September 7, 2024 • 25 mins
This 2010 episode from prior hosts Sarah and Deblina examines how Tycho Brahe lost his nose, built the world's first observatory, and met with an untimely demise. It also has some info in the intro that wasn't known in 2010.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Happy Saturday. Tico Brahe, whose name is pronounced in an
assortment of ways by speakers of different languages, got a
very brief name drop in our episode on Johannes and
ELIZABETHA Javelius. Previous hosts of the show, Sarah and Deblina,
did an episode on him back on December sixth, twenty ten,
so this episode was originally recorded not long after Tikobrahe's
(00:25):
remains had been exhumed to try to determine whether he
died of poisoning. Those tests were still in progress at
the time, but in November of twenty twelve, researchers announced
the concentration of mercury in his system was not enough
to have caused his death. Another paper published in twenty
twelve concluded that his nose prosthesis had been made of brass,
(00:49):
which is another question that had come up in this episode.
That was not the end, though. Research published in twenty
sixteen examined the presence of several medals in brajes hair
and bone samples, including iron, arsenic, silver, and gold. While
he did have higher amounts of all of these metals
than was typical for people at the time, those levels
(01:11):
dropped off about two months before his death, with one exception,
and that was gold. That level stayed the same, and
it's possible his gold exposure was ongoing through something like
cutlery or wine with gold leaf in it. And yet
another paper, this one published in twenty eighteen, concluded that
Brahe had diffuse idiopathics skeletal hyperstosis or DISH, which is
(01:35):
a type of arthritis involving the connective tissues around the spine.
This paper's authors said they could not establish a definite
or specific diagnosis for him, but noted that comorbidities associated
with DISH and metabolic syndrome could have been possible causes
of death. In particular, this paper mentioned things like an
(01:58):
increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and benign
prostate swelling, which could have been what caused him to
be unable to urinate. Brahy was also known to drink
a lot of alcohol, so the effects of excessive alcohol
consumption were noted as possible contributing factors in this paper
as well. There is also a brief mention of November
(02:20):
in this episode, which, just to be clear, is not
just about celebrating mustaches but also about raising money and
awareness for men's health. So enjoy Welcome to Stuff you
missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm Deblina Chocolboardy. And the central
figure of today's episode is one that's been requested quite frequently.
It's Tico Brahe, the famous Danish astronomer of the sixteenth
century who is remarkable because he made a lot of
his observations with the naked eye. Essentially this was pre
the invention of the telescope.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, impressive stuff. And I think people keep on requesting
him because he's been in the news a lot recently
because of a certain dig that's.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Going on an exhimation and.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Simation, which most of you know that's like the theme
of the podcast. So I was really pleased when you
pick this one. To Lena, I was like, you're you're
learning fast.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Well, you know, I want to blend, so this is
my chance. But the news that Sarah's referred to is
Tikobraha's remains were brought up for the second time. He
was exhumed in November. For about a week. His remains
were taken from the tomb that they rest in Prague,
and scientists they did this because they want to get
(03:51):
a better idea, some more insight into the unusual circumstances
that surrounded his death.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, because I mean, for a long time, people have
thought that he died of a bladder infection.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I know, it's kind of unfortunate, it's an unfortunate reputation
to have, but people thought that he died because while
he was at a banquet at the Emperor's court in Prague,
he refused to excuse himself to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So he's like a good example for teaching your kids,
don't hold it too long, don't go ahead it say
you need to go. He claimed he had a good excuse.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
He thought it would be rude, basically a breach of
court etiquette to do that in the middle of this dinner.
But suffice to say, what happened is he returned home
and he was unable to urinate after that experience. That
was the case for actually eleven days can you imagine,
sounds agonizing until he finally died on October twenty fourth,
(04:44):
sixteen oh one. So this is kind of the backstory
to it. There have been varying reports. People said that
his bladder burst, it had become twisted somehow torn. It
was kind of unclear. Kidney disease was also proposed as
a possible suspect in the situation. Even at that time, though,
there were some rumors going around, some murmurings that maybe
(05:06):
murder had been involved because Tiko was basically a healthy guy.
He was about fifty four to fifty five years old,
didn't have any illness, so it was a little suspect,
and he had enemies, and he had enemies definitely.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
We'll find out later.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Sure. So fast forward to the nineteen nineties, the prop
National Museum happens to be in possession of Tiko's mustache.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
As I thought, this was really like timely news because
it's November, you know, the whole mustache month.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I did not know this.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
You're supposed to grow mustache if you are so able
to do so, in November to celebrate mustaches. So I mean,
I feel like maybe they dug him off to coincide
with this.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Probably not, but cheers well, they actually that was his
first exhumation in nineteen oh one where they got the mustache,
So maybe they celebrated November at that time as well.
Maybe basically they got the mustache, and then in nineteen
ninety one they brought it back out the Prog Museum.
