Background

Tycho Brahe was born on February 14, 1546, in Knutstorp, Jonkopings Lan, Sweden. He was given the name Tyge by his parents Beate Bille and Otte Brahe. He is now known as "Tycho" since that is the Latinised version of his name that he adopted when he was about fifteen years old. Otte Brahe, Tycho's father, was from the Danish nobility and was an important man among the Danish King's closest group of supporters. Beate Bille, Tycho's mother, also came from an important family which had produced leading churchmen and politicians. Tycho was one of the twin sons, but his twin died shortly after birth. His parents had one older daughter but Tycho was their eldest son.

A strange episode occurred when Brahe was two years old. His uncle, Jorgen Brahe without the knowledge of his parents took Brahe away with him. It was a strange episode since it did not appear to cause any family disputes nor did his parents try to take him back. Jorgen Brahe and his wife Inger Oxe had no children of their own, and they acted as foster parents to Tycho until Jorgen's death. Jorgen Brahe, like his brother Otte Brahe, was a leading Danish noble while Inger Oxe was the sister of Peder Oxe who was a member of the Rigsraads, the governing council consisting of 20 advisors to the King. In fact, Tycho benefited most on the educational side from his foster mother Inger Oxe who had scholarly interests as did other members of her family, while the Brahes and the Billes had little time for scholarly pursuits.

Jorgen Brahe commanded Tostrup Castle, and it was in that castle that Tycho lived from the time he was taken by Jorgen until he was six years old. Brahe's parents had many administrative duties that took them away and it is likely that Tycho sometimes went with one of them receiving his first traveling experience.

Education

In 1552 Jorgen Brahe was given the command of Vordingborg Castle, which was a promotion to a more important role. About a year after Tycho moved to Vordingborg with his foster parents he began to attend school, almost certainly attending that attached to the local cathedral. Although Brahe's father Otte considered learning Latin a waste of time, his foster parents were much keener that he should receive this type of education. Tycho attended this school until he was twelve years old, then began his university studies.

On 19 April 1559 Tycho Brahe began his studies at the University of Copenhagen. There, following the wishes of his uncle, he studied law but also studied a variety of other subjects and became interested in astronomy. It was, however, the eclipse which occurred on 21 August 1560, particularly the fact that it had been predicted, that so impressed him that he began to make his own studies of astronomy helped by some of the professors. He purchased an ephemeris and books such as Sacrobosco's Tractatus de Sphaera, Apianus's Cosmographia seu descriptio totius orbis, and Regiomontanus's De triangulis omnimodis.

Brahe's foster parents decided that he should gain experience abroad and in February 1562 he set off with a travelling companion to go to the University of Leipzig. Astronomy was not officially part of his studies, these were classical languages and culture, but he had bought his astronomy books with him together with Dürer's constellation maps. Brahe now studied astronomy with Bartholomew Schultz at Leipzig who taught how to obtain more accurate observations. He knew that accurate observations required good instruments, and he began to acquire them.

Career

Tycho Brahe began making observations and by August 1563, while still at the University of Leipzig, he began to keep a record of these observations. The second observation he recorded was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which proved significant for Brahe's subsequent career. Neither tables based on Copernicus nor on Ptolemy gave the correct date for the conjunction, Ptolemy's being out by nearly a month and even Copernicus's being out by days. Brahe, with the confidence of someone not yet seventeen, thought he could do better - and he later proved himself to be right!

Brahe returned home in May 1565 and in the following month his uncle Jorgen gave his life in rescuing the King. His father, who now commanded Helsingborg Castle, and mother assumed responsibility for the young man who was still under eighteen. In 1566, he was off on his travels again, visiting first the university in Wittenberg and then that in Rostock.

