Tycho Brahe

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Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time. There's a reading list to go with it on our website, and you can get news about our programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time. I hope you enjoyed the program. Hello Tico Brahe, fifteen forty six to sixteen oh one. was born into a powerful Danish aristocratic family, and was destined for the conventional life of a nobleman.

But as a young man he started studying the heavens, and is now regarded as one of the great figures in the history of astronomy, even though he was working without telescopes which hadn't yet been invented. In fifteen seventy two his observations of a new star challenged the idea inherited from Aristotle that the heavens were unchanging.

Later his theory of the structure of the universe appealed to scholars who knew that the ancient model was wrong, but who still wanted to support the Catholic Church's stance that the sun orbited the earth and not the other way round.

He's also remembered for his colourful life, his nose is cut off in duel. With me to discuss Tychobrahe, a Olegrell, emeritus professor in early modern history at the Open University, Adam Mosley, Associate Professor of History at Swansea University, and Emma Perkins, affiliate scholar in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge.

Ola, what's the political and religious situation in Denmark at the time that Brahe was born? Well uh Tycho Brahe was born ten years after the Lutheran Reformation had been introduced in Denmark. And it's worth remembering that that that was after three years of civil war. The Bra family were all Lutherans, so to speak.

because of the Civil War there were not much money available initially to develop university and other educational avenues apart from the Latin schools, and I mention those because they become quite significant in Ra's education. So we talk about him as being come from an aristocratic family. Did that mean he had access to uh unusual ways of developing his life that were not available to most people?

Well he was certainly different from the average person, if you could talk about the average person, uh you wouldn't expect him to have a university career, that would have been out of the question, as would university exams. he was expected to go into the royal administration and hopefully get some of the most important royal fiefs which would create him create for him a lot of money and influence. What made him switch his ambition? Well that is of course anyone's guess.

I mean Pierre Gassendi, who wrote the first biography in sixteen fifty four, Bra, claimed that it was the eclipse. in fifteen sixty. But there's no evidence for that. So what's your suggestion? I think it was a gradual approach. He started taking an interest which was reinforced by his education and travel.

And as always with influences it's very difficult to determine where they came in, but uh certainly by the end of what you would call his grand tour, there's no doubt that his interest in astronomy and astrology is very central to him. It's quite a long way, isn't it, from astrology and astronomy to where he started from as a courtier. So we can't think of any reason he went in that direction except uh developed a taste for it. I mean if you look at his life he was in many of his contacts and

directions unusual. His marriage was completely unusual. His Other lifestyle was clearly he mixed with people who below it rather than people who belong to his own class. Adam Mersley, he attended classes at a number of universities in Denmark and Germany. What's significant about it that all these were Lutheran? So the curricula of the Lutheran universities had been transformed as a consequence of the Reformation, um, and the man responsible for that was Philip Melancton.

who was um Martin Luther's closest associate during the Reformation at Wittenberg. placed actually quite a lot of importance upon the study of the heavens. So for melancton um study of astronomy and astrology could be considered to be part of natural philosophy. So um Langton believed in the idea of causal effects on the earth um from the heavens, and he saw all of that as part of the divine Providential ordering of the universe.

And for Melancton, one of the the reasons why it was important to study the heavens was that that demonstrated that God had created an orderly cosmos. And for Melancton, uh, that conveyed an important lesson, um, that the social order was also intended by God and it was a message against re rebellion. and against revolt. So Melanchthon placed a great emphasis upon the study of these subjects in the curricula as part of

natural philosophy, and that contributed to the promotion of the study of astronomy and astrology in these universities that were reformed along Lutheran lines. So in order to know heaven they had to know the heavens. Uh w uh yes, um although it wasn't quite as straightforward as being able to learn about God through studying the heavens, um it was a kind of indirect route to knowledge of God's creation which Um which in itself implied things about um God's intention for the world.

When he was growing up, the mainstream understanding of the structure of the heavens was the Ptolemaic system. Can you describe when that came into effect and why it was so held so powerfully for mm one and a half thousand years? So we call it the Ptolemaic system after the um late antique uh Alexandrian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy. But the underpinnings are Aristotelian, so there's a a philosophical dimension to this notion of the cosmos.

as well as the mathematics of the models, the Ashtomachol model. So the um the the principle of course is that the Earth is at the centre of the universe and all the celestial bodies, from the moon through the planets up to the stars, are um in motion around the stationary earth at the center. And that is a fundamental, basic conceptualization of the cosmos that rests on Aristotelian philosophical underpinnings. But didn't Aristotle say that the universe was unchanging?

