;  of  moon,  344. 
Diary,    meteorological,    at    Hveen, 

122. 
Digges  on  new  star,    58,    59 ;    on 

transversal  divisions,  330. 
Dimensions  of  universe,  191. 
Directions,  astrological  term,  148, 

194. 

Disciples.     See  Assistants. 
Dresden,  T.'s  visit  to,  in  1598,  271. 
Duel  of  T.  and  Parsbjerg,  26. 


ECLIPSE  of  sun,  1560,  13;  1567, 
27 ;  I598>  258,  259,  280,  341 ;  lunar, 
21,  26,  53,  55,  272;  observations 
of  eclipses  used  for  lunar  theory, 
337 ;  total  eclipses  denied  by  T., 
344- 

Ekdahl  on  ruins  at  Hveen,  378. 

Elegy  to  Urania,  55  ;  to  Denmark, 
254- 

Elias  Olsen,  assistant  to  T.,  life, 
122 ;  expedition  to  Frauenburg, 
123  •  calendar  for  1586,  125. 

Elixir  of  T.,  130,  283. 

Endowments  of  T.,  108-113. 

Ephemerides  of  Carellus,  18;  Ever- 
hard,  269 ;  Regiomontanus,  5  ; 
Stadius,  14,  17. 

Eriksen,  assistant  to  T.,  301,  367. 

Estate  of  T.,  35,  223;  promised  in 
Bohemia,  279. 

FABRICIUS,  David,  visits  T.,  260, 
288. 

Fabricius,  Paul,  on  new  star,  60,  61. 

Farms,  eleven,  granted  to  T.,  109, 
^  235,  257. 

Ferdinand  I.'s  villa  inhabited  by 
T.,  298,  303. 

Ferdinand  II.,  Emperor,  291,  367, 
^370. 

Fincke,  mathematician,  "mission  to 
Hveen,  240. 

Fishponds  at  Hveen,  114,  257. 

Flemlose,  assistant  to  T.,  117  ;  me- 
teorology by,  119;  sent  to  Cassel, 

135- 

Fool,  T.'s,  128. 
Forts,  ancient,  at  Hveen,  91. 
Fracastojro  on  direction  of  comets' 

tails,    6,    1 66 ;    on    obliquity    of 

ecliptic,  355. 
Frandsen,  Hans,  friend  of  T.,   14, 

44,  "5- 

Frangipani  on  new  star,  64. 

Frauenburg,  expedition  to,  123. 

Frederick  II ,  interested  in  T.,  28 ; 
desires  him  to  lecture,  73 ;  gives 
him  Hveen,  84 ;  other  grants, 
108  ;  whether  he  visited  T.,  139  ; 
kindness  to  T.,  141 ;  death,  156; 


400 


INDEX, 


had  intended  to  perpetuate  ob- 
servatory, 200. 

Frederick  III.,  264,  373,  374- 

Frederick  V.,  Elector  Palatine,  365. 

Friis,  Chancellor,  enemy  of  T.,  230, 
231,  236,  242. 

Froben,  printer,  253. 

Funeral' of  T.,  310. 

GANZ,  chronologist,  303. 
Gellius  Sascerides,  pupil  of  T.,  121  ; 
travels  abroad,  181  ;   intercourse 
with  Magini,    212,  213;    quarrel 
with  Tycho,  224. 

Gemma,  Cornelius,  on  new  star,  58, 
60,  62,  63,  68;  comet  of  1577, 
165,  171. 

Gemma,  Frisius,  on  cross-staff,  20  ; 
direction  of  comets'  tails,  45, 166  ; 
instruments  belonging   to,    107  : 
astronomical  rings,  316. 
Gemperlin,  painter,  82,  101. 
Geographical  studies  of  T.,  142,  358. 
Germany,  revival  of  learning  in,  2. 
Girsitz,  in  Bohemia,  T.'s  residence 

there,  283. 
Globe,  great,  32,  82,  99,  366 ;  small, 

46,  216. 