They sent a few hairs over to some researchers in
(06:11):
Denmark and they discovered something at that time. They discovered
some really high mercury levels in Tico's system. It was
about one hundred times above normal.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, And so in nineteen ninety six Danish and Swedish
scientists decided to do a few more tests on those hairs,
and this time they used a proton microbe, which was
more sophisticated technology, and they found out that all that
mercury hadn't accumulated over years and years, It had all
come in one single dose, which was only about thirteen
(06:42):
hours before he died. So suddenly this seemed very suspicious,
very likely the cause of death, not this burst bladder
or kidney disease or something.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Right, So that's basically what they're trying to get more
information on with this current exhumation. The question still lingers
even if they find out if it's murder, who would
want to murder Tico? And why?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, what did he do? That's so wrong.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So that's a little bit of what we're going to
look into in this episode. But first we're going to
take you back to the beginning, so we always do
as we do. He was born Tiga Brahe actually with
a different, slightly different first name, on December fourteenth, fifteen
forty six, in an area that would now be considered
South Sweden, but it was then part of Denmark.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, and his parents were nobles, but they didn't have
that big of an influence on his life because of
something that happens at age two. Yes, he was kidnapped,
and he's kidnapped by his uncle, Jorgen Brahe. Yeah, that's
kind of the strange part. His dad apparently.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Made a deal with Jorgen before Tico was even born,
and the deal was that if the child was a boy,
Jorgan could adopt him. You see, Jorgan he didn't have
a son, so therefore he didn't have an heir, so
he really wanted this to occur. But after Tiko actually
showed up, Auto kind of changed his mind.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
He changed the deal, or maybe his wife mentioned something
like no, I'd really rather not give away my first born.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
That could also be an aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
But fortunately Otto and his wife have a second son
named Steen, and at this point Jorgan is like, well,
Tico is mine. I mean, if you have two sons,
I'm at least taking one of them. And Tico's father
was pretty upset about this at first, that his son
got swiped by his brother. Yeah, he was.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
He threatened to murder his brother Jorgan at first, but
then he eventually relaxed about it a little bit and
he saw the benefits that this situation could potentially present.
He saw that, Okay, my brother Jorgan, he is lord
of Trannicker Castle. He's very wealthy, he's very well educated.
So he saw after a while that Tico could be
(09:05):
on the track to a pretty sweet inheritance if he
stayed with his uncle.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, that both of his sons might end up with
a better future.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Right, And so Jorgen being well educated and his wife
inga they sent Tico on the track to getting a
good education too. By all accounts, they were very loving
parents and he had like really good childhood. So in
about fifteen fifty nine, when he was about twelve or
thirteen years old, Tiko went to the University of Copenhagen
and was there until about fifteen sixty two. His main
(09:35):
area of study there was law, which is what his
uncle wanted him to do, but it was.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Kind of the expected job for a.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Man of his class exactly. But it didn't take a
little It didn't take very long for a couple things
to happen while he was there. First off, he started
writing his name as Tico instead of Tiga, which was
the more modern style. And then most significant, he witnessed
a total eclipse of the sun on August twenty first,
(10:03):
fifteen sixty And this was just an amazing phenomenon to
him because it was something that had been predicted and
that it actually came to be, and he was just
sort of fascinated by the fact that this was possible.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, he knew there must be something behind astronomy, and
so he started to study it more. He started to
go out and study the stars at night, even though
his family was trying to get him to focus on
law and not be out stargazing. But after leaving school,
he toured Europe and went all over Wittenberg, Rostock, Basil, Augsburg.
(10:41):
But instead of visiting all the courts and doing the
things he should have done as this young nobleman, he
spent time studying at a few universities exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
He was at the University of Leipzig from about fifteen
sixty two to fifteen sixty five. His uncle actually sent
him there again to study law, but of course he
kept gazing at the stars. In fifteen sixty three, he
had what was his second significant astronomical experience, so to speak,
which was the first recorded observation of the overlapping of
(11:15):
Jupiter and Saturn. And this was significant because it was
something that was sort of off from what other scientists
had predicted. So he had studied the works of Ptolemy
and Copernicus. But what this showed him was that a
lot of what was known at the time about the
positions of the planets and the stars wasn't exactly accurate.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, So he knew there was room for him and
room to improve on what was already known.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah. So he dedicated his life at this point to
studying astronomy in stars.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, And he kept on traveling, kept on studying astronomy
and at rostock. He actually got into an argument with
another student over a mathematical point, which seems like as
good a thing as any to get into that argument over.