Ah, yes, but the circular motion of um the heavenly bodies was not changed as far as Aristotle was was concerned. So motion in the heavens, circular motion was part of his understanding of the universe. but not the generation or corruption of new celestial bodies. So he accepted that and took that on and the Catholic Church later took it on uh emphatically.

Yes, so there were a number of reasons why um the Ptolemaic vision or the Aristotlean Ptolemaic vision fitted with Catholic doctrine, principally it had to do with how the Bible was interpreted, and uh at the point in in the seventeenth century when this became um most contested, about who? Should be interpreting the Bible. And that generated some difficulties for individuals who were not Catholic theologians who wanted to argue in favor of an alternative to the Ptolemaic vision of the universe.

Emma Perkins, which uh Copernicus did in fifteen forty three. He proposed a heliocentric system with the the Earth going round the sun. How did that come about and what impact did it have? Yeah, so Copernicus published his heliocentric system in fifteen forty three, as you say, in De Revolutionibus. This placed the sun at the centre of the universe, with the planets orbiting the sun, so crucially the Earth has become one of the planets.

Um it's worth bearing in mind that Copernicus himself didn't present this as radically new. In fact he sought to situate it in ancient precedent. So whilst Ptolemy had suggested the Earth was at the centre of the universe, he cited other Greek authors that had proposed the sun at the centre. So his heliocentric system was controversial on a number of levels. So there were physical objections to the system. One being that the earth is too heavy and sluggish to move.

Um and also that if the earth is moving we would presumably all fall off. Um but there were also theological objections, so scriptural passages suggesting the stability of the earth. but also a kind of central premise in Christian theology of man's privileged place in God's creation. So the uptake of the system is relatively slow in the sixteenth century. It's predominantly taken as a mathematical model. It's very influential in terms of Predicting planetary positions.

But the physical reality of the system is not really taken up until the later work of people like Kepler and Galileo around the turn of the seventeenth century. So perhaps less revolutionary than we might imagine when it was published in fifteen forty three. But what was a reaction in fifteen forty three? It still must have been some sort of reaction. Yeah, absolutely. So like I say, it was it was able to predict planetary positions with a

a kind of better degree of accuracy. So it was very useful for practical applications of astronomy. So things like determining the dates of the calendar. So very useful for the church. Um Uh because of a traditional distinction between astronomy as the mathematics of heavenly motion and natural philosophy as the physics of heavenly motion.

Copernicus didn't really fall foul of the Catholic Church until the work of later astronomers when the physical reality of the system begins to be kind of seriously considered. So things went along without this radical discovery or uh revelation being thought of as radical. I would say it's more He was very influential in astronomical circles, but it didn't it didn't overhaul the general understanding of the cosmos which remained Ptolemaic for the most part because of the

philosophical underpinnings, the Aristotelian underpinnings that most people subscribe to. That the Earth was the centre of the universe and everything went round there. Absolutely. Yes. In fifteen seventy two he observed a new star Why was that important for him and for everybody else?

So Tycho observed the new star when he was at his uncle's estate in Herod Abbey. And as Adam outlined, the celestial realm was supposed to be unchanging. Um so citing this new star goes against that foundational Aristotelian axiom. So Tycho measures this new star. Um does he do that? Using a variety of non telescopic instruments, so particularly using a radius or cross staff he is able to measure it relative to its neighbouring stars.

And he's also looking for any discernible parallax which would indicate that it's moving relative to the sphere of the fixed stars. Well it's arduous mathematics, isn't it? It is. Yes, absolutely. And he is a mathematician. That that is what he he is trained as as an astronomer, but he's also asking natural philosophical questions about where is this star located?

So through his measurements he is able to determine that the star is supralunary, i.e., above the moon, in this realm that is purportedly perfect and unchanging. So the significance of the New Star is that it it really challenges some of those foundational Aristotelian principles of natural philosophy. And it's significant for Tycho himself

because he cites this as a kind of epiphany moment for him where he decides to dedicate his life to astronomy. Prior to this time he had been engaged in astronomy, but he was also doing a lot of alchemy, whereas he sees this as his sign to focus principally on the stars and begin a reform of astronomy, starting from the observations. Is he alone in this? I don't know. Does he have pillows along the way?

