Tychonis Brake Opera Omnia Tomi Quarti, Fasciculus Prior

Abstract

AS some documents intended to appear in vol. iv. of the collected works of Tycho Brahe are inaccessible owing, to the war, the volume has been divided into two portions, of which the first has just been published. It contains the treatise “De Mundi Atherei Recentioribus Phænomenis,” which was printed at Uraniborg in 1588; this deals mainly with the comet of 1577, which was the brightest of the seven comets that appeared during Tycho's career as an observer; his observations of it sufficed definitely to dispel the Aristotelian doctrine, which Tycho had himself held up to that time. Thus in writing of the nova of 1572, and comparing it with Hipparchus's nova, Tycho said: “It would be absurd to fancy that a great astronomer like Hipparchus should not have known the difference between a star of the ethereal region and a fiery meteor of the air, which is called a comet.” However, his principles were to take nothing on trust from ancient authorities, but to submit theory to the test of careful observation, excepting the case of the solar parallax, for which he used the received value of 3′, though his instruments were capable of showing that the true value was much smaller.

Tychonis Brake Opera Omnia. Tomi Quarti, Fasciculus Prior.

Pp. 376. (København: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1918.)