They take it pretty far. They fight a duel, and
some people say it was a drunken duel. That doesn't
(12:06):
sound too surprising, but it ends with the other student
slicing off part of Tica's nose and a big part,
a big part of it. And to deal with that,
he had an artificial nose created, which was supposedly made
of either silver or gold. And that was I mean,
that's probably what he's best known for it.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
That's the fake nosake. Yeah, and we'll talk a little
more about that later. But during this period he did
something else that was a little scandalous. He'd already angered
his family by studying astronomy, which wasn't as respected as
the law, and then he went off and married a
woman who was basically considered a peasant. Her name was
Kirsten Jorgen's daughter. She was the daughter of a parson,
(12:49):
and family and friends never really accepted her. I mean
for a long time. They had eight kids, I think,
and they were considered illegitimate because.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
The marriage was so beneath him, right.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Never really recognized it.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
But I mean, he's doing all right financially at least,
even if they're not recognizing his family he's still this
wealthy nobleman. And when his father and uncle both die
in fifteen seventy one, he inherits his uncle's estate and
at least part of his father's estate. So he's he's
got all the resources he needs to continue his studies
and really launch himself fully into astronomy.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yes, so then he sets up his own sort of
small observatory and lab on another relative's property, just to
totally devote herselves. Right and there, on November eleventh, fifteen
seventy two, he made what is perhaps considered his most
significant discovery. He noticed what he called a new star
(13:46):
and it was brighter than Venus and located where no
star was supposed to be in the Cassiopeia constellation, and
he published a work about it called De Nova Stella,
which is the New Star translated.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
This was really big news for the intellectual community at
the time.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, it shook them up.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, because they figured that we know everything we could
never know about where the stars are. The stars do
not move, you don't get a new one, and so
this was major news for them. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
It almost was controversial. It rubbed some people the wrong way.
They didn't want to believe it. But now we know
what he observed was a supernova or the explosion of
a dying star. But you know, at the time, just
the fact that he'd seen something there that was different
was a big deal. So after this, Tico becomes pretty
famous throughout Europe. He's a well known and well respected astronomer,
(14:41):
and he has a dream of establishing even larger, a
very large observatory, and he plans to do so in
Germany until King Frederick the Second of Denmark convinces him
to stay. Basically makes them an offer he can't refuse.
It makes them a pretty sweet offer. Frederick is basically
(15:01):
Frederick the second becomes a patron of sorts for Tiko,
possibly because his life had been saved by Tico's uncle,
so reason that could factor into it. But I think
part of it was also that here's this fabulous, famous astronomer,
and I don't want to lose him. I want him
to stay in my country. So all these things combined
maybe convince him to offer Tico the entire island of
(15:24):
then and fit the bill for the construction of a
large observatory in house and essentially makes the villagers Tico's tenants.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
So basically he can get rent from there.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
He can get rent from them duties. It's an awesome
deal from Tico's point of view. So he gets to
build his observatory, picks his own architect, and he calls
it Uranaborg, which translates to Castle of the Heavens, and
it's complete with It's a pretty swanky place, even complete
with indoor plumbing, which is zoronic too, I think, considering
(15:58):
his unusual death. Yeah, it is a little ironic. But
he designs his plumbing himself, and it was very uncommon
at the time, so it's always something that you'll see
mentioned about Urannaborg, even though it's kind of a funny
thing to mention, I guess. And this was considered the
world's first large research institute. So he has all these
assistants that help him and he is just observing away
(16:21):
and they.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Do a lot of work there. All of Tico and
all of his assistants catalog the positions of at least
seven hundred and seventy seven stars, some people say it's
more like one thousand stars. And the work replaces Ptolemy's.
It becomes the standard astronomical text, I guess, or data set.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Yeah, it was a pretty big deal. And then in
the fifteen eighties he came up with what he thought
to be his biggest achievement ever, and that was a
theory about the Solar system that contradicted Copernicus. Basically, he
hoped with this, he hoped to eventually confirm this with
his data.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, and just to give you a rundown of how
these theories differed, Copernicus thought that the Sun was the
center of the universe and all the planets revolved around
the Sun. But Tico thought that the Earth stayed put,
it remained in this stationary position, and the Sun and
the Moon revolved around the Earth, orbiting the Earth, and
(17:18):
the other planets orbited the Sun. So it was kind
of a mish mash, I guess.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, it was a little topsy jervey compared to Copernicus's theory.
And of course now we know that Copernicus was actually correct,
but that came later on. So all of his data
collecting and all of his observations later in life were
to help confirm this theory. Up until this point, he
appears to have led a charmed life, as has got
(17:42):
An Island as his observatory to two estates from his family.
