Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T13:45:53.211Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Was Tycho Brahe as Influential as he Thought?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

C. Doris Hellman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Through the years there have been subtle changes in the evaluations of the work of Tycho Brahe. As one examines the tracts dealing with novae and comets in which reference is made to the nova of 1572 or the comet of 1577, it becomes quite evident that in different parts of Europe and in the Near East and at different periods of time and among men of different religious convictions different values were placed on his work. The extent of his influence should be distinguished from the measure of his achievements. Moreover, his importance cannot be completely separated from that of Kepler and the horde of other writers who furnished more than a mere background for the display of Tycho's brilliance. Here, as always, there is the danger of assigning to one man innovations that were, so to speak, in the air.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , December 1963 , pp. 295 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1963

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 In Tycho's system the earth is stationary and is the centre of revolution for the moon and the sun. The sun is the centre of revolution for the planets and carries them along as it moves around the earth. According to Boas, Marie and Hall, A. Rupert, ‘Tycho Brahe's System of the World’, Occasional Notes, Roy. Astr. Soc., 1959, iii, 253–263, 256Google Scholar, the System was so widely and quickly accepted because it filled a need to avoid Ptolemaic absurdities while complying with common sense, scientific theory and religious tenets and besides it was in the form which was to become the scientific method typical of the new philosophy of the seventeenth century.

2 In Tycho's time the notion of an infinite universe was put forth by such persons as the astronomer Digges, the physician Gilbert and the philosopher Bruno. That the idea was widespread is attested by the writings of a lesser man, Francesco Patrizi di Cherso. In the fifteenth century Nicholas of Cusa had not set limits to the world. For a full discussion, see Koyré, Alexandre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1957.Google Scholar

3 Indicative of Tycho's self-confidence was the study in his observatory, Stjerneborg, where there were portraits of eight astronomers, Timocharis, Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Albattani, King Alphonso, Copernicus, Tycho himself and a hoped-for descendant, Tychonides, under whose picture were lines expressing the hope that he would be worthy of his great ancestor. See John Dreyer, Louis Emil, Tycho Brahe, a picture of scientific life and work in the sixteenth century … Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black, 1890, 106–107.Google Scholar

4 Tychonis Brahe Dani Opera Omnia (ed. Dreyer, I. L. E.), Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 1913–1929, 15 vols., iv (1918–1922), 379–414Google Scholar, from manuscript copies Vienna 1068932, 1068933.

5 Tychonis Brahe Dani De Mundi Aetherei Recentioribus Phaenomenis Liber Secvndvs Qvi Est De Illustri Stella Cavdata ab elapso ferè triente Novembris Anni 1577, vsg; in finem lanuarij sequentis conspecta. Uraniborg, 1588. Copy used: Harvard College Library. Reprinted in … Opera Omnia, iv (1918–1922), 1–378. This work was probably far from completion at the time the German tract was written.

6 Hall, , op. cit., 261, 263Google Scholar. The original of the last phrase is ‘non vndequaque & exquisite rotundum ad Solem circuitum, sed aliquantulum oblongiorem, in modum figurae quam Ouadam vulgo vocant, …’ (Opera Omnia, iv, 162). Tycho allowed noncircular motion to a body whose path he compared to that of the planets. This boldness cannot have escaped Kepler.

7 Wandesburg, 1598; second edition, 1602. See Raeder, Hans, Strömgren, Elis, Strömgren, Bengt (translators and editors), Tycho Brahe's Description of His Instruments and Scientific Work as given in Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica … Copenhagen, Munskgaard, 1946, 106–118.Google Scholar

8 Caspar, Max, Kepler, translated and edited by Hellman, C. Doris, London and New York, Abelard-Schuman, 1959, 87, quoting Kepler.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., 102, quoting Kepler. Kepler's reliance on the accuracy of the observations is shown by his treatment of the eight minutes of are discrepancy between the observations and the calculated positions of Mars, eight minutes which he described as showing the way to the renovation of astronomy: ‘Nunc quia contemni non potuerunt, sola igitur haec octo minuta viam praeiverunt ad totam Astronomiam reformandam, suntque materia magnae parti hujus operis facta’. (Kepler, , Astronomia Nova, xixGoogle Scholar, last sentence; Gesammelte Werke, iii, 1937, 178.)

10 Many of the tracts went through several editions; some are preserved only in manuscript.

11 Tychonis Brahe, Dani De Nova Et Nullivs Aevi Memoria Privs Visa Stella, iam pridem Anna à nato Christo 1572. mense Novembrj primùm Conspecta, Contemplatio Mathematica … Copenhagen, Benedict, 1573.

12 Tychonis Brahe Astronomiae Instavratae Progymnasmata. Quorum haec Prima Pars De Restitutione Moluum Solis Et Lunae Stellarumque Tractat. Et Praetereá de admiranda Nova Stella Anno 1572. exortâ luculenter agit … Prague, 1602. Reprinted in Opera Omnia, ii and iii.

13 A critical bibliography of the tracts on the nova of 1572 with an analysis and evaluation of many of them is under way. A brief report is available: Hellman, C. Doris, ‘The New Star of 1572: Its Place in the History of Astronomy,’ Actes du IXe Congrès International d'Histoire des Sciences, Barcelona-Madrid, 1959, 482–487Google Scholar. For a study of the tracts on the comet of 1577 see: Hellman, C. Doris, The Comet of 1577: its place in the history of astronomy, New York, Columbia University Press, 1944.Google Scholar

14 Libro del nueuo Cometa, Y Del Lugar donde se hazê; y como se vera por las Parallaxes quan lexos estan de tierra; y del Prognostico deste: … Valencia, Pedro de Huete, 1573. Copy used: Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (possibly a unique copy). Traicté Du Nouveau Comete, Et Du Liev Ov Ils Se Font, Et Comme Il Se verra par les Parallaxes combien ils sont loing de la terre, & du Pronostic d'iceluy. Composé premierement en Espagnol … Et depuis traduict en Françoys par Guy le Féure de la Boderie … Paris, Martin le leune, 1574. Copy used: Bib. Nat. (Paris).

