Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe (born Tyge Ottesen Brahe) (December 14, 1546 – October 24 1601) was a Danish nobleman known primarily for his work as an astronomer and an astrologer (the two were highly related in his day), as well as an alchemist. He was granted an estate on the island of Hven and the funding to build the Uraniborg, an early research institute, where he built large astronomical instruments and took many careful measurements. As an astronomer, Tycho worked to combine what he saw as the geometrical benefits of the Copernican system with the philosophical benefits of the Ptolemaic system into his own model of the universe, the Tychonian system. His best known assistant was Johannes Kepler, who would later use Tycho's astronomical information to develop his own theories of astronomy.

Tycho's elk

Tycho often held large social gatherings in his castle, as he was a member of the nobility. He was said to own 1% of the entire wealth of Denmark at one point in the 1580s. Pierre Gassendi wrote{{fn|1}} that Tycho also had a tame elk, and that his mentor the Landgraf Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel asked about an animal faster than a deer. Tycho replied writing there were none, but he could send his tame elk. When Wilhelm replied he would accept one in exchange for a horse, Tycho replied with the sad news that the elk just died on a visit to entertain a nobleman at Landskrona. Apparently during dinner the elk had drunk a lot of beer and fell down the stairs, and died.{{fn|2}}

Related Topics:
Nobility - Denmark - Pierre Gassendi - Elk - Hesse-Kassel - Landskrona

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