86 



HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



he was afterwards persuaded to publish, but with some reluctance, for 

 he feared that his dignity as a Danish noble would be compromised by 

 communicating to the vulgar world the nature and results of his studies. 

 No sooner had Tycho published his book than he was seized with a 

 fever, and on his recovery he disgusted his noble relatives more than 

 ever by a mesalliance with a peasant-girl of his native place. The King 

 himself had to interfere to bring about a reconciliation between our 

 astronomer and his friends. Tycho was now becoming famous as a 

 mathematician and astronomer, and he was prevailed upon by the King 

 of Denmark to deliver a course of lectures on astronomy. In these he 

 not only fully explained the astronomical science of his time, but un- 

 folded some of the mysteries of astrology. It had by this time become 



the fashion among the German princes 

 to patronize astronomy, and the reign- 

 ing King of Denmark bethought him- 

 self that Tycho's great genius ought 

 to grace his native country rather than 

 lend fame to foreign courts. He, 

 therefore, sent for Tycho, who was 

 again on his travels, received him with 

 great kindness, and offered to erect 

 for him an observatory provided with 

 astronomical instruments, a chemical 

 laboratory, and a dwelling, all of 

 which should .be secured to him for 

 life. Accordingly a small but fertile 

 island in the Baltic was chosen as the 

 site of a building for the sage. The 

 description given of this singular 

 structure strongly reminds one of the 

 castles of romance. There were 



ramparts, gateways, towers, turrets, deep wells, subterranean passages, 

 and vaulted crypts containing the mysterious apparatus of alchemy. 

 The buildings were of a highly decorated character externally, and the 

 apartments were adorned with statues and portraits of the most famous 

 astronomers from Hipparchus down to Copernicus. There were mu- 

 seums, libraries, workshops for the construction of instruments. The 

 King expended on these buildings ^20,000, and Tycho himself laid 

 out upon them a like sum. Tycho was also furnished with scores of 

 the most elaborate instruments that ever astronomer possessed. In 

 short, the structure, from its purposes ai^'^contents, well deserved the 

 name Tycho gave it Uraniburg, the Tvwzr of the Heavens. 



Tycho passed at Uraniburg twenty-one years of his life, observing 

 with the greatest care all the phenomena of the heavens, and yet 

 keeping open house for the men of science and rank who came to visit 

 the Danish temple of astronomy, and make the acquaintance of its 



FIG. 34. TYCHO BRAKE. 