15 Stellae Peregrinae Iam Primum Exortae Et Caelo Constanter Haerentis … Louvain, Bogardus, 1573. There were numerous editions and variants of this.

16 Dialexis De Novae Et Privs Incognitae Stellae Invsitatae Magnitudinis & splendidissimi luminis apparitione, & de eiusdem stellae vero loco constituendo … Frankfort a. M., 1574. Copy used: C. D. H.

17 De Nova Stella, Ivdicium … viso mense Novembri ac Decembri, Anni Domini 1572. Item mense lanuario & Februario, Anni Domini 1573.… Lauingen, 1573. Copies used: C. D. H. and Nat. Bib. (Vienna), the only copy known to contain the star map referred to in both editions. Von dem newen Stern.… welcher gesehen ist worden im November und December des 1572. auch im Januario und Februario des 1573. Jars.… Lauingen, 1573. Copy used: Nat. Bib. (Vienna).

18 Observatio Et Descriptio Novi Sideris, Qvod In principio Octobris Anno Christi 1572. forma stellae primae magnitudinis apparuit, & per totius Anni curriculum fulsit, etiam nanc in tertia magnitudine splendet: In qua observatione demonstratur nouum hoc Sidus non in elementari, sed in aetherea regione existere. Per M. Eliam Camerarium Academiae Francofordianae ad Oderam Mathematum Professorem publicum constituta. Francofordiae Cis Viadrum, 13. die Septembris, Anno 1573. Copy used: British Museum 532.e.25 (7). This copy is a 4° and has only one signature. Zinner, Ernst, Geschichte und Bibliographie der astronomischen Literatur in Deutschland zur Zeit der Renaissance, Leipzig, Hiersemann, 1941, #2616Google Scholar, describes the tract as a 4° of 20 leaves. Moreover, the description of the book given by Tycho in the Progymnasmata 692–695 (Dreyer, , ed., iii, 205–208)Google Scholar gives observational data not in the British Museum copy. The one signature of that copy could stand alone as the dedicatory epistle. It seems evident that four signatures are missing. The Pulkova observatory copy seems to have been lost and no other copy has been located. But the bit available includes these words (A3v): ‘In hac autem descriptione scire te volo, sidus hoc esse nouū non stellam ex numero fixarum aut Planetarum. Deinde quod nouum hoc ostentum non in elementari, sed in aetherca regione existat.’ Moreover, Camerarius realized this was in conflict with tradition (A3v): ‘…locum huius sideris Aristotelicae opinioni non respondere.’ Tycho never saw the original work, but, as he said, was informed about it by Hagecius.

19 ‘Maurolyco's “Lost” Essay on the New Star of 1572‘, transcribed, translated and edited by Hellman, C. Doris, Isis, 1960, li, 322–336CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This is the first edition of the essay. Excerpts from it were given in the editions of Clavius's Sphere from 1585 on.

20 De Ea Stella Discvrsvs, Quae superioribus Novembris, & Decembris Mensibus 1572 … attulit admiratíonem … Venice, 1572. Copies used: Lincei (Rome), Marciana (Venice). Discorso … Sopra la Stelle, che il Novembre, & Decembre 1572. ha reso tanta marauiglia … Venice, [1572]. Copy used: Marciana (Venice). There were other tracts about the star by Raimondus who engagea in a violent controversy on the question whether it was ‘new’.

21 Frischlin, Nicodemus. Consideratio nouae Stellae, Quae Mense Novembri, Anno Salvtis M.D. LXXII.… apparuit: … Cui Accessit Observatio Mathematica, autore M. Michēle Mōschlino. Tübingen, 1573Google Scholar. Maestlin's essay is entitled ‘Demonstratio Astronomica Loci Stellae Novae, Tvm Respectu centri mundi, tum respectu signiferi & aequinoctialis.’ A photocopy of the Tübingen University copy of the Maestlin essay was supplied by Miss Martha List of Weil der Stadt, who owns an incomplete copy. Maestlin's record of observations were preserved by Schickard, Vienna MS. 10887, fols. 3v–5r.

22 For a further discussion of the observations of the comet of 1577, see Hellman, C. D., op. cit. (note 13)Google Scholar. The believers in its supra-lunar position were Tycho, Maestlin, Roeslin, the Landgrave William IV, and Gemma. Hagecius was later converted.

23 Von dem Cometen/Welcher in diesem 1572. Jar/in dem Monat Novembris erschinen … Beschriben durch Georgium Busch/Norinbergensem/der Astronomischen Künsten Liebhaber/wonhqfftig in Erffurdt. Augsburg, Michael Manger, 1572. Copy used: Nat. Bib. (Vienna). There was also an Erfurt edition in 1572. Copy used: Bayer. Staatsbib. (Munich). The various editions will be described elsewhere. Orth, Siegfried, ‘Georg Busch, Maler und Astronom’ in Die Sterne, Vol. 36 (1960), 150–152Google Scholar, was not aware of the many editions of the work.

24 Die a dere Beschreibu g von dem Cometen/welcher in dem vergangenen 1572. far erschienen/und noch itziger zeit in diesem 73. Far/unter den Firmamenten sichtbarlichen vorhanden … Erfurt, [Jesaias Mechler, 1573.] Copy used: Bib. Nat. (Vienna).

