east, and west. The enclosure was 57 feet square, and the diameter of the semicircles was 20 feet. The entrance was on the north side, and a door and some stone steps led down to the study. Over the portal were three crowned lions hewn in stone, with the appropriate inscription—
"NEC FASCES NEC OPES
SOLA ARTIS
SCEPTRA PERENNANT."
Below this and over the door was the coat of arms of the Brahe family, and some other allegorical figures.
On the back of the portal, towards the south was a large tablet of porphyry, with a long inscription in prose, stating that these crypts had, like the adjoining Uraniborg, been constructed for the advancement of astronomy, at incredible labour, diligence, and expense, and charging posterity to preserve the building for the glory of God, the propagation of the divine art, and the honour of the country. Going down the steps to the "Hypocaustum," another slab over the door exhibited a versified inscription, expressing the surprise of Urania at finding this cave, and promising even here, in the bowels of the earth, to show the way to the stars. The study was about 10 feet square, and only the vaulted roof and the top of the walls were above the ground. The vault was sodded over to look like a little hill, "representing Parnassus, the mount of the Muses," and on the middle of it stood a small statue of Mercury in brass, cast from a Roman model, and turning round by a mechanism in the pedestal.[1] The study was lighted by four small windows just above the ground, and contained a long table, some clocks, &c., and on the wall hung a semicircle in brass, 8 feet in diameter, for measuring distances of stars, and which,
- ↑ In addition to this, Tycho possessed several other automata, which startled the peasants of the island, and made them believe him to be a sorcerer. Gassendi, p. 196.
