March 8, 1877J 



NA TURE 



405 



TVCHO BRAHK 



T) Y the kindness of Dr. Crompton, of Manchester, we 

 -*-' are able to publish this week a copy from a photo- 

 graph of what there is eveiy reason to believe is a con- 

 temporary pottrait of the great Danish astronomer, 

 Tycho Brahd. This piciure is on canvas, and is 3 feet 

 3^ inches high, and 2 feet 6.} inches wide. It repre- 

 sents a man of ruddy complexion, standing and look- 

 ing forwards. He is bareheaded, has little hair, and 

 that short, of a yellowish colour verging to red. He 

 has very long moustaches and a short beard. In the 

 right upper corner of the picture (that is, to Bjahe's 

 right) there is a curious emblematic design, consisting of 

 a round tapering column springing from a square base, 

 around which at its foot are waves. Over the monument 

 is a canopy suspended by a strong chain, a few links only 

 of which are visible, the top being lost in cloudn, and the 

 chain itself has flames playing round it. Two J^^oXxz 

 heads (one on each side) are represented as blowing to- 

 wards the canopy and column. Lowtr down, and to the 

 right and left of the column, are two hands (one on each 

 side) holding each a jug from which water flows. Clouds 

 and lightning surround the background, the wrists of the 

 hands holding the jugs, and also the/Eolic heads. Round 

 the monument is a labtl not entirely decipherable with 

 the words : " Stans (tectus ?) in solido ; " then follows an 

 indistinct word and " igne e . tunda ' {sic). " Igne et 

 unda" was, no doubt intended. In the left upper corner, 

 in large and distinct letters, is this inscription : " Effigies 

 Tychonis Brahe, Otton. Da. anno 50 completo quo post 

 diutinum in p atria exilium libertati desideratae divino pro- 

 visu restitutus est." 



Dr. Crompton thinks, correctly we believe, that the 

 inscription referred to Brahd's departure from Denmark, 

 and that the "exilium i)i patria" was an allusion to his 

 residence on his island of Huenna, in his observatory, 

 away from the court tor twenty years. The emblematic 

 picture evidently implies that nothing (not all the ele- 

 ments) could destroy the monument he had erected to 

 his reputation by his observations, and that they would 

 be protected by Providence. 



The portrait then shows Brahd as he was in his fiftieth 

 year, and Dr. Crompton thinks the tenor of the emblems 

 and the inscription seem to be conclusive that the picture 

 was painted after Brahe had left Denmark, most probably 

 bttvveen the end of October and the 13th of December, 

 1597, and Dr. Crompton conjectures that the portrait 

 may have been painted to be engraved for Brahd's 

 " Mechanica." 



In connection with this interesting portrait, it may not 

 be inoppoitune to remind our readers of the main events 

 in Tycho Brah^'s life, and of the work on which his fame 

 is grounded. 



Tycho Brahd was born at Knudsthorp, an estate of his 

 ancestors, near Helsingborg, in Sweden, on the Sound, 

 December 14, 1546. Copernicus had been dead two years 

 and a half, Oaliieo was not born till eighteen years after, 

 and Kepler, with whom Tycho was latterly associated, 

 was about twenty-five years his junior. Tycho's father. 

