Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

16th century scientist Tycho Brahe receives relatively little mention in modern times: this explores his entire range of scientific activities which go beyond his better-known astronomical explorations. A well-rounded portrait of Brahe the man as well as his many scientific interests and his works on his private island is presented in a study which includes intriguing facts on his contemporaries.

Diane C. Donovan

While the author has obviously gathered TONS and TONS of tidbits and certainly has an indepth knowledge of this subject, the communication broke down somewhere in the process of gluing it all together into a book. The first half of the book is interesting if you can get past all of the redundant statements and amazing overuse of the word familia (in annoying italics) to describe Tycho's operating principles on his island. If you are totally unfamiliar with how life was during this time, it may be eye opening, however, if you have read anything about it, it may be eyeclosing. Each chapter in part 1 seemed to loop around itself, just presenting enough new material to prevent me from putting it down for good. Perhaps the best of this book is part 2 where the author gives thumbnail sketches of the people he was associated with and worked with on his island of Hven. I felt that it was much more connected and definitely less repetitive. However, I wasn't really looking for a collection of micro-biographies when I purchased this book.