Skyscript Astrology Forum

Kepler is only one of many suspects in this case: the Church, the Danish royal family, his and Kepler?s wifes? the list goes on and on. This book is a real stretch and does not take in a consideration historical data which do not fit into its under-covered sensationalist quality.
Simply: there is no proof, it is all just hear say. The truth is that Brahe and Kepler relationship was not exactly smooth: on the opposite. They were as much different as they could be, as historically documented. A mentor and a student. However, if this should be one of the reasons for his motivation: universities all over the world would have to be lined up with many dead bodies, as we know. His motivation seems weak when compared to stakes of the Danish King, or the Church. Kepler gets such a bad rap in this case. After Brahe?s death, Kepler wrote his ?Elegy? to him. When he published so-called ?Tabulae Rudolphinae? in 1627 he put Brahe?s picture on the title page. In the case that the theory of this book would be true: we would have a statue of a victim and a murderer in Prague. Probably, the only one in the world:
http://www.asu.cas.cz/~had/pap9.html

Paul Paral

Thanks Paul,

Its a fascinating story. This whole episode has made me more aware of what a significant place Prague has in astrological history during the late 16th and early 17th century.

I had heard of Kepler's publication of the 'Rudolphine Tables' based on Tycho Brahe's data but had not appreciated how interesting a figure Rudolf II was in his own right. Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II who reigned from 1576?1612 was one of the greatest renaissance patrons of the arts, sciences and most relevant for our purposes of astrology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_II, ... an_Emperor

During this 'Rudolfine era' we see many other significant figures travelling to Prague such as the astrologer to Queen Elizabeth of England , John Dee and his magical collaborator Edward Kelly. John Dee stayed in Prague and other parts of Bohemia during 1586-89.

I have just ordered this book on the reign of Rudolf II and his support for astrology, alchemy and magic centred around his court in Prague.

http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Circle-Rudo ... 0802715516

Mark

Here is a BBC discussion programme on the Court of Rudolf II and the personalities he attracted such as John Dee, Giordano Bruno , as well as Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008tsj9

Mark

First, I have to clarify my contribution from February 23rd, 2010:

...... On the other hand: Igor Janovsky, of the Prague-based National Technical Museum, claims that there was really never any proof that there was any Mercury found in Brahe? facial hair. But he does not say how he knows that?..

This is not the case. I have misread (for me somewhat unclear) paragraph from my source page, which may/or may not give out that indication:

?And for this particular case the Gilders say in the book that they found a hundred times higher dose of mercury than normal, which is not true. It was not found. This was just a hypothesis of sorts. And I?m sorry to say that several other people then repeated this claim that there was a hundred times increased concentration of mercury. But it was not found.?

Few paragraphs down the source page Igor Janovsky clearly states:

?It?s very likely that Brahe?s body was embalmed and it?s likely that the ointments they used contained mercury. But that?s not the only way how Brahe could have gotten mercury into his body. It?s well known that Brahe was an alchemist, he worked with mercury most of his life. He used it for preparing medicine ? his famous universal medicine called Medicamenta Tria, and one of its three parts contained mercury. He also used mercury for gilding his astronomical instruments; he had equipment for time measurement which contained mercury, and during his time there were certainly no special precautions taken when working with mercury. So no wonder ? it wouldn?t be surprising for me if his body, his remains contained mercury.?

Hence, he obviously does not mean what I have stated. I apologize to him and to all members for this overlooking.

Mr. Janovsky was so kind that he sent me his recent paper ?Tycho Brahe?s Death: Facts and Speculations?, which is included in a recently published book: "Kepler?s Heritage in the Space Age (400th Anniversary of Astronomia nova), by National Technical Museum, Prague 2010, ISBN 978-80-7037-193-0. The book is in English. Based on the provided sample: I can strongly recommend.

Here are some of many picture galleries available in Czech and foreign media from the first couple of days of this action-packed week:

Gallery 01
(in English)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =131323251

Gallery 02
(in English)
http://aktualne.centrum.cz/czechnews/fo ... ation-to-/

Gallery 03
(in Czech, but with pictures not published in other media)
http://www.lidovky.cz/foto.asp?c=A10111 ... a&strana=1

Paul Paral

Brahe is resting in peace, again. Brahe's remains were re-buried during a mass celebrated by Prague archbishop Dominik Duka on Friday afternoon. The Tyn Church was packed with official guests, media and the public.
Besides the remains of Brahe and his wife: remains of 8 other people (5 children and 3 adults) were found in the tomb. Their identity is not known. However, it has been assumed that the tomb was already in use for some time when Brahe was buried there in 1601.
Large numbers of test were done during the week, such as PIXE analysis and CT scans. This should help to create 3D models of his bones to recreate model of his entire skeleton. The team of scientist was also satisfied with the number of samples they were able to collect, including a good chunk of Brahe?s mustache, which, as Jens Vellev said: ??. should make it possible for us to see what kind of medicine he took in the last three months of his life while from samples of bones we can go as far back as 15 years before his death.?

