Tycho Brahe and the Measure of the Heavens

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).

"Christianson has provided us with a concise, erudite, informative, well-illustrated, and well-referenced book that is an absolute joy to read. He revealed the heart of his subject and emphasized the humanity of Brahe . . . I enjoyed this book hugely. It is not only a first-class introduction to the life of Brahe it is also a first-class introduction to astronomy in the Renaissance." - The Observatory Magazine"John Robert Christianson’s Tycho Brahe and the Measure of the Heavens is an elegantly written, succinct, and generously illustrated biography . . . an erudite biography of a great social organiser, as well as a “court aristocrat”." - Metascience"A new biography aims to restore early modern Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe to what the author, historian Christianson, asserts is his rightful place as a "world-class figure of the late Renaissance." Richly illustrated and based on a detailed analysis of Tycho’s surviving texts, Tycho Brahe and the Measure of the Heavens also draws on significant new scholarship written in the Nordic languages. Christianson deftly depicts Tycho’s tumultuous relationship with his one-time assistant Johannes Kepler, while paying careful attention to the context of Tycho’s position in the Danish and Bohemian courts and the sociopolitical ramifications of the Reformation. Ultimately, Christianson argues that Tycho’s empirical methods had a “profound and enduring” effect on the history of science. The book is required reading for scholars of early modern astronomy." - Physics Today"In this book John Robert Christianson takes the reader through the life of Tycho Brahe. . . . This volume includes an index, is referenced and there is a reading list allowing the reader to fully follow up topic . . . the images are particularly well matched to the text. Would I recommend this book? Yes I would." - Bill Barton, Journal of the British Astronomical Association"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 organised 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"The pre-eminent authority in the English speaking world, John Christianson retells the story of Tycho Brahe with scholarly precision but with a lucid style and many well chosen illustrations. Tycho and his circle emerge vividly, his new instruments and his new ways of using them beginning as a Humanist "return to the sources", only to became something else – a way of doing science that put carefully checked observations ahead of theory. All this, as well as the fake nose and the elk that fell down the stairs. This is now the best single volume introduction to Tycho and his times, in English." - Peter Barker, Professor of the History of Science, The University of Oklahoma"A reminder, both timely and readable, by the leading expert on Tycho Brahe, of the vital role of the courts of Denmark, and of the Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, in the modernisation of European science around 1600." - Philip Mansel, author of King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV

• Preface: Denmark and the Renaissance1 Birthright Challenged, 1546-70 2 Cloister into Observatory: The New Star, 1570-73 3 Finding a New Life, 1573-6 4 Treasures of the Sea King: Kronborg and Uraniborg, 1576-82 5 Star Castle: Going Down to See Up, 1582-8 6 On the Move, 1588-99 7 The Emperor's Astrologer and His Legacy, 1599-1687 References Further ReadingAcknowledgementsPhoto AcknowledgementsIndex