Image Credit

---

Tycho Brahe (pronounced tee Koh Bra Hay) is, without a doubt, one of my favorite scientists in all of history. Sure, he was a brilliant astronomer for his time and the mentor of none other than Johannes Kepler, but it was his everyday life and strange death that I find fascinating. If you’ve never heard the story, you’ll definitely want to continue reading.

Not So Humble Beginnings

Tycho Brahe was born Tyge Otteson Brahe in Denmark in 1546 to Danish nobles Otte Brahe and Beate Bille, but he would Latinize his name to Tycho when he was 15 years old. He had a twin brother who died shortly after birth, 4 brothers and five sisters. Interestingly, much like in the movie Raising Arizona, young Tycho’s childless uncle Jorgen Brahe and aunt Inger Oxe kidnapped him when he was just 2 years old. Unlike the movie, Tycho’s parents didn’t seem to care that he was gone. They never tried to get him back or even complained too much about it. Some postulate that Otte had made a deal with Jorgan and Inger that, should he have a son, he would give it to the childless couple. When Tycho was born, Otte changed his mind, and Jorgen had to take matters into his own hands. At least he waited until Otte had another son and then kidnapped Tycho.

Of course, the fact that Jorgen and Inger were nobles in their own right softened the blow a little bit. In fact, they were extremely rich nobles, which afforded their foster son many educational opportunities that he wouldn’t have otherwise had. From an early age, Jorgen began grooming him to become a lawyer, forcing him to start learning Latin at the age of 7. At 13, Tycho was sent to the University of Copenhagen to continue his education. While there, he would broaden his interests to include several different subjects. That is, until his imagination was captivated by a solar eclipse, and astronomy became his new passion. But, it wasn’t so much the eclipse that captured his attention; that was a well known phenomenon. Instead, he was impressed that it had been predicted with such precision. He immediately went out and bought all kinds of astronomy equipment, star charts, and astronomical prediction tables, because he was rich, and he could do that kind of thing. He continued his astronomy obsession at Copenhagen until 1562 when Jorgen transferred him to another university in Leipzig, Germany; perhaps in an attempt to get him back on track to becoming a lawyer. He even sent along a tutor to keep Tycho focused. At first, Tycho made it a point to hide his interest in astronomy from his tutor. Then, on August 17, 1563, he observed as Jupiter and Saturn passed unusually close to each other in the night sky; an event that all of his charts and tables had predicted would occur at a totally different time. Brahe, who was not known to be lacking in the hubris department, was confident that he could do it better. So, he dedicated most of the rest of his life to watching the stars and developing better astronomy equipment. He would go on to make the most accurate naked eye observations (the telescope wasn’t invented until 1608) of the sky that have ever been made.

A 17th Century Rockstar of ASTRONOMICAL Proportions

In 1565, Tycho returned home to Denmark in order to mourn the passing of his uncle Jorgen, who had died in the line of duty to the crown. Apparently, the king had fallen off of his horse while crossing a bridge and plummeted into the frigid moat, below. Jorgen dove in and saved his life, but later contracted pneumonia and died. Tycho came out smelling like a rose, though! He ended up inheriting somewhere in the vicinity of 1% of all the wealth in Denmark. LET THE PARTY BEGIN!

A Rift In The Family

Most of Brahe’s family was still pretty mad at him for squandering his chances at becoming a lawyer, and they ran him out of town. He returned to Germany where he started hanging out with other rich stargazers. Together, they would build a massive observatory and begin making extremely precise observations of the night sky. I mean, what else was he going to do with all that money?

---

Image Credit

---

That One Time When He Got His Nose Cut Off

Another defining moment in Tycho’s life occured when he was 20. As the story goes, Tycho and another Danish nobleman named Manderup Parsberg (who happened to be his third cousin) got into an argument over a math formula. The little tift escalated until the two men decided to take it outside for a sword duel. Parsberg got the better of the joust when he cut off the majority of Brahe’s nose! But, Tycho was a pretty go with the flow kind of guy. He just went out and bought himself a prosthetic nose reportedly made out of silver and gold (although recent revelations have revealed that it was probably just brass); you know, because he was rich, and he could do that kind of thing. It actually became a point of pride for him, and he would carry it around in a box along with the adhesive he used to make it stick. Apparently, he wasn’t one to hold a grudge, either. He actually ended up becoming good friends with Parsberg.