Brahe's father was keen that he should quickly take up a political career but somehow Brahe persuaded his father to let him make another trip abroad. He first revisited Rostock, then went to Basel, Freiburg, and Augsburg. Brahe had been working on improved instruments for observing for a while, but when in Augsburg he designed some of his own and managed to obtain a patron to underwrite the cost of a major new instrument. In about a month he had a huge quadrant constructed and erected in the estate of his patron outside the city. It was very accurate but was so massive that it required many servants to align it so only one observation could be made each night. Peter Ramus was also on a visit to Germany and while in Augsburg he learnt of Brahe's great quadrant leading to meetings at which the two engaged in deep astronomical discussions. Brahe began constructing another instrument, this time a large celestial globe made from wood.

Receiving word that his father was ill, Brahe returned home during the last few days of 1570. His father died in May 1571 and soon after, with the help of his uncle Steen Bille, Brahe began constructing an observatory in Herrevad Abbey. They also built an alchemy laboratory there since alchemy was becoming a major interest for Brahe.

On 11 November 1572, Brahe emerged into the dark of the early evening, after a long stint of alchemical experimentation, and his first glance at the sky showed him an extra star in the constellation of Cassiopeia, almost directly overhead. He instantly summoned his chemical assistant to confirm that the star really was there. He was not the first to see the new star (a supernova) but his observations of it (published in 1574) did much to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the star really belonged to the firmament and was not merely a local phenomenon in the sublunary world (as comets were generally believed to be). The star is now usually known as "Tycho's supernova." It turned Brahe's interest back to astronomy.

Beginning in September 1574 Brahe lectured on astronomy at the University of Copenhagen but gave up in the following spring when he received an annual income from his father's estate. He set off on another trip abroad, first visiting Kassel. The Landgraf Wilhelm IV of Hessen-Kassel had founded an observatory at Kassel about 15 years earlier and Brahe was very impressed by the methods used there. The design of his own observatory would be influenced by that at Kassel and Brahe corresponded frequently with the Landgraf.

Leaving Kassel, Brahe visited Frankfurt, Basel and finally Venice before returning to Denmark by the end of 1575. By this time he had made a decision to leave Denmark and to settle in Basel, but King Frederick of Denmark was not going to lose his most eminent scientist easily, so he made offers to Brahe to entice him to set up an observatory in Denmark. After some offers which Brahe did not find attractive, the King offered Brahe the island of Hven (called today Ven). With financial help from the King of Denmark, he went on to set up a purpose-built observatory, on the island of Hven in Copenhagen Sound. The observatory, called Uraniborg, was equipped with exceptionally large and accurate instruments (and with an alchemical laboratory in its basement). At Uraniborg Brahe made twenty years' worth of astronomical observations.

One of the most exciting astronomical events which Brahe observed from Uraniborg was a comet which he first spotted on 13 November 1577. He published his account in De mundi aetherei recentioribus phaenomenis (1588) where he draws cosmological conclusions from the fact that his measurements show that the comet is not closer to Earth than the Moon, contradicting Aristotle's model of the cosmos. From his observations Brahe was able to show that the comet was certainly further away than Venus.

In 1584, with the observatory of Uraniborg now too small to house all his instruments, Brahe built a second one named Stjerneborg adjacent to Uraniborg. This was the time when Brahe was most active in producing major new instruments.

King Frederick died in April 1588 and, his son Christian (who became King Christian IV) still being a child, a regent was appointed. Support for Brahe continued however, and he presented a scheme to the Rigsraads to allow his children to inherit Uraniborg.

Brahe closed down his observatory on Hven in 1597 (the last recorded observation is on 15 March that year), and moved to Copenhagen. However, things did not go well for him there, and he left Denmark with his family and his instruments to seek support and find somewhere to continue his work.

In 1599, Brahe was appointed an Imperial Mathematician to the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph II, in Prague (then the capital of the Holy Roman Empire). Johannes Kepler joined him as an assistant, to help with mathematical calculations. Brahe began observing again in Prague. He received support from Rudolph for Kepler and himself to compile a new set of astronomical tables based on Brahe's recorded observations over 38 years. These would be called the Rudolphine Tables as a tribute to their sponsor.