I mean, he's well known, he's well respected. But then
in fifteen ninety six things start to go south a
little bit. Frederic the Second has died and his son,
Frederic's son, that is, Christian the assumed the throne of
Denmark and Norway, and he's not a spond of Tico.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Yeah, and you mentioned earlier that you saw different accounts
of that. Maybe Christian just doesn't like Tico and wants
to completely shut down his operation. Maybe it was more
of a budgetary issue, you know, he just didn't have
room to fund this astronomer as much as his father had.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, and I mean Tico was not cheap. He was
living large out on the island of Then, throwing parties, drinking,
eating lots, and really not treating his tenants very well
at all. So because of this clash with Christian the Fourth,
he ends up moving to Prague with his wife, where
Emperor Rudolph the Second gave him refuge and he continues
(18:44):
his work there. But really at that point he had
collected the majority of the data that he was going
to collect over the course of his lifetime, so he
has all of that. He's still working with it. He's
still observing things, but at this point most of his
life's work is complete.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Time to analyze everything he's gone.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
And what happened to the island and his large observatory. Well,
Christian the fourth reportedly had it torn down, so unfortunately
it doesn't exist today. We can't even visit this place.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You're anibor indoor plumbing and everything, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
So while he's in Prague, another significant thing happens. Tico
takes on an assistant named Johannes Kepler in sixteen hundred.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, and Kepler is a very different guy, and away
from Tico, he comes from a different background. He's not
a nobleman, but by the time they meet, he's got
a good reputation. He's a respected scientist, and he's also
a Copernican, so opposite opposite theories. They don't believe the
(19:56):
universe works the same way, so he thinks that the
planet's orbit. Then it seems like it would be really
hard to have a productive partnership with another astronomer if
you had such a fundamental difference. But it seems like
they could have worked well together.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
They could have.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Worked well together. Kepler was a theory guy and Tiko
was the data guy, so if they had put their
heads together, who knows what could have happened. But it
turns out that they had kind of a tough working relationship.
But Keupler really wanted to work with Tico because he
had come up with sort of his own theory about
(20:32):
the orbits of the planets. He thought that they were spheres,
one inside of the other, and so he really wanted
to work with Tiko so that he could use his data.
But then, of course he comes to Tico, and Tiko's
totally stingy with all his observations in his data.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
And completely at odds with his own beliefs. You don't
want your data to prove something that disproves what you've
been working on.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Sure, so, as we mentioned that the two butted heads,
they argued. Kepler even walked out and left at one point,
and then Ticokin of came back and relented and they
came back together. But then, of course Tico dies suddenly
in sixteen oh one, and Kepler after that point becomes
the Imperial Mathematician in Prague, which gives him access to
(21:13):
all of Tico's data. So what he wanted, I got it.
He's finally got what he needs.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Unfortunately, though, once he has all this data he's been
waiting for for so long, it doesn't confirm his theory
about the spherical orbit.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
That's true. At least he knows this, and he did
confirm Copernicus's view of the Solar system and come up
with the important laws of planetary motion that he's still
known for today.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, so Kepler's work definitely benefits from having this data,
which of course comes from Tika's death.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
So suspicious.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, and these findings about the mercury poisoning came out,
a lot of people started thinking, well, what did this
guy have to gain from it? And it makes him
a pretty likely suspect, but there's no proof.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
There's no proof. A lot of people suggest that he
might be a suspect, but there's no real hard proof.
I don't think to support that.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Fortunately, we have some other suspect.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
There are some other suspects lined up here. One suspect
is the Jesuit Order. They could have been to blame
because they didn't really like the influence that Tico had
as a Protestant over Prague's Emperor Rudolph the Second, So
that was what would have made them a suspect. Their
motive in it, I guess, And there are others that
(22:31):
think that Christian the fourth may have had something to
do with it, since he's not a fan, no, not
a big fan of Tiko at all, so he might
have had a score to settle there.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
And there's been some sort of recent theorizing about that front,
at least, hasn't there.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yes, there has a guy named Peter Anderson who is
a Strasburg German studies expert. He a couple of years
ago came up with a scenario that has Christian the
Fourth as a mastermind and a plot that also involves
Tiko's distance cousin, Eric Brahe, And it's assumed in this
scenario that Eric Brahe is the killer. And the reason
(23:09):
Anderson came up with this theory is that he found
he discovered Eric Brahe's six hundred page diary in the
Royal Library of Stockholm, and he says it contained some
pretty definitive evidences. It shows Eric Brahe going away on
this huge mission. Around this time, he's wrangling an invitation
(23:29):
to the banquet that Tico attended, the one where he
didn't use the bathroom. The entire time. And it also
shows that Eric visited Tico at his home after the
banquet and the day's following yep. And he also expresses
some remorse in his diary in his writings.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
So there's one theory for you. But other people think,
and this is not maybe not quite as exciting and scandalous,
but some people think that Tico's death was accidental mercury poisoning.
That because he was also a bit of an alchemist,
he might have tried to cure himself by dosing himself
(24:07):
with too much mercury and accidentally dying from it.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
That's another possibility. And unfortunately, scientists say that we'll never
know the truth because even though they can find out,
they might find out if it's murder or if it
was accidental poisoning, but after four undred plus years, it's
unlikely that they'd be able to identify a specific killer.
So this may have to remain a mystery.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
We do have one thing we can look forward to though.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yes, they may solve the mystery of the fake nose,
and that came about the first time they exhumed Tico
Brahe in nineteen oh one. They discovered that the metal
plate that was his nose prosthesis. Yes, it was missing.
