Bearing the Heavens
Tycho Brahe and the Astronomical Community of the Late Sixteenth Century

A study of the astronomical culture of sixteenth-century Europe, focusing on the astronomer Tycho Brahe.

Adam Mosley (Author)

9780521838665, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 March 2007

370 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.72 kg

"...rich in scholarly details..." -William R. Shea, American Historical Review

This book is a study of the astronomical culture of sixteenth-century Europe. It examines, in particular, the ways in which members of the nascent international astronomical community shared information, attracted patronage and respect for their work, and conducted their disputes. Particular attention is paid to the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), known for his observatory Uraniborg on the island of Hven, his operation of a printing press, and his development of a third world-system to rival those of Ptolemy and Copernicus. Adam Mosley examines the ways in which Tycho interacted with a Europe-wide network of scholars, looking not only at how he constructed his reputation through print, but also at his use of correspondence and the role that instruments played as vehicles for data and theories. The book will be of interest to historians of science, historians of the book, and historians of early modern culture in general.

1. Bearing the heavens
2. Tycho Brahe's astronomical letters
3. Books and the heavens
4. Instruments
5. Concluding remarks
Appendix
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], European history [HBJD]