The History's Strangest Astronomer

  I remember very vividly that back in eighth grade, my Earth Science told me two facts that stayed with me throughout middle school and potentially, for the rest of my life. Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer, was described by Alasdair Wilkins from the article "The Crazy Life and Crazier Death of Tycho Brahe," as the "history's strangest astronomer." And indeed he is, the 13-year-old me was quite shocked when she learned that Tycho had a golden nose and died of bladder explosion.YES, if I learned anything at all in Earth Science, it would be the fact that an astronomer, whose contributions were noted in my Earth Science textbook, was involved in a fight that resulted in his broken nose and died because he refused to go to the bathroom...Oh by the way, he had an unusual birth as well.

  Tycho's life turned inside out at the age of merely two. He was born in a rich family of noblemen. However, the twist is that he was taken (as in literally kidnapped) by his uncle, Jørgen Brahe, either with or without the consent of Tycho's parents when he was only two years old. There are several theories on what actually happened. According to Michael Fowler from his lecture on Galileo and Einstein, Tycho Brahe's father agreed to Jorgen Brahe that if the child was born a boy, he would give him the consent to raise him out of pity since Jorgen is childless. However, Tycho's parents soon changed their minds, causing Jorgen to kidnap Tycho instead (University of Virginia). At the age of 13, Tycho witnessed a solar eclipse, igniting his interest in astronomy. Tycho himself, described the event as divine and pursued his interest.

  So here's the fun part, Tycho was involved in a fight with another student over a math formula. This fight unfortunately involved intense physical violence and Tycho's nose was cut off as a result. A golden nose was placed in replacement. Fast forward, Tycho's life involved much more eccentric and odd events which I will go in depth about later in this post. However, it is again, debatable, whether or not Tycho was assassinated or not.  He did die of sudden bladder malfunction at a banquet in 1601. According to my Earth Science teacher, he did not want to use the bathroom out of politeness at the banquet which resulted in the rupture of the bladder. However, some say that he was overdosed with Mercury and some even blamed it on Kepler. 

The moose I will go into details about

  Alright, so all of the above was taught by my Earth Science teacher along with some extensive research. In the article mentioned above, Alasdair Wilkins noted a few extra details that I did not know about. For instance, Tycho lived in a castle with "a rather unusual group of regular entertainers." One of which is Jepp, the jester, whom Tycho believed to have possess supernatural powers. A novel written by Katherine Marsh called Jepp, Who Defies the Stars goes in depth about this character. Jepp was ordered to eat his dinner under the table and was a dwarf if that's not disturbing enough. 

This book is going to be on my next to-read list 

     

       Alongside the jester, Tycho also kept an elk. Uh, I don't really know how to word this properly, but the elk also died of an unusual cause. The deer "reportedly drank a lot of beer while visiting a nobleman on Brahe's behalf, after which it fell down the stairs and died" (Wilkins). So that was it, the unusual life of an unusual astronomer, hope you enjoyed today's post ! 

So here's Tycho and his elk taken from this website

Credits:

"The Crazy Life and Crazier Death of Tycho Brahe, History's Strangest Astronomer." Io9. Web. 27 Mar. 2015. <http://io9.com/5696469/the-crazy-life-and-crazier-death-of-tycho-brahe-historys-strangest-astronomer>.

Gannon, Megan. "Tycho Brahe Died from Pee, Not Poison." 16 Nov. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2015. <http://www.livescience.com/24835-astronomer-tycho-brahe-death.html>.

Fowler, Michael. "Tycho Brahe." Tycho Brahe. Web. 27 Mar. 2015. <http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/1995/lectures/tychob.html>.