No, so there are a lot of commentators on the new star. Some place it below the sphere of the moon, i. e. in the realm of the terrestrial of corruption and change. but a lot are placing it above the sphere of the moon. And it's really his tract on the new star that kind of cements his authority, I guess, as an astronomer, as a serious astronomer who is now engaged in this conversation about the nature of the universe.

Aldo, could you explain clearly the geoheliocentric system? Yes. This was of course Tycho's way of dealing with both the Ptolemaic system and the Coperna system, and it was very much uh conceived by him around fifteen eighty three. And it was based on his observations of the supernova or the new star in fifteen seventy two and the fifteen seventy seven comet, which convinced him that the Ptolemaic system as such could not stand

At the same time, he has his doubts about Copernicus's system. So he basically came up with an idea that. The geocentrism could be maintained with the sun and the moon circling the earth, whereas the rest of the planets would circulate the sun. The reason why he ended up with this system has generally been assumed to be the underestimating of the distances to the stars. But of course it was a convenient system in the sense that it also fitted a kind of uh the biblical system, so to speak.

From the Bible it was naturally assumed that the earth was the centre of the universe. That is the way the creation is described. And therefore for someone like Tiger who's grown up with that background, it would have been, in my opinion, very difficult for him to give it up. On the other hand, he had a a long line of observations which contradicted it in one way or another.

but still lacking some data, he constructed this system which, I gather, had supporters way until Kepler eventually came up with a proper heliocentric system.

Thank you. I don't Mosley, can we talk about the support he got for this and how this permeated the area of study? I I presume only a very few people were engaged in it, but how it did permeate this area of study. Yes, so during his travels, his youthful travels which are referred to as a a kind of grand tour which took him around universities. But also not only I mean he he did go f um further south, he he visited Italy briefly. He also spent some time in Basel.

And he thought that he would have to leave Denmark in order to pursue his dream of of a uh an astronomical career. Because of persecution?

No, not because of persecution s per se, but because um it it didn't fit with the traditional occupation of a nobleman and because he thought that he would uh be able to find a location and and he mentions Basel specifically where he would be able to engage in correspondence with a wider network where he would be able to find the resources to pursue his his observational reform of astronomy.

Um but the the news reaches King Frederick II of Denmark that Tychobrahe is thinking of of leaving, and so Frederick makes Tychabray an offer, which is to support his astronomical endeavours. And that I think legitimizes for for Tychobrae this um this pursuit as a a kind of career for a nobleman. But that support also is tangible. So um that includes financial support. in the form of lands and offices that bring income, and crucially, it also takes the form of the island of V.

which is granted to Tico Brahe. Between Denmark and Sweden. Between Denmark and and what is modern day b Sweden. Um both sides were were Danish in the sixteenth century. And that is a place that is close to court but not troubled by the business of court. It is a semi isolated spot that Tico is able to turn to his own uses to establish as a major center for um astronomy. And he uses that site to really attract um a team of people who can support his his work.

And it works. It works. It's tremendously um successful. For many, many years it's a tremendously important site. For observational astronomy and Tika Brahe's other interests are also pursued there. It's also in itself a remarkable. structure. Um he constructs their He calls his his observatory Uraniborg, so it's founded, it's named after the Muse of Astronomy.

And he develops there, um he builds there the things that he needs, um the large instruments that he wants to use to observe the heavens. But also over time he gathers things that are gonna help him in his career, such as his own printing press.

Of course he has a printing press he needs a printer to work it, he needs the type for the press. Um he then goes on to discover he needs paper, so he's going to build a paper mill on this island. So you know, it's it's it's a incredible, um remarkable site.

for the pursuit of um astronomy and related intellectual and Emma Perkins, something that seems surprising to us today is that he was very keen on astrology. Can you tell us why? Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of people in this period subscribe to the idea of celestial influence on Earth. And in fact, in the period there's very little differentiation between astronomy, concerned with the numbers, concerned with the movement of of the heavens, and astrology, in terms of its influence on Earth.

So this is a kind of common m understanding in the intellectual environment and It's really the uncertain foundation of astrology that informs a lot of Tycho's work. So he cites it as a major motivation for his reform of astronomy. Um, the idea being that by creating a firmer mathematical foundation, astrological prognostications can be improved. And I think it's also worth mentioning that astrology is a very valuable commodity at court.