It was not in his tomb, and when they sort
(24:55):
of tested the area, they found copper there rather than
silver and gold, which everyone thought was So they're hoping
to test now and see if they can figure out
what the nose was actually made of. Was it silver
and gold? Was it a silver and copper alloy.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Maybe he had multiple news Maybe.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
He had multiple ones. That's also a theory. Maybe he
had one for special occasions and one for just everyday use.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If
you'd like to send us a note, our email addresses
History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe
to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shoes
Happy Saturday. Tico Brahe, whose name is pronounced in an
assortment of ways by speakers of different languages, got a
very brief name drop in our episode on Johannes and
ELIZABETHA Javelius. Previous hosts of the show, Sarah and Deblina,
did an episode on him back on December sixth, twenty ten,
so this episode was originally recorded not long after Tikobrahe's
(00:25):
remains had been exhumed to try to determine whether he
died of poisoning. Those tests were still in progress at
the time, but in November of twenty twelve, researchers announced
the concentration of mercury in his system was not enough
to have caused his death. Another paper published in twenty
twelve concluded that his nose prosthesis had been made of brass,
(00:49):
which is another question that had come up in this episode.
That was not the end, though. Research published in twenty
sixteen examined the presence of several medals in brajes hair
and bone samples, including iron, arsenic, silver, and gold. While
he did have higher amounts of all of these metals
than was typical for people at the time, those levels
(01:11):
dropped off about two months before his death, with one exception,
and that was gold. That level stayed the same, and
it's possible his gold exposure was ongoing through something like
cutlery or wine with gold leaf in it. And yet
another paper, this one published in twenty eighteen, concluded that
Brahe had diffuse idiopathics skeletal hyperstosis or DISH, which is
(01:35):
a type of arthritis involving the connective tissues around the spine.
This paper's authors said they could not establish a definite
or specific diagnosis for him, but noted that comorbidities associated
with DISH and metabolic syndrome could have been possible causes
of death. In particular, this paper mentioned things like an
(01:58):
increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and benign
prostate swelling, which could have been what caused him to
be unable to urinate. Brahy was also known to drink
a lot of alcohol, so the effects of excessive alcohol
consumption were noted as possible contributing factors in this paper
as well. There is also a brief mention of November
(02:20):
in this episode, which, just to be clear, is not
just about celebrating mustaches but also about raising money and
awareness for men's health. So enjoy Welcome to Stuff you
missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm Deblina Chocolboardy. And the central
figure of today's episode is one that's been requested quite frequently.
It's Tico Brahe, the famous Danish astronomer of the sixteenth
century who is remarkable because he made a lot of
his observations with the naked eye. Essentially this was pre
the invention of the telescope.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, impressive stuff. And I think people keep on requesting
him because he's been in the news a lot recently
because of a certain dig that's.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Going on an exhimation and.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Simation, which most of you know that's like the theme
of the podcast. So I was really pleased when you
pick this one. To Lena, I was like, you're you're
learning fast.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Well, you know, I want to blend, so this is
my chance. But the news that Sarah's referred to is
Tikobraha's remains were brought up for the second time. He
was exhumed in November. For about a week. His remains
were taken from the tomb that they rest in Prague,
and scientists they did this because they want to get
(03:51):
a better idea, some more insight into the unusual circumstances
that surrounded his death.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, because I mean, for a long time, people have
thought that he died of a bladder infection.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I know, it's kind of unfortunate, it's an unfortunate reputation
to have, but people thought that he died because while
he was at a banquet at the Emperor's court in Prague,
he refused to excuse himself to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So he's like a good example for teaching your kids,
don't hold it too long, don't go ahead it say
you need to go. He claimed he had a good excuse.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
He thought it would be rude, basically a breach of
court etiquette to do that in the middle of this dinner.
But suffice to say, what happened is he returned home
and he was unable to urinate after that experience. That
was the case for actually eleven days can you imagine,
sounds agonizing until he finally died on October twenty fourth,
(04:44):
sixteen oh one. So this is kind of the backstory
to it. There have been varying reports. People said that
his bladder burst, it had become twisted somehow torn. It
was kind of unclear. Kidney disease was also proposed as
a possible suspect in the situation. Even at that time, though,
there were some rumors going around, some murmurings that maybe
(05:06):
murder had been involved because Tiko was basically a healthy guy.
He was about fifty four to fifty five years old,
didn't have any illness, so it was a little suspect,
and he had enemies, and he had enemies definitely.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
We'll find out later.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Sure. So fast forward to the nineteen nineties, the prop
National Museum happens to be in possession of Tiko's mustache.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
As I thought, this was really like timely news because
it's November, you know, the whole mustache month.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I did not know this.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
You're supposed to grow mustache if you are so able
to do so, in November to celebrate mustaches. So I mean,
I feel like maybe they dug him off to coincide
with this.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Probably not, but cheers well, they actually that was his
first exhumation in nineteen oh one where they got the mustache,
So maybe they celebrated November at that time as well.
Maybe basically they got the mustache, and then in nineteen
ninety one they brought it back out the Prog Museum.
