Portrait of Tycho Brahe
Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655)
Frontispiece to Tychonis Brahei, Equitis Dani, Astronomorum Coryphaei, Vita
Engraved by Jacob van Meurs (1619-1680)
's Gravenhage, Netherlands, 1654
Engraving
WOP-255

Barely visible above the bridge of Tycho's nose is a faint line delineating the edge of his metallic nosepiece, acquired after the end of his nose was cut off during a sword fight supposedly over a disputed mathematical point. Offered the island of Hven off the coast of Denmark by King Frederick II, Brahe set up an observatory equipped with numerous, gigantic astronomical instruments which he used to make his exacting observations. Tycho was never able to accept Copernicus' heliocentric theory about the structure of the solar system, proposing instead his own theory that the planets revolve around the Sun, but the Sun and Moon revolved around the Earth.