So princes and rulers were interested in the influence of the stars on worldly affairs, both personal and political. So you often find astrologers at court And Tycho himself engaged in this kind of exchange of astrological gifts. So he's can you give us a bit more specific as to what they got out of it? What what was happening in astrology that made these people caught?

think yes we can use that. That's part of what we want our knowledge to be. Yeah, so some of the products that astrologers would provide for rulers include things like nativities, so if an heir was born An astrologer would construct a horoscope plotting the exact positions of the planets and stars at the time of birth to predict what sort of character and life that person would have. They could produce horoscopes for particular times.

uh on this infant's being born and the effect would or it was just the luck that he w this infant was born at a time when the stars were in such and such a place. Didn't they think, ah, the stars are in such and such a place, that means that he will be such and such a person. To an extent, yes. So the planets had certain characteristics.

that would influence the characteristics of an individual. So if you were born with, say, Mars in a particularly dominant position, you would be sort of fiery and liable to to war. But there were limitations. So there was a kind of famous axiom that the stars incline, they do not compel. So the idea being that humans can exercise their free will

such that they can overcome this, I guess, predeterminism of the stars. But it's nonethel they there's nonetheless this influence from the stars that can encourage, I guess, certain events on the terrestrial plane. So rulers were particularly interested in knowing about this so they could respond and decide when is an auspicious time to undertake certain activities.

Thank you. Adam, how much backing did Brahim receive from the Danish King Frederick? And how important was it to Brahe? You mentioned it earlier on. Uh can you go a bit deeper more deeply into it? Ja, jag menar. Tychobray was from a an aristocratic family, he had a certain amount of wealth that came from that.

But with the um support of the Danish crown he was able to uh construct Uranibor, construct his observatory and build his instruments. Um and his instruments are are worth noting because um of their their size, and the great care that he takes to determine how accurate they are. Can you give us an example of one or two of these instruments? He develops quadrants and sextants. Um he uses our millary spheres.

He used an instrument called the triquetrum, which is also known as Ptolemy's rulers. Has he invented these or has he taken them up from other areas? So in some instances these are adaptations of instruments that exist. But what's remarkable about them I guess is that the concern he has to make them as precise as possible. Now to begin with he sees that as really about size.

But he quickly learns that he needs to pay attention to the materials that they're constructed from and the fact that the weight of the instruments can make them unwieldy. Um it can also introduce distortions. He pays great attention to the sights for the instruments and to the scales. So that he really is aiming for a degree of accuracy which is much, much better than any of his ancient predecessors.

who really for him are the kind of model of observational astronomers because most of the astronomers whose work he uses from the Middle Ages up to Copernicus they may have taken some observations, but they were not conducting a program of observation of the heavens in the way that Tycho does and his predecessors like Ptolemy and Hippocus he sees as having.

Emma, Emma Perkins, can we go back to this observatory on this little island? In fact there were two, weren't there? Can you talk us through both of them? Yes. We've heard something about the first, but I wouldn't mind referring to it again, and then why there needed to be a second.

Yeah, so Uranaborg is the main observatory structure that he builds first of all, using the labour of the peasant community on Venn and skilled artisans from around Europe. And he's really able to Design it according to his own specifications, according to the the needs of his his science, and that's what makes it quite unique in this period. So the house itself it had an alchemical laboratory in the basement.

Um on the ground floor we have living quarters as well as his library or museum where his students would do their studying. And the upper floors contained further living quarters and also the observational platforms um where his astronomical instruments were installed. So that's the main house and it's surrounded by well crafted gardens and a large wall, a sort of fortified castle to Urania. Um he later builds a subterranean observatory.

outside of the walls of Uraniborg. Um why is that? He wants to maintain the symmetry of the complex. He also finds that actually having instruments on towers, on on on platforms, is unhelpful because of the w strong winds. So he wants to take the instruments down below ground.

but in a a structure that has a retractable roof so that they're more stable and more accurate. So this is another building? Yes, absolutely. So there are five sunken crypts um where he installs his sort of largest and most precise instruments, and that really becomes the centre of his observational activities once it's built. And then as Adam has described, he also builds a variety of auxiliary structures to support the science, his printing press, his paper mill.

instrument making workshop, everything is all geared towards serving his reform of astronomy. One thing I think it's worth noting is that that after Tigobra had published his work, his first book on the Nova of fifteen seventy two. He then conceives of what he's doing as an enterprise that that is going to take such a long time and is such a on such a large scale that actually He ha has a very ambitious publishing programme which doesn't come to completion during his lifetime.

