till about twenty-five years after the construction of the globe had been commenced was it completely finished.[1] It was mounted on a solid stand, with graduated circles for meridian and horizon, and a movable graduated quadrant for measuring altitudes. On the horizon was the unavoidable inscription stating how the great work of art was made. A hemispherical cover of silk could be lowered over it from the ceiling to protect it from dust. In addition to this great globe, the library or museum contained four tables for Tycho's assistants to work at, also his collection of books and various smaller knicknacks, portraits of astronomers and philosophers, among whom Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Albattani, Copernicus, and the Landgrave figured conspicuously. There was also a portrait of George Buchanan, who played so important a part in the religious and political revolutions in Scotland, and whose acquaintance Tycho had probably made in 1571 when Buchanan was in Denmark. This portrait had been presented to Tycho by Peter Young.[2] Under the pictures were versified inscriptions composed by Tycho.[3]
We may form some idea of the elegance and taste which pervaded Tycho's residence by examining the large picture which adorned his great mural quadrant. This instrument was, as already mentioned, mounted on the wall in the south-west room on the ground-floor, and consisted of a
- ↑ Astr. Inst. Mechanica, fol. G. The globe must have been quite finished about 1595; it is said to have cost Tycho about 5000 daler (Gassendi, p. 135).
- ↑ Young had been the first tutor to James VI., and became afterwards his almoner. He was several times in Denmark. Tycho had sent his little book about the new star to Buchanan, who thanked him for it in a letter dated Stirling, the 4th April 1575. In this letter Buchanan (who was then Lord Privy Seal) expresses his regret that he has not had leisure to finish his poem on the sphere (it was published after his death), and praises Tycho's book for having refuted popular errors. T. Brahei et ad eum Doct. Vir. Epist., p. 18.
- ↑ As specimens Tycho prints the poems on Ptolemy and Copernicus. Epist. Astron., pp. 239-240.
