western wing. The present church tower is also a later addition. The castle is situated close to the town of Nové Benatky (in German, Neu Benatek) on the right bank of the Iser, on a hill raised about two hundred feet over the river. The castle commands a fine view of the vineyards and orchards on the hilly northern (right) bank and tilled fields and pasture-lands on the southern, which latter are not seldom flooded by the Iser, so that the inhabitants on such occasions are surrounded by a lake.[1] This may account for the name of Venetiæ Bohemorum by which Benatky has frequently been called, though Tycho believes that the general beauty of the surroundings has also contributed to the use of this name.[2] On the way to Benatky, Tycho sent from Brandeis a letter to Longomontanus at Rostock, dated the 20th August, in which he mentioned that the road was level, and that the journey took about six hours; an official from Brandeis was that day or the next to conduct him and his belongings to Benatky, where he expected to remain until he got the estate which the Emperor intended to confer on him in fief.[3] As soon as Tycho arrived at Benatky he set about altering the building and constructing an observatory and a laboratory. As usual, he expressed his pleasure at having at last found a resting-place in various Latin poems, two of which were inscribed over the entrances to the observatory and the laboratory.[4] The principal instruments were to be placed in separate rooms, as at Hveen, all connected with each other, and with the laboratory and residence, and a separate entrance was to be
- ↑ Description of Benatky by David. See Zach's Monatliche Correspondenz, vi. p. 475 (1802). On the appended plate the wing in the centre and the church-spire were added after Tycho's time.
- ↑ Letter to Pinelli, Aus Tycho Brahe's Briefwechsel, p. 12. Tycho always calls the place Benach.
- ↑ Gassendi, p. 163; Bang's Samlinger, ii. p. 501 (Weistritz, i. p. 164).
- ↑ Gassendi, p. 164.