25 Hellman, C. D.op. cit. (note 13), 225–233, 340.Google Scholar

26 De Sphaera Mundi: Et Temporis Ratione Apud Christianos, Heidelberg, Harnisch, 1574. Copies used: Royal Library (Stockholm); Cornell University Library. De Sphaera Mundi: Et Temporis Ratione Apvd Christianos, Neustadt, Harnisch, 1590. Copy used: Royal Library (Stockholm). The first signature, only, was altered.

27 Op. cit. (note 26), 63–65.

28 It is possible that Witekind did not write the section under discussion until 1574.

29 Fr. Iunctini Florentini, Sacrae Theologiae Doctoris, Commentaria in Sphaeram loannis de Sacro Bosco … Lyons, Tinghius, 1577. 2 vols. I, 44–45. Copy used: Columbia University, Smith Collection. This is the first issue of the augmented edition. It was reissued in 1578, the only change being the date on the title page. Copies used: Royal Astronomical Society (London); Royal Library (Stockholm). It is included in the 1581 edition of Giuntini's Speculum Astrologiae but not in the first edition which appeared in 1573.

30 The identical paragraphs by Witekind and Giuntini are given fuller treatment by C. Doris Hellman, ‘The Gradual Abandonment of the Aristotelian Universe …’ to appear in Mélanges Koyré.

31 See note 14.

32 The collection of these at the Folger Shakespeare Library was examined. The paragraph on the 1572 nova first appeared in the 1579 edition and placed the star far above the moon, pointing out that this was not true of any previously observed comet, but not referring to any specific observers nor to the consequences for theory.

33 The name is given as Giuseppe Valdagno on the title page of his tract on the comet of 1577, as Joseph Valdaneus or Valdanius or Valdanus by Zedler, , lvi, 159Google Scholar, and as Valdagno, Gioseffo by Maffei, Scipione, Verona Illustrata, iii, 1825, 358–359Google Scholar. Valdagno also wrote on medical matters, on Euclid, Aristotle and Proclus.

34 Ambrosiana R 95 Sup. fols. 51v-57r. This may be the only copy of the text. Adolfo Rivolta, Catalogo dei Codici Pinelliani dell' Ambrosiana … Milan, 1933, p. 75, calls the tract in question anonymous, but the manuscript itself, 51r, calls it ‘discorso di Gioseffo Valdagna sulla Stella del 1572’. The author's first name can be variously deciphered as ‘Ciros°’ as in a letter from Professor Lynn Thorndike, or as ‘Cirosio’ by Mr. Stillman Drake. A letter from Dr. Dorothy M. Schullian suggests adopting the form used by Maffei. This may be taking a liberty with the script of the title in the manuscript, but if that interpretation is made, it becomes possible to identify the author of the manuscript with the author of the comet tract. Mr. Drake has kindly transcribed and translated the text, and it is hoped that this will soon be annotdted and published. There are supporting arguments for the identification of the author of the one tract with that of the other. The nova tract, not mentioning Raimondus by name, stated disagreement with Raimondus' statement that the nova was really the 11th star in Cassiopea. The first of Raimondus' tracts to uphold this point of view was published in Venice in 1572. Raimondus wrote a short tract (Marciana 206 D 178 item 15), ‘Risposta alle cinque risposte, fatte per l'Eccellmo. M. Givseppe Valdagno, Al Dialogo Astrologico del Raimondo’, Mantua, 1578. Valdagno's five ‘risposte’ may have been made orally or by letter, but the tone for them is certainly set in the nova manuscript. Although there are no identical passages in the nova and comet tracts, a situation often found in the case of authors in the sixteenth century who wrote short tracts on the same or similar subjects, the two tracts are sufficiently alike to justify assigning them to the same author.

35 Discorso Fisico Sopra La Cometu Apparsa L'Anno 1577, Dell' Eccellente Signor Giuseppe Valdagno Medico Veronese. Verona, Sebastian and Giouanni dalle Donne Fratelli, 1578. The tract was unknown to me until I came across it accidentally in 1959 in Venice (Marciana 206 D 178, item 8). Although it was listed, without title, by Maffei, loc. cit., I have not seen it in any bibliography or catalogue.

36 As given by Valdagno this was: 26° from the pole star, 60° from the equatorial, 53° from the ecliptic and 35° from the beginning of Aries.

37 ‘d'essalatione illustrata e non accessa’.

38 Histoires Prodigievses Extraictes De Plvievrs Fameux Authevrs, Grecs & Latins, sacrez & prophanes, diuisees en cinq Tomes. Le premier par P. Boaistuau: Le second par C. de Tesserant: le troisieme par F. de Belle-forest, Le quatriesme par Rod. Hoyer, & le cinquiesme draduit de nouueau par F. de Belleforest… Paris, Marnef and Cauellat, vol. i, 1582, vol. iv, 1580. Copy used: Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington). Pierre Boaistuau died in 1566.

39 Craig had taught mathematics and Aristotle's Organon at the University of Frankfort and even been vice deacon when the dean was ill and then returned to his native land as physician to the King of Scotland. See Acten … Un. Frankf. a.O., iv, 65, 22, 23; and Dreyer, (1890), 208–209Google Scholar; and Brahe, , Opera OmniaGoogle Scholar (Dreyer, , ed.), iv (1922), 415 ff., 515 ff.Google Scholar

40 Ashton, Leigh and Gray, Basil, Chinese Art, London, Faber & Faber, 4th impression, 1947, p. 256.Google Scholar

41 Johannes Terrentius, S. J., who was active in China, had written in 1627 to Dillingen for information concerning the latest developments in astronomy. Presumably, he was inquiring after the work of Kepler and Galileo. See Caspar, , op. cit., 331Google Scholar. Christopher Borri, a Jesuit who served as a missionary in the Orient, in 1631 published a book in Lisbon in which he supported a System similar to that of Tycho. A compendium of the work had been translated from Latin into Persian at Goa in 1624. See Thorndike, Lynn, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, New York, Columbia University Press, vii, 1958, 55–58Google Scholar, and Sayili, Aydin, ‘Tycho Brahe Sistemi Hakkinda XVII. Asir Başlarina Ait Farça Bir Yazma: An early Seventeenth Century Persian Manuscript on the Tychonic System’, Anatolia, Revue annuelle de l'Institut d' Archéologie de l'Université d'Ankara, iii (1958), pp. 79–87.Google Scholar