They sent a few hairs over to some researchers in
(06:11):
Denmark and they discovered something at that time. They discovered
some really high mercury levels in Tico's system. It was
about one hundred times above normal.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, And so in nineteen ninety six Danish and Swedish
scientists decided to do a few more tests on those hairs,
and this time they used a proton microbe, which was
more sophisticated technology, and they found out that all that
mercury hadn't accumulated over years and years, It had all
come in one single dose, which was only about thirteen
(06:42):
hours before he died. So suddenly this seemed very suspicious,
very likely the cause of death, not this burst bladder
or kidney disease or something.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Right, So that's basically what they're trying to get more
information on with this current exhumation. The question still lingers
even if they find out if it's murder, who would
want to murder Tico? And why?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, what did he do? That's so wrong.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So that's a little bit of what we're going to
look into in this episode. But first we're going to
take you back to the beginning, so we always do
as we do. He was born Tiga Brahe actually with
a different, slightly different first name, on December fourteenth, fifteen
forty six, in an area that would now be considered
South Sweden, but it was then part of Denmark.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, and his parents were nobles, but they didn't have
that big of an influence on his life because of
something that happens at age two. Yes, he was kidnapped,
and he's kidnapped by his uncle, Jorgen Brahe. Yeah, that's
kind of the strange part. His dad apparently.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Made a deal with Jorgen before Tico was even born,
and the deal was that if the child was a boy,
Jorgan could adopt him. You see, Jorgan he didn't have
a son, so therefore he didn't have an heir, so
he really wanted this to occur. But after Tiko actually
showed up, Auto kind of changed his mind.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
He changed the deal, or maybe his wife mentioned something
like no, I'd really rather not give away my first born.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
That could also be an aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
But fortunately Otto and his wife have a second son
named Steen, and at this point Jorgan is like, well,
Tico is mine. I mean, if you have two sons,
I'm at least taking one of them. And Tico's father
was pretty upset about this at first, that his son
got swiped by his brother. Yeah, he was.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
He threatened to murder his brother Jorgan at first, but
then he eventually relaxed about it a little bit and
he saw the benefits that this situation could potentially present.
He saw that, Okay, my brother Jorgan, he is lord
of Trannicker Castle. He's very wealthy, he's very well educated.
So he saw after a while that Tico could be
(09:05):
on the track to a pretty sweet inheritance if he
stayed with his uncle.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, that both of his sons might end up with
a better future.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Right, And so Jorgen being well educated and his wife
inga they sent Tico on the track to getting a
good education too. By all accounts, they were very loving
parents and he had like really good childhood. So in
about fifteen fifty nine, when he was about twelve or
thirteen years old, Tiko went to the University of Copenhagen
and was there until about fifteen sixty two. His main
(09:35):
area of study there was law, which is what his
uncle wanted him to do, but it was.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Kind of the expected job for a.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Man of his class exactly. But it didn't take a
little It didn't take very long for a couple things
to happen while he was there. First off, he started
writing his name as Tico instead of Tiga, which was
the more modern style. And then most significant, he witnessed
a total eclipse of the sun on August twenty first,
(10:03):
fifteen sixty And this was just an amazing phenomenon to
him because it was something that had been predicted and
that it actually came to be, and he was just
sort of fascinated by the fact that this was possible.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, he knew there must be something behind astronomy, and
so he started to study it more. He started to
go out and study the stars at night, even though
his family was trying to get him to focus on
law and not be out stargazing. But after leaving school,
he toured Europe and went all over Wittenberg, Rostock, Basil, Augsburg.
(10:41):
But instead of visiting all the courts and doing the
things he should have done as this young nobleman, he
spent time studying at a few universities exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
He was at the University of Leipzig from about fifteen
sixty two to fifteen sixty five. His uncle actually sent
him there again to study law, but of course he
kept gazing at the stars. In fifteen sixty three, he
had what was his second significant astronomical experience, so to speak,
which was the first recorded observation of the overlapping of
(11:15):
Jupiter and Saturn. And this was significant because it was
something that was sort of off from what other scientists
had predicted. So he had studied the works of Ptolemy
and Copernicus. But what this showed him was that a
lot of what was known at the time about the
positions of the planets and the stars wasn't exactly accurate.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, So he knew there was room for him and
room to improve on what was already known.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah. So he dedicated his life at this point to
studying astronomy in stars.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, And he kept on traveling, kept on studying astronomy
and at rostock. He actually got into an argument with
another student over a mathematical point, which seems like as
good a thing as any to get into that argument over.
