Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe (/ˈtaɅkoŊ ˈbrɑ(h)i, – ˈbrɑ(hə)/TY-Koh BRAH-(h)ee, -⁠ BRAH(-hə), Danish: [ˈtsŰykŨo ˈpŁɑ̐ə] was born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, Danish: [ˈtsŰyːjə ˈŊtəsn̩ ˈpŁɑːə];[note 1] Tycho, as he was commonly called, was a Danish Renaissance astronomer who lived from 14 December 1546 to 24 October 1601 and is renowned for his extensive and very precise observations of the sky. Throughout his life, he was recognized as an alchemist, astrologer, and astronomer. Before the advent of the telescope, he was the last significant astronomer. Another title for Tycho Brahe is “greatest pre-telescopic astronomer.”

Tycho discovered a brand-new star in 1572 that shone brighter than any other star or planet. Over the following fifteen years, he dedicated himself to developing ever-more precise measuring devices, astounded by the presence of a star that shouldn’t have existed (1576–1591). Tycho was given a property on the island of Hven by King Frederick II, along with the funds to construct Uraniborg, the first major observatory in Christian Europe. Later on, when working underground at Stjerneborg, he came to the realization that his Uraniborg equipment was not stable enough. His extraordinary research effort helped spark the Scientific Revolution in addition to making astronomy the first modern science.

Tycho, a multi-noble family heir, had a good education. In an attempt to reconcile the philosophical advantages of the Ptolemaic system with the geometric advantages of Copernican heliocentrism, he developed the Tychonic system, his own model of the universe in which the planets orbit the Sun and the Sun orbits the Earth. He disproved the Aristotelian view of a static heavenly universe in De Nova Stella (1573). His findings demonstrated that comets were not atmospheric occurrences, as previously believed, and that “new stars,” or stellae novae, now known as supernovae, went beyond the Moon.

Christian IV, the new monarch, made Tycho depart Denmark in 1597. After receiving an invitation to Prague, he established an observatory near Benátky nad Jizerou and was appointed as the official imperial astronomer. Johannes Kepler helped Tycho for a year before his death in 1601, and Kepler used Tycho’s data to create his own three laws of planetary motion.

Existence

Family

As the eldest of many of Denmark’s most powerful aristocratic families, Tycho Brahe was born. Among his forebears were the families of Rud, Trolle, Ulfstand, and Rosenkrantz, in addition to his direct lineage with the Brahe and Bille families. His great-grandfathers, as well as both of his grandfathers, had all been Privy Council members of the Danish king. Thyge Brahe, the namesake and paternal grandfather of the subject, was a Scaniac nobleman who lost his life in combat during the Siege of Malmö in 1523 as part of the Lutheran Reformation Wars.

In the Stockholm Bloodbath, his maternal grandfather Claus Bille—lord of Bohus Castle and second cousin to Swedish monarch Gustav Vasa—fought alongside the Danish king against the Swedish nobility. Like his own father, Tycho’s father, Otte Brahe, was a royal Privy Councilor. He married Beate Bille, a prominent member of the Danish court with many royal property titles. Tycho’s parents are buried four kilometers east of Knutstorp Castle beneath the floor of the Kågeröd church.

Early Life

At the ancestral seat of his family, Knutstorp (Knudstrup borg; Knutstorps borg), around 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) north of Svalöv in what was then Danish Scania, Tycho was born on December 14, 1546. Of his twelve siblings, he was the eldest; eight, including Steen and Sophia Brahe, survived to maturity. Prior to getting baptized, his twin brother passed away. Later, Tycho composed a Latin ode to his deceased sibling, which became his first published piece and was issued in 1572. An epitaph depicting the entire family, including Tycho as a boy, was originally from Knutstorp and is currently on a plaque next to the church door.

Tycho was taken away at the age of two to be reared by his childless uncle Jørgen Thygesen Brahe and his wife Inger Oxe, who was the sister of Peder Oxe, Steward of the Realm. Tycho was the only of his brothers who was not nurtured by his mother in Knutstorp; the reason Otte Brahe and his brother came to this agreement is unknown. Rather, Tycho grew up at the estate of Jørgen Brahe at Tosterup and Tranekaer on the island of Langeland. He also spent time at Næsbyhoved Castle, which is close to Odense, and the Castle of Nykøbing, which is located on the island of Falster.