Goggingen,  near  Augsburg,  30. 
Gosselin  on  new  star,  63. 
Graminseus  on  new  star,  68. 
Grant  of  6000  daler,  199. 
Greek  astronomy,  I. 
Gregorian  calendar,  132,  280. 
Gustavus    Adolphus,    alleged    pro- 
phesy on,  196. 
Gyldenlove,  376. 
Gyldenstjern,  cousin  of  T.,  118,  284. 

HAGECIUS  on  new  star,  58,  64 ; 
meeting  with  T.,  82  ;  corresponds 
with  T.,  120,  131,  269,  270;  par 
allax  of  comets,  131,  165,  171  ; 
receives  T.  at  Prague,  279 ;  death, 
302. 

Hainzel,  J.  B.,  30. 

Hainzel,  Paul,  30 ;  quadrant  con 
structed  for  him  by  T.,  31 
observes  new  star,  60,  62 ;  corre 


spends  with  T.,  81,  131  ;  observa- 
tions of  sun,  334. 

Hannov  sends  T.  the  instrument  of 
Copernicus,  125. 

Hansen,  assistant  to  T.,  observes 
comet  of  1593,  162;  eclipse  of 
1598,  259. 

Hardeck,  on  former  apparitions  of 
new  stars,  66. 

Hasenburg,  alchemist,  303. 

Heiberg,  on  ruins  at  Hveen,  379. 

Helsingborg  Castle,  35. 

Hemmingsen,  theologian,  178,  203. 

Henry  III.  of  France,  69. 

Heridsvad  Abbey,  35,  73. 

Hervart  von  Hohenburg,  correspon- 
dent of  Kepler,  292,  297,  340, 

342. 

Hind  observes  region  around  Nova, 
67  ;  orbits  of  comets,  162. 

Hipparchus,  star  alleged  to  have 
been  seen  by  him,  47,  49  ;  obser- 
vations of,  315  ;  time-stars,  322  ; 
lunar  inclination,  342  ;  longitude 
of  stars,  348,  354. 

Hoffmann,  Baron,  friend  of  T.  and 
Kepler,  292,  293,  296,  299. 

Hoik,  H.,  no,  in  ;  Ditlev,  236. 

Homilius,  Professor,  at  Leipzig,  16, 

I7»  20,  33°- 
Horoscopes  prepared  by  T.,  20 ;  of 

Prince   Christian,    144;    of    two 

other  princes,    154;    wanted  by 

Duke  of  Brunswick,  285. 
Horrox,  amount  of  annual  equation, 

341. 

Huet,  account  of  T.'s  quarrel  with 
Valkendorf,  233 ;  visits  Hveen, 

377,  389- 

Hulsius,  bookseller,  370. 

Hveen,  island,  offered  to  T..  85 ; 
first  visit  to,  86  ;  granted  for  life, 
86  ;  description  of,  88  ;  traditions 
about,  92;  life  at,  114;  plan  of 
granting  it  to  T.  for  ever,  140; 
tenants  at,  116,  236;  clergyman 
at,  236 ;  disturbances  at,  240 ;  T.'s 
opinion  about,  256,  267,  375  ;  kept 
by  T.  after  departure,  284  ;  subse- 
quent fate,  275,  389. 


INDEX. 


401 


IBN  Carfa,  on  giant  instruments, 
328. 

Ibn  Yunis  used  armilla3,  316;  time 
determination  by  altitudes,  323  ; 
lunar  inclination,  343 ;  trigono- 
metrical formulae,  361. 

Inclination  of  lunar  orbit,  342. 

Income  of  T.,  257,  279.  See  Endow- 
ment. 

Instruments  of  T.,  descriptions  of, 
19,  38,  101,  103,  107,  2ii  ;  dis- 
mantled, 235  ;  illustrated  account 
of,  260 ;  brought  to  Prague,  279, 
283,  284;  principle  of,  317;  sub- 
sequent fate,  365,  366,  368. 

Interregnum,  198. 

