Editing Tycho Brahe (section)

====Lord of Hven====
Tycho continued with his detailed observations, often assisted by his first assistant and student, his younger sister [[Sophia Brahe|Sophie]]. In 1574, Tycho published the observations made in 1572 from his first observatory at Herrevad Abbey. He then started lecturing on astronomy, but gave it up and left Denmark in spring 1575 to tour abroad. He first visited [[William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel]]'s observatory at Kassel, then went on to Frankfurt, Basel, and Venice, where he acted as an agent for the Danish king, contacting artisans and craftsmen whom the king wanted to work on his new palace at Elsinore. Upon his return, the King wished to repay Tycho's service by offering him a position worthy of his family. He offered him a choice of lordships of militarily and economically important estates, such as the castles of [[Hammershus]] or [[Helsingborg]].{{sfn|Christianson|2000|p=8}}{{sfn|Hoskin|1997|p=98}}

Tycho was reluctant to take up a position as a lord of the realm, preferring to focus on his science. He wrote to his friend Johannes Pratensis, "I did not want to take possession of any of the castles our benevolent king so graciously offered me. I am displeased with society here, customary forms and the whole rubbish".{{sfn|Christianson|2000|p=8}} Tycho secretly began to plan to move to Basel, wishing to participate in the burgeoning academic and scientific life there. The King heard of Tycho's plans, and desiring to keep the distinguished scientist,{{sfn|Christianson|2000|pp=7–8, 25–27}} in 1576 he offered Tycho the island of [[Hven]] in [[Øresund]] and funding to set up an observatory.{{sfn|Hoskin|1997|p=98}}

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 | caption1 = Tycho Brahe's large mural quadrant at [[Uraniborg]]
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 | caption2 = An engraving of the above ground parts of Tycho Brahe's underground observatory, [[Stjerneborg]]
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Until then, Hven had been property directly under the Crown. The 50 families on the island considered themselves to be freeholding farmers, but with Tycho's appointment as Feudal Lord of Hven, this changed. Tycho took control of agricultural planning, requiring the peasants to cultivate twice as much as they had done before, and he exacted [[corvée]] labor from the peasants for the construction of his new castle.{{sfn|Christianson|2000|pp=28{{ndash}}39}} The peasants complained about Tycho's excessive taxation and took him to court. The court established Tycho's right to levy taxes and labor. The result was a contract detailing the mutual obligations of lord and peasants on the island.{{sfn|Christianson|2000|pp=40–43}}

Tycho envisioned his castle [[Uraniborg]] as a temple dedicated to the [[muse]]s of arts and sciences, rather than as a military fortress. It was named after [[Urania]], the muse of astronomy. Construction began in 1576, with a laboratory for his [[alchemy|alchemical]] experiments in the cellar. Uraniborg was inspired by the Venetian architect [[Andrea Palladio]]. It was one of the first buildings in northern Europe to show influence from Italian renaissance architecture.

When he realized that the towers of Uraniborg were not adequate as observatories, because of the instruments' exposure to the elements and the movement of the building, he constructed an underground observatory close to Uraniborg called [[Stjerneborg]] (Star Castle) in 1584. This consisted of several hemispherical crypts which contained the great equatorial armillary, large azimuth quadrant, zodiacal armillary, largest azimuth quadrant of steel and the trigonal sextant.{{sfn|Christianson|2000|p=108}}

The basement of Uraniborg included an alchemical laboratory, with 16 furnaces for conducting distillations and other chemical experiments.{{sfn|Shackelford|1993}} Unusually for the time, Tycho established Uraniborg as a research centre, where almost 100 students and artisans worked from 1576 to 1597.{{sfn|Christianson|2000|p=247}} Uraniborg contained a printing press and a paper mill, both among the first in Scandinavia, enabling Tycho to publish his own manuscripts, on locally made paper with his own [[watermark]]. He created a system of ponds and canals to run the wheels of the paper mill.{{sfn|Christianson|2000|p=142}} Another resident of Uraniborg was a man with [[dwarfism]] named Jeppe, whom Tycho believed had the ability to predict the future, and he allegedly was able to correctly predict the chances of recovery or death of ill people in Hven.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.peterbeard.net/tycho-brahe-at-hven.html |title=
Tycho Brahe at Hveen|last=Beard|first=Peter |website=peterbeard.net |access-date=26 July 2024}}</ref>

Over the years he worked on Uraniborg, Tycho was assisted by a number of students and protegés, many of whom went on to their own careers in astronomy. Among them were [[Christian Sørensen Longomontanus]], later one of the main proponents of the Tychonic model and Tycho's replacement as royal Danish astronomer, Peder Flemløse, Elias Olsen Morsing, and [[Cort Aslakssøn]]. Tycho's instrument-maker Hans Crol formed part of the scientific community on the island.{{sfn|Christianson|2000|p=142}}

[[File:Brahe notebook.jpg|thumb|Brahe's notebook with his observations of the 1577 comet]]