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

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.


Review
"Anyone with an interest in astronomy or the history of science will enjoy this tale, thanks to Christianson's lively style and thorough research." Dan Falk, Toronto Globe & Mail

"...Christianson provides a double share of fascinating insights into one 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. Kirkus Reviews

"brims with intriguing material." Physics Today

"...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, map-making projects and chemistry labs operated; and how the Uraniborg group disseminated its methods, ideas and students across northern Europe....Christianson's narrative combines the intrigue of Reformation courts with the excitement of early modern science." Publisher's Weekly

"On Tycho's Island brims with intriguing material...." Physics Today

"A well-rounded portrait of Brahe...is presented in a study which includes intriguing facts on his contemporaries." The Midwest Book Review

On Tycho's Island allows us to appreciate Uraniborg as the site of enormous practical and theoretical advances in astronomy and as a model for many later scientific institutions." Nicholas Jardine, Science

"...Christianson has resotred the noble Dane - idiosyncratic, brilliantly determined, sometimes ruthless, and humanly vulnerable - to his late-sixteenth- century environment. It is worth much more than a sentence, but it must be added that, in addition to the monographic account just sketched, Christianson also offers a great service to scholarship by presenting in the book's second part of a lengthy set of bio-bibliographies for almost all of the principal players." Sixteenth Century Journal

"...Christianson's catalogue provides younger scholars with a treasure chest of nuggets they can use to expand our knowledge of early modern astronomy and its intricate social nexus. I have no doubt that Christianson's book will serve as a reference point for future historians of astronomy." Nature

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), the premier patron-practitioner of science in sixteenth-century Europe, established a new role of scientist as administrator, active reformer, and natural philosopher. This book explores his wide range of activities, which encompass much more than his reputed role of astronomer. Christianson broadens this singular perspective by portraying him as Platonic philosopher, Paracelsian chemist. Ovidian poet, and devoted family man. From his private island in Denark, Tycho 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. This pioneering study includes capsule biographies of over a hundred individuals, including Johannes Kepler, Willebrord Snel, Willem Blaeu, several bishops, and numerous technical specialists, all of whom helped shape the culture of the Scientific Revolution.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kenneth J. Howell

Christianson's work is the second of two major studies of Tycho's life to be published in English within the past decade which have thoroughly revised our understanding of him. On Tychos Island, mercifully refrains from focusing on power struggles within science, even though Christianson occasionally hints at this as one of his main concerns. Christianson's Tycho emerges as a man who used the complex rules of patronage to foster the pursuit of knowledge that would lead, at least in his own mind, to a unified system of truth that would benefit both science and humanity.
*#151;Nature

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 Cahners Business Information.

John North - Times Literary Supplement