42 Sayili, Aydin, The Observatory in Islam and its Place in the General History of the Observatory. Türk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, Ankara, 1960, pp. 43–44Google Scholar; Dreyer, (1890), p. 78.Google Scholar

43 Sayili, , op. cit. (note 42), 310Google Scholar. Professor Sayili does not say whether the Islamic scientists tried, as did Tycho, various methods for subdividing the arcs.

44 Ibid., 300, note 137.

45 Ibid., 259: ‘At the time the Istanbul Observatory was founded, Islam had already begun to lose its leadership in the field, but this institution too may have been instrumental in the transmission of the Islamic tradition of observatory building to Europe. At any rate, remarkable parallelisms are seen to exist between this observatory and those of Tycho Brahe, which were contemporaneous with it, and this is indicative at least of the actual passage of important influences from Islam to Europe.’

46 Ibid., 316, 322.

47 Ibid., 374–376.

48 Gregoriana, (Rome), MS. 530, ff. 66–67.Google Scholar

49 Copy used: British Museum. 533. a. 31/2.

50 Gregoriana (Rome), MS. 530, ft. 208–211. Magini wrote to Clavius 18 December 1604 about the position of the 1604 star relative to fixed stars and constellations.

51 According to a letter from Tycho to Clavius (Gregoriana (Rome), MS. 530), Tycho did not have a copy of the commentary when he wrote his Progymnasmata.

52 De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, Et De Magno magnete tellure; Physiologia noua, … London, Short, 1600. Book VI, chapters 3 and 5.

52a De Mundo nostro Sublunari Philosophia Nova … Amsterdam, Elzevir, 1651, p. 202, and Book III, chapters 3 and 4. Copy used: Columbia University, Spec. Col. B 501/G37.

53 Marciana (Venice), Lat. Cl VIII, Cod XXXVII (3493), 35r–41r.

54 The digest, not in Tycho's own hand, must have been made after 1602, the date of publication of the Progymnasmata. Ff. 43n–67v summarize the Latin work on the 1577 comet.

55 Among the Bleau globes are those in the Escorial library, in the Angelica Library in Rome, and in the history of science museum in Florence. Sec Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza Biblioteca, I, Catalogo dei Globi Antichi Conservati in Italia, Fsc. i, I Globi Blaviani, Florence, Olschki, 1957.

56 Marciana Library (Venice), main reading room.

57 Praelectio Astronomíca De Natura Coeli & conditionibus elementorum: tum autem de cousis praecipuorum motuum coeli & stellarum. Item Disquisitio Physiologica de origine fontium perennium frigidorum & calidorum: … London, Bill, 1605, 200 pp. The Praelectio occupies only the first 75 pp. Copy used: Columbia University, Spec. Col. B 520/L98.

58 De Sydere Novo, Seu de noua Stella: quae ab 8. die Octobris anni δ'π⋯ ξ XPIΣTO γoνιας 1604. inter Astra Sagittarij videri coepit; ac annuae revolutionis 1605. periodo proximae extincta euanuit. Enarratio Apodeictica. n.p., Stoer, 1606, 4°. 24 pp. Copy used: University of Lund. Tycho gives much information about the book. The Columbia University copy, long missing, is again available.

59 Deo Trivni Sacrum. XPONOMHNTTΩP das ist/Zeiterinner/In welchem durch anleitung einer Astrologischen der nechst vollnbrachten siebenfächtigen grossen Conjunction der oberen zweien Planeten/und des darauff erfolglen neuen Sternes zugleich/Dann aber auch insonderheit einer Mystischen und mit den Zahlen heiliger Schrifft vergliechenen contemplation kürtzlichen erkleret vnd angezeiget wird/.… Lignitz, 1612. Copies used: Lincei; C.D.H. No copy of the 1605 edition has been located. This is supposed to contain, pp. 51–64, Tycho's De Nova Stella anni 1572. It was offered for sale by Tauber & Weil, list 36, #16 and Goldschmidt, list 15, #36. See Zinner, Ernst, Geschichte und Bibliographie der astronomischen Literatur in Deutschland zur Zeit der Renaissance, Leipzig, Hiersemann, 1941, #4031.Google Scholar

60 Discovrs des Cometes:—& particulierement de celles qu'on a—veu au mois de Septembre dernier 1607.… Lyons, 1608, 8vo. Copy used: Royal Observatory (Edinburgh).

61 L'Astrologie Et Physiognomie En Leur Splendeur. Tournon, Reynaud, 1614. 8vo. Copies used: New York Public Library, *KB/1614/Taxil; Bib. Nat. (Paris). See also Thorndike, , op. cit., vi (1941). pp. 97, 169–170.Google Scholar

62 I.G.D.V. (Jean Gosselin de Vize), La Declaration D'Vn Comete Ov Estoille Prodigieuse … en l'an present 1572 … Paris, Huillier, 1572Google Scholar. Copies used: National Library (Vienna), 72 T 1234; Royal Observatory (Edinburgh). Historia Imaginvm Caelestium Nostro Seculo accommodata … Paris, Beys, 1577Google Scholar. Copy used: Royal Observatory (Edinburgh).

