CHAPTER III.
The Later Development and Scientific Defense of the Copernican System.
COPERNICUS accomplished much, but even his genius could not far outrun the times in which he lived. When one realizes that not only all the astronomers before him, but he and his immediate successor, Tycho Brahe, made all their observations and calculations unaided by even the simplest telescope, by logarithms or by pendulum clocks for accurate measurement of time,[1] one marvels not at their errors, but at the greatness of their genius in rising above such difficulties. This lack of material aids makes the work of Tycho Brahe,[2] accounted one of the greatest observers that has ever lived,[3] as notable in its way perhaps as that of Copernicus.
His life[4] was a somewhat romantic one. Born of noble family on December 14th, 1546, at Knudstrup in Denmark, Tyge Brahe, the second of ten children,[5] was early practically adopted by his father's brother. His family wished him to become a statesman and sent him in 1559 to the university at Copenhagen to prepare for that career. A partial eclipse of the sun on August 21st, 1560 as foretold by the astronomers thrilled the lad and determined him to study a science that could foretell the future and so affect men's lives.[6] When he was sent to Leipsic with a tutor in 1562 to study law, he devoted his time
- ↑ Burckhardt: 8.
- ↑ The two standard lives of Tycho Brahe are the Vita Tychonis Brahei by Gassendi (1655) till recently the sole source of information, and Dreyer's Tycho Brahe (1890) based not only on Gassendi but on the documentary evidence disclosed by the researches of the 19th century. For Tycho's works I have used the Opera Omnia published at Frankfort in 1648. The Danish Royal Scientific Society has issued a reprint (1901) of the rare 1573 edition of the De Nova Stella.
- ↑ Bridges: 206.
- ↑ Dreyer: 11-84.
- ↑ Gassendi: 2.
- ↑ Dreyer: 13.
33