Achievements

• Tycho Brahe cataloged over 1000 stars. He also proved that comets were not just components of Earth's atmosphere, but actual objects traveling through space. Brahe showed irregularities in the Moon's orbit and discovered a new star in the Cassiopeia formation. His study of the "new star" that appeared in 1572 showed that it was farther away than the Moon and was among the fixed stars, which were regarded as perfect and unchanging. Brahe invented many instruments such as the Tyconian Quadrant which were widely copied and led to the invention of improved observational equipment. In later years, Kepler would use Brahe's work as the basis for the laws of planetary movement which he developed.

Works

More photos

• book

  • De Mundi Aetherei Recentioribus Phaenomenis Liber Secundus 1588
  • Tychonis Brahe Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata 1602
  • Tychonis Brahe Dani Observationes Septem Cometarum 1867
  • Scripta Astronomica 1589
  • Opera Omnia 1648
  • De nova stella 1572
  • De Nova Et Nullius Aevi Memoria, A Mundi Exordio Prius Conspecta Stella 1573
  • Tychonis Brahe Triangulorum planorum et sphaericorum praxis arithmetica, qua maximus eorum praesertim in astronomicis usus compendiose explicatur 1886

Religion

Tycho Brahe was concerned with the unquestionable authority of the holy scriptures, which he cited as the second obstacle to the regular and perpetual revolution of the earth. Although Brahe rarely used this argument in isolation, he did take it seriously and contrasted the clear position of the Bible on the motion of the earth with its silence concerning the reality of celestial spheres.

Politics

Despite being pushed by his family to political career and using the patronage of the prominent political figures of the time Brahe preferred to stay out of politics and concentrate his efforts on observations and research. Nevertheless, he was known to sympathize with the Philippists (followers of Philip Melanchthon), was among the nobles who eventually fell out of grace with the king Christian IV.

Views

Tycho Brahe is perhaps best known today for his theory of the solar system which is based on a stationary Earth round which the Moon and Sun revolve. The other planets, according to Tycho's theory, revolve round the Sun. In fact, in his younger days Tycho had been convinced by Copernicus's Sun centred model but his firm belief that theory must be supported by experimental evidence led him away. The problem was, of course, that in the Sun centred model of Copernicus a parallax shift should be observed but despite his attempts to measure such a shift, Tycho could detect none. There were two possibilities to explain this: either the Earth was fixed, or the scale of the universe was unbelievably large. We know today that it is the second of these which is true and that the scale is such that Tycho would have had no hope in measuring parallax with his instruments. The first measurement of the parallax of a star was in 1838 by Bessel who found 0.3" for the parallax of 61 Cygni. Despite the quality of Tycho's measurements, this value in about 100 times smaller than Tycho's observational errors. In fact, Brahe was not the first to propose the Earth centred model with the planets rotating round the Sun for Erasmus Reinhold had done so a few years earlier. However, the most believable version is that Brahe did not know of Reinhold's theory.

Quotations: "Those who study the stars have God for a teacher."

"So mathematical truth prefers simple words since the language of truth is itself simple."

"May I not seem to have lived in vain."

"And when statesman or others worry [the scientist] too much, then he should leave with his possessions."

"It was not just the Church that resisted the heliocentrism of Copernicus."

"There is something eccentric in the orbit of Mars."

"An astronomer must be cosmopolitan, because ignorant statesmen cannot be expected to value their services."

"When I had satisfied myself that no star of that kind had ever shone before, I was led into such perplexity by the unbelievability of the thing that I began to doubt the faith of my own eyes."

Personality

In his younger days, Brahe had been a fair man in his dealings with others. Although he had treated the inhabitants of Hven badly by modern standards, and also in their eyes, it was usual for a lord at this time to treat his subjects harshly. However, in the 1590s Brahe's nature seemed to change and his treatment both of the inhabitants of Hven and of his student helpers at Uraniborg became unreasonable. He always thought a lot of himself and perhaps by this stage his view of his own importance (he saw himself as the natural successor to Hipparchus and Ptolemy, a far more important person than a King) had rather turned his head. Negotiations over the marriage of his daughter Magdalene to Gellius, who had been an assistant at Uraniborg for five years, fell apart and caused Brahe extreme grief and family upset.

