Speaker 1: You see something's going to happen. What what's going to happen?
Speaker 1: He take.
Speaker 2: What Welcome to the occult rejects, and today we journey
Speaker 2: into the life of one of the most fascinating figures
Speaker 2: of early modern science, Tycho Brahe, a man who lost
Speaker 2: part of his nose and a duel over man, the
Speaker 2: man who built an island laboratory palace, and who believed
Speaker 2: the stars didn't just like the heavens, but shaped destinies.
Speaker 1: Taycho is an.
Speaker 2: Astronomer, astrologer, alchemist, and court mystic. In this episode, we
Speaker 2: charted Tycho Brahe's astronomical achievements while interweaving the intimate episodes
Speaker 2: that shaped him. The duel that quote from his nose,
Speaker 2: the shadow of his unborn twin, the bonds of his marriage,
Speaker 2: and the enigmatic presence of Jeppe the dwarf at Uraniborg.
Speaker 2: Through his observatories and his household alike, we glimpsed the
Speaker 2: Renaissance mind at work, where rigorous measurement meant al chemical
Speaker 2: hope and the mystic's intuition shared a table with their
Speaker 2: astronomer's instruments. In tracing both his calculations and his character,
Speaker 2: we ask what the alchemists and mystics of the past
Speaker 2: were truly like and what their world can still teach
Speaker 2: us about the human hunger to know. I have measured
Speaker 2: the sky, now I measure the shadows of the earth.
Speaker 2: My mind belonged to the heavens, my body to the earth.
Speaker 2: Written by Tycho Brahe, allegedly for his own epitaph. Tycho
Speaker 2: was born on December fourteenth, fifteen forty six, in Nudstrup,
Speaker 2: a region that was then part of Denmark but now
Speaker 2: in southern Sweden. His parents, aate Brahe and biaate Baile,
Speaker 2: belonged to prominent noble families within Danish society. The Brahe
Speaker 2: and the Bile lineages were well established among the aristocracy,
Speaker 2: granting Taycho a position of wealth and social standing. From birth,
Speaker 2: aate Brahe served as a nobleman and privy counselor, reflecting
Speaker 2: the family's involvement in political and court life. Taicho was
Speaker 2: the eldest surviving son, though he had a twin brother
Speaker 2: who was still born, which we will talk about more later.
Speaker 2: He also had several other siblings, though his early separation
Speaker 2: from his biological family altered his relationship with them. A
Speaker 2: significant turning point in Tycho's family life occurred at the
Speaker 2: age of two, when his childless uncle Jorgen Brahe and
Speaker 2: aunt Inger Ox took him into their care. This arrangement,
Speaker 2: often described as a q uassie adoption, was likely an
Speaker 2: agreement between the families rather than a hostile act. Jorgen Brahe,
Speaker 2: a vice admiral and nobleman and anger noted for her
Speaker 2: intelligence and interest in science and humanities, raised Tycho in
Speaker 2: their castle at Tustrom. This provided him with a much
Speaker 2: better environment than from his biological parents' household, offering access
Speaker 2: to resources in education that were later p crucial to
Speaker 2: his development. Jorgen Brahe heroically died in fifteen sixty five
Speaker 2: when he rescued King Frederick the Second of Denmark from
Speaker 2: drowning and subsequently succumbed to illness. This further elevated the
Speaker 2: family status and left Tycho with a substantial inheritance. This
Speaker 2: financial independence allowed him to pursue his interests without the
Speaker 2: immediate pressures faced by less privileged scholars. Tycho's upbringing under
Speaker 2: Yorgan and Inger's care was marked by privilege and intellectual stimulation.
Speaker 1: His and scholarly.
Speaker 2: Inclinations may have influenced his curiosity why his uncle's status
Speaker 2: ensured a stable and well connected environment. At around twelve
Speaker 2: to thirteen years old, Tycho was sent to the University
Speaker 2: of Copenhagen to study law, a common path for young
Speaker 2: noblemen preparing for careers in civil service. However, his trajectory
Speaker 2: shifted dramatically in fifteen sixty when, at the age of fourteen,
Speaker 2: he observed a partial solar eclipse. This event ignited his
Speaker 2: fascination with astronomy, prompting him to study the subject independently
Speaker 2: by acquiring books and instruments, even as he continued his
Speaker 2: formal education in law. In fifteen sixty two, Tycho traveled
Speaker 2: to the University of Leipzig in Germany to further his studies.
Speaker 2: Though en roll to pursue law, he devoted much of
Speaker 2: his time to mathematics and astronomy during this period. In
Speaker 2: fifteen sixty three, he observed a conjunction of Jupiter and
Speaker 2: Saturn and noted desay discrepancies in existing astronomical tables, fueling
Speaker 2: his determination to achieve greater precision in celestial observations. Tycho's
Speaker 2: academic journey continued as he briefly attended the University of
Speaker 2: Wittenberg before moving to the University of Rostock in fifteen
Speaker 2: sixty six. While at Rostock, he ended up in a
Speaker 2: dispute with another Danish nobleman, leading to a duel that
Speaker 2: resulted in the loss of part of his nose. For
Speaker 2: the rest of his life, he wore a prosthetic nose.
Speaker 2: We will come back to this later. Following jorgenbrah his
Speaker 2: death in fifteen sixty five, Tycho inherited his uncle's estate,
Speaker 2: gaining the financial freedom to travel and study further. He
Speaker 2: visited Basil and Augsburg, where in the latter he designed
Speaker 2: and constructed a large quadrant for measuring the position of
Speaker 2: celestial bodies. This instrument reflected his growing commitment to accurate
Speaker 2: astronomical observation, a hallmark of his later career. After his travels,
Speaker 2: he returned to Denmark around fifteen seventy, briefly considering careers
Speaker 2: in alchemir medicine. The death of his father in fifteen
Speaker 2: seventy one provided him with additional inheritance, further securing his resources.
Speaker 1: How convenient, epivotal.
Speaker 2: Movement came in fifteen seventy two, when he observed a
Speaker 2: new star later identified as a supernova, an event that
Speaker 2: cemented his dedication to astronomy and marked his transition into
Speaker 2: a professional scientist. Tycho's family background was rooted in Danish nobility,
Speaker 2: with his parents Ate Brahe and Biate Baile and his
Speaker 2: uncle and aunt, Jorgen Brahe and Inger Ox, providing a
Speaker 2: foundation of wealth, status and intellectual opportunity. Raised by his
Speaker 2: uncle and aunt from age two, Tycho enjoyed a privileged
Speaker 2: childhood that facilitated his education at prestigious universities across Europe.
Speaker 2: His earlier years were shaped by a shift from law
Speaker 2: to astronomy, marked by the fifteen sixty solar eclipse. Supported
Speaker 2: by his family resources and his own curiosity, Tycho laid
Speaker 2: the groundwork for his future astronomical achievements during these formative years.
Speaker 2: Now we will talk a little bit more in depth
Speaker 2: about his education and studies. Tycho's formal education was rooted
Speaker 2: in the expectation of his noble family, but his interest
Speaker 2: in astronomy emerged early and grew through self directed efforts.
Speaker 2: His academic journey took him across several prestigious universities in Europe.
Speaker 2: Again the University of Copenhagen from fifteen fifty nine to
Speaker 2: fifteen sixty two. At the age of thirteen, Brahe enrolled
Speaker 2: at the University of Copenhagen to study law and philosophy.
Speaker 2: His family, particularly his uncle Jurgen Brahe, who raised him,
Speaker 2: intended him to pursue a career in law of public service,
Speaker 2: and then we have the University of Leipzig from fifteen
Speaker 2: sixty two fifteen sixty five. In fifteen sixty two, Brahe
Speaker 2: was sent to the university in Germany to continue his
Speaker 2: legal studies. Despite this, he secretly pursued astronomy under the
Speaker 2: guidance of Valentine Thoo, a professor of astronomy. During this period,
Speaker 2: he began making his own observation and even constructed a
Speaker 2: small globe to aid his studies, demonstrating his growing independence
Speaker 2: in the field. And then we have the University of
Speaker 2: Wittenberg at fifteen sixty five. In fifteen sixty five, Brahe
Speaker 2: briefly attended the university, where he studied under Casper Puscher,
Speaker 2: a scholar who supported the Copernican heliocentric model. This exposure
Speaker 2: to the idea that the Earth orbited the Sun was
Speaker 2: a significant departure from the dominant geocentric view and left
Speaker 2: a lasting impression on Brahe, even though he did not
Speaker 2: fully adopt it. Then we have the University of Rostock
Speaker 2: from fifteen sixty six to fifteen sixty eight. Later, in
Speaker 2: fifty teen sixty six, brah had transferred to the university,
Speaker 2: where he continued his studies till fifteen sixty eight, and
Speaker 2: while he was there he deepened his astronomical knowledge through
Speaker 2: self study, further distancing himself.
Speaker 1: From legal education.
Speaker 2: As to completing his formal education, Brahde traveled through Europe,
Speaker 2: visiting scholars and acquiring books and instruments. These travels exposed
Speaker 2: him to a broader scientific community, including figures like Peter
Speaker 2: Ramus and Johannes oh Man Praytorius praet r i U s.
Speaker 2: And this helped enrich his understanding of astronomy beyond university
Speaker 2: curricula offered. Despite his formal training in law, Brahe was
Speaker 2: largely self taught in astronomy, relying on books, personal observations,
Speaker 2: and instruments he built himself. His noble birth and the
Speaker 2: resources provided by his family gave him the freedom to
Speaker 2: pursue this passion. Culminating in his later establishment of the
Speaker 2: Iranibourg Observatory. Tycho was deeply influenced by Renaissance humanism in
Speaker 2: the revival of classical knowledge. His astronomical thought was shaped
Speaker 2: by Ptolemy, and his astrology drew from Chechabiblos, but his
Speaker 2: views were not purely classical. He was also deeply influenced
Speaker 2: by the writings of Paracelsus, the Swiss alchemist and medical reformer.
Speaker 2: From Paracelsus, Tycho inherited an interest in the healing properties
Speaker 2: of metals, the philosophy of nature, and the idea that
Speaker 2: celestial bodies influence health and fate. Tycho embraced Hermeticism and Neoplatanism,
Speaker 2: world views that saw the cosmos as an interconnected whole,
Speaker 2: alive with symbolic meaning. To Tycho, astronomy was a way
Speaker 2: to read the language of God. Astrology was the interpretation
Speaker 2: of divine messages. In fifteen seventy six, Tycho received a
Speaker 2: royal grant in the island of Ven from King Frederick
Speaker 2: of Denmark. There he built uranibor Wars, a state of
Speaker 2: the art observatory research center and alchemical laboratory.
Speaker 1: Uraniberg was more than.
Speaker 2: A scientific center. It was a blueprint for Renaissance science, precise,
Speaker 2: intero deplicnary, and steeped in symbolism. Tycho designed instruments of
Speaker 2: unprecedented accuracy, including giant quadrants and sextants. He tracked the
Speaker 2: stars and planets by naked eye, often assisted by his
Speaker 2: team of apprentices and scholars. Uraniborg also featured in an
Speaker 2: alchemical lab, herb garden, printing press, and underground observatory called Sternerberg.
Speaker 2: It was a self contained world of science and symbolism.
Speaker 2: Alchemy was also central to Tycho's worldview. He wasn't trying
Speaker 2: to turn lead into gold. He was exploring the deeper
Speaker 2: nature of substances. His work in iotrachemistry or chemical medicine
Speaker 2: followed Paracelsian principles, prepared herbal and mineral remedies, often using
Speaker 2: astrological charts to determine timing. He believed the macrocosm the
Speaker 2: universe reflected the microcosm the human body. Planetary alignments affected health, temperament,
Speaker 2: and the course of disease. At Uraniborg, Tycho mixed astronomical
Speaker 2: observation without chemical theory, not a contradiction, but as a compliment.
Speaker 2: Brahe's astronomical career was shaped by a mix of personal experiences,
Speaker 2: academic mentors, and the scientific debates of his time. Now
Speaker 2: we're going to take some time to talk about the
Speaker 2: people and events that impact and influenced Tycho's life again.
Speaker 2: Witnessing the fifteen sixty solar eclipse at age thirteen was
Speaker 2: a defining moment for Brie. The event demonstrated that celestial
Speaker 2: phenomena could be predicted with precision, sparking his curiosity and
Speaker 2: showing him the practical power of astronomical knowledge. This inspired
Speaker 2: him to study the skies beyond his formal legal education.
Speaker 2: His professors and mentors, Valentine Thou and Casper Pusser were
Speaker 2: a big influence. Gan Valentine Thos in Leipzig, he was
Speaker 2: a professor of astronomy. Thou provided Brahe with early formal
Speaker 2: instruction in the field. Thao's teachings gave Brahe the foundational
Speaker 2: skills to begin his own observation, bridging the gap between
Speaker 2: his legal studies and his astronomical interests. Casper Pusser Wittenberg
Speaker 2: introduced Brahe to the Copernican heliocentric model. This exposure challenged
Speaker 2: the traditional geocentric view and influenced Brahees's later development of
Speaker 2: a hybrid model where planets orbited the Sun but the
Speaker 2: Sun orbited the Earth. Also witnessing the fifteen seventy two
Speaker 2: super and nova that influenced Brahyes's observation of a new
Speaker 2: star now recognized as a supernova in fifteen seventy two
Speaker 2: was a groundbreaking discovery. It contradicted the Aris Sstoleian belief
Speaker 2: that the heavens were unchanging, reinforcing his commitment to observation
Speaker 2: based astronomy. This event solidified his belief that empirical evidence
Speaker 2: could challenge established theories. When I had satisfied myself that
Speaker 2: no star of any of the known planets was situated
Speaker 2: in that place in the sky, I knew that a
Speaker 2: new star had really been born. That is, from the
Speaker 2: d nova Stella on the New Star from fifteen seventy
Speaker 2: three about the supernova of fifteen seventy two. Works of
Speaker 2: Ptolemy and Copernicus also influenced Tycho brahe study Ptolemy's geosectric model,
Speaker 2: which placed the Earth at the center of the universe.
Speaker 2: Ptolemy's detailed observations were a benchmark for Brahe, but he
Speaker 2: recognized flaws in the model's accuracy, motivating him to improve
Speaker 2: upon it. Copernicus influenced him as well. Ernicus's helocentric model,
Speaker 2: published in fifteen forty three, proposed that the Earth and
Speaker 2: planets orbited the Sun. While Brahe admired its elegance, he
Speaker 2: was skeptical of its full implications. This tension led him
Speaker 2: to create his own system, blending elements of both models.
