Of eminent astronomers, the next in point of time was Tycho Brahè,
who, though adopting the Ptolemaic notion of the earth being the fixed
and immovable centre of the universe, yet did good service to the
progress of the science by his numerous observations and discoveries.
Descended of an ancient and noble family, originally of Sweden, but
settled in Denmark, Tycho was born December 14, 1546, at Knub Strup,
in the bailiwick of Schönen, the jurisdiction of which was then held
by his father. When seven years old, he commenced the study of the
classics, his education, as well as that of his brothers, being
intrusted to private tutors. His father dying, his uncle sent him, in
1559, to study philosophy and rhetoric at Copenhagen, where it was
intended to train him for some civil employment. The great eclipse of
the sun on the 21st August 1560, happening at the precise time the
astronomers foretold, he began to look upon astronomy as something
divine; and purchasing the tables of Stadius, gained some notion of
the theory of the planets. His thoughts were now wholly engrossed with
astronomy; and though sent by his uncle, in 1562, to study
jurisprudence at Leipsic, mathematics, and not law, were the subject
of his private labors. It is told of him, that, having procured a
small celestial globe, he was wont to wait till his tutor had gone to
bed, in order to examine the constellations and learn their names; and
that, when the sky was clear, he used to spend whole nights in viewing
the stars. He abandoned the amusements and pleasures fitting for his
age, and devoted his pocket-money to the purchase of mathematical and
astronomical books, the perusal of which he persisted in, in spite of
the remonstrances and rebukes of his preceptor. About this time he
also began to apply himself to chemistry, less perhaps for the cause
of the science, than with a view to discover the Philosopher’s Stone
and the grand Elixir of Life――a digression from his astronomical
career, prompted no doubt by the natural supersition and enthusiasm of
his constitution.
In 1571 he returned to Denmark; and was favored by his mother’s
brother, Steno Belle, a lover of learning, with a convenient place at
the castle of Herritzvad, near Knub Strup, for conducting his
observations and building a laboratory: but marrying a peasant girl
beneath his rank, such a violent quarrel ensued between him and his
relations, that Frederick II, king of Denmark, was obliged to
interpose to reconcile them. In 1575, he began his travels through
Germany, and proceeded as far as Venice, meeting with the kindliest
attention from various philosophers and crowned heads. This attention,
conjoined with certain offers made him by the Landgrave of Hesse, and
the greater facility of procuring better apparatus, induced him to
think of removing his family to Basil; but Frederick of Denmark, being
informed of his design, and unwilling to lose such an ornament to his
country, promised (to enable him to pursue his studies) to bestow upon
him for life the island of Hveen in the Sound, to erect an observatory
and laboratory there, and to defray all the expenses necessary for
carrying on his designs. Tycho Brahè readily embraced this proposal;
and, accordingly, the first stone of the observatory was laid in
August 1576. The king also bestowed on him a pension of two thousand
crowns, a fee in Norway, and a canonry, which brought him one thousand
more. In this retreat he was visited by various princes; among others,
by James VI of Scotland, when proceeding to Denmark to marry the
princess Anne. This monarch, of literary memory, made the astronomer
several presents, and with his own hand wrote some verses in his
praise. In Uranienborg, for such he had styled his new erection, he
framed that system of the universe which is yet known by his name;
namely, that the earth remains fixed and immovable as the grand
centre, and that the sun and all the heavenly bodies revolve around
it――a doctrine the reverse of that of Copernicus, which all succeeding
astronomers have adopted. But though mistaken in this conception, we
are indebted to him for a more correct catalogue of the fixed stars;
for several important discoveries respecting the motions of the moon
and comets, and the refraction of the rays of light; and for valuable
improvements in astronomical instruments. Tycho was likewise a
skillful chemist, and found in poetry his recreation from severer
studies. His Latin poems are said to exhibit considerable merit; but
his chemical manipulations partook too much of the alchemy of his day
to be of use to future inquirers.
Happy might our philosopher have been in the castle of Uranienborg,
had not his impetuous character, and his fondness for satire, made him
many enemies, who prejudiced Christian IV, the successor of Frederick
II, against him. On the death of his patron, he was deprived of his
pension, fee, and canonry; and finding himself incapable of bearing
the expenses of his observatory, he went to Copenhagen, whither he
brought some of his instruments, and continued his observations in the
city, till Valkendorf, chamberlain to Christian, commanded him, by the
king’s orders, to discontinue them. He then removed his family to
Rostock, and afterwards to Holstein, to solicit Henry Ranzon to
introduce him to the Emperor Rodolphus, who was a great friend to
astronomy and astrology. Succeeding in his wishes, he was received by
the emperor with the greatest civility and respect; provided with a
magnificent house, till he could procure one more fit for astronomical
observations; allotted a pension of three hundred crowns; and
promised, upon the first opportunity, a fee for himself and his
descendants. Unluckily he did not long enjoy this happy situation;
for, being suddenly taken ill with a fatal disease, he was cut off on
the 24th of October 1601, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He was
interred with great pomp and ceremony in the principal church of
Prague, where a noble monument was erected to his memory; thus like
many other men of eminence, receiving in a strange land the honors
that had been denied him in his own.
Tycho was, notwithstanding his faults and weaknesses, a remarkable man
for the age in which he lived; his errors and misjudgments being to a
great extent those of his era. His skill in astronomy is universally
admitted; and though failing to establish his system over that of
Copernicus, yet no one can deny him the merit of advancing by his
labors the progress of the science. That he was addicted to astrology,
presages, and the occult sciences, is true; but these were features of
the age more than of individuals: that he was impetuous, sarcastic,
and unamiable, is to be regretted; but it must also be admitted that
the grossest injustice was done him and the cause of science by the
successor of his patron. Most of his works, which were numerous, and
written in Latin, are still extant. The Emperor Rodolphus purchased
his expensive astronomical and other instruments; but they were mostly
destroyed after the battle of the Weisseberg, near Prague, in 1620. A
large sextant alone remains in Prague. The famous brass celestial
globe, which was six feet in diameter, and cost about a thousand
pounds, returned to Copenhagen after various adventures, but perished
in the great fire of 1728. The castle of Uranienborg, where he nightly
watched and pondered, has long been in ruins, leaving scarcely a trace
of its structure and character. All, however, has not perished, nor
been fruitless. ‘It was the friendship of Tycho,’ says an eminent
authority, ‘which formed Kepler, and directed him in the career of
astronomy. Without this friendship, and without the numerous
observations of Tycho, of which Kepler found himself the depositary
after the death of his master, he would never have been able to
discover those great laws of the system of the world which have been
called ‘Kepler’s Laws,’ and which, combined with the theory of central
forces, discovered by Hüygens, conducted Newton to the grandest
discovery which has ever been made in the sciences――that of universal
gravitation.’