63 Thorndike, , op. cit., vii, 51–52Google Scholar, who used the Bib. Nat. (Paris), copy: V 20949 (1).

64 Assemblea Celeste. Radvnata Novamte in Parnasso Sopra la noua Cometa. Dall' Academico Danico II Riposato descritta in una lettera all' Academico Italico la Spassionato. Milan, Paganello [1619?]. Copy used: Ambrosiana (Milan). Stillman Drake regards this work as ‘Galileiana’ and believcs Giovanni Rho S. J. may have arranged for its publication.

65 Physicum Cometae Speculum, In Qvo Natura, Cavssae, species atque formae, varij motus, statio, moles, natale tempus, aetas, occasus, viresque seu effectus deteguntur, & accuratè atque dilucide demonstrantur … Ponte Ad Montionem, Apud Carolvm Mercatorem … M.DC.XIX, 80, 6 leaves + 157 numbered pages. Copies used: Bib. Nac. (Madrid), 2/1664 item 2; Padua University, (2 copies) SN1261 and 51b51.

66 Liberti Fromondi … Meteorologicorum Libri Six. Cui accessit in hac ultima Editione Thomae Fieni, & Lib. Fromondi Dissertationes de Cometa Anni CI . I C.XVIII. Et Clarorum Virorwn judicia De Pluvia Purpurea Bruxellensi. London, Tyler, 1656. Copy used: C.D.H. There are copies of the 1619 Antwerp edition of the comet tract in Bib. Nac. (Madrid), Royal Observatory (Edinburgh), Royal Astronomical Society (London), British Museum, University of Padua.

67 Copy used: C.D.H. (London, 1656), see note 66. There is a copy of the first (1627) edition in the Harvard College library.

68 Vesta, Sive Ant-Aristarchi Vindex, Aduersus lac. Lansbergium … In quo Decretum … MDCXVI & alterum … MDXXXIII. aduersus Copemicanos terrae motores editum, iterum defenditur. Antwerp, Plantin, 1634. 4°. Copy used: Royal Library (Stockholm).

68a Quaritch cat. 630 (1945) #31;3rd ed. 1635, Zeitlin & Ver Brugge cat. 200 (1962) #10.

69 Historiae Eclipsium, Cometarvm Et Pareliorum … collectae … Helmstedt, 1621. Copy used: Royal Observatory (Edinburgh); another copy: Bib. Nat. (Paris).

70 Presumably Gothardt Arthus who, in 1619, had published in German in Frankfurt a description of the comet of November 1618, Cometa Orientalis, Kurtze … Beschreibung … Copies used: Royal Astronomical Society (London); British Museum. Other copies: Royal Observatory (Edinburgh); National Library ( Vienna); Columbia University.

71 Part II Sec. 2 Memb. 3 (1621 ed. pp. 323 ff). Copy used: Columbia University Special Col. 6823895/0/1621. Subsequent editions altered this passage and it would be interesting to note what changes were made and in what years.

72 Later editions say these reasons were exploded by Telesius and Paracelsus.

73 Nicolson, Marjorie Hope, Voyages to the Moon, New York, Macmillan, 1948, p. 23.Google Scholar

74 Drake, Stillman, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1957, pp. 118–120Google Scholar, where the passage is called Galileo's only recorded tribute to Tycho. However, some of the other comments might also be considered tributes.

75 Ibid., p. 238.

76 Grassi, Galileo, Kepler, Guiducci, The Controversy on the Comets of 1618…. Translated by Drake, Stillman and O'Malley, C. D.. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, [1960], p. 360.Google Scholar

77 Galilei, Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—Ptolemaic & Copernican, translated by Drake, Stillman, foreword by Einstein, Albert, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1953, p. 361.Google Scholar

78 Ibid., p. 372.

79 Galileo almost surely took those of Maurolyco from Clavius' commentary on the sphere and those of Hainzel, Schuler and Peucer and the Landgrave of Hesse from Tycho's Progymnasmata, while those of Gemma, Busch, Hagecius, Ursinus and Mugnoz may have been taken from Tycho's book or from their own works or Mugnoz' from Hagecius' book.

80 Galileo, (1953), p. 387–388.Google Scholar

81 Fortunius Licetus or Fortunio Liceto (1577–1657), De Novis Astris, Et Cometis Libb. Sex … Venice (1623) and De Novis Astris Et Cometis Aetheris Libb. II… Venice ( 1622) with continuous pagination. Copy used: Bib. Nac. (Madrid), 3/15156 #1.

82 Controversaie De Cometarum Quiete, Loco Boreali sine Occasu, Parallaxi Aristotelea, Sede Caelesti … Venice, Valentinus, 1625. Copies used: Columbia University Spec. Coll. 8523.6/L616; Bib. Nac. (Madrid) 3/15156 #2.

83 Licetus also discussed comets in De Regulari Motv Minimaque Parallaxi Cometarum Caelestium Disputationes, Utini, 1640 (copy used: New York Public Library, OMM) and in De Lucidis In Sublimi Ingenvarum Exercitationum Liber, Padua, 1641 (copies used: New York Public Library, OMM p.v.9. Michigan University, Rare, Q.B/41/. L69).

84 The Italian and Latin printed editions, in Bib. Nat. (Florence), and the French manuscript, in Bib. Nat. (Paris), are all dated 1625. The author's name is given in French as Jean François Lespine.

85 The authors mentioned include Aristotle, Ptolemy, Girolamo Manfredo (a fifteenthcentury Bolognese physician), Hippocrates, Ovid, [Hermes] Trismegistus, Abraham, Haly, Albumazer, Almansur, Messahala, Dionysius Areopageticus, Bonati, Tycho, and Kepler (for the star of 1604).