So for example, there are a series of novelties in the heavens after the the new star fifteen seventy two. So the next big one is fifteen seventy seven. There's a a a comet. Lots of people observe the comet.

of fifteen seventy seven. Tika Brahe again observes the comet of fifteen seventy seven. Again he is one of several people who is able to to ascertain that this thing, this novelty in the heavens, is supralunar. It's above the moon. It's in the heavens. So it So comets are celestial phenomena and not, as Aristotelian tradition would have, meteorological phenomena. Chica Brahe does not publish.

his findings on that straightaway. He writes a book in which he sets out his findings. He also gathers all the other publications on the Comet of 1577. And he writes a kind of systematic literature review Uh which analyses all those other um accounts, criticizes them, and he puts all those together in a book. which he publishes in a way in fifteen eighty eight. So eleven years after the comet has appeared, he publishes his kind of comprehensive review.

of the literature on the comet. And that's also when he um publishes his account of his world system, the taconic world system. But even then, this is not a fully commercial publication. So he he prints many, many copies of this book, um, but he doesn't sell them commercially, he distributes them. So a few people have access to Tika Brahe's findings in the fifteen eighties. He is using his correspondence network which is connecting him.

to many of the practicing astronomers of various kinds, the people interested in astronomy, the mathematicians who have the technical expertise to understand what he's doing. He is plugged into a network across Europe, but he is not Aiming for the public market, the popular market, such as it would be for this material at that period, he is postponing. the full release of his work until it's completed. And of course it's never actually completed to his satisfaction.

Can I come back to you all there? He Brah fell from royal favour when uh Frederick's successor, Christian the Fourth, came to the Danish throne. What happened and what effect did it have on Tycho? Well I mean Tycho you could say was In many ways very fortunate because at the time where he was keen on launching himself

as an astronomer, astrologer, he benefited from the fact that Denmark was getting increasingly wealthy from the economic boom of the second half of the sixteenth century. There was, in other words, a lot of money available. Uh he linked in well with Frederick II, who was keen in taking him on and offered him the island of Vin and quite substantial grants and fiefs. It's been calculated that

Up to one percent of the royal income went to Tycho. But he dies in fifteen eighty eight. His son Christian is a minor, and therefore you get a regency government. with which Taiko is incredibly well connected. It's basically family and friends all round. and they decide to continue the generous economic sponsorship of him. But that all changes in fifteen ninety six when Christian the fourth is crowned. and then clearly wants to take control.

There's been a number of speculations why uh Tiger went out of fashion and lost his royal support. Some scholars thought it was because of the influence of orthodox Ognesio Lutherans. Others have seen it as a return of certain royal fa s certain noble families who were unfriendly to Tycho and worked against him. But I would say it's probably the fact that by ninety six

Tycho had been in place for twenty years, benefiting from enormous public support. The king, the new king, wanted to get new people in and probably questioned that outlay. And it is quite significant, I think, that already by the autumn of fifteen ninety six, Tycho loses one of his biggest feet So I think it was basically a case of new men in and old men out, and Tycho just found himself At the end of it. That's when he decided to leave Prague and and came in contact with Kepler.

uh one of his assistants and that uh conjunction of the two of them was extremely fertile. Would you like to take this up Adam or Yes, so Tiger Brahe needs a new patron, he leaves Denmark, um he eventually makes his way to to Prague, which is the imperial capital of the Homan Empire under Rilf II, uh himself a great patron of artists and artisans, and mathematicians and alchemists and astronomers.

Now on his journey, if you like, um on his way there, Tigger Braib learns of the existence of a young astronomer called Johannes Kepler. And Kepler himself in the late fifteen nineties is uh uh quite a a lowly got a quite a lowly position in the Austrian city of Gras. Which is um under threat because of the counter reformation. So Kepler, another Lutheran living in Styria, which was a region where Lutherans were being purged in the late fifteen nineties by um the Archduke Ferdinand.