No Man Is An Island; But, I Guess He Can Own One!

Between his superior astronomical observations and his epic party-boy lifestyle, Tycho began to make a name for himself throughout Europe. He thought it might be fun to move to someplace like Switzerland; however, King Frederick II thought it would be a shame to lose such a national treasure. He offered Brahe his own frickin’ island if he would stay in Denmark! Of course, the offer was accepted, and soon the Castle of the Heavens was commissioned. Tycho made sure to include plenty of room for all of his favorite hobbies in the blueprints. There was an alchemist’s furnace, where he secretly worked to find new medicines and remedies; a paper mill and printing press, so he could publish his star maps; a sextant and observatory built right into the castle wall, where he could be lifted up to a window where he would be able to observe precisely the same patch of sky night after night; and a huge polished sphere where he would engrave all of the stars that he mapped out over a 25 year period. He also made sure that the castle was also adorned with paintings and murals of himself; because he was rich, and he could do that kind of thing.

The Court Jester

Among the many employed in Brahe’s castle was a dwarf court jester named Jepp. Not a lot is known about him, but it is said that Brahe believed him to be a clairvoyant. Also, he was forced to stay under the table during meals, for whatever reason.

A Boy And His… Elk?

As you may have already picked up on, Tycho Brahe was not what you call normal. So, when it came time for him to pick a pet, he chose an elk. A tame elk. A tame elk who had a strong affinity for beer. And, since Brahe loved being the life of the party, he made it a point to show off his drunk elk whenever other nobles were over. He even allowed one of his contemporaries to borrow the animal for a party at another castle. Unfortunately, castles have stairs, and drunk elk (like drunk people) sometimes have difficulty navigating stairs. Tycho’s elk tumbled to its death.

Tycho’s Shakespearean Connection

While this part of the story is unsubstantiated, it is interesting and worth mentioning. Rumor had it at the time that Queen Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, Frederick’s wife, had taken quite the liking to Tycho. Yes, quite the liking, indeed, if you know what I mean. In fact, some believe that it was the rumors about Tycho’s infidelity with the queen that inspired William Shakespeare to write Hamlet.

All Good Times Must Come To An End

Tycho lived the high life there on his island until 1588 when his benefactor, King Frederick II died and was replaced by his son, Christian IV. As you can imagine, Christian wasn’t one of Brahe’s biggest fans; I mean, the rumor around town was that the guy had slept with his mom. And, Brahe sure wasn’t helping matters by ignoring several of Christian’s attempts at correspondance; or the fact that Christian had a personal vendetta against witches, and Tycho was a practitioner of the forbidden science of alchemy. So, Christian decided to cut Tycho’s funding, and Brahe decided to take his genius elsewhere.

He ended up in Prague, where Emperor Rudolph II brought him on as imperial mathematicus and gave him yet another castle. While there, he took on an assistant by the name of Johannes Kepler. Kepler didn’t exactly see eye to eye with Brahe. The two had totally different beliefs on how planetary bodies moved through space. While Kepler believed in a heliocentric solar system, where the planets orbited the sun, Tycho was stuck on the idea that the Earth was at the center of the universe. In fact, he was working on his own model of the universe where the sun and moon orbited Earth once a year WHILE all of the other planets were orbiting the sun. Really, all Kepler wanted was to get his hands on Brahe’s backlog of data and use it to validate his own theories.

When Ya Gotta Go; You GOTTA GO

If you think the elk died under weird circumstances, wait until you hear how Tycho himself checked out. In October of 1601, Tycho attended a royal banquete where he had probably over-embibed. As everyone sat around the royal table, he was hit with the urge to relieve himself; however, it was considered bad manners at the time to excuse oneself, so he just held it until he got home. Unfortunately, that was a bit too long. His bladder ruptured, which led to a lethal bladder infection.

The manner in which he died was so strange that many thought he had to have been poisoned. Some said that Kepler had may have offed him in an attempt to acquire all of his astronomical records. Others figured that Christian IV had finally caught up with him. But, in 2010, those rumors were put to rest when scientists exhumed Tycho Brahe’s body and applied modern forensic technology to determine his cause of death once and for all. They weren’t able to detect any type of poison that would account for his death. So, this dude officially died because he held in his pee until his bladder burst! And, so ended the life of one of the most eccentric scientists to never hold a telescope.