 Otto Brahe was descended from an ancient Swedish family, 

 and Tycho was the second eldest child, there being alto- 

 gether five sons and four daughters in the family. Tycho, 

 evidently much against his will, was destined for a 

 military caieer. After the birth of another son, the 

 father being in straitened circumstances, Tycho was 

 adopted by his uncle, George Brahe. Until 1559 he 

 appears to have been educated at home at his uncle's, 

 learning reading and writing and Latin, with occasional 

 instiuciion in poetry and belles-lettres. As it had now 

 been decided that he should quali y himself for some 

 political office in the kingdom of Denmark, Tycho, in 

 April, 1559, was sert to the University of Copenhagen to 

 prepare lor the s uJy of law. It seems to have been 



while pursuing his studies at Copenhagen that Tycho's 

 mind was first strongly attracted to the study of as- 

 tronomy. An eclipse of the sun was to happen on August 

 21, 1560, and Tycho was so struck by the precision with 

 which the various details of the phenomena had been 

 predicted by the astrological almanacs of the time that 

 he was fascinated by, and resolved to master, so wonder- 

 ful a science as astronomy, more especially, it would 

 seem, that phase of it then universally believed in and 

 cultivated, astrology. The planetary motions seem first 

 to have claimed his attention, and these he studied by 

 means of the Tabiilce Bergenses of John Stadius. 



In February, 1562, Tycho was sent to Leipsic, under 

 care of a tutor, to study law. For this, however, he had 

 not the smallest Inclination, and devoted all his spare 

 time, when not in presence of his tutor, or when the latter 

 was asleep, and all his pocket-money, to becoming master 

 of the science for which he had contracted a passionate 

 devotion. By means of what books he could command, 

 and with a celestial globe about the size of an orange, he 

 studied the heavens nightly, and soon came to discover 

 that the results obtained by himself differed greatly from 

 those of Stadius. " From that moment," says Brewster, 

 " he seems to have conceived the design of devoting his 

 life to the accurate construction of tables, which he justly 

 regarded as the basis of astronomy." For this purpose 

 he set himself to get up a knowledge of mathematics. 



So rapid was Tycho's progress in mastering the astro- 

 nomy of the day, and so skilful already had he become as 

 an observer, that by means cf a simple pair of compasses 

 he discovered that both the Alphonsine and Copernican 

 Tables had erred considerably as to the time of the con- 

 junction of Jupiter and Saturn, which took place in 

 August, 1563. His first instrument seems to have been 

 constructed at the time, a wooden radius, which he got 

 a Leipsic artisan, Scultetus, to devise for him in the 

 manner recommended by Homelius, the professor of 

 mathematics in that city. With this instrument he con- 

 tinued his observations. On his uncle's death, Tycho 

 returned to Denmark about May, 1565, to take possession 

 of the fortune which had been left him. His continued 

 devotion to astronomy greatly offended his friends and 

 relations, who considered such a pursuit as degrading to 

 a noble as trade used to be in this country, and still is in 

 most continental countries. Tycho was so annoyed at 

 the attitude cf his friends, that he left Denmark after 

 staying a short time at Wittenberg, took up his residence 

 at Rostock, where he stayed during the years 1566-68, 

 steadily pursuing his celestial observations. It was in a 

 duel at this place that he lost his nose, which was so in- 

 geniously replaced by a substitute of silver and gold, that 

 few could have detf cted it to be artificial. 



From Rostock Tycho proceeds d to Augsburg, where 

 with the help of the brothers Hainzel, he constructed a 

 magnificent quadrant of fourteen cubits radius. It waiS 

 made of beams of oak bound with iron bands, the arcs 

 being covered with plates of brass, divided into 5,400 

 lines. To enable him to observe distances, a sextant on 

 a similar scale was constructed, and a wooden globe six 

 feet in diameter was begun ; hitherto his only instrument 

 was the simple radius made at Leipsic. With his new 

 instruments he continued his observations at Augsburg, 

 with renewed enthusiasm. Tycho returned to his native 

 country in i57r, and found a warm friend in an uncle 

 Steno Bille, who had always takea his nephew's par* 

 against the taunts of his other friends, and who assigned 

 him a part of his own house as an observatory. It was 

 while living thus that one of the most notable events in 

 the life tf this great cStronomical observer occurred, his 

 discovery, November 11, 1572, of a new star in the con- 

 stellation of Cassiopeia. This wonderful body probably 

 made its first appearance in the heavens on November 5, 

 and continued visible 'or sixteen months, rapidly increas- 

 ing in brightness till in the second month it surpassed that 



