and to go to Rostock, where he arrived on the 24th September, and was matriculated at the University a few weeks later.[1]
Though not as celebrated as the University of Wittenberg, Rostock was also much frequented by Scandinavian students, a natural consequence of its being situated close to the shore of the Baltic, and within easy reach from the Northern countries. It can hardly have been the wish of studying astronomy under any of the professors at Rostock which induced Tycho to take up his abode there, for there was not at that time any savant attached to the University of Rostock who occupied himself specially with astronomy; and only one, David Chytræus, otherwise well known as a theological author, is very slightly known in the history of astronomy as one of the numerous writers on the new star of 1572. But if there were no astronomers at Rostock (and, indeed, they were not numerous anywhere), there were several men who devoted themselves to astrology and alchemy, in addition to mathematics or medicine. It must be remembered that it was at that time easy enough to be thoroughly acquainted with the little that was known in several sciences, and men frequently exchanged a professorship of medicine for one of astronomy or divinity. The connection of medicine in particular with astronomy was supposed to be a very intimate one, and as physicians, if they kept to what we should call their proper sphere, could do little but grope in the dark, they were only too glad to call in the aid of astrology to make up for the deficiency of their medical knowledge. The idea of a connection between the celestial bodies and the vital action of the human frame was a natural consequence of the
- ↑ As "Tycho Brahe, natus ex nobili familia in ea parte regni Danici quæ dicitur Scania." See G. C. F. Lisch, Tycho Brahe und seine Verhältnisse zu Mecklenburg, in Jahrbücher des Vereins für Mecklenburgische Geschichte, xxxiv., 1869 (Reprint, p. 2).
