BRAHE (Trcno), a celebrated astro nomer, descended from a noble family, originally of Sweden, hut settled in Den mark, was born the 14th of December, 1546, at Knudstrop, in the county of Schonen, near Helsinbourg. He was taught Latin when seven years old, and studied five years under private tutors. His father dying while he was veryyoung, his uncle, George Brahe, adopted him, and sent him in 1559 to study philosophy and rhetoric at Copenhagen. The great eclipse of the sun, on the 21st of August, 1560, happening at the precise time the astronomers had foretold, he began to consider astronomy as something divine ; and purchasing the tables of Stadius, he gained some notion of the theory of the planets. In 1562 he was sent by his un cle to Leipsic to study the law, where his acquirements gave manifest indications of extraordinary abilities. His natural in clination, however, was to the study of the heavens, to which he applied himself so assiduously, that, notwithstanding the care of his tutor to keep him close to the study of the law, he made use of .every means in his power for improving his knowledge of astronomy ; he purchased with his pocket money whatever books he could meet with on the subject, and read them with great attention, procur ing assistance in difficult cases from Bar tholomew Schultens, his private tutor ; and having procured a small celestial globe, he took opportunities, when his tutor was in bed, and when the weather was clear, to examine the constellations in the heavens, to learn their names from the globe, and their motions from obser vations.
After a course of three years study at Leipsic, his uncle dying, he returned home in 1565. In thisyear, at a wedding feast, a difference arising between Brahe and a Danish nobleman, they fought, and our author had part his nose cut off by a blow : a defect which he so artfully supplied with one made of gold and sil ver, that it was scarcely perceivable. About this time he began to apply him self to chemstry, proposing nothing less than to obtain the philosopher's stone.
In 1571 he returned to Denmark, and was favoured by his maternal uncle Steno Mlles, a lover of learning, with a conve nient place at his castle of Herritzvad near Knudstrop, for making his observa tions, and building a laboratory. And here it was he discovered, in 1573, a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia But soon after, his marrying a country girl, beneath his rank, occasioned so violent a quarrel between him and his relations, that the king was obliged to interpose to reconcile them.
In 1574, by the king's command, he read lectures at Copenhagen on the theo ry of the planets. The year following he began his travels through Germany, and proceeded as far as Venice. He then re solved to remove his family, and settle at Basil ; but Frederick the Second, King of Denmark, being informed of his de sign, and unwilling to lose a man who was capable of doing so much honour to his country, he promised to enable him to pursue his studies, and bestowed upon him for life the island of linen in the Sound, and promised that an observatory and laboratory should be built for him, will a supply of money for carryin on his designs; and accordingly, the first stone of the observatory was laid the 8th of August 1576, under the name of Urani bourg. The king also gave him a pen sion of 2000 crowns out of his treasurv,a fee in Norway, and a canonry of Roshild, which brought him in 1000 more. This situation he enjoyed for the space of about twenty years, pursuing his observa tions and studies with great industry : here he kept always in his house ten or twelve young men, who assisted him in his observations, and whom he instructed in astronomy and mathematics. Here al so he received a visit from James the Sixth, King ofScotland, afterwards James the First of England, havingcome to Den mark to espouse Anne, daughter of Fre derick the Second. „Tames made our au thor some noble presents, and wrote a copy of Latin verses in his praise.