Iser  Elver,  282. 

JAMES  VI.  visits  T.,  202. 

Jeppe,  T.'s  fool,  128. 

Jessenius  of  Wittenberg,  272,  295. 

296,  311. 
Joestelius,  assistant  to  T.,  288,  302, 

362. 
Johannes  of  Hamburg,  assistant  to 

T.,  280. 

KAAS,   Chancellor,    115,    198,    199, 

211,  222. 

Karen,  Andersdatter,  376. 

Kepler,  J.,  dates  revival  of  astronomy 
from  Tycho,  20 ;  first  correspon- 
dence with  T.,  259,  266;  early 
life,  289 ;  joins  T.,  293 ;  quarrels 
with  him,  295,  296 ;  reconciled, 
297  ;  returns  to  Gratz,  297 ;  settles 
at  Prague,  299  ;  new  quarrel,  300 ; 
theory  of  Mars,  303,  304,  305  ;  re- 
futation of  Keymers,  304;  at  T.'s 
death,  309,  386  ;  later  work,  3 12  ; 
annual  equation,  341  ;  on  solar 
excentricity,  346 ;  T.'s  successor 
at  Prague,  365  ;  publishes  T.'s 
book,  368 ;  report  on  his  unpub- 
lished works,  370 ;  uses  and  re- 
tains T.'s  MSS.,  370;  intends  to 
publish  them,  371. 

Kepler,  L.,  son  of  J.  Kepler,  pos- 
sessed T.'s  MSS.,  374  ;  sells  them, 
375- 


Knieper,  painter,  101. 

Knudstrup,  T.'s  estate,  n,  35,  223, 

378. 

Krag,  professor  at  Copenhagen,  225. 
Kronborg  Castle,  85,  101,  140,  143. 
Kullagaard,  108. 
Kullen  lighthouse,  108,  109. 

LACAILLE,  orbit  of  comet,   1593, 

162. 

La  Hire,  375. 
Lange,  friend  of  T.,   183,  201,  274, 

275- 

Latitudes,  geographical,  supposed  to 
vary,  213,  263. 

Lectures  by  T.,  73. 

Leipzig  University,  16. 

Leopold,  Bishop  of  Passau,  367. 

Leovitius,  Cyprianus,  29,  63,  65. 

Liddel,  mathematician,  137,  184. 

Lindauer,  early  observation  of  new 
star,  62. 

Live,  maid  in  T.'s  house,  127. 

Longitudes,  absolute,  348  ;  T.'s  plan, 
349  ;  determined  at  Cassel,  352. 

Longomontanus,  assistant  to  T., 
his  youth,  126  ;  leaves  T.,  241  ; 
observes  eclipse  of  1598,  259  ;  T.'s 
letter  to  him,  268,  283,  287  ; 
travels,  272 ;  arrives  at  Prague, 
288 ;  works  on  lunar  theory,  294, 
3°5>  339  ;  on  Mars,  294,  303  ;  re- 
turns to  Denmark,  299 ;  inscrip- 
tion on  globe,  366. 

Louis  XIV.,  374. 

Liibeck,  Bishop  of,  266. 

Lunar  theory,  187,  294,  305,  338. 

Luther,  his  horoscope,  69  ;  his 
opinion  of  Copernican  system,  177. 

MAESTLIN,  new  star,  59  ;  comet  of 
1577,  i7it  181  ;  Kepler's  teacher, 
289  ;  consulted  by  Kepler,  297. 

Magdeburg,  T.'s  instruments  at, 
278,  285. 

Magini,  T.  sends  him  book  on  comet, 
181  ;  corresponds  with  T.,  212, 
262,  271;  observes  Mars,  214; 
book  on  instruments  sent  to  him, 
266 ;  criticises  T.'s  lunar  theory, 
339 ;  prostaphseresis,  362. 
26 


402 


INDEX. 


Magnitudes  of  stars,  354. 

Maitland,  Scotch  chancellor,  203, 
204. 

Major,  Johannes,  131,  132. 