86 National Library, Florence, 11–52 (Nelli, 53 [76]), 158 leaves.

87 Riccardiana (Florence), Cod Car in 4° 2903, 94 ff. (94v is blank).

88 Ibid., ff. 36, 37, 38.

89 Discurs Von dem Grossen Stern/ Welcher Den 6. 7. und 8. Septembris … 1631 … Copy used: Royal Library (Stockholm).

90 Geistreiche Weissagung/von dem Grossen Wunderstern/Dergleichen von Anfang der Welt/nicmals gesehen/von dem Weyland Wol-Edlen/vnnd Gestrengen Herrn Tycho Brahe aber/im Jahr 1572. von dem 11 Novem. im Himmlischen Bild der Cassiopeä/biss in den Martium dess 1574. fast in die 17. Monat/mit hōchstem fleiss in acht genommen worden. Dessen Allermeiste Würckungen in diesem 1632. Jahr sich ereygnm. MDCXXXII. Woodcut on title page shows nova in seat of Cassiopea, with legend ‘Astra non solum praesentia, sed etiam futura, denunciant.’ Copies used: Royal Library (Copenhagen), 19–85; Cornell University, 8468 E 47 (locked press).

91 Learned: Tico Brahae, his Astronomicall, Coniectur, of the new and much Admired * Which Appered in the year 1572 … London, BA [Alsop] and TF [Fawcet] for Michaell * [Sparke] and Nealand, Samuell, 1632. 26 pp.Google Scholar A second title on Bir has caused some bibliographical confusion: Learned Ticho Brahe his Propheticall Conclusion of the New and much admired Starre of the North, 1572. Translated according to his Originall Astronomicall Prediction. Copy used: New York Public Library, * KC/1632/Brahe. The title page of this copy has no lettering. A photostatic copy of the title page of the Yale University copy is bound in.

92 The New Starr of The North, Shining Vpon the Victorious King of Sweden, London, Milbourne, 1632. The frontispiece has a portrait of Gustavus Adolphus and the last page is signed by Alexander Gil who may, however, be only the author of the verses celebrating Gustavus Adolphus which are appended to the tract. Copies used: Harvard College Library, Huntington (several variants, one of which is dated 1631), Boston Public Library.

93 Boulliau, Ismael (or Bullialdus or Bullialdi). Philolai, Sive Dissertationis De Vero Systemate Mundi, Libri IV. Amsterdam, Bleau, 1639Google Scholar. Copy used: New York Public Library *KB/1639/ Boulliau.

94 Santillana, Giorgio de, The Crime of Galileo, University of Chicago Press, [1955], p. 170 n.Google Scholar, says Bullialdus in 1639, not arousing much notice, was the first to announce Kepler's laws in France, but the bare mention Bullialdus gave them in that year is scarcely announcing them.

95 Tycho Brahaevs In Philolavm, Pro Telloris Qviete. Vbi de corporum grauium descensu; tum de motu naturali & violento noua traduntur. Ad.… Mathaeum Molaeum … Paris, Villery, 1642. Copy used: New York Public Library *KB/1642/Morin.

96 Ibid., pp. 30–31. ‘… Asserimúsque post Keplerum eos moueri lógè simpliciùs in lineis ellipticis, quod ipsc quoque Philolaus approbat in fine libri secundi.’

97 Astrologia Gallica … The Hague, Vlacq, 1661, p. 133b. Copy used: Columbia University, Spec. Coll. B156.4/M182.

98 Ismaelis Bullialdi Astronomia Philolaica. Opus Novvm, In quo motus Planetarum per novam ac veram Hypothesim demonstrantur. Mediique motus, aliquot observationum authoritate, ex Manuscripto Bibliothecae Regiae quae hactenus omnibus Astronomis ignotae fuerunt, stabiliuntur. Superque illa Hypothesi Tabvlae constructae omnium, quotquot hactenus editas sunt, facillimae. Addita Est Nova Methodus Cvivs Ope Eclipses Solares, absque vlla solutione triangulorum Sphaericorum ad Parallaxes investigandas, expeditissimè computantur. Historia Ortvs Et Progressus Astronomiae in Prolegomenis describitur, & breuiter recensentur ea, quae in hoc opere nunc primum prodeunt. Parisiis, Sumptibus Simeonis Piget, viâ lacobaeá, ad insigne Fontis. M.DC.XLV. Cvm Privilegia Regis. Copy used: Columbia University, Spec. Coll. B520/B66.

99 [Joseph] Jérôme Lefrançais Lalande, Astronomie, 3rd ed., Paris, Desaint, 1792. 3 vols., paragraphs numbered continuously, §1096. The Astronomica danica by Christianus Severini Longomontanus should be restudied. The first edition appeared in Amsterdam in 1622, the second in the same place in 1640. Longomontanus was at one time Tycho's assistant.

100 See Mazzuchelli, Giammaria, Gli Scrittori d'Italia … Brescia, Bossini, I2 (1753), pp. 1045–1048Google Scholar. Argoli's extensive published works include one on the comet of 1652–1653 and his unpublished works include a Tychonic ephemerides for 1600 to 1620 and a tract on novae in his age. Argoli published several ephemerides volumes. The ephemerides for 1630–1680 (Venice, 1638) has diagrams of the Ptolemaic, Copernican and Tychonic Systems. The ephemerides for 1640–1700 (Padua, 1648) has diagrams of these and Argoli's own System. The Lyons 1677 edition of the latter also has all four.

101 Pandosion Sphaericvm. In quo singula in Elementaribus regionibus, atque Aetherea, mathematicè pertractantur, Padua, Frambottus, 1644. Copy used: Columbia University, D. E. Smith library 520/1644/AR 38. There was a second augmented edition in 1653 by the same printer.

