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Tycho Brahe Biography

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BRAHE, TYCHO (1546-1601). A celebrated Danish astronomer, born at Knudstrup in Skåne, south Sweden, then a province of Denmark. He was descended from a noble family, originally Swedish, and was sent at the age of 13 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 the University of Leipzig in 1562; but Brahe, 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 Alfonsine and Prutenic tables and set about correcting them. The death of his 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. He resided at Wittenberg for a short time, and then went to Rostock, where he lost part of his nose in a duel with a Danish gentleman; but for the lost organ he ingeniously contrived one of gold, that fitted so admirably, and was so naturally colored, that few could have detected that it was artificial. After a couple of 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, which his fellow noblemen thought even more undignified than being addicted to astronomy; for this they considered very degrading to a gentleman, whose only becoming qualification should be, in their estimation, skill in the use of arms. After some time spent in travel, Brahe received from his sovereign, Frederick II, the offer of the island of Hveen 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. Brahe accepted the generous proposal, and in 1576 the foundation stone of the castle of Uraniborg (`fortress of the heavens') was laid. Here, for a period of 20 years, Brahe prosecuted his observations with the most unwearied industry -with a zeal, in fact, sufficient to create a new epoch in astronomy as a science of observation. "The scientific greatness of Brahe was no protection against the petty prejudices of the nobles, who could not bear to see honor heaped on one who, according to their notions, had disgraced their order, nor against the meaner jealousies of physicians, who were annoyed at his dispensing medicine gratis to the poor. So long as his munificent patron, Frederick II, lived, Brahe'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, Brahe was simply tolerated; but in 1597 his position 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 Rudolph II--who conferred on him a pension of 3000 ducats--to Benatky, a few miles from Prague, where a new Uraniborg was to have been erected for him; but he died at Prague on Oct. 24, 1601 (N.S.). At Benatky he had Kepler as his assistant, and to the advice of Brahe that celebrated astronomer owed much.

Brahe never fully accepted the Copernican system of the universe, and sought to compromise by combining it with the old Ptolemaic system. In the Tychonic system the planets were considered to move round the sun, which, together with the stars, revolved about the earth, the latter remaining fixed in space. Brahe rediscovered the variation and annual equation of the moon first detected by the Arabian astronomer, Abul Wefa, and computed the earliest refraction tables. He may be said to have inaugurated the era of precision in astronomical measurement. Had it not been for the exactness of his observations, Kepler might have sought in vain for the three laws of planetary motion which are associated with his name.

The scientific publications of Brahe are numerous. His principal work, Astronomiæ instauratæ Progymnasmata, in 2 vols., ed. by Kepler, appeared at Prague in 1602-03. In his Astronomiciæ instauratæ Mechanica, published at Wandsbeck in 1598, he gave a description of his instruments and an autobiographical account of his life and discoveries. Complete editions of his works were printed at Prague in 1611 and at Frankfort in 1648.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. III (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 650.