So um Kepler is looking for new opportunities. Tika Brahe is always on the lookout for talented young men to uh assist him in his labours. And Kepler comes to Tigebray's attention for two reasons. One is Kepler publishes a curious book called The Mysterum Cosmographicum, the Secret of the universe would be one way of translating that, in which Kepler claims to have discovered the the pattern on which God created the universe and spaced the planets in the cosmos.

Tigo is is impressed to a point. He doesn't believe this this Copernican vision, because it is a Copernican vision, um but he is impressed by Kepler's talent. It's also true that Kepler is useful to Tycho because Kepler um inadvertently has stepped into the middle of a dispute. Between Tiko Brahe and another mathematician called um Ursus. who was his predecessor, in fact his imperial mathematician.

and that's a dispute over whether or not Ursus has plagiarized Tycho's world system. Kepler has written in praise of both men So um so Tycho finds Kepler to be useful to him in the course of of waging his dispute against Ursus, which happens um when they come together in Prague. But the key thing the key thing about the relationship between them is that it leads to something that that Kepler is is wants all along, which is access to Digebrahe's observation.

And it's because he has access to that data in the long run and because he has great confidence in that data, in the accuracy of Ticobra's observations, that Kepler is able to move from the orthodoxy that planets move in circles or combination of circles, to understanding that planets have elliptical orbits.

Um now then itself is not something that people are ready to accept straight away, but it is the enormous transformation of um understanding of planetary motion in the early seventeenth century. And when can we come back to his instruments and he's with Kepler, they've got a friendship and they've got a professional... Companionship. Are they developing instruments? Is it moving on very quickly because of the conjunction of these two men? And if so, how? In Prague?

So Tycho actually struggles to get his instruments to Prague. Um, partly because they're so large and some of them are permanently installed in in Jaraneborg, um or his subterranean observatory. So it's actually quite difficult to transport them. He also doesn't move directly from Wien to to Prague. So there's a kind of lag in terms of bringing the instruments to Prague. So Tycho does the bulk of his observations

at Uraniborg. Um and it's that data primarily upon which Kepler is relying when he derives his laws of of planetary motion. And then following Tycho's death there's all sorts of wranglings over the instruments. Um

controversy with Tycho's heirs in terms of who who owns them and these sorts of things. And regrettably the instruments themselves don't survive to the present day. So actually the closest approximation we have to T the Ticonic instruments are the ones made for the Beijing Imperial Observatory in the seventeenth century, which were based on Tychonic prototypes, albeit incorporating Chinese iconography.

Ole, his private life was eventful, we're told. Let's just take one instance. How did he come to lose his nose? Well he did that uh in a duel with another Danish nobleman, Mandor Pasper. We don't know what the fight was about, but the outcome was of course that Tycho lost part of his nose. which was then replaced with either a brass insert for daily events or apparently a silver one for more upmarket events. But that perhaps is less significant than his merit.

Which was of course a a common law merit to a woman called Christine Barbara. who was probably the daughter of the local clergyman in Knustorp. But we do not know that for certain. There is a possibility it could be one of two farmers with a similar name. He stayed incredibly loyal to her. And it clearly caused him agony in later life because his children could not inherit his estates, being non noble. And he therefore was seeking ways of making sure they had an inheritance.

Initially he was trying to make sure they could inherit the island of Vien as long as they took an interest in astronomy. and claimed that Frederick the Second and his Queen Sophia had agreed to that, but that was basically swept aside, He then eventually uh sold his part of the Knutstop estate. for ten thousand uh Reichstala in order to monetarize it so he could distribute the money to his children.

And I suppose one of the reasons he left that would have encouraged him to leave was the chance of improving his children's condition in another country.

Thank you. We're near the end now. Adam, uh his um geoheliocentric system wedi wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi'i wedi

So uh well, all of the systems that people were imagining in the sixteenth and seventeenth century were were wrong, um in that, you know, they were restricted to um what we would think of as the solar system. He did think that he had observational grounds on s which to support his system and his system

did become more important after his death in the seventeenth century. As you've noted, after the Catholic condemnation of the Copernican system, astronomers, mathematicians weren't able to support heliocentrism.

