4o8 



NA TURE 



[March 8, 1877 



and he therefore erected another, partly underground, for 

 the sake of steadiness and solidity, on a hill a little to the 

 south of the former ; to this he gave the name of Stern- 

 berg ("City of the Stars"), which, by an underground 

 passage, was connected with Uraniberg. Both buildings 

 were in a handsome and regular style of architecture, as 

 contemporary pictures testify, and cost the King of 

 Denmark 100,000 rix dollars (20,000/.), and Tycho, it is 

 said, an equal sum. Indeed, Tycho's" expenses had so 

 reduced his income, that the king gave him an annual 

 pension of 2,000 dollars, an estate in Norway, and a 

 canonry in the church of Rothschild worth 1,000 dollars 

 per annum. Considering the difference between the value 

 cf money then and now, these sums for such a purpose 

 may almost be considered munificent beyond example. 



The magnificent set of instruments with which Tycho 

 stocked the buildings were all made under his own super- 

 intendence, and according to his own designs, many of 

 them having the merit of original inventions. For 

 number, workmanship, and design, they were unequalled 

 at the time. The following is a list of these instru- 

 ments as given in Sir David Biewster's excellent memoir 

 of Brahe, in '' Martyrs of Science," on which the present 

 notice is mainly based : — 



In the South and greater Observatory. 



1. A semicircle of solid iron covered with brass, four cubits 

 radius. 



2. A sextant of the same materials and size. 



3. A quadrant of one and a half cubits radiu?, and an aximuth 

 circle of three cubits. 



4. Ptolemy's parallactic rules, covered with brass, four cubits 

 in the side. 



5. Another sextant. 



6. Another quadrant, like No. 3. 



7. Zodiacal armillaries of melted brass, and turned out of the 

 solid, of three cubits in diameter. 



Near this observatory there was a large clock with one wheel 

 two cubits in diameter, and two smaller tnes which, like it, indi- 

 cated hours, minutes, and seconds. 



In the South and lesser Observatory. 



8. An armillary sphere of biass, with a steel meridian, whose 

 diameter was about four cubits. 



In the North Observatory. 



9. Brass parallactic lules, which revolved in azimuth above a 

 brass horizon, twelve feet in-diameter. 



10. A half sextant, of four cubits radius. 



11. A steel sextunt. 



12. Ano'.her half sextant with steel limb, four cubits ladius. 



13. The parallactic rules cf Copernicus. 



14. Equatorial armillaries. 



15. A quadrant cf a solid plate of brass, five cubits in radiu.«', 

 stowing every ten seconds. 



16. In the mustum was the large globe made at Augsburg. 



In the Sternberg Observatory, 



17. In the central part, a large semicircle, with a brass limb, 

 and thrte clocks, showing hours, minutes, and seconds. 



i8. Equatorial armillaries of seven cubits, with semi-armil- 

 laries cf nine cubits. 



19. A sextant of four cubits radius. 



20. A geometrical square of iron, with an intercepted quad- 

 rant of five cubits, and divided into fifteen seconds. 



21. A quadrant of four cubits radius, showing ten seconds, 

 with an azimuth circle. 



22. Zodiacal armiL'aries of brass, with steel meridians, three 

 cubits in diameter. 



23. A sextant of brass, kept together by screwF, and capable 

 of being taken to pieces for travellii g with. Its radius was four 

 cubits. 



24. A movable armillary sphere, three cubits in diameter. 



25. A quadrat t cf sohd brass, one cubit radius, and divided 

 into minutes by Nonian circle?-. 



26. An astiot,omi( al radius of solid brass, three cubits long. 



27. An astroncmical rirg of brass, a cubit in diameter. 



28. A small brass astrolabe. 



In the island of Huen Tycho resided and carried on 

 his astronomical work for twenty-one years. The island 

 itself was at the time fertile and well cultivated. The 

 astronomer was virtually monarch of all he surveyed. He 

 seems to have been loved by his subjects, and to have led 

 a life of peaceful research and heabhy contentment 

 which any man of science of the present day might envv. 

 Teaching was no condition of his tenure of the island 

 and observatory, but his fame, which spread far and wide, 

 attracted numbers of pupils eager to study under the great 

 astronomer. Some of these were trained at the expense 

 of the king, others were sent by different academies and 

 cities, and several were maintained by the astronomer 

 himself. Distinguished visitors were constantly arriving 

 to do homage to the great man, and among these was our 

 own James I., then, however, only James VI. of Scot- 

 land. This was in the year 1590, when the king was in 

 Denmark to wed the Princess Anne. He spent eight 

 days at Uraniberg, discussing various subjects with Tycho, 

 and carefully examining all the instruments. He was so 

 much surprised by what he saw and heard, that he granted 

 the astronomer liberty to publish his works ic England 

 during seventy years. 



Tycho Brah(f might have peaceably ended his days in 

 his pleasant island home, had his great patron Frederick 

 II. lived ; he died in April, 1588, and a new king. Chris- 

 tian IV., arose " who knew not Joieph," or at least cared 



Tycho Brahe's System. 



nothing for him and his work. While Frederick reigned 

 his courtiers of course, and many of them sincerely, pro- 

 fessed to be passionately fond of astronomy ; but as 

 might be expected, Frederick's munificent kindness to 

 Tycho made him many envious enemies. He continued 

 to be tolerated for several years after the death cf 

 Frederick, but at last the young king's mind became so 

 poisoned against Tycho by some of the courtiers, that he 

 was deprived of his pension, his estate in Norway, and 

 his canonry. With a wife, five sons, and four daughters, 

 it was scarcely possible (or him now to continue his work, 

 but he stayed on till the spring of 1597, when he remov> d 

 to Copenhagen. His persecution was brought to a crisis 

 by a personal attack made on himself at the instigation 

 of his chief enemy, the President of the Councd, Walchen- 

 dorp, in which one of his servants was injured. Tycho 

 had the spirit to retaliate on his assailants, but almost 

 broken-hearted he resolved to leave a country which had 

 got tired of the glory cf its greatest citizen, and which had 

 nothing for him but persecution and insult. Fortunately 

 he had many friends abroad among the nobles and princes 

 of Europe. Amcng these was Count Henry Rantzau, who 

 lived at the Castle of Wandesburi'-, near Hamburg, and 

 who invited Tycho to take up his abode with him. Here 

 then, with all his family, he went in the end of 1597, and 

 heie he wrote his "Astionomite instauratas Mechanica,' 

 containing an account, with illustrations, of his various 



