Brahe
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Brahe. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
TYCHO (brä'e), a Swedish astronomer, born in Knudstrup, near Lund, Dec. 14, 1546. He was descended from a noble family, and was sent, at the age of 13, to the University of An eclipse of the sun Copenhagen. turned his attention to astronomy. His uncle destined him for the law, but Brahé, while his tutor slept, busied himself nightly with the stars. He succeeded, as early as 1563, in detecting grave errors in the Alphonsine tabl the so-called Prutenic (i. e., Prussian) tables, and set about their correction. At Wittenberg, where he resided for a short time, he lost part of his nose in a duel with a Danish gentleman; but contrived of gold, one silver and wax. After two years spent in Augsburg, he returned home, where, in 1572, he discovered a new and brilliant star in the constellation Cassiopeia. In 1573 he married a peasant . After some time spent in travel, Brahe received from his sovereign, II., the offer of the island of II Hven of Hoëne, in the Sound, as the for an observatory, the King also offering to defray the cost of erection, of the necessary astronomical instruments, as well as to provide him a suitable salary. Brahe accepted The last the generous proposal, and, in 1576, the foundation stone of the castle of Uranienburg ( " fortress of the heavens") was laid. Here, for a period of 20 years, Brahe prosecuted his observations. Frederic II. died and under Christian IV. Brahe had his emoluments cut off and left the country. After residing a short time at Rostock Wandsbeck, near Hamburg, he Hamb accepted an invitation of the Emperor Rudolf II.-who conferred on him a pension-to Benatek, a few miles from Prague, where a new Uranienburg was to have been erected for him; but he died at Prague on Oct. 24, 1601.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
bra, Tycho (1546-1601), a celebrated Danish astronomer; a student at Copenhagen, Leipsic, and Augsburg. King Frederick II granted Tycho an island on which he built the finest observatory in Europe. He rejected the Copernican system . He held to the idea of the earth as the center about which the sun and stars revolve, but he did have the other planets revolve about the sun. Tycho was industrious. He catalogued 777 stars and recorded the movements of Mars for years. After the king's death Tycho was neglected, and then so persecuted that he went to Germany and entered upon a professorship at Prague where he was joined by his successor Kepler. He was a wonderfully inventive man. An extinct crater on the moon has been named Tycho Brahe in honor of this astronomer. See Copernicus ; Astronomy
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The biography stands, though Collier's calls him "a Swedish astronomer" in 1921: Brahe was Danish, born at Knutstorp in Scania and on the island of Hven (Ven), both of which were Danish territory in 1546 and passed to Sweden only in 1658. Two things the accounts state as fact have since been tested on his bones. His grave in Prague was opened in 1901 and again in 1996 and 2010, and chemical analysis undercut a popular twentieth-century theory that he was poisoned with mercury, pointing back to a bladder complaint; work on the green-stained bone of his nose published in 2012 suggested the famous prosthesis was brass rather than the "gold, one silver and wax" of Collier's telling. Aiton's "extinct crater on the moon" named for him is now understood as an impact crater, and his 1572 new star is classed as a Type Ia supernova with an identified remnant.
Written for this edition, 2026.