In a subsequent letter, Tycho stated that Jørgen Brahe “made me his heir and raised me and generously provided for me during his life until my eighteenth year.”

Tycho went to Latin school, most likely at Nykøbing, from the age of six to twelve. On April 19, 1559, at the age of 12, Tycho enrolled in the University of Copenhagen. There, at his uncle’s request, he pursued his legal studies while also learning about a range of other topics and developing an interest in astronomy.

Tycho most certainly had an extensive education in Aristotelian physics and cosmology because Aristotle was a mainstay of scientific thought at the university. Though the forecast based on existing observational data was a day off, he was nonetheless very astonished that the solar eclipse of August 21, 1560, had been foretold. He came to the conclusion that improving observation accuracy would be essential to producing more precise forecasts.

He bought an ephemeris and several works on astronomy, such as Regiomontanus’s De triangulis omnimodis, Johannes de Sacrobosco’s De sphaera mundi, and Petrus Apianus’s Cosmographia seu descriptio totius orbis.

But in order for Tycho to become a public servant, Jørgen Thygesen Brahe sent him on a study trip of Europe in the beginning of 1562. Tycho, at 15 years old, was assigned as mentor to Anders Sørensen Vedel, then 19 years old, whom he eventually persuaded to permit astronomical pursuits throughout the tour. In February of 1562, Vedel and his student departed Copenhagen. They traveled to Leipzig on March 24 and matriculated at the Lutheran Leipzig University. He discovered that the Copernican and Ptolemaic tables, which were used to forecast the conjunction, were off when he saw a close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 1563.

This made him realize that in order to advance in astronomy, systematic, meticulous observation was needed—night after night, using the most precise tools available. He started keeping thorough notebooks of everything he observed in astronomy. During this time, he fused the study of astrology with astronomy, creating horoscopes for a number of well-known individuals.

Upon Tycho and Vedel’s return from Leipzig in 1565, Denmark was embroiled in a war with Sweden. Jørgen Brahe, the vice-admiral of the Danish navy, had gained national hero status for his role in the First Battle of Öland (1564), when he had helped destroy the Swedish frigate, Mars. After Tycho arrived in Denmark, Jørgen Brahe lost the battle on June 4, 1565, and passed away from a fever soon after. According to legend, Brahe went into a Copenhagen canal when the Danish King Frederick II fell in, which is how he ended up with pneumonia during a night of drinking. Brahe left his belongings to his wife Inger Oxe, who had a particular affection for Tycho.

Tycho’s nostrils

Tycho departed in 1566 to attend the University of Rostock. There, he studied under medical experts at the renowned medical school of the university and developed an interest in herbal medicine and medical alchemy. Twenty-year-old Tycho lost a portion of his nose in a sword combat with his third cousin, Manderup Parsberg, a fellow Danish lord, on December 29, 1566. On December 10, at Professor Lucas Bachmeister’s house for an engagement party, the two had drunkenly argued about who was the better mathematician. The cousins’ rivalry was settled with a covert duel on December 29. Despite their eventual reconciliation, Tycho lost the bridge of his nose and received a large scar across his forehead in the battle.

He spent his whole life wearing a prosthetic nose and got the best care available at the institution. It was supposed to be constructed of gold and silver and was held in place with paste or adhesive. After chemically examining a little piece of nasal bone from the body that was excavated in 2010, experts from Denmark and the Czech Republic revealed in November 2012 that the prosthetic was, in fact, constructed of brass. The gold and silver prosthesis were mostly used for ceremonial purposes rather than daily use.

Biology and science on Uraniborg

Tycho came home from his travels in April of 1567, determined to become an astrologer. His choice to devote himself to the sciences was supported by his family, despite the fact that, like most of his kinsmen, he had been expected to enter politics or the legal profession and that Denmark was still at war with Sweden. Tycho’s father had wanted him to become a lawyer, but he was let to go to Rostock, then Augsburg, where he constructed a large quadrant, Basel, and Freiburg. He was able to concentrate on his studies after being named a canon at Roskilde Cathedral in 1568. This was a mostly honorary status.

After learning of his father’s failing health at the end of 1570, he went back to Knutstorp Castle, where he passed away on May 9, 1571. After the battle, the Danish lords quickly enjoyed affluence once again. Soon after, Tycho received assistance from his most ardent follower, his younger sister Sophie Brahe, when he built an observatory and alchemical laboratory at Herrevad Abbey with the aid of another uncle, Steen Bille.