Speaker 2: Brahe's frustration with inaccuracies and existing astronomical tables drove him
Speaker 2: to conduct meticulous observations. He believed that resolving debates between
Speaker 2: geocentric and heliocentric models required better data. This conviction led
Speaker 2: him to build advance instruments and established Serannaburg, where he
Speaker 2: compiled observations that later aided Johannes Kepler's work. Now we're
Speaker 2: going to switch gears and talk about Tycho's medical practices
Speaker 2: and influences. Medicine was also a practical necessity for Tycho.
Speaker 2: His noble status included responsibility for the well being of
Speaker 2: the people on his estate, especially on the island. Event
Speaker 2: He ran a functioning laboratory and pharmacy at his observatory,
Speaker 2: basically in a chemical laboratory for distillation and chemical processing.
Speaker 2: There was also an herbal garden for growing medicinal plants.
Speaker 2: This is where he prepared remedies for illness such as
Speaker 2: the plague and epilepsy. He used the Paracelsia methods to
Speaker 2: prepare tinctures, elixtures, and compound remedies from metals and herbs.
Speaker 2: Tycho developed medicines for the plagues and fevers, epilepsy, and
Speaker 2: skin and venereal diseases. His most famous compound was a
Speaker 2: type of theiac, a complex antidote made from theiasa etheriaka
Speaker 2: Andromachi or andromachi, an ancient antidote from Galenic tradition, alcohol, sulfur, mr, saffron, aloes,
Speaker 2: and more. He provided the Emperor Rudolph with one preparation
Speaker 2: against epidemic diseases, of which the principal ingredient was that compound.
Speaker 2: The inventor was Andromachus, the elder court physician to the
Speaker 2: Roman Emperor Nero mid the first century CE, and the
Speaker 2: core ingredients could be up to around sixty items vipro, flesh, opium, cinnamon, mirr, frankincense,
Speaker 2: various roots, resins, all sorts of stuff, all bound with
Speaker 2: honey into a thick mixture. It was first and foremost
Speaker 2: marketed as a counter poison against snake bite, a scorpion sting,
Speaker 2: or deliberate poisoning. Patients took it prophylactically a peace sized
Speaker 2: bolus daily as a curative dissolved in wine or water.
Speaker 1: It was also.
Speaker 2: Used for plague and fevers. During late Antique and Black
Speaker 2: Death epidemics, it was dispersed as a cordial medicine, believed
Speaker 2: to drive off corrupt airs, strengthen the heart, and stimulate sweating.
Speaker 2: It was also a digestive and hepatic tonic. Medical writers
Speaker 2: from Galen to Avicina note its warm combinative action, prescribed
Speaker 2: for colic, flatulent, weak digested, and sluggish cold livers. The
Speaker 2: sizeable opium content made it popular for aching joints persistent
Speaker 2: costs in insomnia, roughly the role later played by Laudanum.
Speaker 2: The general panacea restorative apothecary sold it often at great
Speaker 2: cost as a luxury and mixture to fortify the spirits
Speaker 2: a convalescence and combat age related decline. Physicians might add
Speaker 2: a little to almost any syrup. These remedies Tycho prescribed
Speaker 2: were distributed free of charge to the inhabitants of Ven,
Speaker 2: and Tycho reportedly treated many people himself. Tycho kept most
Speaker 2: of his recipes secret, sharing them only with trusted nobles
Speaker 2: and royalty, such as Emperor Rudulf the Second. He refused
Speaker 2: to publish his medical writings, fearing scrutiny by the church
Speaker 2: or ridicule from other scholars. Was one of the first
Speaker 2: figures to merge astronomy, alchemy, and medicine in a methodical way.
Speaker 2: He implied empirical techniques, careful observation, and experimentation, just as
Speaker 2: he did in astronomy. Some of Tycho's medicines were used
Speaker 2: until the nineteenth century and were included in Danish pharmacopeias.
Speaker 2: Some of them are in some of these names. Elixir
Speaker 2: tyconis often elexur noblest doni, or as Tycho named it,
Speaker 2: elixa ad pestem and malignous febris was a alcoholic diaphoretic
Speaker 2: to provoke sweating in plague and smallpox or English sweating sickness.
Speaker 2: And then we have aqua ad morbon, epidemicom aqua instagram,
Speaker 2: epidemicom swet aqua instagram epidemicum.
Speaker 1: It was an.
Speaker 2: Aromatic spirit to still from juniper wood rosemary sandage, taken
Speaker 2: daily or sprinkled in rooms as a cleanser during epidemics.
Speaker 2: It was reprinted verbatim in Bartholin's System Medica and then
Speaker 2: in the National Pharmacopeia as a prophylactic epidemic water. And
Speaker 2: then we have Aqua contra for brace, and that was
Speaker 2: a cooling febrifuge made by double distillation of willow metal
Speaker 2: suite violence, nitre, and a little spirit of vitual. It
Speaker 2: was adopted in Dispensatorium Half Needs and carried over unchained
Speaker 2: in seventeen seventy two to eighteen oh five in the
Speaker 2: Pharmacopeia Donica, and that was listed until eighteen sixty three.
Speaker 2: We also have pulvs Mercurialis typhonus, and that was a
Speaker 2: basic mercuria sulfate calcigned with nitre and antimony, powerful emetic
Speaker 2: and cathartic, and it was also blown up the nose.
Speaker 2: Dispensatorium half Means kept Tycho's exact recipe, but from seven
Speaker 2: to seventy two the Pharmacopeia Danica simply listed turbith mineral
Speaker 2: as an official substance. The name TIChE mineralis lingered in
Speaker 2: apothecary catalogs until eighteen ninety three. Interesting fun fact, the
Speaker 2: recent chemical analysis of glass shards from Uraniberg showed traces
Speaker 2: of mercury, antimony, copper, zinc, and even tungsten. These match
Speaker 2: ingredients he likely used for epilepsy and infectious diseases. Though
Speaker 2: not widely recognized for medicine, during his life, he was
Speaker 2: known as a respected healer in his region. His remedies
Speaker 2: were requested by royal patrons and nobles. Modern historians and
Speaker 2: chemists recognize him as a serious and early practitioner of
Speaker 2: chemical medicine. Some of the people who helped shape Tycho's
Speaker 2: medical thinking are again Paracelsus, a radical Swiss physician and
Speaker 2: alchemists who rejected classical medical authorities like Alan and emphasized
Speaker 2: chemical treatments over blood letting or humoral balance. Paracelsus viewed
Speaker 2: the human body as a microcosm that mirrored the macrocosm
Speaker 2: the universe. Tycho embraced this idea and believed celestial bodies
Speaker 2: influenced human health, leading him to combine astronomy with medicine.
Speaker 2: There was also Levinus Baddists, a professor of medicine at
Speaker 2: the University of Rostock, where Tycho studied. He was a Paracelsian,
Speaker 2: and Tycho likely attended his lectures on medical chemistry and
Speaker 2: the preparation of plant based medicines. He was also a
Speaker 2: fan of Cornelius Gemmer, a contemporary physician and astronomer who
Speaker 2: also worked to combine astrology, astronomy, and medicine. Tycho exchanged
Speaker 2: ideas with Gemma on how celestial phenomena related to bodily,
Speaker 2: health and disease. Tycho Brahe's work in medicine reflected the
Speaker 2: interdisciplinary nature of Renaissance science. He wasn't just an astronomer,
Speaker 2: but a Paracelsian physician, practicing alchemist, scientific herbalist, and a
Speaker 2: public health provider on his estate. Though he is remembered
Speaker 2: primarily for his contributions to astronomy, Tycho's chemical medicinal legacy
Speaker 2: reveals him as a pioneer of early scientific medicine and
Speaker 2: a transitional figure bridging medieval healing traditions with modern scientific approaches.
Speaker 2: Now we're going to get a little off topic and
Speaker 2: talk a bit about Tycho's personal life. Here's the story
Speaker 2: of how Tycho lost part of his nose. Tycho lost
Speaker 2: part of his nose in a dramatic sword duel in
Speaker 2: fifteen sixty six, when he was just twenty years old.
Speaker 2: At the time, he was a student at the University
Speaker 2: of Rostock in Germany. Unlike many duels of the era,
Speaker 2: which were often fought over matters of honor or romance,
Speaker 2: this confrontation had an unusual cause. A disagreement over a
Speaker 2: mathematical problem. Tycho was turning it up. Brahe's adversary was
Speaker 2: Manduin Parsburg, a fellow student and distant relative. Both young
Speaker 2: men were known for their strong personalities, and their dispute
Speaker 2: arose from a heated debate about who was the superior mathematician.
Speaker 2: Unable to settle the matter through discussion, they resorted to
Speaker 2: the customs of the time and agreed to a duel
Speaker 2: with swords to resolve their intellectual rivalry. The duel took
Speaker 2: place on December twenty ninth, fifteen sixty six. During the encounter,
Speaker 2: Parsburg landed a precise blow, striking Brahe acrossed the face
Speaker 2: and severing part of his nose. The injury was significant,
Speaker 2: leaving Brahe permanently disfigured. This event reflects not only fiery
Speaker 2: temperament for which Brahe was known, but also the culture
Speaker 2: of dueling prevalent among students in the sixteenth century Europe,
Speaker 2: where even academic disputes could escalate into physical confrontations. To
Speaker 2: deal with this disfigurement, Brahe wore a prosthetic nose for
Speaker 2: the rest of his life. Popular stories often claim it
Speaker 2: was made of gold or silver materials, befitting his noble status,
Speaker 2: but recent studies suggest it was more likely crafted from bress.
Speaker 2: The prosthetics served both a cosmetic purpose maintaining his public
Speaker 2: appearance and a practical one, covering the wound left by
Speaker 2: the duel. Now we will get back to his works,
Speaker 2: observations and accomplishments. The observation of fifteen seventy two super
Speaker 2: and nova. In November of fifteen seventy two, Brahe noticed
Speaker 2: a brilliant new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. He called
Speaker 2: it a nova Latin for new, attracted for eighteen months
Speaker 2: as it shone brightly visible even in daylight before fading.
Speaker 2: Using precise measurements, Brahe determined that this star showed no
Speaker 2: detactable parallax apparent shift due to the Earth's position, proving
Speaker 2: it was far beyond the Moon among the fixed stars.
Speaker 2: This was later identified as a supernova, now known as
Speaker 2: s N fifteen seventy two. The discovery contradicted the Aristolian
Speaker 2: view that the heavens were unchanged and eternal. It showed
Speaker 2: that new objects could appear in the supposed immutable celestial sphere,
Speaker 2: shaking the foundations of ancient cosmology. Brahe meticulously observed comets,
Speaker 2: especially the Great Comet of fifteen seventy seven, recording their
Speaker 2: position in parts across the sky over several months. He
Speaker 2: found that comets exhibited no measurable parallax, meaning they were
Speaker 2: located far beyond the Moon's orbit. This placed them in
Speaker 2: the celestial realm, not the atmosphere as Aristotle had claimed.
Speaker 2: By proving comets were astronomical rather than meteorological phenomena, Brahe
Speaker 2: further undermined the Aristolian model and reinforced the idea that
Speaker 2: the heavens were dynamic and subject to change. Over two decades,
Speaker 2: recorded the positions of planets, with a particular focus on Mars,
Speaker 2: using large, custom made instruments like quadrants and sextants. His
Speaker 2: observations were extraordinarily accurate, with errors as small as one
Speaker 2: arcamented one sixtieth of a degree. He tracked planetary motions
Speaker 2: relative to the fixed stars, creating a vast data set.
Speaker 2: This data was later used by Johannes Kepler, Brahe's assistant
Speaker 2: to formulate his three laws of planetary motion. These laws,
Speaker 2: which describe elliptical orbits, were pivotal in confirming the heliocentric
Speaker 2: model of the Solar system. Brahe proposed a hybrid solar
Speaker 2: system model, where the planets orbited the Sun, but the
Speaker 2: Sun and Moon orbited the Earth. This ticonic system blended
Speaker 2: elements of Ptolemy's geocentric model and Copernicus's heliocentric model, aligning
Speaker 2: with Brahe's observations while preserving Earth's central position. Though ultimately incorrect,
Speaker 2: the model was a practical compromise that explained many observed
Speaker 2: planetary motions. It gained traction in an error when heliocentrism
Speaker 2: faced religious and philosophical resistance, serving as a stepping stone
Speaker 2: to later theories. Ticho also compiled the catalog of over
Speaker 2: one thousand stars, measuring their celestial coordinates right ascension and declination.
Speaker 2: Using his advanced instruments. His catalog was far more accurate
Speaker 2: than early ones like Ptolemy's, with positional errors often within
Speaker 2: one arc minute for many stars. This work became a
Speaker 2: standard reference for astronomers for centuries, showcasing the value of
Speaker 2: systematic observation and providing a baseline for studying stellar positions
Speaker 2: over time. Brahe invented the equatorial armillary sphere, an instrument
Speaker 2: with rings representing the celestial equator, ecliptic, and other key
Speaker 2: circles used to measure celestial coordinates. This too, allowed for
Speaker 2: far far more precise tracking of stars and planets as
Speaker 2: they moved across the sky, surpassing earlier instruments in accuracy.
Speaker 2: This sphere exemplified Brahe's innovative approach to instrumentation, significantly improving
Speaker 2: the quality of astronomical observations. And then we have the
Speaker 2: establishment of Uraniberg and Sterniberg observatories. Uraniborg is not a
Speaker 2: palace for princes, but a temple for the stars. Here,
Speaker 2: far from the noise of the court, the stars speak freely.
Speaker 2: Brahe constructed two observatories on the island of Vent, Denmark,
Speaker 2: Uraniberg completed fifteen eighty and Sterniberg completed fifteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: These were equipped with cutting edge instruments like large quadrants
Speaker 2: and armillary spheres. Sterneberg's underground design reduced wind and vibration interference,
Speaker 2: enabling even more precise instruments. These facilities were among the
Speaker 2: first dedicated astronomical research centers in Europe, setting a precedent
Speaker 2: for modern observatories, enforstering systematic, long term study of the skies.
Speaker 2: Brahe also tried to detect stellar parallax, the apparent shift
Speaker 2: in a star's position due to the Earth's orbit around
Speaker 2: the Sun. Using his precise instruments, He couldn't measure any parallax,
Speaker 2: as the effect was too small to detect without a
Speaker 2: telescope due to the immense distance to stars. His failure
Speaker 2: to find parallax led him to reject the heliocentric model,
Speaker 2: but it highlighted the need for greater position. This question
Speaker 2: was resolved later when telescopes confirmed parallax, validating Copernicus's ideas.