Manuscripts,  T.'s,  370,  373,  374,  390. 

Marcellinus,  star  mentioned  by,  65. 

Marius,  Simon,  302. 

Mars,  distance  of,  178 ;  theory  of, 
2I3>  3°3»  346 ;  oppositions  ob- 
served, 214,  258,  303. 

Mashallah,  on  astrolabes,  316. 

Mathematical  studies,  23,  40. 

Maurice  of  Hesse,  212,  285. 

Maurolycus  on  new  star,  62. 

"Mechanica,"  260. 

Mecklenburg,   Duke    of,    133,    158, 

246,  270  ;  T.'s  money  invested  in, 

247,  308. 

Medal  struck  in  1595,  228. 

Medicine,  connection  with  astro- 
nomy, 24,  118;  T.'s  practice  of, 
129,  232,  260. 

Melanchthon,  on  Copernican  system, 
177. 

Meragha  observatory,  320,  321. 

Meridian  observations,  321,  349  ; 
meridian  line,  358,  388. 

Meteorological  rules,  119  ;  diary  at 
Hveen,  122. 

Minkawitz,  Imperial  councillor,  309, 

3'1- 

Moestlin.     See  Maestlin. 
Monavius,  Jesuit,  120,  182,  268. 
Money  invested  by  T.,  247,  308. 
Moon,  observations  of,  337  ;  tables 

of>  337-     See  Lunar  theory. 
Moryson,   Fynes,   traveller,   71,  89, 

280. 

Muhlstein,  286. 
Miiller,  Johannes,   assistant   to   T., 

259,  268,  287,  288,  300. 
Muffet,  physician,  137.  , 
Mule,  assistant  to  T.,  240,  283. 
Munk,  Admiral,  198,  215. 
Munosius,  on  new  star,  60,  61,  83. 
Mysterium  Cosmographicum,  289. 

NASIE  al-din  Tusi,  320. 
Naturalisation  of   T.   in  Bohemia, 
307. 


Neisse,  great  globe  brought  to,  366. 

New  stars  alleged  to  have  appeared 
in  945  and  1264,  65. 

star,  1572  ;  Tycho's  first  obser- 
vations, 38 ;  measures,  39  ;  decline 
of  light,  41  ;  colour,  42  ;  book  by 
T.  on,  44;  nature  of,  48,  63,  193  ; 
effect  of,  49 ;  other  observations, 
57  ;  parallax,  60;  when  first  seen, 
61,  68, 193  ;  whether  it  will  appear 
again,  66  ;  larger  work  on,  188. 

star,  rumour  of  one  in  1578, 

143- 
Newton  quotes  Gemma's  statement 

about  new  star,  62. 
Nobility,  Danish,  10. 
Nodes,  lunar,  motion  of,  343. 
Nolthius  on  new  star,  60. 
Nonius,  320,  329. 
Nordfjord    estate,    no,    in,    231, 

267. 

Nose,  T.'s,  disfigured,  26,  71,  274. 
Novara,  teacher  of  Copernicus,  7  ; 

geographical  latitudes,  213. 
Nurnberg  observatory,  4. 
Nunez.     See  Nonius. 

OBLIQUITY  of  ecliptic,  123,  355. 

Observations  by  T.,  earliest,  19,  27, 
32,  35 ;  of  new  star,  39,  41  ;  in 
*574»  73  •>  a*  Hveen,  86,  94,  227  ; 
at  Wandsbeck,  258  ;  in  Bohemia, 

303. 
Observatories,    T.'s,    103,  200,  282, 

286,  333. 

Ohr,  printer,  260. 
Orange,  Maurice  of,  266,  269. 
Oration  on  astrology,  74 ;  funeral, 

3ii. 

Oxe,  Peter,  High  Treasurer,  43 ; 
Inger,  T.'s  foster-mother,  43,  138, 
247. 