But but with the telescope there w there was new observational evidence against the Ptolemaic system, against geocentrism. So for many Catholic mathematicians and astronomers in the seventeenth century, The geoheliocentric system looked like or a version of that system looked like the best system, the best candidate system for understanding the structure of the cosmos. I think he's important in many other ways. I think um his observational work was uh

in many ways unprecedented, um, it was novel, it was systematic. He I think evolved a sense of observational error. and chase down um errors of multiple forms in ways that none of his predecessors or or many of his contemporaries undertook. I think his life and work is also very interesting because you can see there quite clearly in a way that's harder to spot

earlier than that, I think, um, that the physical sciences were a collaborative enterprise, right? Astronomy to do astronomy the way he needed to do it, um, empirically, he needed a team And he also um demonstrated acute a awareness of the value of communicating with a wider community of mathematicians, philosophers, astronomers, people whose support Um and whose recognition he required um to establish any kind of new orthodoxy about the heavens.

Thank you. Finally, Emma, can you give us a sketch of the influence you might have had on later uh future uh astronomers? Yes, absolutely. I mean we've already noted the influence his geo heliocentric system had, um particularly in Jesuit circles. We've seen that his data informed Kepler's laws of planetary motion. But I think moving forward into the seventeenth century and beyond, the lasting legacy of his work has been his empiricism. So the fact that he employed a large number 감사합니다.

of students or assistants in a systematic programme of observation where he is using multiple instruments to take multiple observations. to enable collaboration and corroboration of data. This becomes really appealing, particularly with the rise of experimental philosophy, um and a more mechanical worldview. And so we see a lot of astronomers in the seventeenth century

really seeking to align themselves with Tycho's observational and instrumental practices, even while not subscribing to his theoretical claims. So people like Johannes Havelius, John Flamsteed, presenting themselves as sort of second Tikos. And it's on the basis of his empiricism and his commitment to accuracy and precision in his data. Well thanks very much to Emma Perkins, Adam Mosley and Ola Grell, and our studio engineer Tim Heffer. Next week, the Charters.

the first national mass working class movement in this country which campaigned for all men to have the vote in the mid nineteenth century. Thanks for listening. And the In Our Time podcast gets some extra time now with a few minutes of bonus material from Melvin and his guests. Thank you very much.

is very much debated in the literature. I think that has depended upon the point of view that people have taken in relation to some of the disputes that he got into. There were lots of them in his lifetime. That's interesting in itself because it tells us quite a bit about

concepts of credit, priority, intellectual property. So he did accuse people of stealing his wealth system or his m mathematical technologies or his instrumental technologies and taking them to other places and then passing them off as And their own. Um it's not entirely clear because um we do have in some cases we we have two sides of the dispute, neither side prosecuted with with with great temperance. So these these disputes often um generate a lot of heat and not so much light.

it seems clear that in some cases what perhaps was more uh more innocent transfers of technology happened. In some cases th he was dealing with people who with whom he entered into very bitter dispute about this wild system, for example. H this dis dispute with Ursus, um, this uh German self taught mathematician where Tycho says, Well Usus came to Uranaborg, he was part of a conversation about my world system, he stole the idea, he then published it as his own.

Ursus' response to that is well these things are trivial. You know, anyone can come up with these things, this is you know and I by the way, you know, th these things aren't real. So Tiko Brahe was was promoting the idea that he had come up with the model of the reality of the universe. Other people around him in that culture of the 16th century. were playing around with these mathematical versions of the world systems for calculating

And sometimes they were saying, Well, this is just I've just taken a the Copanagan system. I've just reverted it back so that'cause we're on Earth, right? We observe everything from Earth, it's just convenient. if we take those models and we invert them so that

the models give us planetary positions from our perspective. So the quarrels are about credit, not about cash. The uh oh the quarter is uh the the quarrels are about um uh credit, about priority, yes. And of course Because he's a nobleman, Tika Brahe's sensitivity to um questions of credit and honour may have been heightened, may have been different from some of the people with whom he was in dispute.

Yeah, I'd just add to that the the the centrality here of the printing press.

