astronomical books and instruments, though he had to receive the money from his tutor and account to him for the way it was spent. He made use of the Ephemerides of Stadius[1] to find the places of the planets, having first learned the names of the constellations by means of a small celestial globe not larger than his fist, which he hid from Vedel, and could only use when the latter was asleep. Though this state of things at first produced some coolness between tutor and pupil, it appears that they soon renewed their friendly intercourse. Tycho could not but see that Vedel was only doing his duty, and Vedel gradually had to acknowledge that the love of astronomy had become so deeply rooted in his pupil that it was utterly impossible to force him against his will to devote himself to a study he disliked, or at least looked on with indifference. Another circumstance which was a bond of union between them was that the learned men whose society Vedel sought were to a great extent the same to whom Tycho looked for instruction. Thus the above-mentioned Valentine Thau had a great regard for Vedel, and even tried to get him to enter the service of the Elector, while Homilius was a son-in-law of Camerarius, the most renowned of the professors at Leipzig, and a man whom Vedel later in one of his writings mentions as his beloved teacher.[2] Drawn together through their intercourse with these and other men of learning, Vedel and Tycho laid the foundation of a warm friendship which lasted through life.
- ↑ Published at Cologne in 1556 for the years 1554-70, again in 1559 and 1560, being continued to the year 1576. Founded on the Prutenic tables.
- ↑ Joachim Liebhard (who changed his name to Camerarius because there had been several Kämmerer in his family), born at Bamberg in 1500, died at Leipzig in 1574; published the Commentary of Theon as an appendix to the edition of Ptolemy edited by Grynæus in 1538; wrote a book on Greek and Latin arithmetic (see Kästner, Gesch. d. Mathem., i. p. 134), and published in 1559 a book, De eorum qvi Cometæ appellantur, Nominibus, Natura, Caussis, Significatione, in which he shows from history that comets sometimes announce evil, sometimes good events.