Speaker 2: After Brahe's death in sixteen oh one, his assistant Johannes
Speaker 2: Kepler inherited his extensive observational records, particular the Mars data.
Speaker 2: Kepler used Brahayes data to derive his three Laws of
Speaker 2: planetary motion, which describe elliptical orbits and their mathematical relationship.
Speaker 2: This work was a turning point in astronomy, confirming the
Speaker 2: heliocentric model and cementing Brahees's legacy as a foundational figure.
Speaker 2: Bra Hayes's work bridged ancient and modern astronomy, combining rigorous
Speaker 2: observation with innovative tools. His legacy lies in his precision
Speaker 2: is challenged to dogma and his role in paving the
Speaker 2: way for scientific revolution. Now, before we get too far
Speaker 2: into this episode, I would like to take time to
Speaker 2: talk about Uraniberg and Sternerberg. Tycho armed with royal patronage
Speaker 2: and a craftsman obsession for precision, set out to build
Speaker 2: not merely a residence, but a Renaissance microcosmos where gardens, laboratories,
Speaker 2: and observatories converged in geome harmony. In this unlikely sanctuary,
Speaker 2: the massive quadrants, armillary spheres, and sextons he forged would
Speaker 2: harvest starlight with the rigor no one had yet attempted.
Speaker 2: While underground chambers cradled instruments so delicately poised that even
Speaker 2: the island sea breeze cannot disturb them. It is to
Speaker 2: these twin marvels Uraniberg, the Castle of Urania, and its
Speaker 2: steadfast sibling Sternerberg, the Star Castle, sunk into bedrock, tracing
Speaker 2: how their architecture, instruments and daily rhythms wove together the
Speaker 2: most accurate naked eye astronomy the world has ever seen.
Speaker 2: Uraniberg was constructed between fifteen seventy six and fifteen eighty
Speaker 2: with royal funding and oversight by architect Hans van Steenwinkle
Speaker 2: the Elder, a Flemish Danish architect in cooperation with Tycho.
Speaker 2: Taycho envisioned Uraniberg as a scholarly palace and observatory. It
Speaker 2: served not only his own work, but hosted students in
Speaker 2: assistance from across Europe, effectively becoming a research institute as
Speaker 2: much as a private castle. Tycho's sister, Sofia Brahe and
Speaker 2: other aids helped with observations and calculations, and over thirty
Speaker 2: research assistants worked there during its heyday. Tycho also pursued alchemy,
Speaker 2: meteorology and astrology on ven, reflecting the Renaissance idea of
Speaker 2: uniting various sciences. In fifteen eighty four to fifteen eighty six,
Speaker 2: Tycho added the smaller observatory Sternerberg Castle of the Stars,
Speaker 2: adjacent to Uraniberg, when he realized that some of his
Speaker 2: large instruments were unstable in Uraniberg's upper floors due to
Speaker 2: wind and vibrations. Sterniborg, completed in fifteen eighty six, was
Speaker 2: dedicated purely to observation and built largely underground to give
Speaker 2: instruments a firmer anchor in the bedrock, thereby improving their accuracy. Together,
Speaker 2: Uraniberg and Sternerberg formed the centerpiece of Tycho's scientific enterprise
Speaker 2: on venting from fifteen seventy six until fifteen ninety seven.
Speaker 2: In fifteen ninety seven, Taycho fell out of favor with
Speaker 2: the new King, Christian fourth and was forced to leave Denmark.
Speaker 2: Shortly after his death in sixteen oh one, the observatories
Speaker 2: were abandoned and eventually demolished by the Danish Crown, marking
Speaker 2: an end to this remarkable chapter in pre telescopic astronomy.
Speaker 1: Now we're going.
Speaker 2: To get into the architecture and the layout of the
Speaker 2: Castle of Urania, which I think you might find really interesting.
Speaker 2: Randebourg was designed as a small palace that elegantly blended
Speaker 2: domestic residence with scientific functionality. Externally, it was a square
Speaker 2: brick mansion about fifteen meters on each side, built in
Speaker 2: the Northern Renaissance style with decorative sandstone and limestone trim.
Speaker 2: Two semi circular towers projected from the north and south walls,
Speaker 2: giving the building a rectangular footprint overall. The name Uraniburg
Speaker 2: literally means castle of Urania, and Tycho deliberately orientated and
Speaker 2: proportioned the building and gardens according to geometric grits, possibly
Speaker 2: believing the harmonious proportions would act as an astrological talisman
Speaker 2: to bless the research within the construction was overseen by
Speaker 2: architect Hans van Steinwickel and sculptor Johann Gregor van Duchard,
Speaker 2: incorporating elaborate iconography and inscriptions reflecting the astronomical purpose. Uraniberg
Speaker 2: had three main stories plus a basement, each level serving
Speaker 2: distinct purposes. The ground floor featured a residential suite and
Speaker 2: workspace for Tycho, his family and visiting scholars. It was
Speaker 2: divided into four rooms, one occupied by Tycho's family and
Speaker 2: the others for visiting astronomers. The north tower on this
Speaker 2: level housed the kitchen, while the south tower held Tycho's
Speaker 2: person in a library which bore the engraved motto Nonhbiri
Speaker 2: said essay to be rather than to be seen, a
Speaker 2: humanist sentiment reminding scholars to seek true substance over appearance.
Speaker 2: The second floor was dedicated to astronomical observation. The two
Speaker 2: round towers here served as an enclosed observatories containing Tycho's
Speaker 2: principal instruments, which could be accessed from indoor doorways or
Speaker 2: from outside platforms. Balconies encircled the towers, supported by wooden posts,
Speaker 2: allowing additional instruments to be mounted slightly away from the
Speaker 2: walls for a wider view of the sky. A special
Speaker 2: royal apartment was also on the second floor for VIP guests.
Speaker 2: King James the sixth of Scotland later James First of England,
Speaker 2: stayed there in fifteen ninety. The third floor was a
Speaker 2: loft divided into eight small rooms to lodge Tycho's students
Speaker 2: and assistants, reflecting Uraniberg's role as as an early research
Speaker 2: center attracting trainees from many countries. Above the loft rose
Speaker 2: a small central observatory turret which offered a three sixty view.
Speaker 2: Tycho could ascend to this rooftop platform for observations, and
Speaker 2: it was topped by a gilded pegasus wind vane as
Speaker 2: a symbol of poetic inspiration. Lastly, beneath the castle lay
Speaker 2: a large basement, half of which Tycho outfitted as an
Speaker 2: alchemical laboratory, complete with furnaces and distillation equipment. The other
Speaker 2: half served as a storage for food, fuel and supplies
Speaker 2: to support the self sufficient estate. Notably, Tycho even included
Speaker 2: a tiny jail cell in the basement to detain unruly
Speaker 2: island tenants or servants if needed, a reminder that as
Speaker 2: a feudal lord of ven he governed the island's inhabitants.
Speaker 2: In addition to conducting science, Uraniberg's building stood at the
Speaker 2: center of a meticulously planned Renaissance garden complex. Tycho surrounded
Speaker 2: the main house with a formal walled garden laid out
Speaker 2: in geometric patterns, squares and circular paths. Initially, he intended
Speaker 2: to fortify the compound with a thick brick wall seventy
Speaker 2: five meters on a side and five point five meters high,
Speaker 2: but this was never completed. Instead, an earthen rampart or
Speaker 2: mound was heaped around the perimeter, forming a square earthwork
Speaker 2: that partially shielded the observatory from winds. Inside the enclosure,
Speaker 2: Tycho cultivated herb gardens and orchids in each quadrant around
Speaker 2: the house. The gardens were both ornamental and practical. Tycho,
Speaker 2: interested in medicine, grew medicinal herbs for his chemical and
Speaker 2: alchemical experiments, and the neat beds also reflected the cosmic
Speaker 2: order he sought to discern. Contemporary accounts describe hundreds of
Speaker 2: fruit trees and even recreational features like small pavilions in
Speaker 2: games within the grounds at the east and west entrances
Speaker 2: of the compounds to gatehouse pavilions, Tycho used one as
Speaker 2: a printing workshop to publish his own astronomical books on site,
Speaker 2: and another as quarters for staff or even kennels for
Speaker 2: guard dogs to alert against intruders. Tycho also engineered water
Speaker 2: supply and craft production on the island. He constructed fish
Speaker 2: ponds and drainage ditches across ven, channeling water to power
Speaker 2: a paper mill near the shore, which supplied paper for
Speaker 2: his printing press. Uraniberg thus was more than a house.
Speaker 2: It was a self contained scientific estate with observatories, laboratories, gardens,
Speaker 2: workshops and living quarters integrated into one visionary complex. Now
Speaker 2: we're going to focus on Sterniberg, Tycho's underground observatory for precision.
Speaker 2: By the mid fifteen eighties, tycho brahes drive for even
Speaker 2: more precise measurements led him to build Sterniberg, he specialized
Speaker 2: observatory just a few hundred meters from Uranaberg. Unlike the
Speaker 2: towering Uranaberg, Snnerberg was largerly, Sternerberg was largely subterranean, addressing
Speaker 2: a key problem Tycho had encountered. His huge instruments mounted
Speaker 2: in Uraniberg's upper rooms were susceptible to wind and slight
Speaker 2: building movements, which introduced observational errors. Sterniberg, meaning Star Castle,
Speaker 2: was constructed in fifteen eighty four to fifteen eighty six
Speaker 2: as a low profile, ground level facility purely dedicated to astronomy.
Speaker 2: It had no grand house above it. Essentially, it was
Speaker 2: an array of instrument vaults built into the ground and
Speaker 2: covered with small domes or shutters. Tycho designed Sternerberg to
Speaker 2: give his instruments solid foundations on the bedrock beneath Van's
Speaker 2: sandy soil, thereby greatly increasing stability and accuracy. This site
Speaker 2: was laid out with a similar geometric plan to Uraniberg,
Speaker 2: but at a more modest scale, a small square enclosure
Speaker 2: with an earth embankment and perhaps a few outbuildings. Some
Speaker 2: period illustrations show a pattern of five little cupolas or
Speaker 2: roof structures corresponding to the instrument chambers below. In fact,
Speaker 2: five underground chambers were built, each housing a single large
Speaker 2: instrument mounted on masonry piers and metal frames anchored in
Speaker 2: the earth above. Each chamber and opening to the sky
Speaker 2: could be closed off by either a pair of wooden
Speaker 2: shutters or a rotating dome to protect the instruments when
Speaker 2: not observing. This design allowed observations to be done essentially indoors.
Speaker 2: At ground level. Observers could work in each pit with
Speaker 2: their instruments sheltered from wind and weather, looking up through
Speaker 2: the open hatch at the target store planet. Cernerberg's construction
Speaker 2: was technically innovative. Tycho himself likely oversaw the engineering, integrating
Speaker 2: instrument and architecture. Each observation room had a steeped, bowl
Speaker 2: shaped floor, so the instrument's space sat low and stable,
Speaker 2: and the observer could move around to site along it.
Speaker 2: Iron supports were built into the walls to brace the
Speaker 2: instruments rigidly in three dimensions. For example, the chamber for
Speaker 2: Tycho's Great equatorial Armorllary sphere included a sturdy iron framework
Speaker 2: bolted into the masonry, forming a cradle that held the
Speaker 2: instrument's polar axis firmly in alignment. This entire arrangement minimized
Speaker 2: flexi wobble. While Uraniberg had used removable tower roofs for viewing,
Speaker 2: Sternerberg's flush hatches provided even better protection from gusts. Tycho
Speaker 2: also attempted to connect Sternerberg to Uraniburg via underground tunnel,
Speaker 2: but this tunnel was never completed. Still, Sturnerberg's functioned in
Speaker 2: tandem with Uraniberg. Tycho often ran parallel observation at both sites,
Speaker 2: using data from one to check the others.
Speaker 1: In order to eliminate instrumental errors.
Speaker 2: Uranaberg was outfitted with the most advanced answer comical instruments
Speaker 2: of the late sixteenth century, all designed for naked eye observation.
Speaker 2: Tycho a skilled instrument maker continuously innovated to improve precision.
Speaker 2: All of Tycho's instruments were operated without telescopic optics. They
Speaker 2: relied on naked eye sightings, using mechanical sights. To enhance accuracy,
Speaker 2: Tycho introduced technical innovations. He improved the traditional pinhole sites
Speaker 2: by using a peg and slit sighting system. One site
Speaker 2: had a tiny slit and the opposite site had a
Speaker 2: fine peg or wire, so that the observer would line
Speaker 2: up the star exactly between the peg as seen through
Speaker 2: the slit. This produced a sharper line of sight in
Speaker 2: a simple circular hole, reducing parallax error in the observer's eye.
Speaker 2: He also employed highly refined gradations on his scales, even
Speaker 2: devising new methods to subdivide degrees into minutes of arc
Speaker 2: and fractions thereof by transversals, so readings could be intipolated
Speaker 2: very finely. Tycho was obsessed with calibration. He would regularly
Speaker 2: compare observations of the same object made with different instruments
Speaker 2: to detect any offsets. In practice, he often used multiple
Speaker 2: devices for the same measurement and averaged the results to
Speaker 2: eliminate random errors. Thanks to these measures, the precision Tycho
Speaker 2: achieved was astonishing for pre telescope astronomy. Again, his best
Speaker 2: observations were accurate to within one arc minute one sixtieth
Speaker 2: of a degree, roughly ten times better than the previous
Speaker 2: generation of astronomers. Modern analysis of Tycho's observing log books
Speaker 2: found that many of his instruments had a typical era
Speaker 2: of only thirty to fifty arcseconds, limited mainly by human
Speaker 2: factor of reading the scale. Such accuracy would not be
Speaker 2: significantly surpassed until the use of telescopic sites in the
Speaker 2: seventeenth and eighteen century. While Uraniberg housed most of Tycho's instruments, initially,
Speaker 2: Sternerberg was created to host a select few of his
Speaker 2: largest and most advanced instruments under optimal conditions. Among the
Speaker 2: instruments deployed at Sterninberg were the Great Equatorial Armillary Sphere,
Speaker 2: Completed around fifteen eighty five. This was Tycho's master work,
Speaker 2: a massive armillary sphere about nine feet in diameter, designed
Speaker 2: for measuring star positions in the equatorial coordinate system. It
Speaker 2: improved on his earlier armillaries by mounting the polar axis
Speaker 2: firmly in the ground and using a reduced ring structure
Speaker 2: to minimize weight and flex. This equatorial armillary, sheer size
Speaker 2: and stable installation in Sternerberg allowed Tycho to observe faint
Speaker 2: stars with greater position and to systematically account for atmospheric refraction.
