TYCHO’S OBSERVATORY
[BRAHE, Tycho]/RESEN, Peder Hansen Inscriptiones Haffnienses Latinae Danicae et Germanicae… Inscriptionibus Amagriensibus Uraniburgicis et Stellaeburgicis… Duabus Epsitolis una Tychonii Brahe ad Peucerum missa Copenhagen H. Gordianus 1668
Scarce first and only edition of this work on Danish antiquities, of considerable interest to the history of astronomy for containing extensive material on Tycho Brahe and his island observatory. The fact that the astronomer receives such extensive attention in a work in which the spotlight would normally be focused on royal and historical monuments testifies to the great prestige Tycho enjoyed in his native land.Located on the island of Hven, Brahe’s castle-observatory—the “Uraniborg”—was the seat of many of his landmark astronomical discoveries, and is described and pictured in a number of plates. Also pictured is a map of the island, Brahe’s most famous globe—over 5 ft. in diameter—and architectural plans of the buildings. The latter were destroyed shortly after Tycho left Denmark, making their record here all the more valuable. The large engraving of the Copenhagen observatory (opp. p. 197), where Ole Römer would soon be making observations, is among the earliest (if not the earliest) depictions of this building. The structure was destroyed by fire in 1728.In addition to these valuable documents for the design and operation of Uraniborg, the work contains what seems to be the earliest bibliography of Brahe’s writings (p. 383ff.), a life of the astronomer, and a previously unpublished letter by Brahe to his former teacher Caspar Peucer on the value of the Alfonsine Tables (p. 392ff.).
* DSB II.404; J. R. Christiansen, “The Celestial Palace of Tycho Brahe,” Scientific American 204 no. 2 (1961), 118-128, and On Tycho’s Island (2000
$US5800
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