Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky Listener Discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: There's an anecdote that's often included in biographies of sixteenth
Speaker 1: century astronomer Tico Braie that, while almost entirely irrelevant to
Speaker 1: his life or scientific achievements, I think is worth talking about.
Speaker 1: You see, Tico Brie had a pet elk. He had
Speaker 1: a few pet elks, we can determine that from primary sources,
Speaker 1: but one in particular was Tame, who would trot along
Speaker 1: at the side of his carriages and join him inside
Speaker 1: the house. He and his family would feed it beer
Speaker 1: and delight in the way that it lapped it up.
Speaker 1: One of Brie's German friends wrote to him once asking
Speaker 1: if it was true that in Denmark there was an
Speaker 1: animal called a ricks that was bigger and faster than
Speaker 1: a deer. Brian, you, his friend. He knew he was
Speaker 1: one of those wealthy aristocratic types who just wanted as
Speaker 1: many different animals as possible for his own private zoo.
Speaker 1: Brian wrote back, saying, no, there's no ricks. You're probably
Speaker 1: thinking of a reindeer. But hey, if you happen to
Speaker 1: want an elk, I have a tame one that you
Speaker 1: can borrow. The letter was sent off to Germany, and
Speaker 1: by the time the friend wrote back saying sure it
Speaker 1: was too late, bra he had already sent his tame
Speaker 1: elk over to a neighbor's house for a party. That
Speaker 1: party's guests were so amused by the animal that they
Speaker 1: kept giving it more and more alcohol. The elk made
Speaker 1: it to the top of a staircase and then drunk
Speaker 1: it stumbled down and broke its neck. Now I reiterate
Speaker 1: the tame drunk elk who fell down the stairs isn't
Speaker 1: relevant to Tako Brie's scientific achievements, but the story strange
Speaker 1: does sort of capture why Bray has become such a
Speaker 1: figure of fascination for centuries. A drunk pet elk is
Speaker 1: a detail you expect to find in the biography of
Speaker 1: a romantic Arab poet. It's genuinely astonishing that it didn't
Speaker 1: happen to Lord Byron. It's debauchrous and whimsical, and yet
Speaker 1: Ticobry's scientific legacy is basically the opposite of that. It's
Speaker 1: an incredibly precise and comprehensive data that he collected. He
Speaker 1: was the last of the major naked eye astronomers working
Speaker 1: in the era before telescopes, and for decades of his
Speaker 1: life he pioneered equipment that brought a brand new level
Speaker 1: of accuracy to the astronomical community in Europe. But he
Speaker 1: was also the wildly strange figure that paraded around Europe
Speaker 1: with a brass nose, who became lord ruler of an
Speaker 1: entire island, who worked as an alchemist, and whose death
Speaker 1: was either humiliating and mundane or a captivating murder of
Speaker 1: scientific jealousy, depending on who you ask. Personally, I believe
Speaker 1: the science even when it disproves the fun murder theory.
Speaker 1: But as Ticobrie taught us, a devotion to science doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be boring. I'm Danish schwartz and this is
Speaker 1: noble blood. Ticobra was actually born by the name tegobri In,
Speaker 1: but since starting university he would refer to himself by
Speaker 1: the Latinized version of his name, Tico, and since that's
Speaker 1: the name by which most history refers to him, that's
Speaker 1: the name will go with here. He was the oldest
Speaker 1: son of an incredibly storied lineage of Danish nobles. Almost
Speaker 1: every one of his male relatives had a prominent position
Speaker 1: in the Danish or Swedish king's privy council. They almost
Speaker 1: all had castles. He was the oldest of eight children
Speaker 1: who lived to adulthood, and all of his brothers went
Speaker 1: on to become well respected government or military officials. Tico
Speaker 1: probably would have shared their fate had it not been
Speaker 1: for the strange decision to send him off as a
Speaker 1: toddler to be raised by his aunt Anger and Uncle Jorgan.
Speaker 1: Books often refer to the couple as childless, which paints
Speaker 1: sending them Ticco as a polite act of charity, giving
Speaker 1: them a child to raise since they didn't have one
Speaker 1: of their own. But that's an incorrect impression based on hindsight.
Speaker 1: At the time that they got the little tych Tico
Speaker 1: Inger was only twenty. It's strange to think that they
Speaker 1: would have known at the time that they would have
Speaker 1: been childless. But Uncle Jorgan was a military hero and
Speaker 1: an intellectual. Maybe Tico's parents thought the were reason enough
Speaker 1: to have him raise a child. Jrgen valued education in
Speaker 1: a way that Tico's actual father might not have. Tico
Speaker 1: attended a prominent church school, and then at age thirteen,
Speaker 1: he was sent to the University of Copenhagen to study
Speaker 1: law as his uncle requested. It was at the University
Speaker 1: of Copenhagen that Tico's love of astronomy sparked into focus.
