Tycho Brahe and the Measure of the Heavens

Description

A new interpretation of Tycho Brahe's pivotal role in the emergence of empirical science. The Danish aristocrat and astronomer Tycho Brahe personified the inventive vitality of Renaissance life in the sixteenth century. Brahe lost his nose in a student duel, wrote Latin poetry and built one of the most astonishing villas of the period, as well as the observatory Uraniborg, while virtually inventing team research and establishing the fundamental rules of empirical science. This illustrated biography presents a new and dynamic view of Tycho's life, reassessing his gradual separation of astrology from astronomy, and his key relationships with Johannes Kepler, his sister, Sophie, and his kinsmen at the court of King Frederick II.

John Robert Christianson is Professor Emeritus of History in Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, and was made Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by King Harald V in 1995. He is the author of On Tycho's Island (2000) and co-editor of Tycho Brahe and Prague: Crossroads of European Science (2002).

"This fascinating and rich biography successfully explains the aims of Tycho's startling and ambitious enterprise, to rebuild the sciences of heaven and earth in a new vision of organized inquiry and the accumulation of nature's treasures. With gripping detail and brilliant illustrations, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the cosmos and culture of early modernity."--Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science, University of Cambridge