PAPIUS,  friend  of  Kepler,  292. 
Parallax  of  new  star,  60 ;  of  comets, 

131,  165  ;  of  planets,  189,  303  ;  of 

sun,  335  ;  of  moon,  344. 
Paris  University,  15. 
Parsbjerg,  his  duel  with  T.,  26. 
Pedersen,  steward  at  Hveen,  259. 


INDEX. 


403 


Pension  of  500  daler,  85,  108,  234. 

Peters  on  comet  of  1585,  161 ;  accu- 
racy of  T.'s  observations,  357. 

Peucer,  professor  at  Wittenberg,  21, 
23,  57,  58,  182,  370. 

Picard,  expedition   to  Hveen,  358, 

374,  377- 

Pinnules,  improved,  331.' 
Planets,  observations  of,  227,  259, 

345  ;  theory  by  T.,  180,  345. 
Pliny,  new  star  mentioned  by,  42, 

47- 
Poetical  effusions,  46,  55,  56,  115, 

254- 

Pontanus,  assistant  to  T.,  384. 
Portraits  belonging  to  T.,  100,  106 ; 

of  Danish  kings,  143  ;  of  Tycho, 

101,  228,  263. 

Prsetorius  on  new  star,  61,  84. 
Prague,  description,  281 ;  T.  settles 

finally  at,  298. 
Pratensis,  friend  of  T.,  14,  42,  44,  46, 

73.  85,  87. 
Precession,  354. 

Printing-press,  115,  163,  260,  272. 
Progymnasmata,  186,  269,  272,  288, 

3°7,  368. 

Prostaphaeresis,  361. 
Prutenic  tables,  8,  18,  19,  30,  52,  53, 

133,  145,  155,  175- 

Ptolemean  system,  7,  172. 

Ptolemy,  works  of,  14,  347 ;  quadrant 
of,  320;  lunar  theory,  338;  star 
catalogue  of,  347. 

Puehler's  geometry,  331. 

Pupils.    See  Assistants. 

Purbach,  2 ;  time  determinations, 
323 ;  whether  he  used  trans- 
versals, 330  ;  trepidation,  355  ; 
trigonometry,  360. 

C^UADKANT,  great,  at  Augsburg,  31, 
82  ;  Tycho's,  101,  159,  320,  322. 

RADIUS.     See  Cross-staff. 
Raimundus  of  Verona  on  new  star, 

61,  64,  83. 

Ramus,  mathematician,  33. 
Rantzov,  friend  of  T.,  116,  135,  253, 

269,  270,  284. 


Rasmus  Pedersen,  tenant  of  T.,  217. 

Ratisbon,  coronation  in  1575,  83. 

Reduction  of  lunar  motion  to  eclip- 
tic, 344. 

Refraction  first  noticed,  80,  336; 
neglected  by  Copernicus,  123 ; 
T.'s  researches  on,  334  ;  cause  of, 
336  ;  tables  of,  265. 

Regiomontanus,  life,  3 ;  epheme- 
rides,  5  ;  trigonometry,  47,  360 ; 
instruments,  317,  330;  trepida- 
tion, 355. 

Reinhold,  8, 18,  23,  124  ;  his  son,  83. 

Reisacher  on  new  star,  60,  64. 

Reymers,  Bar,  on  T.'s  nose,  27  ;  early 
life,  183;  system  of  the  world, 
184;  slanders  T.,  268,  273;  flies 
from  Prague,  288 ;  corresponds 
with  Kepler,  290 ;  T.  takes  pro- 
ceedings against  him,  he  dies, 
304  ;  rumour  of  his  having 
poisoned  T.,  312  ;  prostaphasresis, 
362. 

Rhodius,  assistant  to  T.,  302. 

Roemer  brings  T.'s  MSS.  to  Paris, 

374- 

Roeslin  on  comet  of  1577,  171  ;  sys- 
tem of  the  world,  274. 

Rogers,  English  envoy,  137,  182. 

Rollenhagen,  astrologer,  288,  312. 

Rosenberg,  friend  of  T.,  303,  309. 