Speaker 1: On August one, fifteen sixty, when Tico was fourteen years old,
Speaker 1: the Moon passed between the Earth and the Sun, resulting
Speaker 1: in a total solar eclipse. Even though the eclipse was
Speaker 1: only partial from Mortico observed it, it was incredible, the
Speaker 1: type of profound event that makes you wonder about the
Speaker 1: meaning of life and mankind's place in the universe. But
Speaker 1: Ta Tico even more fascinating was that it had been predicted.
Speaker 1: By tracking the positions of the Sun and the Moon,
Speaker 1: astronomers had been able to predict that a solar eclipse
Speaker 1: would occur decades or even centuries before it happened. It
Speaker 1: was the closest thing to actual magic in a world
Speaker 1: that did still believe in alchemy and being able to
Speaker 1: foretell the future. The problem Tico realized was that these
Speaker 1: predictions of the solar eclips by astronomers had been a
Speaker 1: full day off. If only they're observational tools had been
Speaker 1: more precise, Tico thought, then humans could fully understand the universe.
Speaker 1: Tico's uncle Jorgan tried to get his nephew to focus
Speaker 1: on a more respected and conventional field, but Tico wouldn't
Speaker 1: be deterred. He had found his passion. At sixteen, Tico
Speaker 1: was sent on a tour of Europe to learn foreign
Speaker 1: languages and about the other major European courts. It was
Speaker 1: a rite of passage for noblemen who would need to
Speaker 1: become not only well educated in intellectual matters, but also
Speaker 1: matters of decorum and diplomacy. Escorting Tico on the tour
Speaker 1: was a twenty year old middle class student named Andrew
Speaker 1: Sorns and Fidel, hired to teach Tico and also to
Speaker 1: keep him in the line. Fidell begrudgingly pretended not to
Speaker 1: notice when Tico secretly purchased books of astronomy, and he
Speaker 1: also pretended not to notice the tiny, fist size celestial
Speaker 1: globe that Tico would consult whenever he thought Fidel wasn't looking.
Speaker 1: By the time the two boys returned to Denmark in
Speaker 1: fifteen sixty, they were met with two surprises. First that
Speaker 1: Denmark was at war with Sweden, and also that Tico's
Speaker 1: uncle Jorgan was dead. Jorgan was vice admiral of the
Speaker 1: Danish fleet, and he had achieved several prominent military victories,
Speaker 1: including sinking Sweden's biggest worship. But he died a hero
Speaker 1: in a different way. The King of Denmark, Frederick the Second,
Speaker 1: got drunk following a victory and fell off his force
Speaker 1: into a canal in Copenhagen. Jorgan leaped into the icy
Speaker 1: water to rescue him, got pneumonia and died two weeks later.
Speaker 1: Tico wouldn't stay in Denmark long. He left to go
Speaker 1: to Germany to study medical alchemy at the University of Rostock.
Speaker 1: It was there that Tico would experience one of the
Speaker 1: most infamous events of his life, the duel where he
Speaker 1: lost his nose. The duel didn't actually start with a duel.
Speaker 1: It started with a lunar eclipse. Tico Bri, who had
Speaker 1: just turned twenty years old, analyzed the lunar eclipse of
Speaker 1: October fifteen sixty six and decided that it foretold the
Speaker 1: death of the Turkish Sultan Suleman the Great. So certain
Speaker 1: was he about the accuracy of his interpretation that Tico
Speaker 1: wrote a long Latin poem about it and posted it publicly.
Speaker 1: There was only one problem. Word came that Suleiman the
Speaker 1: Great did die, but he had died six weeks before
Speaker 1: the eclipse even happened. Bray was humiliated, and the humiliation
Speaker 1: would continue for months. In December, Bry's host in Germany
Speaker 1: through a party and happened to invite along another Danish noble,
Speaker 1: Mandraup Parsburg, who also happened to be Tico's third cousin.
Speaker 1: Parsburg mocked Tico for his hilariously earnest and completely wrong
Speaker 1: Latin poem, and Tico did not have a sense of
Speaker 1: humor about it. The two almost came to blows, but
Speaker 1: they were pulled apart until a little over two weeks later,
Speaker 1: when the two met again, this time in a dimly
Speaker 1: lit bar. Parsburg snorted at Tico's assertion that he was
Speaker 1: a better mathematician. Tico stood and touched the sword at
Speaker 1: his hips. In that dark bar lit only by candles,
Speaker 1: with everything obscured by their smoke, the two decided to
Speaker 1: duel to decide once and for all who was the
Speaker 1: better mathematician. With a single stroke of his blade, Parsburgh
Speaker 1: hacked off the bridge of tico bride's nose. The injury
Speaker 1: led to weeks of lonely, panic and uncertainty. The real
Speaker 1: danger was not the injury itself, but the deadly infection
Speaker 1: it could lead to. Besides, until the scar tissue formed,
Speaker 1: the extent of the disfigurement couldn't be known. Eventually, Tico
Speaker 1: Brie came to terms with the fact that he was
Speaker 1: missing most of his nose. Rather than get a wax prosthetic,
Speaker 1: he chose to instead affix a brass false nose. He
Speaker 1: had another nose made of a mixture of silver and
Speaker 1: gold as to be more or less skin colored, that
Speaker 1: he brought for special occasions. Tico kept a small box
Speaker 1: filled with adhesive with him at all times for the
Speaker 1: moment that his nose began to slip in public. When
Speaker 1: he returned to Denmark again when his father was dying,
Speaker 1: it was as a new man. Literally upon his return,
Speaker 1: he built an observatory at Harevard Abbey, a property belonging
Speaker 1: to one of his maternal uncles, and it was there
Speaker 1: that he would make the discovery that would turn him
Speaker 1: into an overnight scientific celebrity. Tikobri had been memorizing the
Speaker 1: stars in the sky since he was a child, and
Speaker 1: so when on November eleventh, seventy two, a brand new
Speaker 1: star seemed to appear in the sky right next to
Speaker 1: the constellation Cassiopeia. Tico noticed right away. First, he asked
Speaker 1: his sister, Sophia Brie, who worked alongside him as a
Speaker 1: research assistant. She confirmed that star definitely hadn't been there before.