Speaker 2: Tycho considered this into crowning achievement of its instrumental arsenal,
Speaker 2: and with it he scrutinized the motion of the stars
Speaker 2: and planets to an unprecedented degree. For instance, in fifteen
Speaker 2: eighty seven, he intensely used a great armillary to attempt
Speaker 2: a measurement of the parallax of Mars, the apparent shift
Speaker 2: of Mars position at opposition. Although the technology of the
Speaker 2: time and imperfect refraction tables prevented a conclusion detection of
Speaker 2: Mars parallax, these observations were critical in yielding the most
Speaker 2: precise orbit data of the era. Although the technology of
Speaker 2: the time prevented a conclusive detection of Mars parallax, these
Speaker 2: observations were critical in yielding the most precise Mars orbit
Speaker 2: data of the era. Then we have the large azumuthal quadrant.
Speaker 2: Tycho installed a heavy altitude quadrant in one of Stnenberg's chambers,
Speaker 2: often referred to as the Great Zenith quadrant or Great
Speaker 2: as a Mouth quadrant. This instrument depicted in Tycho's illustrations,
Speaker 2: had a radius of several feet. Some sources describe a
Speaker 2: one point fifty five metre diameter quadrant in Sternerberg. It
Speaker 2: was likely constructed of brass and iron, fixed on a
Speaker 2: central pivot, with the arc along the perimeter of the pit.
Speaker 2: This quadrant allowed Tycho to measure star altitudes with extreme care,
Speaker 2: and also determined their azimuth using a circular scale on
Speaker 2: the floor of the observing cell. The stable underground location
Speaker 2: eliminated the wobble he had encountered with the tower mounted quadrants.
Speaker 2: Tycho's star catalog benefited from these high accuracy meridian altitude measurements.
Speaker 2: Cunenberg also hosted at least one great sexton of perhaps
Speaker 2: Tycho's improved triagonal sexton, likely a sturdy metal framed sextint
Speaker 2: used for measuring angles between stars across the sky. Tycho's
Speaker 2: notes and the later inventory by his biographer Drea indicate
Speaker 2: that a six foot radius steel quadrant and a large
Speaker 2: sexton were among the equipment installed in the subterranean observatory.
Speaker 2: Each was custom mounted in its own chamber. One chamber's
Speaker 2: instruments could even be used to observe circumpolar stars continuously
Speaker 2: by rotating around. Another chamber might have held a telescope
Speaker 2: like pinhole camera obscura for solar observations. While details on
Speaker 2: every Sernerberg instruments are scarce, we know five instruments in
Speaker 2: total were housed there, each under its own hatch. Operating
Speaker 2: these instruments at Sterniberg followed similar principles as at Uraniberg,
Speaker 2: but with improved comfort and accuracy. Observers would stand in
Speaker 2: the pit room, often in near darkness except for starlight,
Speaker 2: aligning the sights of the instrument on a celestial target
Speaker 2: through the open roof. Assistance with lanterns or perhaps luminescent
Speaker 2: paint would then help read off the angles on the
Speaker 2: graduate scales. Tycho's team could work sheltered from wind and
Speaker 2: even continue observing in winter cold more effectively by closing
Speaker 2: the hatches when not sighting. The results were excellent. Sternerberg
Speaker 2: yielded some of the most precise data of the age,
Speaker 2: essentially confirming and refining the measurements taken at Uraniburg. Tycho
Speaker 2: Brahe's departure from ven in fifteen ninety seven marked the
Speaker 2: end of Uranaburg and Cnerberg's active life. Lacking Tycho's leadership
Speaker 2: and royal favor, the facilities fell into neglect. After Tycho's
Speaker 2: sudden death in sixteen oh one, the new King, Christian
Speaker 2: the Fourth, who had been hostile to Tycho, ordered the
Speaker 2: demolition of the Venn observatories. Uraniburg, which had been costly
Speaker 2: to maintain. It's estimated to have consumed about one percent
Speaker 2: of Denmark state budget during its construction, was torn down
Speaker 2: by locals recycling its bricks, and Sternerberg's above ground structures
Speaker 2: were likewise dismantled. By the mid seventeenth century. Only ruins
Speaker 2: and earth and mound remained on the windswept island. For century,
Speaker 2: the site language, but in the twentieth century, Denmark and
Speaker 2: later Sweden renewed interest in Tycho's legacy. A Tycho Brahe
Speaker 2: Museum was established on ven In the nineteen thirties and
Speaker 2: the nineteen fifties, archaeologists undertook systematic excavations of Uraniberg and Sterninberg.
Speaker 2: They uncovered the foundation walls of Uraniberg cellar and mapped
Speaker 2: out the layout of the castle confirming the dimensions and
Speaker 2: locations of towers, wells, etc. At Sternerberg. The team exposed
Speaker 2: the underground observatory intact masonry. The instrument pits, stairways and
Speaker 2: mounting bases were revealed. To preserve these remains, a protective
Speaker 2: concrete dome was built over Sternerberg's central portion in nineteen
Speaker 2: fifty seven, later replaced by a low brick vault structure. Today,
Speaker 2: visitors can and descend into the partially reconstructed Sternerberg chambers,
Speaker 2: where the replicas of Tycho's instruments stand in their original positions.
Speaker 2: A multi media show projects stars on the chamber ceilings
Speaker 2: and narrates Tycho's nightly routine, bringing the sixteenth century science
Speaker 2: to life. This immersive installation gives a vivid impression of
Speaker 2: how Tycho and his assistance observed in the cold, dark
Speaker 2: pits of Sternerberg four centuries ago. Meanwhile, the Uraniberg site
Speaker 2: above ground has been turned into an open air historical
Speaker 2: park based on archaeological findings in Tycho's own descriptions. A
Speaker 2: section of Uranisberg's castle footings and gardens has been restored.
Speaker 2: One quadrant of the Renaissance herb garden was replanted in
Speaker 2: the nineteen nineties with period appropriate plants and herbs laid
Speaker 2: out in box beds exactly as Tycho had them. Thanks
Speaker 2: to seeds found on site and analysis of Brahe's writings.
Speaker 2: The earth mound outlines of the four tortress are still
Speaker 2: visible encircling the site, and a portion of the mound
Speaker 2: and ramparts was reconstructed to its original height to give
Speaker 2: a sense of scale within the old Uraniberg footprint. Low
Speaker 2: walls now mark the location of the castle. In the
Speaker 2: center of the garden, an orchard pavilion with fruit trees
Speaker 2: has been planted, echoing Tycho's original orchards. The nearby Tycho
Speaker 2: Brahe Museum itself is housed in a restored sixteenth century
Speaker 2: church on Vent and contains exhibits about Tycho's life. It
Speaker 2: displays full sized replicas of Brahe's instruments, Interactive models and
Speaker 2: panels explain how Uraniberg lurked and operated. There is even
Speaker 2: a scale model of the Solar System path outside, with
Speaker 2: distances between planet markers proportional to Tycho's cosmology, allowing guests
Speaker 2: to walk the planets. Through These preservation and reconstruction efforts,
Speaker 2: the Island of Vent today serves as a unique historic
Speaker 2: site commemorating Tycho's achievements. Legacy of Uraniburg and Sterniberg is
Speaker 2: not only visible in the ruins and replicas, but also
Speaker 2: in their impact on science. They are celebrated as the
Speaker 2: first modern observatories in Europe, a place where, as one
Speaker 2: museum sign puts it, then became a brilliant center of
Speaker 2: European science in Tycho's era. The data produced here fundamentally
Speaker 2: changed astronomy and led directly to the work of Kepler
Speaker 2: and ultimately Newton's law of gravitation. Visitors walking among the
Speaker 2: herb gardens and peering into the subterranean Cuniberg can appreciate
Speaker 2: how Tycho Brahe's determination to methodically chart the heavens with
Speaker 2: the aid of advanced instruments.
Speaker 1: Paved the way for a new worldview.
Speaker 2: In some Uraniberg and Sterniberg on the island event represent
Speaker 2: a remarkable fusion of architecture, science, and art. A Renaissance
Speaker 2: observatory castle and its underground adjunct built to pursue the
Speaker 2: secrets of the stars, and whose influence is still felt
Speaker 2: in the foundation of modern astronomy now Before we move
Speaker 2: on to discuss Tycho's alchemical practices, We're going to talk
Speaker 2: about Jeffe and who's jeff A Tycho Brahees Court Dwarf.
Speaker 2: In this mealieu of empirical inquiry and curious extravagance, one
Speaker 2: of the most colorful figures in Tycho's household was Jepe,
Speaker 2: the resident court dwarf. Jepe also spelled j e p
Speaker 2: or l e Ppe in some sources, was a little person,
Speaker 2: a man with dwarf ism who lived and served in
Speaker 2: Tycho Brahe's household at Uraniborg. Contemporary accounts referred to him
Speaker 2: as brahes Fool or court Chester. Beyond a few descriptions, however,
Speaker 2: very little is known about Jepa's own life. He is
Speaker 2: effectively no more than a footnote of history. Even his
Speaker 2: origins and what became of him after Brahe's tenure on
Speaker 2: Ven remain unknown. We do not know Jepa's age. Some
Speaker 2: later fictional portrayals imagine him as a teenager, though this
Speaker 2: is speculative, or how he came to be in Tycho's service.
Speaker 2: What we have are a handful of anecdotes preserved in
Speaker 2: letters and biographies after Brahe's death. Which paint Jeppey as
Speaker 2: an endlessly chattering dwarf whom Tycho kept at his estate
Speaker 2: for amusement and perhaps for something more mystical. Despite the
Speaker 2: cassidy of biographical detail, historians generally accept that Brahe did
Speaker 2: indeed have a dwarf jester named Jepe and his employee.
Speaker 2: He is mentioned by Brahe's contemporaries and later chroniclers, though
Speaker 2: always in relation to Brahe, rather than an independent figure.
Speaker 2: In essence, Jeppe's identity in this historical record is defined
Speaker 2: by his role in Tycho's household, a role that straddles
Speaker 2: the lines between fact and legends. As we will explore now,
Speaker 2: sources from Brahe's Erra portray Jepe as more than a
Speaker 2: mere entertainer. According to Tycho's pupil, Christian Longo Montanas, the
Speaker 2: dwarf was believed to possess second sight, a kind of
Speaker 2: clairvoyant ability. During meals at Uraniberg, Jeppe sat at Tycho's feet,
Speaker 2: often literally under the dinner table, receiving food scraps from
Speaker 2: his hand. He would babble incessantly, but his strange utterances
Speaker 2: were taken seriously if they seemed prophetic. Brahe's assistants and
Speaker 2: family listened attentively whenever Jepe went into a trance like pronouncement.
Speaker 2: Several striking antidotes illustrate Jepe's reputed powers. On one occasion,
Speaker 2: brahe had sent two assistants to Copenhagen. On the very
Speaker 2: day they were expected to return, Jepa suddenly piped up
Speaker 2: during supper, see how your people are washing themselves in
Speaker 2: the sea. Alarmed, Tycho interpretated this as a vision of
Speaker 2: a shipwreck. He dispatched to look out to the shore,
Speaker 2: and indeed, a capsized boat was soon spotted with two
Speaker 2: dripping wet men. Just as Jepe's cryptic remark had implied.
Speaker 2: In another off repeated story, whenever someone fell ill on ven,
Speaker 2: Jepe would pronounce whether they would recover or die, and
Speaker 2: he was always proven correct. These pronouncements earned him a
Speaker 2: reputation as a seer. Even the prankish side of Tycho's
Speaker 2: students intersected with Jepe's site. If the young scholars were
Speaker 2: slacking off in Tycho's absence, they would post Jepe as
Speaker 2: a lookout. When the dwarf sensed or spotted his master
Speaker 2: returning unexpectedly, he would call out a warning Junker par
Speaker 2: landed the squire is on the land, giving the other
Speaker 2: times to look busy. In this way, Jepe served as
Speaker 2: both jester and unwitting guardian of discipline. By all accounts,
Speaker 2: Tycho Brahe valued Jepe's peculiar talons. One source notes that
Speaker 2: Tycho kept him for these skills and appeared to take
Speaker 2: his prophecies seriously. Brahe's diary and scientific writings do not
Speaker 2: mention Jepe, but the private respect he offered the dwarf's
Speaker 2: predictions suggests that Brahe, despite being a pioneering empiricist, was
Speaker 2: not immune to the arismistical mindset. At the very least,
Speaker 2: Jepa provided entertainment and conversation. At times. He may have
Speaker 2: offered Brahe counsel or omens of a sort that conventional
Speaker 2: advisors could not. We should note the more fantastical aspect
Speaker 2: of these stories. A one hundred percent success rate in
Speaker 2: predicting illness's outcomes, for example, invite skepticism. Nevertheless, they were
Speaker 2: recorded by people close to Brahe and have become part
Speaker 2: of the law of Urannaberg. It is important to distinguish
Speaker 2: confirmed facts about Jepe from later embellishments. The primary references
Speaker 2: to Jepe come not from Brahe himself, but those who
Speaker 2: documented Brahe's life shortly after his death. Pierre Gesende, a
Speaker 2: seventeenth century scholar, wrote a biography of Tycho Brahe in
Speaker 2: sixteen fifty four that includes the tale of Brahes Dwarf. Gassende,
Speaker 2: in turn, was relaying information from correspondences with Danish antiquerary
Speaker 2: old Worm and others. In these letters, Brahe's one time assistant,
Speaker 2: Onengo Montanas is cited as the authority for Jeppe's clairvoyants.
Speaker 2: The chain of transmission appears to be Brahes contemporaries told
Speaker 2: stories of Jepe. Old Worm gathered these anecdotes, and Gassende
Speaker 2: published them, albeit with minor errors. He misspelled Jep's name
Speaker 2: as l Ppe in one instance. Much later, in eighteen ninety,
Speaker 2: historian J. L. E. Dreyer compiled Brahe's life and included
Speaker 2: the full Jepe narrative with references to those earlier sources.
Speaker 2: Drea's biography is the source of many modern retellings and
Speaker 2: is considered a reliable secondary account of Brahe's life. Thus,
Speaker 2: the existence of a Dwarf Jester at Uraniberg and the
Speaker 2: specific anecdotes about his foresight come to us through credible,
Speaker 2: if secondhand, historical testimony. What remains unconfirmed are those more
Speaker 2: sensational aspects. Did Jepa truly possess paranormal insight or is
Speaker 2: his predictions coincidental and then exaggerated by storytellers. Such claims
Speaker 2: of second sight were not uncommon in folklore, especially regarding
Speaker 2: court fools or marginalized figures, as we must view them critically.
