portrait of Tycho Brahe, but of unknown date, was an oil-painting in the historical portrait gallery at Frederiksborg Castle, which was destroyed in the great fire of that castle in 1859.[1] In the letter (quoted above) which Tycho wrote to Rosenkrands from Rostock, he mentioned that he had ordered a painter to paint his portrait, and would send it to Rosenkrands when it was ready. This picture is probably the same which in the following century was preserved in the library of King Frederick III., and in the corner of which was an emblematic design with the following inscription:—
"Stans tegor in solido, Ventus fremat, ignis & unda.
Vandesbechi
Anno MIƆXCVII, quo post diutinum in patria
Exilium demum pristinæ libertati restitutus fui
Tyclio Brahe Ot."[2]
This portrait (or a copy of it) was found in England in 1876, and now belongs to the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.[3] A full figure portrait occurs in Baretti Historia Cœlestis, representing Tycho leaning on a large sextant; the face resembles the engraving by Geyn, and the picture is apparently copied from a water-colour drawing on parchment in a copy of Tycho's Progymnasmata in the Strahof Monastery at Prague.[4]
Tycho was not content with issuing the description of his instruments, but as the first volume of his book (Pro-
- ↑ There is a copy of this portrait in Friis' book, Tyge Brahe (1871).
- ↑ The first line ("I am protected, standing on solid ground, let wind, fire, and waves rage") is evidently intended to express Tycho's trust in the future, notwithstanding the threatening aspect of the time. Ot. means Ottonides. The inscription is given in Resenii Inscriptiones Hafnienses, p. 335, Weistritz ii. p. 334, and identifies the picture.
- ↑ It was first noticed by Dr. S. Crompton (Proc. Manchester Lit. and Ph. Soc., vol. vi., 1876), and was in 1881 purchased by the Earl of Crawford, who in 1888 presented it with his great astronomical library and all his instruments to the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. See frontispiece.
- ↑ Vierteljahrsschrift der astron. Gesellschaft, xvi. p. 273 (1881), Safarik.
