Was Tycho Brahe - the astronomer who constructed this zodiacal armillary instrument for the measurements of altitudes and azimuths of celestial objects - murdered?
Credit: Wikimedia
PRAGUE: It's a 21st-century high-tech ‘whodunit’ 400 years after death: did renowned Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe really succumb to kidney failure or was he poisoned, in a royal plot over a love affair?
Pinning their hopes on cutting-edge technologies, this week a Czech-Danish team exhumed the nobleman's body from the tomb where he was buried in 1601 inside Our Lady Before Tyn church in Prague's historic Old Town Square.
For four days, they will subject his remains to tests they hope will confirm or deny whether kidney failure will remain the ‘official’ cause of death - or whether something more sinister might have been afoot.
Tipped off by the mercury in his beard
"In fact, we are not coming here to investigate and say it was a murder or not, we're going to investigate... the whole life of Tycho Brahe," said Jens Vellev, a professor from Denmark's Aarhus University who heads the 50-member research team.
It was a test in the 1990s that dealt a blow to the 400-year-old story of Brahe's demise when it showed his beard contained a strong dose of mercury.
The discovery led Danish historian Peter Andersen to maintain that Tycho Brahe - who remains a popular figure in both countries - was poisoned by his distant cousin Eric Brahe in a plot ordered by Danish King Christian IV (1577-1648).
No luck for an easy-going maverick
Andersen put forth his theory following the recent discovery of Eric Brahe's diary. He suggests that Christian IV hated Tycho Brahe, an easy-going maverick and bon vivant, because of a love affair he had had with his mother, Queen Sophie.
According to Andersen, Eric Brahe travelled to Prague in April 1601 and quickly won over his cousin's confidence. In October, he supposedly slipped mercury into Tycho's glass, and the astronomer died in agony.
"For the Danish, this is a matter close to their hearts," said Stepan Filipec, pastor at the monumental Gothic church whose two spires dominate the Old Town Square, popular with tourists. Tycho Brahe, born Tyge Ottesen Brahe in Denmark in 1546, moved to Prague in 1599 after a conflict with Christian IV.
Brahe versus Copernicus
At the time, Prague was a flourishing imperial city attracting the best scientists and artists thanks to the generosity of the Hapsburg emperor Rudolph II. The eccentric monarch thought highly of Tycho Brahe, who used the nickname ‘The Man With The Golden Nose’ for a prosthesis he wore after losing his nose in a duel.
The Dane had discovered a supernova in the Cassiopeia constellation in 1572, and pioneered the geo-heliocentric model in which the moon and Sun both revolve around the Earth while the other planets orbit the sun.
Tycho Brahe´s death cause-forensic mystery search answer
Certainly it seems to be very improbable that Tycho Brahe has died suddenly few days later in reason after finishing of a banquet by bladder ailment by mercurius poinsoning by medicines taken in high doses previously.
Up date forensic science methodologies may be used nowadays to reach better results for clearing of real causas mortis (cause of death) of this top european noble man & astronomer since 16th century said to became dead in reason of kidney failure.
Hsi remains analysis by molecular spectometry of mass device it will be a must to discover such real cause of his death and sooner we will have better and final results concerning suspicion of murder or not !
Regards,
Prof.Paulo de Lacerda,MD,PhD
Paris, France, le 18 Novembre 2010.