Speaker 2: We also lack any independent record of Jepa's life. For example,
Speaker 2: we do not know his surname, birthdate, or fate. No
Speaker 2: portrait or direct description of his appearance survives. All we
Speaker 2: have are the tales of his behavior at Brahyes's table.
Speaker 2: The scarcity of hard evidence is why Catherine Marsh, a
Speaker 2: modern novelist who researched Jepe, notes that beyond a few
Speaker 2: mentioned little is known about him, including who he was
Speaker 2: or how he ended up in Uraniberg. Historians generally treat
Speaker 2: Jepe's prophetic feats as anecdotal, interesting but not verifiable. The
Speaker 2: core facts that Brahe had a dwarf chester named Jeppe
Speaker 2: who sat under his table and babbled, and that Brahe's
Speaker 2: circle ascribed psychic powers to him or well attested, but
Speaker 2: whether Jepe actually foresaw events or was simply given retroactive
Speaker 2: credit for lucky guesses is impossible to know. The reliability
Speaker 2: of the sources varies, and contemporary like Longo Montanas, is
Speaker 2: likely to have met Jepe lending some credibility, whereas later
Speaker 2: writers may have edited a dramatic flourish. In some Jepe
Speaker 2: the person is historical, while Jeppe the seer belongs to
Speaker 2: the realm of legend and war. For a figure of
Speaker 2: scant history, the oracle footprint Jeppi has made a surprisingly
Speaker 2: large imprint on later culture. Early biographies of Tycho Brahe,
Speaker 2: like Ascendes and Dreas, ensure that the tale of the
Speaker 2: dwarf Jester would be remembered in Brahe's lore. Since then,
Speaker 2: almost every popular recounting of Brahe's life mentions Jep, typically
Speaker 2: alongside Brahe's other oddities, such as his metal nose and
Speaker 2: drunken elk. For instance, a twenty ten Scientific American piece
Speaker 2: on Brahy's exhumation quoted Dre's description of Jepe to illustrate
Speaker 2: the law surrounding Tycho Brahe. The story captivates because it
Speaker 2: humanizes and dramatizes the astronomer's image. The idea of a
Speaker 2: brilliant scientist who kept a psychic dwarf is simply too
Speaker 2: intriguing to omit. Modern writers have picked up Jepe's threat
Speaker 2: and wove it into new narratives. In twenty twelve, Catherine
Speaker 2: Marsh published jep Who Defied the Stars, a well received
Speaker 2: young adulte's historical novel that places Jepe at the center
Speaker 2: of the story. Marsh took the few known facts Jepe's
Speaker 2: presence at Uraniberg as a team dwarf Chester and imaginatively
Speaker 2: filled in a life for him, first in the Spanish
Speaker 2: Netherlands and then at Brahe's castle. The novel explores themes
Speaker 2: of fate versus free will, reflecting the very tension between
Speaker 2: astrology and astronomy in Brahe's time. By making Jepa a protagonist,
Speaker 2: Marsh invents his historical role as a footnote, instead giving
Speaker 2: him an agency in depth while engaging with real figures
Speaker 2: like Tycho Brahe. This work of fiction underscores how compelling
Speaker 2: Jepay's fragmentary story is. Readers and authors are drawn to
Speaker 2: the what ifs of his life, how a person of
Speaker 2: short stature might navigate the grand courts and lovely sciences
Speaker 2: of the Renaissance. Beyond literature, Jepa often appears in popular
Speaker 2: science and history outlets as an anecdote that colorfully encapsulates
Speaker 2: Brahe's eccentricity. Articles, blogs, and even trivialists frequently mentioned that
Speaker 2: Tycho Brahe had a dwarf jester named Jep, who he
Speaker 2: believed to be clairvoyant. Such pieces sometimes embellished the image further,
Speaker 2: describing Jepe as Brahe's pet dwarf, or claiming he lived
Speaker 2: under the table and only popped out to make prophecies,
Speaker 2: as one tongue in cheek account putting. While these popular
Speaker 2: retellings may sacrifice nuance for humor, they have kept Jep's
Speaker 2: memory alive in the public imagination. In a sense, jep
Speaker 2: has achieved a curious kind of immortality. An obscure sixteenth
Speaker 2: century dwarf is now regularly cited in anecdotes from Reddit
Speaker 2: discussions debunking historical myths to mainstream science podcasts and now
Speaker 2: the Occult rejects all pondering whether the story of Tycho's
Speaker 2: clairvoyant dwarf is true. The consensus is that it is
Speaker 2: true at least an outline, albeit often retold with a wink.
Speaker 2: It is often worth noting that Brahes Dwarf has also
Speaker 2: been conflated with or compared to other legendary figures. Some
Speaker 2: writers mentioned Jepe in the same breath as Brahes contemporaries
Speaker 2: at the eccentric court of Emperor Rulf the Second in Prague.
Speaker 1: Rudolf's court was famous.
Speaker 2: For its alchemist's, astrologers and wonders, so a dwarf seer
Speaker 2: fits right in. Though Jepe himself likely never went to Prague,
Speaker 2: Jepe's presence reinforces the meliau of the late Renaissance as
Speaker 2: one where science, superstition.
Speaker 1: And spectacle coexisted.
Speaker 2: Jepe's presence at Uraniberg exemplifies how Brahees's household blended rationality
Speaker 2: with the arcane. On one hand, Tycho brahe relied on
Speaker 2: precise measurements in data, constructing instruments and catalogs that rejected
Speaker 2: superstition in astronomy, and on the other hand he was
Speaker 2: intrigued by prophecy and the occult qualities of nature. Jeppey's
Speaker 2: presence at Uraniberg exemplifies how Brahes's household blended rationality with
Speaker 2: the arcane. On one hand, Tycho brahe relied on precise
Speaker 2: measurements and data, constructing instruments and catalogs that rejected superstition.
Speaker 2: In astronomy, For example, he debunked the idea that commets
Speaker 2: are atmospheric omens, showing they traveled through the heavens. On
Speaker 2: the other hand, he was intrigued by prophecy and the
Speaker 2: occult qualities of nature. Having a dwarf who could seemingly
Speaker 2: foretell events would have appealed to Brahees's philosophical curiosity about
Speaker 2: the hidden forceing in the cosmos. It also accorded with
Speaker 2: the noble tradition of the court fool, whose madness or
Speaker 2: otherwise gave him license to speak truths. In Brahe's case,
Speaker 2: the eccentric scientists trusted an unlikely source of knowledge, an
Speaker 2: illiterate dwarf, alongside his own meticulous observations. This juxtaposition has
Speaker 2: become a key part of Tycho's legend. The same era
Speaker 2: that produced heliocentric theory and the scientific method also clung
Speaker 2: to astrological portins and talismans.
Speaker 1: Jepay. The court dwarf thus lives.
Speaker 2: On as an intriguing fragment of Tycho Brahees's story, a
Speaker 2: reminder that scientific revolution had its share of strange bedfellows. Historically,
Speaker 2: Jepa's biography may be scant, but the legends around him
Speaker 2: speak volumes about the culture of Brahees time. In presenting
Speaker 2: Jepe's tale, a careful narrative will separate what is known
Speaker 2: a dwarf jest at i Ranneberg, noted for his cryptic pronouncements,
Speaker 2: from what is law his supposed psychic accuracy, all while
Speaker 2: painting the rich backdrop of Renaissance court life and the
Speaker 2: psyche of an extraordinary astronomer. Jepay's presence in Tycho's household
Speaker 2: is more than a curious anecdote. It highlights the blend
Speaker 2: of mysticism and empiricism, superstition and science in the late
Speaker 2: sixteenth century. He knows how even a figure devoted to
Speaker 2: measurement and reason could give quarter to the magical and
Speaker 2: the absurd. In the end, the story of Jeppe and
Speaker 2: Tycho invites us to ponder the complexities of historical truth
Speaker 2: versus legend, and to marvel at a moment in history
Speaker 2: when a dwarf beneath a dinner table could whisper prophecies
Speaker 2: to a man charting the stars. And as we continue
Speaker 2: now we are going to focus on Tycho's alchemical practices,
Speaker 2: lunar theories.
Speaker 1: And much more.
Speaker 2: The alchemists think they can make gold from the basist metals,
Speaker 2: but I say unto you, it is nobler to extract
Speaker 2: the truth from error than gold from dirt. Uraniborg, Tycho's
Speaker 2: observatory palace on Ven was not only an astronomical center,
Speaker 2: but also a chemical and alchemical laboratory. Tycho's interest leaned
Speaker 2: more toward chemical medicine, which was part of Paracelsian alchemy,
Speaker 2: a practical medical application of alchemical principles. He pursued the
Speaker 2: transmutation of metals, but more realistically aimed at the refinement
Speaker 2: and synthesis of medicinal compounds. Tycho, on his assistance, produced
Speaker 2: medicines for the poor and for nobles, experimenting with substances
Speaker 2: like aquavite salts and tinctures. In case you're not show
Speaker 2: what aquavita is, it's an archaic name for a strong
Speaker 2: ocueous solution of ethanol. He believed that celestial influences, astrology
Speaker 2: and terrestrial substances alchemy were deeply connected, forming a basis
Speaker 2: for diagnosis and treatment. Tycho was heavily influenced in alchemy
Speaker 2: by some of the usual suspects and some you may have.
Speaker 1: Never heard of.
Speaker 2: Of course, Paracelsus, who advocated for using chemical substance to
Speaker 2: cure illness. He also rejected traditional galanic medicine and emphasized
Speaker 2: observation and experiment, aligning with Tycho's empirical spirit. Tycho was
Speaker 2: also steeped to medieval and Renaissance alchemical texts in his works,
Speaker 2: attributed to Gerber Raymond Lowell, and Hermes Trismegistus. These sources
Speaker 2: influenced his metaphysical beliefs, particularly the idea of correspondences between
Speaker 2: macrocosm and microcosm, heaven and human Tycho employed assistants who
Speaker 2: were also trained in alchemy, like Elias Olsen Morson. He
Speaker 2: corresponded with other intellectuals across Europe, many of whom are
Speaker 2: interested in both alchemy and astronomy, such as John d.
Speaker 2: There is some notable achievements in alchemy for Tycho that
Speaker 2: are worth mentioning. Quickly, he built one of the most
Speaker 2: advanced alchemy labs of the sixteenth century comparable. In ambition
Speaker 2: to his astronomical work, he produced medicines distributed both to
Speaker 2: peasants and aristocrats, and he created a self sustaining research
Speaker 2: ecosystem combining astronomy, alchemy, astrology, and weather forecasting. Tycho also
Speaker 2: spent some time studying the moon, and we're going to
Speaker 2: touch on some of brahe's lunar theories now. Tycho systematically
Speaker 2: recorded lunar positions over decades at his Uraniburg observatory. Tycho
Speaker 2: systematically recorded lunar positions over decades at his Uraniburg observatory.
Speaker 2: He wanted to resolve persistent discrepancies in the ptolemaic tables
Speaker 2: and to refine the mathematical description of lunar inequalities. From
Speaker 2: that there was the discovery of the variation. The variation
Speaker 2: was discovered by Tycho, who noticed that, starting from a
Speaker 2: lunar eclipse in December fifteen ninety, at the times of
Speaker 2: syzygy new or full more, the apparent velocity of the
Speaker 2: motion of the moon was faster than expected. On the
Speaker 2: other hand, at times of first and last quarter, its
Speaker 2: velocity was correspondingly slower than expected. Building on this observation,
Speaker 2: Tycho quantified the effects amplitude and period. The variation has
Speaker 2: a period of half a synodic month and causes the
Speaker 2: Moon's ecliptic longitude to vary by nearly two thirds of
Speaker 2: a degree. Tycho's investigations also uncovered oscillations in the Moon's
Speaker 2: orbital plane and nodes. He also discovered librations in the
Speaker 2: inclination of the plane of the lunar orbit relative to
Speaker 2: the ecliptic, and accompanying oscillations in the longitude of the
Speaker 2: lunar node. His work thereby doubled the number of known
Speaker 2: lunar inequalities, introducing a monthly or semi annual libration of
Speaker 2: the nodes in inclination to earlier schemes. Tycho went on
Speaker 2: to identify a yearly perturbation, the first systematic recognition of
Speaker 2: the annual equation of the Moon. There is also an
Speaker 2: annual effect by which the lunar motion slows down a
Speaker 2: little in January and speeds up a little in July.
Speaker 2: This finding was later characterized as a variation in the
Speaker 2: Moon's speed tied to the Earth's changing distance from the Sun.
Speaker 2: One of Tycho's most impressive astronomical achievements was his discoveryver
Speaker 2: of the Moon's so called annual variation, a variation of
Speaker 2: the Moon's orbital speed associated with the gravitational pull of
Speaker 2: the Sun, which shows a yearly pattern due to the
Speaker 2: slightly varying distance between the Earth and Sun over the
Speaker 2: course of the year. Tycho's comprehensive lunar theory reduced the
Speaker 2: discrepancies of lunar models to about a fifth of their
Speaker 2: previous values, making it the most accurate framework before Newtonian gravitation.
Speaker 2: As Johannes Keppler later noted, Tycho's lunar theory doubled the
Speaker 2: number of distinct lunar inequalities and reduced the discrepancies of
Speaker 2: lunar theory to about a fifth of their previous amounts.
Speaker 2: It was published by Kepler in sixteen oh two, and
Speaker 2: Kepler's own derivative form appears in Kepler's Rudolphine Tables of
Speaker 2: sixteen twenty seven. By the early seventeenth century, Tycho's lunar theory,
Speaker 2: largely refined by his assistant Christian Longo Montanas, was recognized
Speaker 2: as the most advanced and accurate of its error. The
Speaker 2: meticulous empirical foundation he laid not only transformed lunar astronomy,
Speaker 2: but also provided the essential data that enabled Kepler's laws,
Speaker 2: cementing Tycho Brahe's role as a pivotal figure in the
Speaker 2: scientific revolution. Now we will look at how Tycho viewed
Speaker 2: and utilized astrology. Not one single tiny spark of truth
Speaker 2: has yet been found by the strivings of the astrologers.
Speaker 2: Tycho did not see astrology as separate from astronomy. Instead,
Speaker 2: he believed that accurate celestial measurements were essential for creating
Speaker 2: reliable horoscopes and predicting earthly events, a viewpoint common in
Speaker 2: Renaissance natural philosophy. And what kind of astrology did Tycho practice?