King Frederick II acknowledged Tycho and suggested that an observatory be constructed in order to do further in-depth research on the night sky. Accepting this suggestion, the oldest major observatory in Christian Europe, Hven (now Ven) island in the Sound near Copenhagen became the site for the building of the Uraniborg.

King Frederick II greatly valued Tycho Brahe, and he received acceptance and backing from affluent individuals. The church provided him with assistance. Tycho Brahe was able to carry out his studies and make important advances to the study of astronomy because of the king’s assistance.

Tycho Brahe constructed Uraniborg, an observatory, in the latter part of the 16th century. Situated between the provinces of Scania (Skåne) and Zealand (Sjaelland), it was constructed on the island of Hven. At that time, the island was a part of Zealand administratively. Afterward, the Swedes took control of Scania during the Peace of Roskilde in 1658. Hven was incorporated into Sweden in 1660. It was all Denmark while Tycho lived there. He spent over twenty-one years of his life on Hven. In 1576, he started construction on Uraniborg and shortly after, relocated there. Uraniborg required several years to build since it was a major and sophisticated observatory.

Tycho Brahe could conduct the study, evaluate his earlier results, and look into potential new discoveries in Uraniborg. Astronomer Tycho Brahe worked before the invention of telescopes. He viewed the planets, moon, stars, and space with his unaided eyes, noting what he saw and performing several computations every day. Uraniborg was built on the island of Hven for two main reasons: solitude and support. This was a well-planned strategic site. Accurate observation required seclusion, which also allowed Tycho Brahe to concentrate more easily on his task without being distracted by outsiders. Since nothing interfered with the ability to see time, light, or motion, seclusion was also crucial for observation.

Being sequestered allowed Tycho Brahe, a perfectionist, total control over his studies, and freedom from external constraints, which allowed him to do original research. He would not have to worry about criticism or interrogation from others, so he could devote all of his efforts to his task. His unrestricted research freedom during the isolation opened the door for important discoveries in the realm of astronomy. With sextants, astronomical clocks, and quadrant instruments among its many other astronomical equipment, Uraniborg was one of the most sophisticated observatories in existence at the time.

Tycho Brahe was able to create more precise solar system models thanks to his observations and calculations made at Uraniborg. Up until then, he had produced the most comprehensive and precise list of stellar locations. Tycho Brahe was able to provide the foundation for astronomers in the future through his observations and calculations at Uraniborg.

Even though Tycho Brahe was successful in Hven, he finally departed the island due to a conflict with Christian IV, the new king of Denmark. Tycho Brahe relocated to Prague in 1597, where he carried out his studies until being named an imperial mathematician by Emperor Rudolf II in 1601. Uraniborg, however, continued to be an important milestone in astronomical history.

Matrimony between Morganatic and Kirsten Jørgensdatter

Tycho fell in love with Kirsten, the daughter of Knudstrup’s Lutheran preacher Jørgen Hansen, at the end of 1571. Tycho never legally wed her since she was a commoner and he would have lost his noble status if he had. Nonetheless, morganatic marriages were allowed by Danish law, meaning that a nobleman and a common lady might cohabit openly as husband and wife for three years before their union turned into a legally recognized union. But both would keep their social standing, and any offspring they shared would be regarded as commoners, not entitled to titles, estates, coats of arms, or even the noble name of their father.

Many members of Tycho’s family disapproved, and many churchmen continued to hold the fact that he was not married to someone approved by God against him, even though King Frederick recognized Tycho’s decision to marry. Tycho had been unable to marry the lady he loved. On October 12, 1573, Kirsten Jørgensdatter gave birth to their first daughter, Kirstine, who was named after Tycho’s late sister.

In 1576, Kirstine perished due to the plague. For her gravestone, Tycho penned a poignant elegy. Their daughter Magdalene was born in Copenhagen when they relocated there in 1574. Afterward, the family went into exile with him. Before Tycho passed away, Kirsten and Tycho shared a home for over thirty years. Six of their eight children—all together—lived to maturity.

