For this assignment I chose to focus on Tycho Brahe:
Tycho Brahe (14DEC1546-24OCT1601) is arguably most important to astronomy (and physics) because of his observation of a supernova (SN 1572– which he called a “new star”). Before this observation people still clung to the Aristotelian view of the universe (and physics), Aristotle’s influence in other fields such as medicine and politics had already been weakening, but letting go of his physics and astronomy proved difficult (not because people didn’t realize his physics was wrong, they didn’t have anything to replace it with). Aristotle said that the “celestial sphere” was unchanging; however the sudden appearance of a “new star” proved this to be wrong. Tycho of course had other contributions to astronomy-including his many recorded observations, which he was able to use to correct many calculations-including the Copernican tables (a goal of his after seeing a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn and realizing that the existing values were off by days). Tycho also had his missteps; he proposed a model for the solar system (The Tychonic System)that tried to conserve geocentrism by having the other planets orbit the sun which would in turn orbit the earth.
To put Brahe in context, here are two major historical events that occurred during Tycho’s lifetime:
- 1553: Mary Tudor (“Bloody Mary”- daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon) after being disinherited by her half-brother due to fears that her accession to the throne would bring about the reinstatement of Catholicism, she deposed of Lady Jane Grey (named successor by her brother), had her beheaded and became the first queen regnant of England.
- 1580: Formation of the Iberian Union as a result of the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 in which King Sebastian I died in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir and left no immediate heirs. Although technically third in line for the throne, Phillip II of Spain was able to convince the Portuguese nobility to support him as a union with Habsburg Spain (then owner of many new world territories that had many natural resources) would be economically beneficial to them.
For further context, here is one other famous historical figure who lived at the same time as Tycho:
René Descartes (31MAR1596-11FEB1650), best known for his quote: “I think, therefore I am,” has been dubbed the father of modern western philosophy, but he was also a mathematician (father of analytical geometry and namesake of the Cartesian coordinate system).
I love this assignment! I often find that when I learn about history or even other countries in modern times, I have a tendency to compartmentalize them into these separate spaces that are completely independent of each other. This has been a great opportunity to try to put the pieces together and to realize that even though big events seem to occur in isolation they are all interconnected and concurrent. Hopefully this post has helped you as much as it has helped me!