Speaker 1: You ask?
Speaker 2: Judicial astrology focus on interpreting celestial influence on human affairs, births, politics, illnesses,
Speaker 2: and weather. Mundane astrology. Tycho made predictions about weather, famines, plagues,
Speaker 2: and political events based on celestial alignments, and then we
Speaker 2: have medical astrology. He also practiced medicine, using star positions
Speaker 2: to diagnose and treat illness. This overlapped with his alchemy
Speaker 2: and medicine. He created horoscopes and natal charts. Tycho cast
Speaker 2: natal charts for nobles, royalty, and himself. He created a
Speaker 2: detailed horoscope for King Frederick the Second of Denmark, his patron.
Speaker 2: He also analyzed the birth charts of historical mythical figures,
Speaker 2: comparing the astrological traits with historical records. Before we go
Speaker 2: any further, let's touch on some of Tycho's astrological influences.
Speaker 2: Claudius Ptolemy, author of the Tetra Biblos, a foundational text
Speaker 2: in astrology. Tycho respected Tolmaic astrology just as he admired
Speaker 2: Tolmaic astronomy, even though he modified it and then Paracelsus
Speaker 2: a major influence on Tycho's views about medical astrology. Paracelsus
Speaker 2: emphasized the influence of celestial bodies on health and disease.
Speaker 2: He was also influenced by Arabic and medieval astrologists. Tycho
Speaker 2: drew from traditions shaped by Islamic scholars like Alkindi, Albumasar,
Speaker 2: and Avaros, as well as European medieval astrologists. These sources
Speaker 2: emphasized both planetary positions and celestial omens. Uraniberg wasn't just
Speaker 2: a site for astronomical observation. It also housed Tycho's astrological offices,
Speaker 2: he maintained detailed records of planetary movements, specifically for astrological calculations.
Speaker 2: He produced almanacs and predictions distributed to both the common
Speaker 2: public and elite clients. Tycho made several predictions regarding European
Speaker 2: political events, including wars, plagues, and deaths of monarchs. Although
Speaker 2: not always accurate, these predictions enhanced his reputation at core
Speaker 2: Art and secured funding. He used astrology to determine the
Speaker 2: best times for medical treatments, consistent with humoral theory. He
Speaker 2: also created estrological diagnosises for illnesses, often in conjunction without
Speaker 2: chemical remedies. King Frederick the Second and other nobles valued
Speaker 2: Tycho's astrological work. His blend of astronomy and astrology made
Speaker 2: him both a court scientist and a court prophet. The
Speaker 2: starry Vault of Heaven is in truth the open book
Speaker 2: of cosmic projection. This powaphrase captures his approach to astronomy
Speaker 2: as divine revelation. Now, Tycho wasn't just a master of
Speaker 2: celestial observation. He also applied that data in practical astrology.
Speaker 2: He cast horoscopes for nobles, political figures and even himself.
Speaker 2: Many of these were used for diagnosis, prognosis, or political predictions.
Speaker 2: One of them that he did Tycho Quia himself date
Speaker 2: of birth December fourteenth, fifteen forty six on the Julian calendar.
Speaker 2: He interpreted his chart as showing a strong Martian influence,
Speaker 2: possibly reflected in his fiery temperament and resilience, as well
Speaker 2: as the duel that led to the loss of part
Speaker 2: of his nose. The horoscope also showed a Saturn Mars configuration,
Speaker 2: which Tycho associated with a lifelong pursuit of serious and
Speaker 2: even secretive knowledge, linking it to his work in alchemy
Speaker 2: and occult studies. He did the horoscope of King Frederick
Speaker 2: the Second of Denmark. Tycho cast and interpreted a nativity
Speaker 2: chart for his royal patron, King Frederick the Second. He
Speaker 2: emphasized planetary placements that suggested noble rulership, military strength, but
Speaker 2: also personal excess or indulgence, likely based on Jupiter and
Speaker 2: Venus placements. Tycho used this horoscope to guide medical and
Speaker 2: political advice to the king, strengthening his standing at court.
Speaker 2: Tycho attempted to reconstruct Burch charts from major historical and
Speaker 2: religious figures like Christ, mohammedd and Martin Luther. These charts
Speaker 2: were not just astrological curiosities. He used them to compare
Speaker 2: celestial influences across time and explore patterns of destiny and fate.
Speaker 2: Tycho didn't just cast horoscopes. He also interpreted celestial phenomenas,
Speaker 2: such as comments and eclipses, as signs of impending events,
Speaker 2: often of great political or natural consequence. The comment of
Speaker 2: fifteen seventy seven was one of Tycho's most important observations.
Speaker 2: He tracked the comment meticulously and proved that it was
Speaker 2: far beyond the moon, contradicting Aristolian cosmology, which said comments
Speaker 2: were atmospheric. Tycho interpreted the comet as a warning of turmoil,
Speaker 2: especially political and religious conflict. He connected it with the
Speaker 2: unrest in the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Protestant
Speaker 2: tensions of the time. He also tied it to potential
Speaker 2: royal deaths or wars in the coming years. This was
Speaker 2: consistent with astological tradition comets were omens of change uphevil
Speaker 2: and celestial dissatisfaction. It was also the solar eclipse of
Speaker 2: fifteen eighty observed across Europe and tracked in great detail
Speaker 2: by Tycho. Eclipses were considered major omens, especially solar eclipses,
Speaker 2: which represented a temporary blotting out of power or authority.
Speaker 2: Tycho interpreted this as a sign of illness or danger
Speaker 2: to a reigning monarch, possibly Frederick the second. He may
Speaker 2: have tied this eclipse to changes in political alliances and
Speaker 2: crop a filiures in certain regions. Then we have the
Speaker 2: comet of fifteen ninety, less famous than fifteen seventy seven comet,
Speaker 2: but Tycho again interpreted it as a sign of impending conflict,
Speaker 2: possibly tied to the decline of peace in Misthern Europe.
Speaker 2: As usual, he kept detailed observational records alongside interpretive astrological notes.
Speaker 2: Tycho believed that planets, comets, and eclipses influenced both individual
Speaker 2: destiny and collective history. Astrology was not mystical nonsense, but
Speaker 2: a natural science of correlations, a way to understand divine
Speaker 2: order in the cosmos. His precise astronomical data was essential
Speaker 2: to making accurate estrological predictions. Tycho brahe stood at a
Speaker 2: unique moment in history. He believed in astrology deeply, but
Speaker 2: revolutionized astronomy in a way that would ultimately separate the two.
Speaker 2: His horoscopes and interpretations of celestial events reflected time when
Speaker 2: science and spirituality were still one language.
Speaker 1: Not two.
Speaker 2: It is necessary to understand that the understanding of the
Speaker 2: heavens must be founded on observations, not speculations. We're going
Speaker 2: to change it up a little bit again and talk
Speaker 2: about Tycho's love life and his marriage. Tycho entered into
Speaker 2: a morganatic marriage with Kirsten Jorgen's daughter, a woman of
Speaker 2: common birth, around fifteen seventy two. This type of marriage,
Speaker 2: prevalent among European nobility during this period, allowed a person
Speaker 2: of high social rank to marry someone of a lower
Speaker 2: status without extending noble titles, privileges, or of full inheritance
Speaker 2: rights to the spouse or their offspring. What is a
Speaker 2: morganatic marriage. A morganatic marriage is a legal arrangement where
Speaker 2: a noble marries a commoner, but the lower ranking spouse
Speaker 2: and any children born from the union do not inherit
Speaker 2: the noble titles, the states, or privileges of the higher
Speaker 2: ranking partner. This practice was designed to preserve the purity
Speaker 2: of noble lineage and prevent the dilution of aristocratic status. Tycho,
Speaker 2: born into a prominent noble family, was expected to marry
Speaker 2: within his social class. However, he choose to form a
Speaker 2: lifelong partnership with Kirsten Jorgensdatter, a woman of peasant origins.
Speaker 2: Their relationship began around fifteen seventy two, and under Danish law,
Speaker 2: after three years of cohabitation, by approximately fifteen seventy five,
Speaker 2: their union was legally recognized as a marriage. Despite the recognition,
Speaker 2: it remained morganatic due to the disparity in their social standings.
Speaker 2: Kirstin did not acquire noble status, and their children, while legitimate,
Speaker 2: were excluded from inheriting Tycho's noble titles or privileges. The
Speaker 2: couple had eight children, six of whom survived to adulthood.
Speaker 2: Tycho and Kirstin lived together as a family for nearly
Speaker 2: three decades, demonstrating a deep commitment that defied the societal
Speaker 2: noise of the time. They resided primarily on the island
Speaker 2: of Ven, where Tycho constructed his famous observatory in Ranneberg,
Speaker 2: and later moved to Prague. When Tycho accepted a position
Speaker 2: under Emperor Rudolph the Second in fifteen ninety nine. The
Speaker 2: morganatic nature of their marriage had significant consequences. As a commoner,
Speaker 2: Kirsten did not gain noble rank or privileges through her
Speaker 2: marriage to Tycho. She remained outside the aristocratic sphere despite
Speaker 2: being his wife. Their eight children were legally legitimate, a
Speaker 2: status secured by Danish legal provision recognizing the marriage after
Speaker 2: three years of cohabitation. However, they could not inherit Tycho's
Speaker 2: noble titles or the associated privileges, such as certain land
Speaker 2: rights reserved for nobility. Tycho's decision to marry in commoner
Speaker 2: likely raised eyebrows among his noble peers, as it deviated
Speaker 2: from the expectation that he would marry within his class
Speaker 2: to strengthen familial alliances or enhance his status. Nevertheless, Tycho
Speaker 2: appeared to prioritize his personal bond with Kirsten over societal approval.
Speaker 1: Tycho Brahe died.
Speaker 2: In sixteen oh one, and his passing triggered legal disputes
Speaker 2: over his estate. His noble relatives contested the inheritance rights
Speaker 2: of his children, arguing that their morganatic status disqualified them
Speaker 2: from claiming Tycho's wealth. However, King Christian, the fourth of
Speaker 2: Denmark intervened, ensuring that Tycho's children could inherit his property,
Speaker 2: though not his noble titles or privileges. This royal intervention
Speaker 2: underscored the legitimacy of Tycho's offspring and highlighted the king's
Speaker 2: authority to override familial objections in such matters. Tycho's morganatic
Speaker 2: marriage to Kirston reflects his willingness to challenge the rigid
Speaker 2: social conventions of the sixteenth century Denmark. Despite his stature
Speaker 2: as a nobleman and a leading scientific figure known for
Speaker 2: his precise astronomical observation and contributions to the Copernican Revolution,
Speaker 2: Tycho chose a path that prioritized personal devotion over aristocratic tradition.
Speaker 2: His enduring partnership with Kirsten, spanning nearly thirty years, and
Speaker 2: his recognition of their children as his heirs, albeit without
Speaker 2: noble status, demonstrate a commitment that transcended legal and social barriers.
Speaker 2: Now we are going to talk about some of Tycho's inventions.
Speaker 2: Some of them may have been brought up earlier, but
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about them again in a little
Speaker 2: bit more detail. Let me not seem to have lived
Speaker 2: in vain inscription on Tycho's mural quadrant, often cited as
Speaker 2: his personal motto. First, we have the mural quadrant. The
Speaker 2: mural quadrant was a large wall mounted instrument with a
Speaker 2: radius of approximately six feet of one point eight meters.
Speaker 2: It was fixed in position in a line to measure
Speaker 2: the altitude of celestial bodies as they crossed the meridian,
Speaker 2: the imaginary line where stars reached their highest point in
Speaker 2: the sky. This quadrant enabled Brahe to determine the precise
Speaker 2: positions of stars and planets by measuring their angular height
Speaker 2: during meridian transits, focusing on declination celestial latitude. Known for
Speaker 2: its size and precision, the muro quadrant allowed measurements accurate
Speaker 2: to within zero point zero one degrees, far surpassing earlier instruments.
Speaker 2: It was a corner stone of Brahe's efforts to challenge
Speaker 2: existing astronomical models. Then we have the revolving wooden quadrant.
Speaker 2: The revolving wooden quadrant was a portable instrument made of wood,
Speaker 2: designed to rotate and track celestial bodies as they moved
Speaker 2: across the sky. It featured a citing mechanism for continuous observation.
Speaker 2: Unlike the fixed MUA Quadrant. This instrument allowed Brahe to
Speaker 2: measure both altitude and asmuth horizontal angle the celestial objects
Speaker 2: at any time, making it ideal for tracking their motion
Speaker 2: over extended periods. Its mobility and flexibility complemented Brahyes fixed instruments,
Speaker 2: enhancing his ability to gather dynamic observational data. And then
Speaker 2: we have the Great Steel Quadrant. The Great Steel Quadrant
Speaker 2: was a durable version of the quadrant, constructed from steel
Speaker 2: to reduce warping and flexing compared to wooden models. It
Speaker 2: provided stable, high precision measurements of celestial altitudes, improving the
Speaker 2: reliability of long term observations. The use of steel reflected
Speaker 2: Brahe's dedication to refining his tools, minimizing errors caused by
Speaker 2: material instability, and ensuring greater accuracy. And then there is
Speaker 2: the sextant. Brahes Secon was a large precision instrument disa
Speaker 2: trying to measure the angular distance between two visible objects
Speaker 2: such as stars or planets, spanning sixty degrees, and included
Speaker 2: sites for accurate alignment. By measuring angles between celestial bodies,
Speaker 2: Brahe could determine their relative positions and monitor changes over time,
Speaker 2: essential for studying planetary motion. The sextant was vital for
Speaker 2: Brahe's attempts to measure stellar parallax, though unsuccessful due to
Speaker 2: technological limits, and contributed to his detailed records of planetary orbits.
Speaker 2: And then we have the armillary sphere. The armillary sphere
Speaker 2: was a complex model of the celestial sphere, featuring interlocking
Speaker 2: rings that represented key astronomical circles such as the equator, ecliptic, tropics.
Speaker 1: And meridians.
Speaker 2: It allowed Brihay to visualize and measure the coordinates of
Speaker 2: celestial objects relative to their reference circles, aiding in the
Speaker 2: study of the Sun, Moon, and planet's apparent motion. Brahey's
Speaker 2: version was larger and more accurate than its predecessors, reflecting
Speaker 2: his focus on precision and supporting his development of a
Speaker 2: new cosmological model. We also have the equatorial armillary, a
Speaker 2: specialized variant of the armillary sphere. The equatorial armillary was
Speaker 2: aligned with the art's equator, featuring rings for the celestial
Speaker 2: equator and equatorial coordinates. It facilitated measurements in the equatorial
Speaker 2: coordinate system right ascension and declination, aligning with the art's rotation,
Speaker 2: for easier tracking of celestial objects. By adopting this system,
Speaker 2: still used in modern astronomy, Brahe improved the efficiency and
Speaker 2: accuracy of his observations, making his data more accessible and consistent.
