work, had read the unfinished Progymnasmata, and had consented to let it be dedicated to him.[1] But however pleasant his relations with the Emperor were, Tycho had often practical experience of the scarcity of money in Bohemia, and he could not be blind to the shaky condition of the Imperial Government, caused by the religious and political flames which, though as yet only smouldering, were certain ere long to burst out in their fury, and for the quenching of which the weakness of the Emperor did not promise well. Perhaps he may sometimes have wondered in his own mind whether it might not have been wiser to have remained in peaceful Denmark, even without an endowment for his observatory, instead of coming to the stormy Bohemia, where he had no guarantee for the continuance of his salary but the life of his patron, just as in the old days at Hveen. His health would also seem to have become shaken, if we may judge from Kepler's remark that the feebleness of old age was approaching, since he would hardly have said so of a healthy man only fifty-three years of age.
But the die was cast, and Tycho Brahe could only try to make himself as much at home in Bohemia as possible. On the 9th February 1601 the Emperor wrote to the Bohemian Estates that Tycho Brahe and his sons desired to be naturalised, and to have their names entered on the roll of the nobility. It is not known whether this matter was considered by the Estates, but the name of Brahe does not occur in their proceedings, so that Tycho must have died before he could get his wish fulfilled.[2] In several of his letters Tycho alludes to his intention of buying landed property in Bohemia, and in order to do so he took steps to get back the money which he