Number of test will be conducted on the samples in the Czech Republic, Denmark and Sweden, before final results would be released sometimes during 2011.

Paul Paral

For some time, we have been waiting to get any results from examinations of remains of Tycho Brahe. Originally, the results of this research were supposed to be published in November 2011. Since nothing happened, I made some inquires and now we know the culprit: the lack of funds for Vellev and his team. His funding expired in 2011 and he has to find new funds in order to finish his research. We might expect some more positive news sometimes in 2012, as Vellev said in couple of interviews on the subject.

However, I would be more skeptical, knowing the state of European finances. Although, there might be some fans of history of astronomy in Brussels. After all, our (Czech) previous EU Commissioner proposed Sun radiation regulation and got too damn close (even by very low EU sanity standards) to provide sun lotion to all of those exposed. So, anything is possible in Brussels and I wish Vellev all the luck he can get. Let?s hope that 2012 will be the year, when we would find out the whole story.

Paul Paral

Thanks for the update Paul. We can only hope!

Well, we finally have results of scientific analyses of Tycho Brahe's bones and beard and they disprove the mercury poisoning theory. As it was recently announced by Aahurst University research team (made of Danish and Czech scientists): ?We measured the concentration of mercury using three different quantitative chemical methods in our labs in Odense and ?e?, and all tests revealed the same result: that mercury concentrations were not sufficiently high to have caused his death,? says Dr. Rasmussen from Denmark. And Dr. Kucera from Prague adds: ?Analyses of hairs from the beard were performed using radiochemical neutron activation analysis and proton microprobe scanning in Rez (Bohemia). They reflect the mercury load in the last approximately eight weeks of Tycho Brahe's life, and these analyses show that mercury concentrations fell from the high end of the normal level eight weeks before death to the low end of the normal level in the last two weeks before death,? explains Dr. Kucera.

You can find the whole article here:
http://www.au.dk/en/about/organisation/ ... hes-death/

Traces of gold and silver were also found in Brahe?s remains, which prove the suspicion that he was using various self-made medications. The one with all three mentioned metals had a name of ?Medicamenta Tria? (consisting of mercury, gold and silver). So, it seems that all suspects are of the hook, for now. It is most likely now, that the poor man got sick after a big dinner at Petr Vok from Rozmberk?s castle. Brahe, supposedly, drank a lot of vine that evening and subsequently had a kidney failure. What a mundane end to such a mystery!

There is a documentary made about it: ?Mysteriet om Tycho Brahes d?d? (The Mysterious Death of Tycho Brahe). It will be broadcasted by Denmark Television (DR) on Sunday, November 18 at 7 p.m. The film is a DR production in collaboration with Swedish and Czech Television with support from Nordvision. American and German TV channels have already expressed interest in the documentary, so let?s hope that it will get to a wider distribution.

Paul Paral

Very interesting subject.
I wonder if anyone (more learned/expert than me in the matter of astrology) could analyse Brahe's birth chart in order to see the indications about his death.
http://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Brahe,_Tycho

And finally, there is the whole report from the research team:
World-renowned Renaissance astronomer Tycho Brahe died on 24 October 1601, after 11 days of illness. Several conspiracy theories regarding his death have been aired, the first shortly after his death by William Shakespeare in the play Hamlet, published in 1603. A key factor in the still lively debate is whether he was administered mercury?as medicine by his own hand, or as poison by an unfriendly hand. In 2010, Brahe?s grave was reopened and samples of his bones, hair, teeth and the textiles were procured and analysed. Here, we present evidence that Brahe was not administered lethal doses of mercury:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 0729.x/pdf

Enjoy
Paul Paral

I don't believe the cause of death is the real issue here. The issue is whether Tycho is the father of Christian IV, which is important for the line of descent relevant to the Danish throne - something that a modern DNA test would reveal. And there has been no relevation on this matter, which could indicate that a certain theory could not be disproven.

However, these matters relevant to Tycho should be present in his natal chart and a perfect subject due to the examination of astrology.

I am aquainted with a person that knows the story and details of Brahe's life off the back of her hand. She was not permitted to be present upon the opening of the tomb, but she has a special room to her disposal upon visiting the island of Hven - where Tycho had his observatory.

Mercury and Mars are stationary today. Waning Moon in Pisces.