They take it pretty far. They fight a duel, and
some people say it was a drunken duel. That doesn't
(12:06):
sound too surprising, but it ends with the other student
slicing off part of Tica's nose and a big part,
a big part of it. And to deal with that,
he had an artificial nose created, which was supposedly made
of either silver or gold. And that was I mean,
that's probably what he's best known for it.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
That's the fake nosake. Yeah, and we'll talk a little
more about that later. But during this period he did
something else that was a little scandalous. He'd already angered
his family by studying astronomy, which wasn't as respected as
the law, and then he went off and married a
woman who was basically considered a peasant. Her name was
Kirsten Jorgen's daughter. She was the daughter of a parson,
(12:49):
and family and friends never really accepted her. I mean
for a long time. They had eight kids, I think,
and they were considered illegitimate because.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
The marriage was so beneath him, right.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Never really recognized it.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
But I mean, he's doing all right financially at least,
even if they're not recognizing his family he's still this
wealthy nobleman. And when his father and uncle both die
in fifteen seventy one, he inherits his uncle's estate and
at least part of his father's estate. So he's he's
got all the resources he needs to continue his studies
and really launch himself fully into astronomy.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yes, so then he sets up his own sort of
small observatory and lab on another relative's property, just to
totally devote herselves. Right and there, on November eleventh, fifteen
seventy two, he made what is perhaps considered his most
significant discovery. He noticed what he called a new star
(13:46):
and it was brighter than Venus and located where no
star was supposed to be in the Cassiopeia constellation, and
he published a work about it called De Nova Stella,
which is the New Star translated.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
This was really big news for the intellectual community at
the time.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, it shook them up.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, because they figured that we know everything we could
never know about where the stars are. The stars do
not move, you don't get a new one, and so
this was major news for them. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
It almost was controversial. It rubbed some people the wrong way.
They didn't want to believe it. But now we know
what he observed was a supernova or the explosion of
a dying star. But you know, at the time, just
the fact that he'd seen something there that was different
was a big deal. So after this, Tico becomes pretty
famous throughout Europe. He's a well known and well respected astronomer,
(14:41):
and he has a dream of establishing even larger, a
very large observatory, and he plans to do so in
Germany until King Frederick the Second of Denmark convinces him
to stay. Basically makes them an offer he can't refuse.
It makes them a pretty sweet offer. Frederick is basically
(15:01):
Frederick the second becomes a patron of sorts for Tiko,
possibly because his life had been saved by Tico's uncle,
so reason that could factor into it. But I think
part of it was also that here's this fabulous, famous astronomer,
and I don't want to lose him. I want him
to stay in my country. So all these things combined
maybe convince him to offer Tico the entire island of
(15:24):
then and fit the bill for the construction of a
large observatory in house and essentially makes the villagers Tico's tenants.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
So basically he can get rent from there.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
He can get rent from them duties. It's an awesome
deal from Tico's point of view. So he gets to
build his observatory, picks his own architect, and he calls
it Uranaborg, which translates to Castle of the Heavens, and
it's complete with It's a pretty swanky place, even complete
with indoor plumbing, which is zoronic too, I think, considering
(15:58):
his unusual death. Yeah, it is a little ironic. But
he designs his plumbing himself, and it was very uncommon
at the time, so it's always something that you'll see
mentioned about Urannaborg, even though it's kind of a funny
thing to mention, I guess. And this was considered the
world's first large research institute. So he has all these
assistants that help him and he is just observing away
(16:21):
and they.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Do a lot of work there. All of Tico and
all of his assistants catalog the positions of at least
seven hundred and seventy seven stars, some people say it's
more like one thousand stars. And the work replaces Ptolemy's.
It becomes the standard astronomical text, I guess, or data set.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Yeah, it was a pretty big deal. And then in
the fifteen eighties he came up with what he thought
to be his biggest achievement ever, and that was a
theory about the Solar system that contradicted Copernicus. Basically, he
hoped with this, he hoped to eventually confirm this with
his data.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, and just to give you a rundown of how
these theories differed, Copernicus thought that the Sun was the
center of the universe and all the planets revolved around
the Sun. But Tico thought that the Earth stayed put,
it remained in this stationary position, and the Sun and
the Moon revolved around the Earth, orbiting the Earth, and
(17:18):
the other planets orbited the Sun. So it was kind
of a mish mash, I guess.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, it was a little topsy jervey compared to Copernicus's theory.
And of course now we know that Copernicus was actually correct,
but that came later on. So all of his data
collecting and all of his observations later in life were
to help confirm this theory. Up until this point, he
appears to have led a charmed life, as has got
(17:42):
An Island as his observatory to two estates from his family.
I mean, he's well known, he's well respected. But then
in fifteen ninety six things start to go south a
little bit. Frederic the Second has died and his son,
Frederic's son, that is, Christian the assumed the throne of
Denmark and Norway, and he's not a spond of Tico.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Yeah, and you mentioned earlier that you saw different accounts
of that. Maybe Christian just doesn't like Tico and wants
to completely shut down his operation. Maybe it was more
of a budgetary issue, you know, he just didn't have
room to fund this astronomer as much as his father had.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, and I mean Tico was not cheap. He was
living large out on the island of Then, throwing parties, drinking,
eating lots, and really not treating his tenants very well
at all. So because of this clash with Christian the Fourth,
he ends up moving to Prague with his wife, where
Emperor Rudolph the Second gave him refuge and he continues
(18:44):
his work there. But really at that point he had
collected the majority of the data that he was going
to collect over the course of his lifetime, so he
has all of that. He's still working with it. He's
still observing things, but at this point most of his
life's work is complete.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Time to analyze everything he's gone.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
And what happened to the island and his large observatory. Well,
Christian the fourth reportedly had it torn down, so unfortunately
it doesn't exist today. We can't even visit this place.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You're anibor indoor plumbing and everything, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
So while he's in Prague, another significant thing happens. Tico
takes on an assistant named Johannes Kepler in sixteen hundred.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, and Kepler is a very different guy, and away
from Tico, he comes from a different background. He's not
a nobleman, but by the time they meet, he's got
a good reputation. He's a respected scientist, and he's also
a Copernican, so opposite opposite theories. They don't believe the
(19:56):
universe works the same way, so he thinks that the
planet's orbit. Then it seems like it would be really
hard to have a productive partnership with another astronomer if
you had such a fundamental difference. But it seems like
they could have worked well together.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
They could have.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Worked well together. Kepler was a theory guy and Tiko
was the data guy, so if they had put their
heads together, who knows what could have happened. But it
turns out that they had kind of a tough working relationship.