Physical Characteristics: While in Rostock, Tycho Brahe was involved in an argument with another Danish student and in the resulting duel Brahe had part of his nose cut off. A consequence of this was that Brahe developed an interest in medicine and alchemy. After his return home in April 1567, he had an artificial nose made from silver and gold. He was, however, disfigured for life and his portraits show the disfigurement which was almost certainly worse than what the artists portrayed.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Holding his urine longer than was his habit, Brahe remained seated. Although he drank a little overgenerously and experienced pressure on his bladder, he felt less concerned for his state of health than for etiquette. By the time he returned home he could not urinate anymore. Finally, with the most excruciating pain, he barely passed some urine, but yet it was blocked. Uninterrupted insomnia followed; intestinal fever; and little by little delirium. ... During his last night, through the delirium in which everything was very pleasant, like a composer creating a song, Brahe these words over and over again: "Let me not seem to have lived in vain." - Johannes Kepler's description of Brahe's death

Interests

• alchemy, astrology, poetry

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Johannes de Sacrobosco, Petrus Apianus, Johann Müller Regiomontanus

• Politicians

  Frederick II of Denmark; Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor

• Artists

  Albrecht Dürer

Connections

In 1572, Tycho Brahe met Kirsten Jørgensdatter, a girl from his hometown of Knudstrup, but since she was a commoner, and he was a noble, they could not marry legally. Kirsten lived with him, however, as his common-law wife. They lived together for almost thirty years until Brahe's death. Six of their eight children had lived. He had two sons; Tycho, born in 1581, and Georg in 1583. He also had four daughters; Kirsten born in 1573, Magdalene in 1574, Elizabeth in 1579, and Cecilie in 1582. Because Kirsten was Tycho's common-law wife, their children could not inherit. Tycho, however, presented a patent which gave Uraniborg something like university status, and the director something like the status of the head of a university. It also stated that succession to the headship would give preference to "Tycho Brahe's own". Perhaps surprisingly, since the state was attempting to stop the acceptance of common-law wives, Tycho's patent was accepted, a sure sign of the high esteem in which he was held (and perhaps also due to many family and friends being on the Rigsraads).

Brahe fell out with the young King Christian by not repairing the Chapel of the Magi at Roskilde, where Christian's father Frederick was buried, despite it being on an estate which provided Tycho with a substantial income. Christian made it clear that the promise Tycho had been given that Uraniborg would continue under the direction of his children no longer held.

Father:

Otte Brahe

Mother:

Beate Clausdatter Bille

Uncle:

Jørgen Thygesen Brahe

Sister:

Sophia Brahe

Sophia Brahe worked alongside her brother Tycho Brahe in making astronomical observations.

Wife:

Kirsten Jørgensdatter

Daughter:

Kirsten Brahe

Daughter:

Magdalene Brahe

Daughter:

Elizabeth Brahe

Son:

Tycho Brahe Jr

Daughter:

Cecilie Brahe

Son:

Georg Brahe

aunt:

Inger Johansdatter Oxe

assistant:

Johannes Kepler

References

• The Lord of Uraniborg: A Biography of Tycho Brahe
  2007
• Tycho Brahe: A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the Sixteenth Century
  2012
• Tycho Brahe and the Measure of the Heavens
  2020
• Bearing the Heavens: Tycho Brahe and the Astronomical Community of the Late Sixteenth Century
  2011
• On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe, Science, and Culture in the Sixteenth Century
  2002
• Tycho Brahe: Pioneer of Astronomy
  2007
• Tycho and Kepler: The Unlikely Partnership that Forever Changed our Understanding of the Heavens
  2013
• Tycho Brahe: The Life and Legacy of the Legendary Astronomer Who Mentored Johannes Kepler
  2019
• Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History's Greatest Scientific Discoveries
  2005
• The Nobleman and His Housedog: Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler: The Strange Partnership That Revolutionised Science
  2002
• On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe and his Assistants, 1570-1601
  1999
• Tycho Brahe: Mapping the Heavens
  2003