Tycho Brahe's Books
Some historians have made strong claims about the role of
the
printing-
press in the transformation of the sciences
during the Renaissance, and Tycho Brahe, as an astronomer
who controlled his own printing-press, has attracted
particular attention. But Tycho was not the first
astronomer-printer. Moreover, his printing operation was not
run as a commercial enterprise. Although he produced his own
works in large print-runs, only a few copies, presented as
gifts to princes, nobles, and fellow scholars, were
distributed in his lifetime. These gift-copies were
sometimes furnished with lavish bindings and hand-coloured
illustrations. Tycho also presented copies of works in
manuscript.
A sextant from one of Tycho's books.
Large
image (77K).
Very Large image (1.7M).
Tycho's first work, De Nova Stella (1573), was printed in
Copenhagen. It was after he had moved to Hven that he
acquired his own press, which was operational by 1584. Poems
and works under the name of his students were issued from
the press; Tycho also offered to print texts for his friends
and correspondents, but was prevented from doing so by a
shortage of paper. This problem, which also held up the
printing of his own works, eventually caused Tycho to
construct a paper-mill on Hven. The De mundi aetherei
recentioribus phaenomenis (1588) and the Epistolae
astronomicae (1596) were both produced at Uraniborg, while
the Astronomiae instauratae mechanica (1598) and the
Astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata (1602) were begun
there, but completed after Tycho had left Denmark.
Tycho had planned to produce an account of his
instruments for some years prior to the completion of the Astronomiae
instauratae mechanica, and woodcuts which were destined for
this
Work can also be found in his other publications; the
image shown here, of one of Tycho's sextants, was first
printed in 1588. In describing the construction and use of
astronomical instruments, Tycho was following in a tradition
which included Ptolemy, the Alfonsine astronomers, and
Regiomontanus. However, in the level of detail he provided,
and in the standard of his illustrations, he appears to have
established a precedent which influenced many later
astronomers.
Recommended Reading
J. Bennett & D. Bertoloni Meli, Sphaera Mundi: Astronomy
Books in the Whipple Museum 1478-1600, Cambridge 1994
A. Chapman, "Tycho Brahe in China: The Jesuit Mission to
Peking and the Iconography of the European Instrument-Making
Process", Annals of Science 41 (1984), pp. 417-433
J. Dreyer, Tycho Brahe: A Picture of Scientific Life and
Work in the Sixteenth Century, Edinburgh 1890. Reprinted New
York 1963
E. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change:
Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern
Europe, Cambridge 1979, 2 vols
A. Johns, The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the
Making, Chicago 1998, pp. 6-28
H. Raeder, E. Strömgren, & B. Strömgren, Tycho Brahe's
Description of His Instruments and Scientific Work,
Copenhagen 1946
V. Thoren, The Lord of Uraniborg: A Biography of Tycho
Brahe, Cambridge 1990
Full Bibliography
More abstracts about the De Nova Stella