above,[1] there is towards the end of the volume a description of the instruments and buildings at Hveen, with woodcuts of the latter. Of the instruments, seven were already figured in Tycho's other books, and it appears that to a few copies of the Epistolæ he added an appendix of eleven leaves, with figures of some of the instruments, and on the last leaf a short note promising that a complete account of all of them should soon appear. This appendix was doubtless only printed in a very few copies, as it was soon to be rendered superfluous by the publication of Tycho's special book on his instruments.[2]
While the printing of Tycho's correspondence was being completed important events took place in Denmark. Tycho's last remaining influential friend, Jörgen Rosenkrands, died in April 1596, and the young king, who was now in his twentieth year, was soon afterwards declared of age, and was crowned on the 29th August at Copenhagen.[3] He had appointed Christian Friis of Borreby, Chancellor, and Christopher Valkendorf to the office of High Treasurer, which had been vacant since the death of Tycho's connexion, Peder Oxe, in 1575; but King Christian had both the will and the ability to govern himself, and soon made his authority felt and respected. He was personally of an
- ↑ See above, p. 211.
- ↑ This appendix or pamphlet ("Icones instrumentorum qvorvndam Astronomiæ instaurandæ gratia a Tychone Brahe Dano diligentia, impendioqve inestimabili elaboratorvm") is mentioned by Friis, Tyge Brahe, pp. 363–364. In 1889 I tried in vain to get a look at it at the Royal Library at Copenhagen, but it was not there. These pictures are alluded to in Tycho's letter to the Chancellor of the 31st December 1596.
- ↑ Tycho attended the coronation (Meteor. Diary), and a few days after he was visited by Johann Müller, "Mathematicus administratoris Brandenburgensis." See also Gassendi, p. 153.
Sextantem, ad obseruandas distantias Stellarum inter se, lassen zurichten, jedes von gutem Messing vnd bicubital. Hal ten auch drei Gesellen, Astronomiæ & Obseruationum peritos ad iustificanda loca Stellarum Fixarum." Letters from learned men, if not written altogether in Latin, were generally written in this mongrel tongue.