102 See note 19. In this case Argoli did not consult the primary sources. Did he do so in other cases? He did not always acknowledge his sources, as was pointed out by Pagel, Walter and Poynter, F. N. L., ‘Harvey's Doctrine in Italy: Argoli (1644) and Bonaccorsi (1647) on the Circulation of the Blood’ in Bulletin of the History of Mediane, vol. xxxiv, No. 5, 09–10 1960, pp. 419–429Google Scholar. The 41st chapter of Pandosion Sphaericvm is devoted to an exposition of the circulation of the blood without reference to Harvey although, as pointed out by Pagel and Poynter (p, 421), the exposition ‘is in fact an abstract, using Harvey's own words and phrases, from Harvey's De motu cordis’.

103 Copies used: Newberry Library (Chicago), Case B/8635.88; Columbia University, 156.4/G282.

104 Riccioli, Giovanni Battista, Almagestvm Novvm Astronomiam Veterem Novamqve Complectens Observationibvs Aliorvm, Et Propriis Nouisque Theorematibus, Problemalibus, ac Tabulis promotam, … Bologna, Benatius, 1651Google Scholar, Vol. I in 2 parts (no more appeared). Copy used: Columbia University, Spec. Coll. B520/R35.

105 Ibid., i, 51.

106 Ibid., i, xlv.

107 Ibid., ii, 287–289.

108 Ibid., i, 654 ff.

109 Idea Trigonometriae Demonstratae (In usum Juventutis Oxoniensis). Item Praelectio De Cometis. Et Inquisitio in Bullialdi Astronomiae Philolaicae Fundamenta … Oxford, Lichfield, 1654. Copy used: Columbia University, Plimpton 514/1654. Parts II and III have separate title pages and separate pagination and each is dated 1653.

110 Prognosticatie Vanden seer Vermaerden Astronomus Tycho Brahe Over 80. Jahren gedaen op een Nieuwe Sterre, een gantsch Jaer langh verschenen, Anna 1572. Voor-seggende dat groote veranderingen ontrent desen tijdt souden geschieden in saken vande Religie ende Politie. In Conclusione partis primat Operis sui. M.DC.LIV. Copy used: Royal Library (Copenhagen), 19–854.

111 Gassendi, Pierre, Tychonis Brahei, Eqvitis Dani, Astronomorum Coryphaei Vita.… Accessit Nicolai Copernici, Georgii Pevrbachii, & loannis Regiomontani Astronomorum celebrium Vita. Paris, Dupuis, 1654, 2nd ed.Google Scholar The Hague, Vlacq, 1655.

112 Norlind, Wilhelm, ed. and tr., Tycho Brahe; Mannen och verket. Efter [Pierre] Gassendi ōvers. med kommentar. Lund, Gleerup, [1951].Google Scholar

113 Copy used: and edition, London, 1670, Columbia University, Smith Coll., 522.7/1670/M87.

114 Ibid., p. 268.

115 Ibid., p. 269.

116 Thorndike, , op. cit., viii, 324.Google Scholar

117 Cometischer Gedenckzettel/Darinnen nicht allein die Cometen kürtzlich vor Augen gestellet werden/ welche der Höchste Gott/Von Christi Geburt/biss auff gegenwärtiges 1677ste Jahr/der sündigen Welt am Himmel gezeiget; Sondern auch Die jenigen Begebenheiten so auff einen und den andern erfolget. Herauss gegebrn von Christiano Uranophilo. LEIPZIG/In Christian Kirchners Buchladen zufinden. 4°. On title page, woodcut of comet with legend ‘Abbild des Cometen/so Anno 1577/als itzt vor hundert Jahren/gesehen worden’. Uranophilus was a pseudonym. Copy used: property of A. Pogo.

118 Copy used: Harvard College Library.

119 [Christian Gottlieb Mengel], Lebensbeschreibung des berühmten und gelehrten Dänischen Sternsehers Tycho v. Brahes Aus der Dänischen Sprache in die Deutsche übersetzt, von Philander von der Weislritz, Copenhagen & Leipzig, Pelt, 1756Google Scholar. Known to Dreyer in the nineteenth century, this book seems to have passed unnoticed at its appearance although it contains much material concerning the biography of Tycho Brahe, his observatories and instruments. It has little to say about Tycho's work.

120 [Jean Etienne] Montucla, Histoire des mathématiques, 2 vols., Paris, Jombert, 1758Google Scholar. See also Sarton, George, ‘Montucle’ in Osiris, 1936, i, 519–567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

121 Scheibel, Johann Ephraim, Einleitung zur mathematischen bücherkentnis … 1775–1787Google Scholar (17 parts). Copy used: Columbia University 510/ASch 2.

122 [Joseph Jérôme Lefrançais] de Lalande, Astronomie, Paris, Desaint and Saillant, 1764. 2 vols.Google Scholar, paragraphs numbered continuously. Copy used: Columbia University, Spec. Coll. B520/L 153.

123 See note 99.

124 There is evidence that his appraisal of Kepler was appreciated. 31 December 1798 Wolf Herz Detmoldt defended his 19 page dissertation, Kepleri problema celebre commentatio, Gottingen, 1798, at the University of Gottingen. He quoted (p. 2) a few lines in French from Lalande showing that the latter overcame in Kepler's writings just that which Galileo was unable to do—see a luminous path and the traits of genius among the superfluities, the tediousness, and the useless trials. The text varies slightly from that of §1206 of the 1792 edition. Copy used: Columbia University: 510.4/F67.

125 Lalande, (1792), §1097–1103.Google Scholar

126 Lalande, (1764), §292.Google Scholar

127 Lalande, (1792), iii, p. 728 (Index).Google Scholar

128 Ibid., §428.

129 Ibid., §792.

130 Ibid., §792–793

131 Ibid., §1089–1102.

132 Ibid., §1092. However, Tycho was very anxious to have Kepler validate it by means of the Tychonic observations.

133 Galileo said that the telescope, by apparently magnifying the fixed stars less, reduced their true size and consequently their distance. This is pointed to by ProfessorKoyré, Alexandre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, [1957], p. 92Google Scholar, for destroying Tycho's argument that the stars would be as large as the earth's orbit.