1572 Supernova

Tycho saw an extremely brilliant star that had suddenly emerged in the Cassiopeia constellation on November 11, 1572, near Herrevad Abbey. The star is currently known by the designation SN 1572. Other observers believed that the phenomena were something in the terrestrial sphere below the Moon since it had long been believed that the universe beyond the Moon’s orbit was eternally immutable, with celestial immutability being a basic postulate of the Aristotelian world-view. On the other hand, Tycho noted that the object did not exhibit any daily parallax against the fixed star backdrop. This suggested that it was, at the very least, more distant than the Moon and those planets that exhibit this kind of parallax.

After several months, he discovered that the object did not move in relation to the fixed stars as all planets did throughout their periodic orbits—not even the furthest planets, for which there was no discernible daily parallax.

This implied that it was a fixed star in the stellar sphere outside of the planets, rather not even a planet. He gave the name “Nova” to a “new” star when he published a little book titled “De nova stella” in 1573. We now identify this star as a supernova and determine its distance from Earth to be 7,500 light-years.

His decision to pursue astronomy as a career was largely influenced by this finding. Writing in the foreword of De Nova Stella, Tycho criticized people who downplayed the significance of the astronomical apparition, saying, “O crassa ingenia. O caecos coeli spectatores” (O thick wits. O blind observers of the sky”). His discovery was widely recognized among European scientists once it was published.

The Lord of Haven

Tycho went on with his in-depth observations, frequently with help from his first helper and pupil, his younger sister Sophie. Tycho reported his findings from his first observatory at Herrevad Abbey in 1574. These observations were made in 1572. After that, he began giving astronomy lectures, but he soon quit and departed Denmark in the spring of 1575 to go on a trip overseas.

He began by going to the observatory of William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel in Kassel. From there, he traveled to Frankfurt, Basel, and Venice serving as the Danish king’s representative, putting the monarch in touch with artists and craftsmen that the king wanted to work on his new palace in Elsinore. The King wanted to thank Tycho for his devotion by giving him a job that would be worthy of his family once he returned.

He presented him with a selection of lordships belonging to strategically and commercially significant holdings, such as the castles of Hammershus and Helsingborg.

Tycho wanted to concentrate on his science and was hesitant to become a ruler of the realm. In a letter to his friend Johannes Pratensis, he stated, “I declined to accept any of the castles that our kind monarch had so kindly offered to me. I don’t like this civilization, the customs, or any of this garbage.” In order to take part in Basel’s flourishing scientific and intellectual scene, Tycho covertly started making plans to relocate there. After learning of Tycho’s intentions, the King made Tycho an offer in 1576 to keep the eminent scientist, offering him the island of Hven in Øresund and money to build an observatory.

Hven had been directly owned by the Crown up to that point. The 50 families living on the island saw themselves as freeholding farmers, but that all changed when Tycho was made Feudal Lord of Haven. Taking charge of agricultural planning, Tycho had the peasants plant twice as much as they had previously, and he forced them to work as corvée laborers to build his new castle. Tycho was sued by the peasants who had complained about his disproportionate taxes. Tycho was granted permission by the court to charge labor and taxes. The end product was a contract that outlined the duties that the island’s master and peasants had to one another.

Rather of being a military stronghold, Tycho intended his castle Uraniborg to be a shrine devoted to the muses of the arts and sciences. Urania, the astronomy muse, inspired its name. With a laboratory for his alchemical experiments in the cellar, construction started in 1576. Andrea Palladio, a Venetian architect, served as an inspiration for Uraniborg. It was among the earliest structures in northern Europe to exhibit Italian Renaissance design elements.

In 1584, he built Stjerneborg (Star Castle), an underground observatory near Uraniborg, after realizing that the towers of Uraniborg were insufficient as observatories due to the equipment’s exposure to the weather and the movement of the structure. This was made up of many hemispherical crypts that held the trigonal sextant, the big azimuth quadrant of steel, the zodiacal armillary, the vast equatorial armillary, and others.

An alchemical laboratory with sixteen furnaces for distillation and other chemical experiments was located in Uraniborg’s basement. In 1576, Tycho founded Uraniborg, an unusual research center with over 100 apprentices and students working there until 1597. Because Uraniborg was home to one of the earliest paper mills and printing presses in Scandinavia, Tycho was able to publish his own texts on locally produced paper bearing his own watermark. In order to power the paper mill’s wheels, he constructed a network of ponds and canals.

