Abstract
THE Carlsberg Foundation and the president of the Royal Astronomical Society are to be thanked for presenting us with a most interesting, if not very readable book. The tenth volume of the works of Tycho Brahe is the first volume of his observations, and contains his observations down to the year 1585. The editor's prolegomena tell the history of the manuscripts in which these observations were recorded, of successive projects for their publication, and of the imperfect publications which have appeared. The obstacles to publication were not, it would appear, entirely material. We are quite accustomed to observations being made by one astronomer and theoretical deductions by another, and Ludwig Kepler's contention, thirty-six years after Tycho Brahe's death, that his observations should be reserved for the emperor alone and those to whom, as a special favour, he should grant the use of them, is what we should nowadays expect to find only in the case of discoveries of commercial value, not of astronomical observations. It will be noticed that the sole right to draw deductions seems to pass with the MS. observations after the observer's death. Happily, Kepler had been the owner, and these observations provided him with the material for his laws of planetary motion and his Rudolphine Tables.
Tychonis Brake Dani opera omnia.
Edidit I. L. E. Dreyer. Tomus X. Pp. xxvii + 434. (Hauniæ: In Libraria Gyldendaliana, 1923.) n.p.
Enjoying our latest content?
Log in or create an account to continue
- Access the most recent journalism from Nature's award-winning team
- Explore the latest features & opinion covering groundbreaking research
or
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
F., J. Tychonis Brake Dani opera omnia. Nature 114, 151–152 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/114151a0
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/114151a0