Speaker 2: And the next is the Great Celestial Globe. The Great
Speaker 2: Celestial Globe was a large, meticulously crafted sphere where Brahe
Speaker 2: recorded the positions of stars and planets, serving as a
Speaker 2: three dimensional star map and enabled him to visualize and
Speaker 2: tracks celestial movements over time, plotting over one thousand stars
Speaker 2: as a physical catalog of his observations. One of the
Speaker 2: most accurate star maps of its era, the Globe was
Speaker 2: a testament to Brahees's comprehensive approach and a valuable reference
Speaker 2: for his research. Brahees's instruments were distinguished by their large scale,
Speaker 2: meticulous calibration, and innovative designs, all aimed at achieving unprecedented precision.
Speaker 2: He often employed multiple observers and cross verification techniques to
Speaker 2: minimize errors. His observatories Uranaberg and Sterniberg were as much
Speaker 2: inventions as his instruments, reflecting his holistic approach to advancing astronomy.
Speaker 2: The data he gathered accurate to within minutes of arc,
Speaker 2: challenged the geocentric model and provided the empirical foundation for
Speaker 2: Kepler's laws of planetary motion. While much of his astrological
Speaker 2: output was not formally published, since astrology was more practical
Speaker 2: than theoretical, several records and horoscopes, survive letters and manuscripts
Speaker 2: show his astrological calculations and predictions. His diary contains astrological notes, observations,
Speaker 2: and planetary conjunctions tied to political events. One of his
Speaker 2: published writings, I Wanted to Touch On is translated as
Speaker 2: Introductory Exercises to the Restorations of Astronomy, is one of
Speaker 2: the most impactful works. Though it remained incomplete at his
Speaker 2: death in sixteen oh one, his assistant Johannes Kepler finalized
Speaker 2: and published it in sixteen oh two, preserving its legacy.
Speaker 2: The Introductory Exercises to the Restoration of Astronomy was envisioned
Speaker 2: as the first volume of a trilogy on recent astronomical phenomena,
Speaker 2: a key source notes the first volume of a projected
Speaker 2: work on recent astronomical phenomena. This second volume had been
Speaker 2: printed and privately distributed at Uranaburg in fifteen eighty eight
Speaker 2: under title deem Monday a Theory, while the third volume
Speaker 2: was never completed, this initial work remains a monumental contribution.
Speaker 2: This writing focuses on three primary areas, each reflecting Brahe's
Speaker 2: innovative approach won the super and Ova of fifteen seventy two.
Speaker 2: Brahe documented the sudden appearance of a new star in Cassiopeia,
Speaker 2: now recognized as a super and nova. His detailed records
Speaker 2: of its brightness and position were groundbreaking, offering early evidence
Speaker 2: of dynamic stellar phenomena. Then we have restoration of celestial motions.
Speaker 2: Brahe aimed to refine astronomical models by correcting the motions
Speaker 2: of the Sun, Moon, and fixed stars. He compiled a
Speaker 2: catalog of seven hundred and seventy seven seven seven seven
Speaker 2: fixed stars, significantly approving upon earlier charts. And then we
Speaker 2: have a stronomical instruments and methods. Brahees's precision stemmed from
Speaker 2: his innovative instruments like quadrants and sextants. The introductory exercises
Speaker 2: to the Restoration of Astronomy alludes to these methods, underscoring
Speaker 2: his unprecedented accuracy for the pre telescopic error. Brahy's death
Speaker 2: left the Restoration of astronomy unfinished, but Kepler stepped in
Speaker 2: to complete it as one reference states, prepared for publication
Speaker 2: after the author's death by Johannes Kepler, who also wrote
Speaker 2: the appendix. Kepler's appendix and editorial efforts ensured the work's dissemination,
Speaker 2: while Brahees's dat of fueled Kepler's later discoveries, notably the
Speaker 2: laws of planetary motion. The restoration of astronomy transcends mere observation,
Speaker 2: making a shift in astronomical thought. Brahees's supernova findings challenged
Speaker 2: long held doctrines, and his precise measurements enabled Kepler's breakthroughs.
Speaker 2: One source highlights this impact. Thanks to the precision of
Speaker 2: ti Ko's measurements, Kepler discovered the first two laws of
Speaker 2: planetary motion and that the Martian orbit was elliptical, not
Speaker 2: circular as previously believed. Tycho's book is a seminal text
Speaker 2: that captures his revolution, the observations of the fifteen supernova,
Speaker 2: refined celestial mechanics, and meticulous star catalog published by Kepler,
Speaker 2: It bridged Renaissance astronomy to the scientific revolution, providing the
Speaker 2: empirical foundation for Kepler's laws and reshaping our understanding of
Speaker 2: the universe. Its legacy endures as a testament to Brahe's
Speaker 2: genius and the collaborative triumph of early modern science. There
Speaker 2: is one more publication I would like to cover before
Speaker 2: we move on, Epistolarum Astronomic harm Libre. Tycho Brahe projected
Speaker 2: a series of printed volumes of selected scientific correspondence, but
Speaker 2: only the first book, Liber Primus actually appeared. It was
Speaker 2: printed on his own private press at Uraniberg in fifteen
Speaker 2: ninety six with imperial and royal privileges. This physical volume
Speaker 2: contains correspondence between Tycho and Landgrave Wilhelm the fourth of Hess,
Speaker 2: who we have mentioned before, together with the Landgrave's court
Speaker 2: astronomer Christopher Rothmann. Letters in German are followed by Latin
Speaker 2: translations a bilingual presentation to maximize scholarly reach. Original plans
Speaker 2: for further volumes were never realized. Contemporary and later notices
Speaker 2: emphasized that only the first installment saw print, despite Tycho's
Speaker 2: broader publishing scheme. The volume includes engraved illustrations, initials, tale pieces,
Speaker 2: and crucially for historians of instrumentation, plates in descriptive sections
Speaker 2: of Uraniberg and Sterniberg, plus a map of the island
Speaker 2: of Ven integrating architectural and instrumental contexts with the epistolary
Speaker 2: material publishing. Selected correspondents served several strategic aims, securing priority
Speaker 2: for observational results and instrumental innovations, advertising, methodological rigor enforstering
Speaker 2: elite patronage networks. Wilhelm Fourth was himself an accomplished astronomical patron.
Speaker 2: Tycho's curation of letters with a princely collaborator positioned his
Speaker 2: reform program with a courtly scientific culture in which rulers
Speaker 2: participated intellectually, reinforcing a legitimacy for large scale observational enterprises.
Speaker 2: Epistolarum Astronomicarium Libra libra i is organized as a chronological
Speaker 2: set of letters, incorporating technical discussions on constructing and calibrating
Speaker 2: large quadrants, sects, and globes, positional or observational data exchanges
Speaker 2: intended to refine starmplanetary positions, cosmological argumentation related to comet trajectories,
Speaker 2: and the rejection of solid celestial spheres. Continuous of themes
Speaker 2: Tycho published separately in fifteen eighty eight. They talked on
Speaker 2: administrative or logistic matters typical for collaborative large projects use
Speaker 2: bilingual presentation German originals plus Latin translations to bridge vernacular
Speaker 2: court usage and the Pan European scholarly Republic. Also within
Speaker 2: these letters is discussion on precision instruments. Let us detail
Speaker 2: design principles of large, fixed and mobile instruments to achieve
Speaker 2: sub arc minute accuracy. The inclusion of plans visually corroborates
Speaker 2: these discussions, serving both technical dissemination and reputational display. There
Speaker 2: is also methodical standardization amidst these letters. Exchange of construction
Speaker 2: instructions and calibration approaches with Wilhelm. Cussle's observery illustrates a
Speaker 2: push towards standardized observational protocols, a precursor to later trans
Speaker 2: European data networks. Tycho writes about the cosmological system as well.
Speaker 2: While the volume does not present a full systematic exposition,
Speaker 2: the correspondence undergirds Tycho's geoheliocentric compromise, later outlined formally in
Speaker 2: other works, showing him negotiating theoretical space between Ptolemic and
Speaker 2: Copernican frameworks. The inclusion of Rothman's letters a working Astronomer
Speaker 2: under Wilhelm showcases an intra professional dialogue that could preempt
Speaker 2: rival narratives about who advanced specific observational or computational improvements.
Speaker 2: By fixing common and nova discussions in a prestige printed form,
Speaker 2: Tycho reinforced his critique of traditional celestial ontology against residual
Speaker 2: Aristolian defenders. Although only Book one appeared, it influenced the
Speaker 2: perception of observatory based instruments sent to astronomy as a
Speaker 2: collaborative enterprise, feeding into the early seventeenth century shift toward
Speaker 2: organized data collection later exemplified in Kempler's and afterwards national
Speaker 2: observatory programs. Now, as we begin to come to the end,
Speaker 2: I would like to leave us with a story about
Speaker 2: Tycho's twin and a poem he wrote. As we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 2: Tycho brahe was born at twin, but his twin brother.
Speaker 1: Died at birth.
Speaker 2: The loss of his still born twin brother remained a
Speaker 2: part of Tycho's family story and personal identity. In fifteen
Speaker 2: seventy two, at about the age of twenty five, Tycho
Speaker 2: composed a Latin poem titled to My Twin Brother Having
Speaker 2: Died in the Womb as a memorial to his lost
Speaker 2: twin This short poem was Tycho's first published work, printed
Speaker 2: in Copenhagen in fifteen seventy two. It takes the form
Speaker 2: of adapitaph written from the perspective of the deceased twin.
Speaker 2: Tycho's classical education had trained him in Latin language and poetry,
Speaker 2: a prize skill for a Renaissance scholar, and he drew
Speaker 2: on that training to craft this poignant elegy. The piece
Speaker 2: was published as a standalone leaflet and essentially marks Tycho's
Speaker 2: debut as a writer, demonstrating his humanist literary abilities alongside
Speaker 2: his emerging scientific interests. In the Brahe family, the surviving twin,
Speaker 2: Tycho was given the name of his paternal grandfather, Thiej
Speaker 2: latinizes Tycho. By contrast, this stillborn brother was not Christianed
Speaker 2: and remained unnamed and issued Tycho addresses in the poem.
Speaker 2: The elegy thus not only commemorates the lost brother, but
Speaker 2: also reflects on Tycho's own existence as the twin who lived.
Speaker 2: Composed at a formative time in Tycho's life. He had
Speaker 2: recently returned to Denmark from his studies abroad and decided
Speaker 2: to pursue astronomy full time. In fifteen seventy two, would
Speaker 2: also be the year of his famous observation.
Speaker 1: Of a new star nova.
Speaker 2: This context adds depth to the poem's meditations on life, death.
Speaker 1: And the heavens.
Speaker 2: Tycho's poem is written as if spoken by the dead
Speaker 2: twin to his surviving brother. The tone is consoling and philosophical.
Speaker 2: The opening lines present a haunting paradox of a life
Speaker 2: that ended before it began. I, who died before I lived,
Speaker 2: and lived again and buried in this earth. Imagine what
Speaker 2: I was like? In these lines, is still born Twin
Speaker 2: proclaims that he had died before living, but now revived
Speaker 2: in a new life beyond death. He invites the reader,
Speaker 2: or perhaps Tycho himself, to guess what I was like,
Speaker 2: emphasizing the unrealized potential of a life cut short. The
Speaker 2: poem continues to recount the circumstance of his death, not
Speaker 2: yet born. I was enclosed in my mother's wound when
Speaker 2: death became for.
Speaker 1: Me the gate of life.
Speaker 2: Here, Tycho uses the image death as the doita life,
Speaker 2: reflecting the Christian notion that an early death ushers the
Speaker 2: soul directly.
Speaker 1: Into the afterlife.
Speaker 2: Elogy then explicitly identifies the presence of the twin brother,
Speaker 2: who survived the birth. The speaker notes that at the
Speaker 2: time another was joined in the same confinement, a brother
Speaker 2: still alive. For I was a twin. God, he says,
Speaker 2: granted the surviving twin, Tycho, the chance to enjoy life longer,
Speaker 2: so that he might witness the wonders of heaven and Earth.
Speaker 2: In other words, Providence allowed Tycho to live in the
Speaker 2: world world and behold its marvels, whereas the deceased twin's
Speaker 2: experience of life on Earth was cut off.
Speaker 1: Yet the crux of.
Speaker 2: The poem is that the dead twin does not consider
Speaker 2: his own fate inferior to Tychos. In fact, he suggests
Speaker 2: the opposite. Yet I have not obtained a worse lot
Speaker 2: than him. He inhabits the earth, but Olympus holds me.
Speaker 2: By Olympus, the poem refers to the realm of the gods,
Speaker 2: effectively Heaven. The stillborn brother resides in eternal divine realms.