Jeppe, a dwarf inhabitant of Uraniborg, was said by Tycho to possess precognitive powers and to have accurately predicted the propensity of sick individuals in Hven to either recover or pass away.

Many of Tycho’s students and protegés who later pursued professions in astronomy helped him during his years of service on Uraniborg. Among them were Peder Flemløse, Elias Olsen Morsing, Cort Aslakssøn, and Christian Sørensen Longomontanus, who would later become a leading advocate of the Tychonic model and succeed Tycho as the royal Danish astronomer. Hans Crol, who made instruments for Tycho, was a member of the island’s scientific community.

The Great Comet of 1577

The huge comet was visible in the Northern sky from November 1577 to January 1578, and Tycho saw it. It was a prevalent belief in Lutheranism that comets and other heavenly phenomena were potent portents that heralded the impending end of the world. When they saw the object, a number of amateur astronomers in Denmark issued predictions of the coming disaster. Tycho confirmed his earlier anti-Aristotelian findings concerning the fixed character of the sky beyond the Moon when he calculated that the comet could not have originated in the “earthly sphere” since its distance from Earth was far higher than that of the Moon.

The comet’s tail was constantly pointed away from the Sun, as Tycho discovered. In addition to estimating its diameter, mass, and tail length, he also made several conjectures on its composition. Tycho Brahe calculated the comet’s closest approach to Earth to be around 230 times the planet’s radius based on nightly observations of the comet. Additionally, he examined its speed and proposed an orbit that would put it between Venus and Mercury.

He had not yet abandoned Copernican heliocentrism at this point, and seeing the comet encouraged him to attempt to create a different Copernican model in which the Earth remained stationary. Tycho Brahe’s observations of comets cast doubt on the widely accepted notion of solid celestial spheres.

The idea of these inflexible spheres became unworkable with the comet most certainly passing between Mercury and Venus. It implied a huge void in which things, maybe quite enormous, like the comet, might travel freely and display characteristics not before known. The comet’s astrological and apocalyptic elements were covered in the second part of his comet manuscript. Tycho disregarded the predictions made by his rivals. Rather, he forecasted his own catastrophic political developments for the near future.

He foresaw, among other things, the impending overthrow of Ivan the Terrible by 1583 and violence in Moscow.

Assistance from the Monarchy

At one time in the 1580s, Tycho earned 1% of the annual total earnings as assistance from the Crown, which was a significant amount. Tycho frequently hosted sizable social events in his castle. According to Pierre Gassendi, Tycho’s tutor, Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel, questioned if any animal could run faster than a deer and that Tycho had a domesticated elk.

In response, Tycho said he could send his tame elk, but there weren’t any. Wilhelm said he would take one in return for a horse, to which Tycho answered sadly that the elk had recently passed away while visiting Landskrona to entertain a nobleman. It seems that the elk had consumed a large amount of beer over dinner, collapsed down the stairs, and passed away.

James VI of Scotland, the husband of Danish princess Anne, was one of the numerous aristocratic guests at Hven. He composed a poem in which he compared Tycho to Apollon and Phaethon during his visit to Hven in 1590.

Tycho performed the responsibilities of a royal astrologer for the Crown in return for his estate. He was required to give an Almanac to the court at the start of the year, which predicted how the stars will affect the year’s political and economic outlook. He prepared each prince’s horoscope at birth, foretelling their futures. Together with his former professor Anders Sørensen Vedel, he mapped out the entirety of the Danish kingdom as a cartographer.

Being friendly and supportive of Queen Sophie, he managed to get a pledge from her that his heirs would inherit Hven and Uraniborg. His mother Beate Bille and adoptive mother Inger Oxe had worked as court maids for Queen Sophie.

Publications, letters, and disagreements in science

Tycho’s major two-volume work Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata (Introduction to the New Astronomy) was published in volume after the death of its royal donor in 1588. The first book, which focused on the new star of 1572, was not finished during Tycho’s lifetime since it required extensive investigation to reduce the observations of 1572–1573 and rectify the stars’ locations for refraction, precession, the motion of the Sun, etc. It was released in Prague between 1602 and 1603.

The second volume was printed in Uraniborg and dedicated to the comet of 1577. It was named De Mundi Aetherei Recentioribus Phaenomenis Liber Secundus (Second Book About Recent Phenomena in the Celestial World). A few copies were published in 1588. In addition to the comet sightings, it described Tycho’s world system. The third volume was meant to address the comets of 1580 and the years that followed in a similar fashion. Although a lot of information on the comet of 1585 was compiled and released in 1845 along with the comet’s observations, it was never written down or published.

