11 - The Last Years at Uraniborg

Summary

The spectacular discoveries in the lunar theory were the most remarkable results of Tycho's career, but they were also almost the entirety of his scientific work during the last decade of his life. Already by the spring of 1591, when he had finished writing and printing almost all of the ten projected chapters of his 850-page tome on the new star, Tycho was facing the first of a series of distractions that was to plague him to the end of his days. As is so frequently the case in human affairs, most of these distractions were of Tycho's own making. But the most time-consuming – a steady stream of curious tourists whose comings and goings had already turned his summers into periods of negligible productivity – was one that was probably beyond his control.

Tycho's diary for 1590 shows what proportions this activity could assume. Typically for these years, the most frequent visitor was Tycho's sister Sophie, who made a dozen stops, ranging in length from a night to a week. Half a dozen other relatives and friends also made two or three visits each to the island, and several others who seem to be named as friends likewise put in appearances. In addition, numerous groups of unknown and usually unnamed travelers dropped in.