Rosenkrands,  Danish  statesman, 
198,  199,  215,  230;  his  son,  Hol- 
ger,  245,  301,  302. 

Roskilde,  prebend,  28,  109,  217,  221, 
242  ;  one  granted  to  Flemlose, 
118  ;  treaty  of  Roskilde,  377. 

Rostock  University,  24,  27 ;  T.'s 
residence  in  1597,  241. 

Rothmann,  121,  134,  181,  183,  184; 
visits  T.,  206  ;  abused  by  Reymers, 
273  ;  still  alive  in  1599,  288 ;  ab- 
solute longitude,  352. 

Rudolph  II.,  222,  261,  265,  277,  283, 
285,  298,  306,  307. 

Rudolphine  tables,  301,  313,  365. 

Rumph,  Bohemian  statesman,  279. 

SACROBOSCO,  3. 

Safarik  on  region  around  Nova,  67. 

Salary.    See  Income. 


404 


INDEX. 


Salzburg,  Archbishop  of,  266. 
Saturn,  orbit  of,  180. 

Savelle,  Thomas,  T.  sends  letter  to, 
182. 

Scaliger,  Joseph,  T.  corresponds 
with,  255,  266,  270. 

Schjellerup,  orbit  of  comet  1580,161. 

Schonfeld,  Victor,  professor  at  Mar- 
burg, 127. 

Schreckenfuchs,  82. 

Schuler,  Wolfgang,  professor  at  Wit- 
tenberg, on  new  star,  58,  83. 

Scripture  and  Copernican  system, 
177. 

Scultetus,  studies  at  Leipzig,  16 ; 
teaches  T.  about  transversals,  20, 
330;  corresponds  with  T.,  131, 
133;  on  comet,  1577,  171 ;  T.  sends 
him  a  book,  182  ;  T.  consults  him 
about  printing,  288,  369. 

Seccerwitz,  poet,  visits  T.,  136. 

Seiffart,  assistant  to  T.,  302. 

Sextant,  32,  38,  159,  325,  326. 

Sights,  improved,  331. 

Sjoborg,  Swedish  antiquarian,  91, 
378. 

Snellius,  371. 

Sorensen,  king's  physician,  enemy 
of  T.,  232. 

Soliman,  Sultan,  death  foretold  by 
T.,  26. 

Sophia,  Queen,  138,  198,  200. 

Stadius,  ephemerides,  14,  17. 

Stags,  210. 

Star  in  Cassiopea.     See  New  star. 

Stars,  fixed,  observations  of,  164, 
35i,  353;  catalogue  of,  227,  265, 
347,  352,  353- 

Stenwinchel,  architect,  93,  101. 

Stjerneborg,  description,  103  ;  ruins 
of,  378. 

Stub,  Professor,  sent  to  Hveen,  240. 

Sun,  observations  of,  94,  333  ;  orbit 
of,  333,  346. 

System  of  the  world.  See  Copernicus, 
Ptolemy,  Reymers,  Tycho. 

TABIT  ben  Korra  on  trepidation, 

354,  355- 

Tampach,  publisher  of  T.'s  books, 
369»  370 


Tenants  at  Hveen,  116,  235,  267  ;  on 
the  estate  of  the  Roskilde  prebend, 
217. 

Tengnagel,  assistant  to  T,  242,  367  ; 
sent  to  Holland,  269  ;  brings 
letter  to  Kepler,  293 ;  Kepler's 
wife  complains  of  him,  300  ;  mar- 
ries T.'s  daughter,  301,  302  ;  in- 
tends to  prepare  planetary  tables, 
365;  gives  it  up,  312  ;  subsequent 
career,  367  ;  edits  T.'s  book  on 
comet,  369 ;  agreement  with 
Kepler  about  MSS.,  370. 

Teynkirche  at  Prague,  T.  buried 
there,  310. 

Thau,  Valentin,  mathematician,  16. 

Theatrum  astronomicum,  proposed 
work  by  T.,  182,  370. 