So it's a major tool for Tycho to really establish his priority. So th the the fact that he had access to his own printing press and could oversee his publications, he's he's able to almost construct his presentation in the astronomical community and it it forms a central role in Yeah, claiming priority for the world system, also claiming priority over instrument designs, um, and he really circulates those things to influential people who will

be on his side. And, you know, he recruits Kepler into this enterprise to to publish a defence of Tycho against Ursus. So become notorious for doing all this stuff. Tico. Yeah. Yes. Yes and no. So I I think again I think the the print press is important and Tycho Brahe knows how to use it, but also it's not very fast. So one of the things that Tycho Brahe does is he uses his correspondence.

to wage the first stages in this conflict. Now, by the way, he goes on to publish some of his correspondence. And he has plans to publish more. He's published his one volume of correspondence in fifteen ninety-six. That's his correspondence with uh the castle astronomers. But he has plans to publish more of his correspondence. So he writes letters. to uh scholars across Europe with the full intention of publishing them and their responses in due course.

He includes with his letters um extracts from his printed publications. So that's one way he gets some of his material out early. He also um uses his correspondence therefore to um to establish his claims to priority, but also to to conduct some of the debates about the fundamentals, right, about the philosophical issues. Well, did you want to come in here in any way?

Well I thought we could have made a bit more of his kind of artisan interests in terms of instrument making. I mean not only is he very unusual as a nobleman to be academically interested in astronomy and undertaking all the observation he does. But he's very, as far as I understand it, I think it's more Emma's territory than mine, involved in creating or refining his instruments of observation. which for a nobleman is is quite an extreme thing to do.

Yeah, absolutely. I think his his instruments are so central to his enterprise, not just because they produce the data from which he's going to um come up with his theoretical claims. But they're also a really valuable means of presentation. Um, he produces images of his instruments that he publishes alongside theoretical claims like his geo heliocentric system. But he also uses these images to send to patrons.

um to secure financial support. So they really are the foundation of his reputation as an observational astronomer. And I think that's something that's that's quite unusual in the period and we I think we often take for granted that astronomy is An observational activity. But prior to TICO we didn't really have this sense of systematic observation. It was it was principally And we haven't even talked about The the the fact the instruments are works of art. Absolutely. Yes. And and are decorated.

And you know, have have emblems on them, have symbolism. They serve a function both in situ in your Anaborg um to represent what the Taconic Enterprise is, but also then his illustrations of his instruments and his descriptions of them. uh form a really important um role then in presenting a vision of of of the tyconic enterprise that helps them secure

um his his second wave of patronage from it with the second, but also, you know, is about reputation. And and Tika Brahe i through a variety of mechanisms really presents himself, um, seeks to present himself as another as a princely astronomer. And as a prince and astronomer. Um, so he he picks up on the the the long standing confusion between Claudius Ptolemy And the Ptolemies who ruled Egypt.

So Ptolemy was often depicted as a king with a crown, and so Tychobrahe is very interested in placing himself in a lineage of astronomers. Um that that uses that symbolism. Well again I think it's worth emphasizing that uh all these enterprises, the building. and the printing press benefited to a large extent from all the artists coming into Denmark at this time, mainly to work on royal enterprises. uh you wouldn't have f find the gr graphic talents in in reproducing Tiger's instruments.

in Denmark at this time, unless there were a number of royal enterprises going on. And the same could be said about the building of Uraniburg, especially, with all its kind of beautiful uh figures and and fountains uh that would not have been easy for Tycho to produce on his own. I mean just just to build on that point, I think it's also important to recognise that Uranaborg isn't this

sort of very modern scientific research institute. It is it is also a castle to the Muse Urania and that's that's kind of um reinforced by these these this emblematic iconography, um, it really is a place in which he is

uh that connection I guess between the heavens and earth is manifest through the whole structure, through his activities, through the decoration. Um and I think that's why it's important to kind of recognise that Yes, his im his empirical method is very important, but it's only a part of what he considers him s himself to be doing and he's bringing together all these skills and ideas in one location that really um Yeah, is is characteristic of sixteenth century

ideas as as while it even while it's innovative, if that makes sense. Finally, is it um was he known uh around the place in Europe in his lifetime as this uh tremendously influential Astronomer. So yes and no. I think um b there he was known amongst a community of scholars. He was known amongst the Republic of Letters. His name pops up here and there in publications. But my sense is that that he wasn't um as well known as he might have been had he published

uh his findings um in a more timely fashion and circulated them when they're ready. Because he had this this ambitious plan of publications. He he kept h hold of so much of the the the material he printed. He didn't circulate it. Um it circulated after his lifetime. His heirs sold on the the the printed um stock. Um and so that I think meant that he was known to a large community. It's harder to judge, I think, how much anyone else really had a sense of what he was up to.

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