On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe and his Assistants, 1570-1601 [Hardcover]

John Robert Christianson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 052165081X | ISBN-13: 978-0521650816 | Publication Date: December 13, 1999

A Platonic philosopher, Paracelsian chemist, Ovidian poet, and devoted family man, Tycho Brahe was the last Renaissance man and the first great organizer of modern science. This book provides the fullest portrait available of the research and cultural interests of the man who became the premier patron-practitioner of science in sixteenth-century Europe. Starting from Brahe's well reputed role of astronomer, author Christianson adds lesser known details of the man who was both a geodetic surveyor as well as a garden designer, and ultimately established a new role of scientist as administrator, active reformer, and natural philosopher. Coverage reveals how from his private island in Denmark, Brahe used patronage, printing, friendship, and marriage to incorporate men and women skilled in science, technology, and the fine arts into his program of cosmic reform. Through their teamwork, they achieved breakthroughs in astronomy, scientific method, and research organization that were essential to the birth of modern science. Also included are over 100 capsule biographies of Tycho's clients, coworkers, and friends, including Johannes Kepler, Willebrord Snel, Willem Blaeu, several bishops, and numerous technical specialists all of whom helped shape the culture of the Scientific Revolution. This pioneering exposition will appeal to science history buffs, especially those with an interest in the late Renaissance and will inspire anyone who has a passion for science and a penchant for the world of ideas. John Robert Christianson received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He was dubbed Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by King Harald II in 1995.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) became his era's "patron of science par excellence": he used his smarts, aristocratic status and access to Denmark's king, Frederick II, to turn the island of Hven into Uraniborg, a community built for the advancement of arts and sciences, staffed with scholars invited from all over Europe. Christianson, a historian at Iowa's Luther College, explains how Brahe built Uraniborg with labor from Hven's farm village of Tuna; what exalted friendships Brahe established, and what his Latin verse says about that extended familia; how Brahe's complex household, observatory, printing press, mapmaking projects and chemistry labs operated; and how the Uraniborg group disseminated its methods, ideas and students across northern Europe. Because Brahe's wife was a commoner, his sons could not inherit all his privileges; he spent much of the 1590s on schemes to ensure that Uraniborg would survive him. But his plans crashed under Frederick's absolutist successor, who persecuted Brahe's friends and drove him along with his enterprise to German exile. Christianson devotes 130 pages to a "Biographical Directory" of Uraniborg associates, including Brahe's most famous collaborator, solar-system theorist Johannes Kepler. If the brief sketches there seem aimed at fellow historians, the front half of the book will certainly interest a broader audience: Christianson's narrative combines the intrigue of Reformation courts with the excitement of early modern science. It was in this period that experimental methods and European technology found their real launching pads. Without Brahe, Brahe's friends and his citadel of research, such developments would have happened elsewhere and differently--if at all. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

We think of Big Science, with heavy government support and huge teams working on long-term projects, as typically modern, but Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was thinking big in the late 16th century. While Copernicus laid the theoretical foundation for the new astronomy, it was Tycho (1546-1601) who brought it to fruition with his meticulous observations and the regular publication of his results. A Danish noble educated in German universities, Tycho inherited landed wealth, but the life of a courtier did not interest him. In 1575, he convinced King Frederick II to give him as his fief the island of Hven, where he constructed a world-class observatory, with numerous instruments he designed and built himself. Tycho's plans involved considerable social upheaval on Hven. The project drafted the local peasants and fishermen for ``boon labor,'' and brought in specialists from all over Europe. At its peak, Uraniborg (as the science center was called) supported not only Tycho's large family and servants, but a substantial group of assistants. After a day's work, the extended family of Tychos scholars would gather for a communal dinner, at which they would improvise Latin verse, drink deeply, and discuss their findings in the light of neo-Platonist philosophy. Christianson (History/Luther College) puts Tycho's scientific achievements in the context of the daily life, intellectual milieu, and courtly politics of the era. He provides full scholarly apparatus, including short biographies of Tycho's assistantssome, like Johannes Kepler, famous in their own right, others comparatively obscurea useful glossary of technical terms, and numerous illustrations. Despite his often dry style, Christianson provides a double share of fascinating insights into the era and the career of perhaps the greatest astronomer of the pre-telescope era. A gold mine for anyone interested in one of the giants of Renaissance science. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 451 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (December 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052165081X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521650816
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,383,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book about the birth of big science, April 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe and his Assistants, 1570-1601 (Hardcover)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Christianson's book about Tycho and the birth of Big Science on the Danish Renaissance island of Hven. The writing is fresh and interesting, the details of daily life are lively, the discussions of patronage and scientific method offer new insight into the pre-telescopic world of astronomy. The illustrations are excellent. The discussions of alchemy and astrology are facinating. I especially liked the story of Tycho's sister's sad romance and his daughter's failed engagement. The biographies of Tycho's "students" and their lives after Hven show the influences of his scientific method and the international character of the scientific world in the 16th and early 17th century. Highly reccommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great combination of science and history, March 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe and his Assistants, 1570-1601 (Hardcover)

I found this book to be readable and informative. As a scientist and a history buff, I enjoyed Christianson's ability to combine the story of the birth of big science with the interesting details of Northern European Rennaisance life. Tycho's Island includes a cast of interesting characters, some who became the stars of the next generation of scientists and astronomers, some who were mapmakers, instrument makers, even printers and papermakers. The book also includes a picture of Rennaisance life that makes Tycho and his familia come alive to the modern reader. The details of marriage negotiations, castle building, entertaining and poetry makes the book a real page-turner. The short capsule biographies at the end of the book show the widespread influences of Tycho's brilliant work. Kepler may be the best-known member of this group of assistants, but he is just one of a number of interesting and important characters.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Social History & Biography, January 31, 2008

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This review is from: On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe and his Assistants, 1570-1601 (Hardcover)

As it needs to be, On Tycho's Island is as much a history of 16th Century Danish society as it is a biography of one of the most dashing characters in the history of science. Tycho's observations, from his "research center" on the remote island of Hven, were made with the naked eye; the goal of such meticulous work was primarily to measure exactly the orbital periods of the planets. These observations were not displaced and supplanted by the next generation of astronomers, who had Galileo's telescope to use. Though Tycho didn't live to see it, his labors were soon consummated by the discoveries of Johannes Kepler.

There's a much larger theme, however, in this book: the funding of Tycho's research. Some antagonists of proactive government these days are fond of claiming that great science in the past was achieved without grants and subsidies from government. Yes, perhaps on some occasions, but Tycho's work was massively funded by the Danish monarchy and its bureaucracy, and later by other princely German governments. Tycho spent as much time and energy supplicating government funds as any modern scientist spends on grant applications. Big science can be expensive. In Tycho's case, no capitalist would have had the slightest interest; nothing from which money could be made could possibly have been expected from the tables of observations from Hven, published on government funds. No explicit argument is thrust upon the reader, suggesting that investment of tax money in basic science is a proper function of any government that can afford it, but that is the obvious implicit conclusion.

Tycho died in Germany, after an all-night "banquet" with his princely patron. The cause of death at the time was considered to be the painful holding of his urine due to the protocol of not mincturating before your liege lord. One can only wonder... Was he suffering from kidney problems, or perhaps in the later stages of prostate cancer? In any case, Tycho has long been one of my personal heroes. In the winter of 1966, I rode a motorcycle all the way from Rome to Denmark just to visit Hven. The ruins of Tycho's observatory turned out to be little more than a few foundation stones. Hven, by the way, is owned by Sweden, a point of huge irritation to the Danes.