Brahé

Brahé, TYCHO, one of the most distinguished names of which astronomical science can boast, was born at Knudstrup, near Lund, in the south of Sweden, 14th December 1546. He was descended from a noble family, and was sent at the age of thirteen to the university of Copenhagen, where he had not been more than a year, when an eclipse of the sun turned his attention to astronomy. His uncle, who destined him for the law, furnished him with a tutor, and sent him to Leipzig in 1562; but Brahé, who cared nothing for that study, devoted just so much time to it as would save appearances, and while his tutor slept, busied himself nightly with the stars. By these surreptitious observations of the heavens, and with no other mechanical contrivances than a globe about the size of an orange, and a pair of rude compasses, he succeeded, as early as 1563, in detecting grave errors in the Alphonsine tables and the so-called Prutenic (i.e. Prussian) tables, and set about their correction. The death of an uncle, who left him an estate, recalled him to his native place in 1565; but he very soon became disgusted with the ignorance and arrogance of those moving in the same sphere with himself, and went back to Germany. At Wittenberg, where he resided for a short time, he lost part of his nose in a duel with a Danish gentleman; but for the lost organ he ingeniously contrived one of gold, silver, and wax, which fitted admirably. After two years spent in Augsburg, he returned home, where in 1572 he discovered a new and brilliant star in the constellation Cassiopeia. In 1573 he married a peasant girl, and this his fellow-noblemen thought even more undignified than being addicted to astronomy; that too they considered very degrading in a gentleman, and the king was obliged to interpose in order to reconcile them. After some time spent in travel, Brahé received from his sovereign, Frederic II., the offer of the island of Hven or Hoëne, in the Sound, as the site for an observatory, the king also offering to defray the cost of erection, and of the necessary astronomical instruments, as well as to provide him with a suitable salary. Brahé accepted the generous proposal, and in 1576 the foundation-stone of the castle of Uranienborg ('fortress of the heavens') was laid. Here James VI. of Scotland paid him a visit when on his way to Denmark to marry the Princess Anne, and wrote some verses in his honour, and here for a period of 20 years Brahé prosecuted his observations with the most unwearied industry—with a zeal, in fact, sufficient to create a new epoch—one of the three great epochs indeed—in astronomy, COMET. The scientific greatness of Brahé was no protection against the petty prejudices of the nobles. So long as his munificent patron, Frederic II., lived, Brahé's position was all that he could have desired, but on his death in 1588 it was greatly changed. For some years under Christian IV., Brahé was just tolerated; but in 1597 his persecution had grown so unbearable that he left the country altogether, having been the year before deprived of his observatory and emoluments. After residing a short time at Rostock and at Wandsbeck near Hamburg, he accepted an invitation of the Emperor Rudolf II.—who conferred on him a pension of 3000 ducats—to Benatek, a few miles from Prague, where a new Uranienburg was to have been erected for him; but he died at Prague on the 24th October 1601. At Benatek he had Kepler as his assistant, and to the advice of Brahé that celebrated astronomer owed much. The scientific publications of Brahé are numerous. His complete works appeared at Prague in 1611; his Letters have been edited by Frijs (Copenhagen, 1876); and there are Lives of him by Gassendi (Latin, 1655), Frijs (Danish, 1871), and Dreyer (English; Edin. 1890). See also Brewster's Martyrs of Science (1841).