Tycho kept up communication with astronomers and scientists around Europe while he was in Uraniborg. In order to assist other astronomers in making more precise observations, he asked about their findings and shared his own technological advancements with them. His correspondence was therefore essential to his studies. Correspondence was frequently used as a means of advancing research and creating scientific agreement in addition to serving as a private means of contact between academics.

Tycho engaged in a number of personal correspondences with detractors of his beliefs. Among them were Nicolaus Reimers Baer, also known as Ursus, an astronomer at the Imperial court in Prague, and a prominent physician from Scotland named John Craig, who was a staunch supporter of the Aristotelian worldview and whom Tycho accused of copying his cosmological model.

Craig disapproved of Tycho’s conclusion that the comet of 1577 had to be found in the aetherial sphere as opposed to the Earth’s atmosphere. Craig attempted to refute Tycho by challenging his approach and using his own comet sightings. In addition to offering more justification for his results, Tycho released an apologia (a defense) in which he strongly denounced Craig’s beliefs as being unintelligent.

In a different issue, the mathematician Paul Wittich taught Count Wilhelm of Kassel and his astronomer Christoph Rothmann how to replicate Tycho’s instruments without obtaining permission from Tycho. Wittich did this after spending time on Haven in 1580.

Craig, who had studied under Wittich, charged Tycho of downplaying Wittich’s contribution to the creation of certain of Tycho’s trigonometric techniques. By writing and distributing his own responses and arguments, Tycho was sure to take advantage of his standing in the scientific world when addressing these disagreements.

Later years and exile

Christian IV, Frederick’s son and successor, was just 11 years old when he passed away in 1588. The youthful prince-elect was placed under the authority of a regency council until his coronation in 1596. Tycho’s influence in the Danish court gradually decreased because Christoffer Valkendorff, the chairman of the council and Steward of the Realm, didn’t like Tycho following a disagreement between them. Sensing that he was losing his inheritance on Hven, he went to the Dowager Queen Sophie and requested that she put in writing her late husband’s pledge to give Hven to Tycho’s descendants.

He came to the realization that the young king had no intention of keeping his father’s vow and was more interested in battle than in science. In order to reduce the nobility’s economic base and limit their influence, King Christian IV confiscated their lands and accused them of heresy against the Lutheran church and abusing their positions of authority. Among the nobility who lost favor with the new king was Tycho, who was well-known for having sympathy for Philip Melanchthon’s Philippists. It is also possible that the monarch’s negative attitude toward Tycho stemmed from attempts by a few of his rivals at the court to persuade the king against Tycho.

Apart from Valkendorff, one of Tycho’s adversaries was the king’s physician, Peter Severinus, who had personal grievances against Tycho. Due to Tycho’s known Philippist sympathies, his pursuit of alchemy and medicine without church approval, and his refusal to allow the local priest on Hven to perform the exorcism during the baptismal ritual, a number of genes-Lutheran bishops suspected him of heresy. Among the charges made against Tycho were his harsh treatment and exploitation of the Hven peasantry, as well as his neglect of the royal church at Roskilde.

When a crowd of commoners rioted in front of Tycho’s Copenhagen home, probably sparked by his opponents at court, Tycho became even more determined to flee. In 1597, Tycho left Hven, giving some of his instruments to a caretaker on the island and taking some with him to Copenhagen. He finished his star catalogue, which listed the locations of 1,000 stars, just before he left. He accepted exile after making several fruitless attempts to persuade the monarch to allow him to return, such as putting his instruments on display on the city wall. In Elegy to Dania, his most well-known poem, he chastised Denmark for failing to recognize his brilliance.

Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, or devices for the restoration of astronomy, his star catalogue, was originally published in 1598 and included detailed descriptions and illustrations of the devices he had used in Uraniborg and Stjerneborg. To explain the instruments that Tycho had left behind, the King dispatched two envoys to Hven. The monarch was informed by the envoys, who lacked knowledge of astronomy, that his enormous quadrant and sextant were “useless and even harmful” mechanical devices.

He lived for a year, from 1597 to 1598, in his friend Heinrich Rantzau’s castle, Haus Wandesburg, in Wandsbek, outside of Hamburg. After that, they briefly relocated to Wittenberg and resided in Philip Melanchthon’s previous house.

