Pictures and albums about Tycho published in travel

In 1566 the Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), enrolled as a student at the University of Rostock (the oldest university in northern Europe, founded in 1419). This bronze relief of Tycho is on the building of the VR-Bank in the center of Rostock.

On the VR Bank, a plaque showing a famous incident in the life of Tycho the student. A detailed account of the nose incident can also be found in the book "Tycho Brahe, the man and his work" (original in Latin), by Pierre Gassendi 1654. Gassendi writes: "The 10th of december 1566 there was a dance at Lucas Bacmeisters house in the connection to a wedding. Lucas Bacmeister was a professor of theology at the university of Rostock where Tycho studied. Among the guests were Tycho Brahe and another Danish nobleman, Manderup Parsberg. They started an argument and they separated in anger. The 27th of December this argument started again, and in the evening of the 29th of December a duel was held. It was around 7 in the evening and in darkness. Parsberg gives Tycho a cut over his nose that took away almost the front part of his nose. Tycho had an artificial nose made, not from wax, but from an alloy of gold and silver[*] and put it on so skillfully, that it looked like a real nose. Wilhelm Janszoon Blaeu, who spent time with Tycho for nearly two years, also said that Tycho used to carry a small box with a paste or glue, with which he often would put on the nose." Gassendi also writes that Laurus (a professor in Perugia, and later protonotarius for the pope) gives the reason for the argument between Tycho and Parsberg in one of his letters. The reason should have been an argument about who was most skilled in mathmatics. However, Norlind points out that Gassendi has either received a wrong account of this letter, or misinterpreted it, because Laurus only writes that "Not so long ago, Tycho Brahe and a Danish nobleman had competed in studying mathematics and other higher sciences". There is nothing mentioned however that this should have been the reason for the argument and later the duel. Gassendi's statement that it was an argument about who was the most skilled mathematician has however been cited many times in later biographies. The hostility between Tycho and Parsberg was however not lasting, and Parsberg was one of Tycho's supporters under the Danish king Christian IV. [*] Per Sörbom adds in "Tycho Brahe - a passionate astronomer" that when Tycho Brahe's grave was opened June 24 1901, there were clear green marks at the front of his cranium, so the metal piece of his artificial nose must have had a significant amount of copper also.