which formerly had belonged to Melanchthon, and now belonged to his son-in-law, Peucer, and where the physician Jessenius (Johannes Jessinsky) lived at that time. In the meanwhile Longomontanus had proceeded to Wandsbeck, but on his arrival he only found Tycho's wife and daughters there. He remained with them until Tycho's servant Andreas arrived with letters requesting them to set out for Wittenberg, upon which Longomontanus accompanied the ladies as far as Magdeburg, and then returned to Denmark, where he observed the lunar eclipse on the 31st January following in his native village. On the 31st December 1598 Tycho wrote to him in reply to a letter he had just received, in which Longomontanus had informed him that a printer at Hamburg, who had been intrusted with the printing of the sheets relating to the lunar theory, had performed his task very badly, so that it would be necessary to do it over again. Tycho therefore wrote that he would get it done at Wittenberg.[1] He thanked Longomontanus for his attention to the ladies, and offered to supply him with means for studying at some German University until he had himself become quite settled at the Emperor's court. He also expressed his pleasure at hearing that Longomontanus intended to write a refutation of the so-called defence of the Scotch opponent, and he wished that it might be finished soon, so that it might be printed at Wittenberg as an appendix to the volume on the comet of 1577.[2] On the 11th January 1599 Tycho again wrote to Longomontanus asking him
- ↑ He afterwards abandoned this idea, because the eclipse of January 31, 1599, did not agree with his theory, although he had expected that it should agree as well as that of January 1582, as they both took place near the apogee and at the same time of year. (Letter to Longomontanus of 21st March 1699, Gassendi, p. 159). This shows that he had at that time an idea of the existence of the annual equation. (See next chapter.)
- ↑ We have already mentioned (p. 209) that this refutation was never published. It appears from a letter to Scultetus, written in January 1600, that Tycho was still thinking of adding an appendix to the book on comets.