Theon,  first  mention  of  trepidation, 

354- 
Thott,  Otto,  brother-in-law  of  T., 

20 1  ;  Tage,  nephew,  201. 
Time  determinations,  159,  258,  322. 
Timocharis  used  armillse,  315. 
Tomb  of  T.,  311. 
Torquetum,  instrument  not  used  by 

T,  317. 

Traditions  about  Hveen,  92. 
Transversal  divisions,  20,  330. 
Trautson,    Emperor's  chamberlain, 

279. 

Trepidation,  262,  354,  355. 
Trigoni,  astrological  term,  49,  195. 
Trigonometry,  development  of,   4, 

360,  361. 
Triquetrum,  58,  83,   84;  not  much 

used  by  T.,  322. 
Twilight,  duration  of,  206. 
Tychonic  system,  167,  180,  303. 

ULFSTAND,    Governor   to    Prince 

Christian,  215. 
Ulrich,  Prince,  recovers  great  globe, 

366. 
Uraniborg,  description,  93 ;  life  at, 

114;  ruins  of,  377,  378. 
Ursus.    See  Reymers. 

VALESIUS  on  new  star,  60,  64. 
Valkendorf,  chief  of  Exchequer,  87 


INDEX. 


405 


112;  one  of  four  protectors  of  the 
kingdom,  198;  alleged  quarrel 
with  T.,  216  ;  High  Treasurer, 
230;  believed  to  have  been  T.'s 
enemy,  232,  233  ;  T.  asks  his  help, 
267,  283. 

Variation  of  the  lunar  motion  dis- 
covered by  T.,  262,  338,  339. 

Vedel,  tutor  to  T.,  15,  17,  20,  23  ; 
collects  ancient  ballads,  91,  92; 
corresponds  with  T.,  131,  279,  283  ; 
visits  T.,  138,  201  ;  dismissed  from 
office  of  historiographer,  252. 

Venice,  T.  visits,  81  ;  intended  ex- 
pedition to  Egypt  from,  263. 

Venus,  comet's  tail  pointing  to,  167, 
170;  used  for  determining  abso- 
lute longitude,  349. 

Vernier,  329. 

Viete,  361. 

Vignettes  in  T.'s  books,  128. 

Vitello,  mentions  refraction,  336. 

WALLENSTEIN,  patron  of  Kepler, 
37i. 

Walter,  Michael,  declaration  about 
Keymers,  275. 

Walther,  Bernhard,  4  ;  on  refrac- 
tion, 80,  336;  instruments,  316, 
330;  time  determination,  323; 


observatious     of    sun,    333 ;    of 
planets,  345  ;  of  stars,  348. 

Wandsbeck,  253. 

Werner  on  trepidation,  355. 

Wilhelm  IV.,  Landgrave  of  Hesse, 
on  new  star,  57,  65,  68,  321 ;  his 
youth,  79;  T.  visits  him,  86; 
recommends  T.  to  king,  84  ;  alters 
his  instruments,  lib ;  correspon- 
dence with  T.,  134,  209,  228; 
intends  to  visit  T.,  136  ;  on  comet 
of  I577>  171  5  reads  book  on 
comet,  181 ;  death,  212. 

Willoughby  d'Eresby,  Lord,  137. 

Winstrup,  Bishop,  236,  377. 

Wittenberg  University,  22,  72,  271 ; 
T.  visits,  29,  83,  271,  340. 

Wittich,  stay  at  Hveen,  119  ;  never 
returns,  120  ;  tells  T.  about  Hage- 
cius,  132  ;  at  Cassel,  120,  134,  331, 
332;  his  books  sold,  268;  pro- 
staphseresis,  361. 

Woldstedt,  orbit  of  comet,  1577,  357. 

Wolf,  Hieronimus,  at  Augsburg,  33, 
81. 

Workshop  at  Hveen,  108. 

Wiirtemberg,  Duke  of,  370. 


YOUNG,  Peter,  100,  203. 


THE  END. 


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EDINBURGH  AND   LONDON. 


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