Posted on 01/22/2009 2:48:03 PM PST by nickcarraway
A Renaissance mystery is beginning to unravel in Prague. A team of experts from Denmark have asked the authorities for permission to open and explore the grave of the Danish-born astronomer Tycho Brahe who died in Prague in 1601. They are hoping to learn more about one of the most famous scholars of the time – and perhaps to throw more light on his mysterious death.
Tycho Brahe story of alchemists and assassins might soon be added to the annals of one of the most glorious eras in the history of Prague. A team of experts from Denmark would like to exhume the remains of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who spent two years in the service of the Emperor Rudolph II and whose sudden death in 1601 was never properly explained. The team is headed by archaeologist Jens Vellev of Aarhus University who specializes in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
“Tycho Brahe is one of the most important persons of that period from which we can combine historical records and things we can find out through archaeology. But the most interesting thing right now is to find out how the grave of Tycho Brahe was built, and what we can find out today with modern scientific methods.”
Emperor Rudolph invited the famed scholar to his court in 1599 and Tycho Brahe became the imperial astronomer. His death, at the age of 54, was shrouded in mystery. A popular legend has it that his bladder burst after his good manners would not allow him to leave a banquet before the emperor did. Today, most scientists believe he died of a urinary infection but some claim he was in fact murdered. Danish historian Peter Andersen, who is based in France, says a recent discovery confirmed what he had long suspected.
“I had suspicions against the Danish king but I didn’t know how exactly Tycho was killed. I couldn’t prove anything. But then some years ago, I found in a library in Stockholm a diary that belonged to a Swedish diplomat, Erik Brahe.”
Part of Tycho Brahe's graveProfessor Andersen claims that the Danish King Christian IV, who loathed the astronomer, used the Swedish diplomat to get rid of Tycho, and had him poisoned by mercury.
“It’s not a confession but it mentions one very important person – the younger brother of the Danish King, Hans. According to the diary, the Danish prince went to Sweden and convinced Erik Brahe to go to Poland. Then they met again in Poland, and I think that was when he gave Erik Brahe the order to go to Prague to kill Tycho.”
Tycho Brahe’s remains were analysed in the 1990s and very high levels of mercury were found in his body, which some attribute to his alchemist experiments, rather than murder. Archaeologist Jens Vellev says that if his team is given permission to open the grave they may finally unveil the mystery surrounding Tycho Brahe’s death.
“I have talked to the preist in the church that the best months for him, if it happens, would be February or November. So if we get the final decision, we could come this November or next February.”
Ping
If Brahe had lived a few years longer, he would have been able to use a telescope...all of his meticulous observations were made with the naked eye. But if he had lived longer, it might have been longer before Kepler had a chance to use his notes to make his discoveries--or maybe Kepler would never had a chance, and Mars' orbit would still be a circle with a lot of epicycles.
I remember learning about Tycho Brahe back in that Astronomy Class in the mid 1970s. The history of astronomy was very fascinating. I loved that Course for the first 2 classes.
We learned about Kepler, Newton, Galileo, and a host of others.
Then it got down to the physics.
Toughest Course that I ever took. I felt fortunate to pass that one. It was all, as I said above, fascinating to me though.
<Toughest Course that I ever took. I felt fortunate to pass that one.
Don’t you love courses like that? They just about kill you, but in the end, you’ve learned so much!
Are you guys trying to restore science to its rightful place on Free Republic?
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I am.
Me too.
Kepler had means, motive and opportunity. No one benefitted as much from Tycho's death as Kepler. From Amazon:
Novelist Joshua Gilder (Ghost Image) and his wife, former TV producer and investigative reporter Anne-Lee Gilder, offer a startling twist on the story of the troubled relationship of Tycho Brahe and his assistant, Johannes Kepler-who together laid the foundation for modern astronomy-and Brahe's unexpected and suspicious death at age 54 in 1601. The cause of Brahe's death had been debated for 400 years, but in 1991, forensic study of remains of Brahe's hair discovered lethal levels of mercury in his system. Dismissing other medical explanations for the mercury levels, the Gilders conclude that Brahe was murdered by Kepler, whose own work on the three laws of planetary motion-laws that changed human understanding of the universe-would remain incomplete without Brahe's closely guarded observational data. The authors weave together the personal histories of Brahe and Kepler, as well as the political, religious and scientific debates that raged during their lives. They find evidence of Kepler's obsessive desire to obtain Brahe's observations in letters by the young scientist, whom they portray in 20th-century diagnostic terms as a sociopath, permanently scarred by an abusive childhood. The Gilders' portrait of Kepler is interesting, albeit unpleasant; they catalogue his penchant for fallings out, paranoia and scheming in off-putting detail, and the explanations of his early scientific theories, which were wrong and impenetrably dense, will not be of universal interest. The writing is professional but not noteworthy, and the Gilders occasionally stretch the inconclusive evidence into speculations too thin to persuade.Apparently that figure on the cover is a diagram of successive conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, of far more astrological than astronomical significance. I've always preferred the image of Tycho on the his mural quadrant, one of the most important astronomical instruments in history, ranking ahead, perhaps, of Galileo's telescope.
That happened to me once but I didn't die......
Read “Heavenly Intrigue”. Your bladder cannot burst from holding it in. Your bladder is as tough as leather; you’d wet yourself involuntarily long before it ever burst.
I have a broken heart too......
This is a diagram Johann Kepler made showing the beautiful geometric pattern formed by the cycle of Jupiter & Saturn conjunctions over the course of a millenniuim. Kepler, the brilliant astronomer and mathmatician who solved the age-old problem of planetary motion, was court astrologer to the Holy Roman Emperor, camp astrologer to a famous general, and specialized in astrological weather forecasts.
Notice that Kelper used astrological symbols for the Zodiacal signs, the book cover substitutes their Latin names.
why didn’t the clairvoyant dwarf save the other half of the act? Dwarf Hvenvy?
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