134 Lalande, (1792), §2282, 2328, 2459Google Scholar. However, clocks, even Tycho's before the use of the pendulum, were inaccurate.

135 Ibid., §1441–1448.

136 Astronomia Nova AITIOΛOΓHTOΣ, Sev Physica Coelestis, tradita commentariis De Motibus Stellae Martis, Ex observationibus G. V. Tychonis Brahe: Jussu & sumptibus Rudolphi II. Romanorum Imperatoris &c: Plurium annorum pertinaci studio elaborata Pragae, A Sae. Cae. Mtis. Sae. Mathematico joanne Keplero, Cum ejusdem Cae. Mtis. privilegia speciali Anno aerae Dionysianae cl I c ix. Copy used: New York Public Library, *KB/+/1609/Kepler.

137 Small, Robert, An Account of the Astronomical Discoveries of Kepler: including An Historical Review of the Systems which had successively prevailed before his time. London, Mawman, 1804.Google Scholar

138 Ibid., pp. 126–144. Small rightly deemed it proper that in Tycho's age observations should be considered as the only foundations of a just astronomy. Moreover, he appreciated the reasons for the popular appeal of Tycho's System.

139 von Mädler, J. H., Geschichte der Himmelskunde von der ältesten bis auf die neueste Zeit, Braunschweig, Westermann, 1873, 2 vols., i. pp. 183–216.Google Scholar

140 Dreyer, , op. cit., note 3Google Scholar. The material is arranged as follows: I. The revival of astronomy in Europe, II. Tycho Brahe's youth, III. The new star of 1572, IV. Tycho's oration on astrology and his travels in 1575, V. The island of Hveen and Tycho Brahe's observatories and other buildings—his endowments, VI. Tycho's life at Hveen until the death of King Frederick II, VII. Tycho's book on the comet of 1577, and his System of the world, VIII. Further work on the star of 1572, IX. The last year sat Hveen, 1588–1597, X. Tycho's life from his leaving Hveen until his arrival at Prague, XI. Tycho Brahe in Bohemia—his death, XII. Tycho Brahe's scientific achievements, with appendix and notes.

141 New York, 1917.

142 Bryant, Walter W., Kepler (Pioneers of Progress: Men of Science), London, New York, 1920, 62 ppGoogle Scholar. The bibliography includes Dreyer's History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler and his Tycho Brahe, and works by Delambre, R. Wolf, Berry and G. Forbes.

143 Raeder, Strömgren and Strömgren, op. cit. (note 7).

144 Gade, John Allyne, The Life and Times of Tycho Brahe, Princeton University Press, Princeton, for the American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York, 1947.Google Scholar

145 Neugebauer, Otto, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, 2nd. ed., 1957, Brown University Press, pp. 205–206 (1st ed., 1951)Google Scholar, counted Tycho and Kepler as the first modern builders of Systems of the universe, whereas Copernicus was still old hat. Hall, A. Rupert, The Scientific Revolution: 1500–1800, … London, New York, Toronto, Longmans, Green, [1954], pp. 106 ffGoogle Scholar. divided the pre-Newtonian development of heliostatic astronomy into four steps, the third of which was the qualitative observation which pointed to the inadequacy of the old teaching and the fourth of which emphasized the quantitative observation which led to abandonment of the ancient ideas in favour of circular motion and to the enunciation of new mathematical laws. Tycho, whom Hall called the ‘Vesalius of astronomy’, contributed to both qualitative and quantitative observation, although Hall did not say so, instead stressing Galileo's contribution to the former. Hall did say, in connection with the new anti-classical and anti-Copernican train of thought, after the introduction of the telescope, that as early as 1572, that is before the telescope, Tycho had suggested that the heavens were not incorruptible and unchanging but were subject to regular and irregular mutation. Repeatedly, Hall referred to Tycho's accurate observations. It was not as an astronomer that Hall classified Tycho with the past but as an Aristotelian natural philosopher. Of Tycho's System of the universe Hall said (p. 65) that history had not been kind to Tycho's hypothesis but that until late in the seventeenth century it had been considered as one of the three possible hypotheses, and rightly so, since there was no evidence to prove that the earth moves. The Tychonic System was expertly described and evaluated in 1959 by the Halls (see note 1), who translated into English Tycho's own account of the System. They characterized Tycho's work as original. Others will agree with this view, but even if Tycho's anti-Aristotelianism was original, it certainly was not unique. Moreover, the System itself was knowingly based on works of antiquity and not all those of Tycho's time with similar Systems were ‘plagiarists’, as Tycho stated. Gillispie, Charles C., The Edge of Objectivity: An essay in the history of scientific ideas, Princeton. New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1960, p. 34Google Scholar, stressed die wonderful 8 of disagreement. In 1957 Koyré, Alexandre had said (op. cit., p. 56)Google Scholar that Tycho had ‘destroyed’ the solid orbs of classical and Gopernican astronomy and had pointed out (pp. 284–285) the differences between Gilbert's and Brahe's stands on the rotation of the earth and the existence of a sphere of fixed stars and of a finite universe. In La révolution astronomique: Copernic, Kepler, Borelli, Hermann, Paris, [1961], Professor Koyré constantly referred to Tycho through the three studies and in that on Kepler pointed out that it was not on Tycho's judgement of the value of a priori and a posteriori arguments but on his observations that Kepler based his objections to the ancient postulate of circular motion. The works cited in this paragraph can serve as a sample of the numerous treatments of Tycho in recent works on the history of science.