Speaker 2: Why Tycho remains on earth. The next line elaborates that
Speaker 2: Tycho dwells on Earth, exposed to a thousand perils which
Speaker 2: to see the land and even the stars inflict, whereas
Speaker 2: Olympus holds me and I enjoy peace and joy, forever
Speaker 2: united with the gods. This vivid contrast uses classical imagery,
Speaker 2: olympus and gods to convey his spiritual idea. The dead
Speaker 2: twin is in a state of eternal peace, spared from
Speaker 2: the dangers and sufferings of mortal life, while the living
Speaker 2: twin must face the trials of the earthly world. The
Speaker 2: inclusion of Quai sumuel astur ferront even the stars bringing
Speaker 2: the perils, is particularly striking. It hints at the belief
Speaker 2: in astrological celestial influences on human fate, a topic Tycho
Speaker 2: what's familiar with as an astrologer. One central theme of
Speaker 2: the poem is the contrast between the eternal and the temporal,
Speaker 2: a classical Renaissance and late Medieval worldview. Tycho's verses echo
Speaker 2: the idea that above the sphere of the moon, all
Speaker 2: is eternal and unchanging, while below on earth is all change, risk,
Speaker 2: and decay. This still born child ascends immediately to the
Speaker 2: eternal and olympian realm of the gods, a metaphor for heaven,
Speaker 2: enjoying eternal peace and joy, whereas Tycho remains in the
Speaker 2: sublunary world of flux and danger. This reflects the influence
Speaker 2: of Aristonian cosmology and Christian theology. Heaven is perfect and everlasting,
Speaker 2: earthly life is frail and impermanent. The poem is full
Speaker 2: of longing for the unchanging internal heavens, revealing Tycho's own
Speaker 2: yearning for cosmic permanence and divine truth, and giving his
Speaker 2: lost brother a voice from beyond, Tycho essentially expresses his
Speaker 2: spiritual imagination. He finds comfort in envisioning his twin in
Speaker 2: a palace of perfection, and perhaps envies that state even
Speaker 2: as he toils in the imperfect world. Scholars have noted
Speaker 2: that this poem is revealing of Tycho Brahe's intellectual mindset
Speaker 2: and the themes that would pervade his life's work. As
Speaker 2: a historian of astronomy, held Ra observes Tycho's twin brother
Speaker 2: died before being baptized, and Tycho's Latin owed to him,
Speaker 2: published in fifteen seventy two, stands as Tycho's first foray
Speaker 2: into publication, preceding even his scientific words. This indicates that Tycho,
Speaker 2: a nobleman astronomer, saw himself equally at home in the
Speaker 2: literary and philosophical culture of his error, writing poetry in
Speaker 2: Latin was a hallmark of a well rounded Renaissance scholar,
Speaker 2: and Tycho's ability to compose elegant elegy shows his grounding
Speaker 2: in the classics. The poem's classical reference Mount Olympus and
Speaker 2: Pantheons of Gods, combined with Christian ideology, exemplify the Renaissance
Speaker 2: synthesis of pagan and Christian imagery. In Tycho's case, it
Speaker 2: underscores how he viewed astronomy and religion through a unified lens.
Speaker 2: The heavens were not just his scientific object of study,
Speaker 2: but also a source of spiritual meaning. The poem offers
Speaker 2: comfort that the separation between the twins is only temporary.
Speaker 2: The deceased symbling assures Tycho that when the surviving brother's
Speaker 2: mortal life at last ends, they will be reunited. When
Speaker 2: he too finally leaves behind his mortal limbs and lays
Speaker 2: his weary body down in the cold earth, then both
Speaker 2: of us will be joined again as one in the heavens,
Speaker 2: and he will also attain eternal good. This promise of
Speaker 2: reunion in heaven underscores the Christian hope of an afterlife
Speaker 2: where a family bonds are restored. It also reflects a
Speaker 2: deep emotional longing on Tycho's part, the poem imagines a
Speaker 2: joyous reconciliation that transcends death. In the meantime, the unborn
Speaker 2: twin issues gentle advice to his living counterpart. He implores
Speaker 2: Tycho to patiently bear the weight of his body, the
Speaker 2: burdens of the earthly life, and let him not envy
Speaker 2: my fortune.
Speaker 1: This line is especially poignant.
Speaker 2: The dead child tells his brother not to end the
Speaker 2: fact that he's bypassed the sufferings of life and went
Speaker 2: straight to a heavenly place.
Speaker 1: It's a subtle reversal of perspective.
Speaker 2: Usually one might pity the dead infant, but here the
Speaker 2: infant suggests the living might be the less fortunate one.
Speaker 2: In some ways, this reflects a philosophical and perhaps somewhat
Speaker 2: Stoic or Christian comfort Dying innocent and early guarantees entry
Speaker 2: into paradise, whereas living longer means enduring life's dangers and sins. Tycho,
Speaker 2: through the voice of his twin, is reassuring himself that
Speaker 2: his lost brother is safe and happy, and that Tycho
Speaker 2: should accept his own earthly destiny without bitterness. So the
Speaker 2: closing lines of the elegy turned to the subject of
Speaker 2: the twins name and identity, So swift a fate denied
Speaker 2: me a name among the living, the twin laments, since
Speaker 2: an infant who died on baptized would receive no given name.
Speaker 2: Home then notes that the surviving twin carries the name
Speaker 2: of their grandfather and their steed. In fact, Tycho Brahe's
Speaker 2: own name, Hydro Tycho, was given in honor of his
Speaker 2: paternal grandfather, THIEJ Brahe. By writing, he bears our grandfather's name,
Speaker 2: Tycho Brahe, the deceased brother, essentially says that Tycho carries
Speaker 2: the family legacy for both of them. Finally, the dead
Speaker 2: twin narrator reveals the author's hand. He Tycho is the
Speaker 2: one who adorned our departed spirit with this poem, having
Speaker 2: lived through five lustra of his life five lusterers twenty
Speaker 2: five years, which was Tycho's age in fifteen seventy two,
Speaker 2: confirming the autobiographical context. Thus, the poem ends by noting
Speaker 2: that Tycho, at age twenty five, has composed these verses
Speaker 2: to honor his twin's memory. The formal epigraph at the
Speaker 2: very end reads, for his twin brother dead in the womb,
Speaker 2: Tycho brahyes Otto's son made this, followed by the publication
Speaker 2: line and date. This poem is a rich piece of
Speaker 2: blending personal grief, spiritual comfort, and cosmological thought. It provides
Speaker 2: valuable insight into Tycho Brahees's early intellectual development and emotional life.
Speaker 2: Through Latin verses, we witness Tycho's heartfelt homage to his
Speaker 2: lost twin and his contemplation of fate and eternity. The
Speaker 2: poem's themes, the hardship of life on earth, the perfection
Speaker 2: of the heavens, the hope of reunion after death, and
Speaker 2: the importance of carrying on a legacy resonate with Tycho's
Speaker 2: own journey as a scientist and a changing world. Modern
Speaker 2: scholars and writers continue to comment on this little elegy's importance,
Speaker 2: seeing it as the young astronomer's poetic meditation immortality and
Speaker 2: the Stars, one that eerily foreshadows the transformative dis discoveries
Speaker 2: he would soon make. Tycho's twin brother, though gone before birth,
Speaker 2: lives on in these Latin lines, and through them we
Speaker 2: gain a deeper understanding of Tycho Brahe's humanity behind his
Speaker 2: scientific genius. As we closed the curtain on the life
Speaker 2: and legend of Tycho brahe It's hard not to feel
Speaker 2: the pulse of a man who lived with one eye
Speaker 2: fixed on the heavens and the other on the mysteries
Speaker 2: of fate. Born a Danish noble, yet destined for the stars,
Speaker 2: Tycho's curiosity flared the night he saw the heavens shift
Speaker 2: during the fifteen.
Speaker 1: Sixty solar eclipse.
Speaker 2: Years of humanist schooling in Copenhagen, Leipzig and Wittenberg refined
Speaker 2: his Latin, his mathematics, and his appetite for forbidden questions.
Speaker 2: A student duel cost him his nose, but that silver
Speaker 2: and gold prosthetic became a badge of stubborn originality, a
Speaker 2: visible reminder that discovery often exacts a price on the
Speaker 2: tiny island. Observatory of Tycho forged instruments of unprecedented size
Speaker 2: and position, the Great Murau Quadrant, the armillary spheres, the
Speaker 2: global celestial globe, turning naked eye astronomy into an exact science.
Speaker 2: His meticulous star catalog and nightly records of planetary motion
Speaker 2: would later furnish Johannes Kepler's with the raw data to
Speaker 2: carve the laws of planetary orbits. And then, when the
Speaker 2: new Star of fifteen seventy two Blossom and Cassiopeia. Tycho's
Speaker 2: measurements shattered the old Aristolian dogma of an unchanging heaven,
Speaker 2: opening the vault of the fixed stars to change and
Speaker 2: to hope. Yet, for all his steel rimmed instruments and
Speaker 2: royal favors, Tycho's story is threaded with tenderness. He married
Speaker 2: Kirsten against noble convention, and raised eight children amid the
Speaker 2: brass sextons. On ven he wrote a Latin elegy addressed
Speaker 2: to his twin brother who died before birth, infesting inverse
Speaker 2: a yearning for reunion, where Olympus holds me even in
Speaker 2: court intrigues, or exiled to prague. Tycho carried that poem
Speaker 2: like a quiet heartbeat beneath the clamor of courts and commets.
Speaker 2: So as we leave Tycho at his prog desk, his
Speaker 2: lunar nose gleaming under candlelight, figures etched an iron goal ink.
Speaker 2: Remember the two lenses through which he saw the universe,
Speaker 2: One polished brass and calibrated to the arkman, mapped the
Speaker 2: geometry of the cosmos. The other, the inward eye, measured loss,
Speaker 2: love and the invisible threads, tying a living brother to
Speaker 2: our brother unborn. Between those lenses lie Tycho's enduring gift,
Speaker 2: the proof that precision and wonder, reason and reverence can
Speaker 2: share the same sky. May we like him keep both
Speaker 2: eyes open? Okay, hold up, did you really think I
Speaker 2: was gonna mention a drunken elk before and not bring
Speaker 2: that back up again?
Speaker 1: Well, if you did, you're wrong. Imagine if you will,
Speaker 1: you run a borg.
Speaker 2: At dusk, the courtyards on the island of Van glowed
Speaker 2: with furnace light from the alchemical sellers assistance. Hurry past
Speaker 2: rb gardens laid out with mathematical precision, the great amillary
Speaker 2: spheres and sextons, flash brass, and the last of the sun.
Speaker 2: This was tycho Brahes purpose built research palace, residence, observatory, laboratory,
Speaker 2: paper mill, and printing press. In one astronomers and visiting
Speaker 2: scholars stream through its doors to see the latest instruments
Speaker 2: and hear the latest arguments about the stars, and, according
Speaker 2: to one of the strangest and most endearing episodes in
Speaker 2: the history of early modern science, they sometimes met another resident,
Speaker 2: a tame elk that trailed its master like an enormous
Speaker 2: antlered hound, and had a fondness for beer. No, this
Speaker 2: story does not come to us as a tavernyarn polished
Speaker 2: by retellings, but through Tycho's own circle and scholarly apparatus
Speaker 2: that clustered around him. He published Epistolarum astronomic Haarum liber Primus,
Speaker 2: the first volume of his edited correspondence with Langrave Wilhelm.
Speaker 1: The fourth of Hescastle, the.
Speaker 2: Powerful German patron whose observatory at Castle rivaled Uraniberg. Those
Speaker 2: letters have been mined over since by historians and biographers
Speaker 2: as a kind of documentary backbone to Tycho's life and work.
Speaker 2: The most influential retelling is J. L. E. Dreya's classic
Speaker 2: eighteen ninety study, which drew on the correspondence and on
Speaker 2: court records to give a sobering account of a deadly
Speaker 2: tipsy incident. In early fifteen ninety one. The Landgrave wrote
Speaker 2: from Castle asking about unusual servants reported in Denmark and Norway,
Speaker 2: beasts taller than a stag. He wanted drawings, specimens, even
Speaker 2: tame animals for his park. Tycho replied that reindeer suffered
Speaker 2: in the summer heat. The land Grave pressed on, noting
Speaker 2: that he already had an elk that trotted beside his
Speaker 2: carriage like a dog, and if Tycho could obtain one
Speaker 2: or two tame elks, he would be delighted. Tycho answered
Speaker 2: that he had indeed kept an elk at his estate
Speaker 2: in Scania and had planned to bring it across to Ven.
Speaker 2: What happened next reads like the punchline to a dark
Speaker 2: courtly comedy. For a few days, the animal was lodged
Speaker 2: at lascrona castle Lascrone and Old the Spellings, where like
Speaker 2: any honoured guest, it was led up a staircase to
Speaker 2: the dining rooms and treated to liberal quantities of strong beer.
Speaker 2: On its way down the stairs, the elk lost its footing,
Speaker 2: fell broke its leg.
Speaker 1: And died.
Speaker 2: But the elk episode did not end Tycho's fascination with
Speaker 2: the species, though nor did it close the castle channel
Speaker 2: for curiosities. After Wilhelm's death in fifteen ninety two, Tyko
Speaker 2: wrote in December of fifteen ninety six to Landgrave's son
Speaker 2: Maurice that he had finally sent to two elks the
Speaker 2: elder patron had so long desired. The letter places the
Speaker 2: animals not as a one off pet, but as a
Speaker 2: part of a wider economy of exchange that bound princely
Speaker 2: courts and learned households together. Books and instruments traveled along
Speaker 2: these routes, but so did clockmakers, papermakers, and living emblems,
Speaker 2: creatures that stood for status wonder in the reach of
Speaker 2: a rule influence. If Tycho could promise two more elks,
Speaker 2: he must have had reliable channels to acquire and tame them,
Speaker 2: and a small terminological knot deserves untangling.
Speaker 1: For some of us.
Speaker 2: In Europe, the word elk refers to alcis alsis or
Speaker 2: alcees alcees, what animal North Americans call a moose, long legged,
Speaker 2: heavy shouldered, with broad palmate antlers. In the United States,
Speaker 2: elk usually means an altogether different deer. Tycho's elk is
Speaker 2: the European moose. It could climb stairs if it had to,
Speaker 2: but maybe it should not have been invited to do
Speaker 2: so after dinner. The elk's presence at Las Crona tells
Speaker 2: us that the boundaries of a research enterprise in the
Speaker 2: fifteen nineties were broad. Laboratories opened into kitchens, instruments lived
Speaker 2: alongside animals. Learning was entangled with logistics, hospitality, and showmanship.
Speaker 2: The same infrastructure that moved books and lenses could move creatures.
Speaker 2: Same house that fixed the positions of the planets could
Speaker 2: stage an evening that ended in a royal animal's misstep.
Speaker 2: Techo's Uraniberg was not an ivory tower. It was a
Speaker 2: lived in complex whose rhythm meals experiments, visits, performances could,
Speaker 2: on one unlucky night, converge into a single, unforgettable clatter
Speaker 2: of who's falling downstairs? Inclosing, let this picture resolve where
Speaker 2: it began. Uraniberg at dusk, instruments at rest, the household
Speaker 2: settling after a day of measuring the heavens. A giant
Speaker 2: shadow lingers at the top of a stair. Part curiosity,
Speaker 2: part emblem, part beloved pet, an animal whose presence in
Speaker 2: a palace of precision reminds us that the making of
Speaker 2: modern science was never bloodless. It happened in places where
Speaker 2: people ate and drank, printed and argued, bargained and displayed.
Speaker 2: The tame elk that loved beer and met its end
Speaker 2: on a castle staircase is more than a quirky footnote.
Speaker 2: It is a parable of Tycho's world. Knowledge and spectacle,
Speaker 2: bound together letters and living wonders passing between patrons, a
Speaker 2: universe measured to fractions of a degree, and yet now
Speaker 2: and then ruled by the stubborn physics of hoofs on
Speaker 2: stone until the next one.