But Keupler really wanted to work with Tico because he
had come up with sort of his own theory about
(20:32):
the orbits of the planets. He thought that they were spheres,
one inside of the other, and so he really wanted
to work with Tiko so that he could use his data.
But then, of course he comes to Tico, and Tiko's
totally stingy with all his observations in his data.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
And completely at odds with his own beliefs. You don't
want your data to prove something that disproves what you've
been working on.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Sure, so, as we mentioned that the two butted heads,
they argued. Kepler even walked out and left at one point,
and then Ticokin of came back and relented and they
came back together. But then, of course Tico dies suddenly
in sixteen oh one, and Kepler after that point becomes
the Imperial Mathematician in Prague, which gives him access to
(21:13):
all of Tico's data. So what he wanted, I got it.
He's finally got what he needs.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Unfortunately, though, once he has all this data he's been
waiting for for so long, it doesn't confirm his theory
about the spherical orbit.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
That's true. At least he knows this, and he did
confirm Copernicus's view of the Solar system and come up
with the important laws of planetary motion that he's still
known for today.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, so Kepler's work definitely benefits from having this data,
which of course comes from Tika's death.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
So suspicious.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, and these findings about the mercury poisoning came out,
a lot of people started thinking, well, what did this
guy have to gain from it? And it makes him
a pretty likely suspect, but there's no proof.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
There's no proof. A lot of people suggest that he
might be a suspect, but there's no real hard proof.
I don't think to support that.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Fortunately, we have some other suspect.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
There are some other suspects lined up here. One suspect
is the Jesuit Order. They could have been to blame
because they didn't really like the influence that Tico had
as a Protestant over Prague's Emperor Rudolph the Second, So
that was what would have made them a suspect. Their
motive in it, I guess, And there are others that
(22:31):
think that Christian the fourth may have had something to
do with it, since he's not a fan, no, not
a big fan of Tiko at all, so he might
have had a score to settle there.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
And there's been some sort of recent theorizing about that front,
at least, hasn't there.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yes, there has a guy named Peter Anderson who is
a Strasburg German studies expert. He a couple of years
ago came up with a scenario that has Christian the
Fourth as a mastermind and a plot that also involves
Tiko's distance cousin, Eric Brahe, And it's assumed in this
scenario that Eric Brahe is the killer. And the reason
(23:09):
Anderson came up with this theory is that he found
he discovered Eric Brahe's six hundred page diary in the
Royal Library of Stockholm, and he says it contained some
pretty definitive evidences. It shows Eric Brahe going away on
this huge mission. Around this time, he's wrangling an invitation
(23:29):
to the banquet that Tico attended, the one where he
didn't use the bathroom. The entire time. And it also
shows that Eric visited Tico at his home after the
banquet and the day's following yep. And he also expresses
some remorse in his diary in his writings.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
So there's one theory for you. But other people think,
and this is not maybe not quite as exciting and scandalous,
but some people think that Tico's death was accidental mercury poisoning.
That because he was also a bit of an alchemist,
he might have tried to cure himself by dosing himself
(24:07):
with too much mercury and accidentally dying from it.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
That's another possibility. And unfortunately, scientists say that we'll never
know the truth because even though they can find out,
they might find out if it's murder or if it
was accidental poisoning, but after four undred plus years, it's
unlikely that they'd be able to identify a specific killer.
So this may have to remain a mystery.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
We do have one thing we can look forward to though.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yes, they may solve the mystery of the fake nose,
and that came about the first time they exhumed Tico
Brahe in nineteen oh one. They discovered that the metal
plate that was his nose prosthesis. Yes, it was missing.
It was not in his tomb, and when they sort
(24:55):
of tested the area, they found copper there rather than
silver and gold, which everyone thought was So they're hoping
to test now and see if they can figure out
what the nose was actually made of. Was it silver
and gold? Was it a silver and copper alloy.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Maybe he had multiple news Maybe.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
He had multiple ones. That's also a theory. Maybe he
had one for special occasions and one for just everyday use.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If
you'd like to send us a note, our email addresses
History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe
to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shoes
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Tracy V. Wilson
Holly Frey
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