With the support of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, he relocated to Prague in 1599 to take up the position of Imperial Court Astronomer. Forty kilometers from Prague, near Benátky nad Jizerou, Tycho constructed a new observatory and spent a year there. After that, the emperor returned him to Prague, where he lived until the end. Even Tycho’s wife and children received noble treatment in the imperial court, something they had never experienced at the Danish court.

Apart from the emperor, other nobility who provided Tycho with financial support were Oldrich Desiderius Pruskowsky von Pruskow, to whom he dedicated his renowned Mechanica. Tycho provided weather forecasts, astrological interpretations of major astronomical events (such as the supernova of 1572, sometimes referred to as Tycho’s supernova), and astrological charts and predictions for his patrons at events like births in exchange for their support.

Connection to Kepler

Tycho collaborated closely with his assistant Kepler in Prague. Kepler was a fervent supporter of the Copernican theory and believed that Tycho’s model was incorrect, having been formed from a mere “inversion” of the locations of the Earth and Sun. Working together, they created a new star catalogue that was based on his precise placements; this catalogue came to be known as the Rudolphine Tables. The mathematician Nicolaus Reimers (Ursus), with whom Tycho had previously communicated, was also present at the Prague court. Both of them had created a geo-heliocentric planetary model, which Tycho believed to have been stolen from his own work.

Though he disagreed with both of their planetary models, Kepler had previously spoken well of Ursus, but now he found himself in the awkward situation of working for Tycho and having to defend his employer against Ursus’s charges. His treatise Apologia pro-Tychone contra Ursum (defense of Tycho against Ursus) was completed in 1600. Kepler regarded Tycho as the next Hipparchus, one who would lay the groundwork for the resuscitation of astronomy, and he had the utmost admiration for the techniques Tycho used and the precision of his observations.

Disease, demise, and inquiries

Tycho, having just left a dinner in Prague, suddenly had a kidney or bladder disease. Eleven days later, on October 24, 1601, he passed away at the age of 54. Kepler’s personal account states that Tycho declined to go to the bathroom during the feast, for the reason that it would have been impolite to do so. He was unable to pee again when he got home, with the exception of extremely painful, little amounts of urine. He was regularly heard saying, in a delirious state the night before he passed away, that he hoped his life would not seem to have been in vain.

Before passing away, he encouraged Kepler to complete the Rudolphine Tables and conveyed the expectation that by doing so, he would replace the Nicolaus Copernicus planetary system with Tycho’s own. According to reports, Tycho penned his own memorial, which said, “He lived like a sage and died like a fool.” An autopsy conducted after his body was excavated in 1901 revealed no kidney stones, despite the claim made by a modern physician that he died from a kidney stone. According to current medical assessments, the most likely causes of his death were either prostate cancer, acute prostatitis, prostatic hypertrophy, or a burst bladder, which resulted in uremia, overflow incontinence, and urine retention.

Studies conducted in the 1990s revealed that Tycho could have died from mercury toxicity rather than urinary issues. There were rumors that he had been deliberately poisoned. The two primary suspects were his cousin Erik Brahe, who was ordered by friend-turned-enemy Christian IV because of allegations that Tycho had an affair with Christian’s mother, and Johannes Kepler, his helper, who was hoping to have access to Tycho’s laboratory and chemicals.

The request for the remains to be exhumed was authorized by the Prague municipal officials in February 2010. Aarhus University experts from Denmark and the Czech Republic then gathered samples of clothes, hair, and bones for research in November 2010. Under Jens Vellev’s direction, the scientists examined Tycho’s facial hair one more. In November 2012, the panel concluded that neither the fatal amounts of any toxins nor sufficient mercury were found to support a murder case. That “it is impossible that Tycho Brahe could have been murdered” was the team’s conclusion.

The results were validated by researchers at the University of Rostock, who studied a 1901 sample of Tycho’s facial hair. Mercury was detected in tiny amounts, however they were limited to the outer scales. Mercury poisoning was thus ruled out as the cause of death. According to the research, “precipitation of mercury dust from the air during [Tycho’s] long-term alchemistic activities” may have contributed to the mercury buildup.

Tycho is buried next to the Prague Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square, at the Church of Our Lady before Týn.

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