sent at his bedside was a namesake of Tycho's, Erik Brahe, Count Visingsborg, a Swede by birth, but in the service of the King of Poland, whom Tycho thanked for all the kindness he had shown to him during his illness, asking him to carry his last remembrances to his relations in Denmark. Soon afterwards he peacefully drew his last breath, amidst the tearful prayers of his family and pupils. He had only reached the age of fifty-four years and ten months; a short span of time (as Gassendi remarks) if we look to the age which he might have attained, but a lengthy one if we consider the magnitude of his works, which will live in the recollection of mankind as long as the love of astronomy remains among us.[1]
On the 4th November the body of the renowned astronomer was with great pomp brought to its last resting-place in the Teynkirche (Týnskýkostel), in which a semi-Protestant (utraquistic) service was still tolerated. The funeral procession was headed by persons carrying candles embellished with the arms of the Brahe family; next was carried a banner of black damask with the arms and name of the deceased embroidered in gold; then came his favourite horse, succeeded by another banner and a second horse, after which came persons bearing a helmet with feathers in the colours of his family, a pair of gilt spurs, and a shield with the Brahe coat of arms. Then followed the coffin, covered with a velvet cloth, and carried by twelve Imperial gentlemen-at-arms. Next after the coffin came the younger son of the deceased, walking between Count Erik Brahe and the Imperial Councillor, Ernfried Minkawitz, and followed by councillors and nobles, and Tycho's pupils. Then came the
- ↑ Kepler wrote in the observing ledger a short account of Tycho's last illness, which was printed by Snellius in his Observationes Hassiacæ, Lugduni Bat., 1618, pp. 83–84, and in this volume, Note D. Kepler also wrote an elegy over Tycho Brahe, which is printed by Gassendi, p. 235 et seq., and in Kepler's Opera, viii. p. 138 et seq.