Speaker 1: Batiko Brian couldn't wrap his mind around it. He couldn't
Speaker 1: believe his eyes. He begged servants and passing peasants to
Speaker 1: look up at the sky, see that star there that
Speaker 1: wasn't there before. Right, My guess is the passing peasants
Speaker 1: and servants weren't much help. The thing is, nothing new
Speaker 1: was supposed to happen in the stars. New things happened
Speaker 1: in the sky all the time. That was different. In
Speaker 1: Bride's day, there was an understanding that the Moon revolved
Speaker 1: around the Earth, and things could happen and change beneath
Speaker 1: the Moon in the sub lunar space, but beyond the
Speaker 1: Moon that was supposed to be fixed and unchanging. And
Speaker 1: this new star, this was further away than the moon.
Speaker 1: The heavens were changeable. One quick aside to explain how
Speaker 1: Tiko knew for a fact that the star was beyond
Speaker 1: the moon. It was using the principle of parallax, or
Speaker 1: the idea that closer objects will move more relative to
Speaker 1: their surroundings when you look at them from a different perspective.
Speaker 1: It's a little tough to explain orally, but have you
Speaker 1: ever noticed that, when you're driving in a car, the
Speaker 1: nearby scenery right alongside the window seems to whip past,
Speaker 1: while the further scenery moves incredibly slowly. That's an illustration
Speaker 1: of parallax. With his observation of the new star, Tico
Speaker 1: worked alongside his sister to write a short book called
Speaker 1: to Stella Nova, or fittingly, the New Star. He had
Speaker 1: found what we now know was a super nova. Tico
Speaker 1: Brie is where we get that name. This feels like
Speaker 1: the right moment to go back a bit and understand
Speaker 1: just a little about astronomy as it was understood before
Speaker 1: the sixteenth century. Bear in mind this will be just
Speaker 1: a really cursory overview. In three hundred and sixty BC,
Speaker 1: Plato posited a version of the universe to explain the
Speaker 1: way the moon, stars, and sun all would move across
Speaker 1: the sky. The Earth was the center of the universe, obviously,
Speaker 1: and then the Sun, the Moon, and planets all moved
Speaker 1: around us in perfect celestial spheres. But if you actually
Speaker 1: observe the motion of the planets, there's a problem. They
Speaker 1: don't move consistently across the sky the way they were
Speaker 1: if they were in a perfect divine sphere. The planets,
Speaker 1: at certain points in their trajectory moved back and then
Speaker 1: forth again. It was Ptolemy who came up with a
Speaker 1: solution for this retrograde orbits along the route of a
Speaker 1: planet's main orbit. In simple terms, little epicycles are little
Speaker 1: loops that planets would make during their big loop. It
Speaker 1: made sense mathematically with the observations they were seeing, sort of,
Speaker 1: but philosophically it was a mess. God created the universe,
Speaker 1: and he created it to be divine and perfect circles
Speaker 1: were symmetrical and mathematically clear. These epicycles were complicated and messy.
Speaker 1: It was Copernicus, then, who actually figured things out for
Speaker 1: European astronomers when he posited a heliocentric model, a model
Speaker 1: of the Solar system with the Sun at the center.
Speaker 1: For the record, there were Islamic astronomers who had more
Speaker 1: or less been figuring out the exact same thing both
Speaker 1: can currently and also a little bit before Copernicus, but
Speaker 1: in European circles, it was Copernicus and his controversial theory
Speaker 1: that scientists were butting their heads up against, because while
Speaker 1: it flew in the face of the religious teachings that
Speaker 1: were accepted as gospel, science was seen as just a
Speaker 1: way to better understand God's divine vision. It would be
Speaker 1: absurd to conceive that we were not the center of
Speaker 1: the system that God created. Copernicus died three years before
Speaker 1: Tico Brahe was born, and it's important to recognize Brie
Speaker 1: was not a heliocentrist. He never believed that the Sun
Speaker 1: was at the center of the Solar system or that
Speaker 1: the Earth revolved around it. He the pre eminent astronomer
Speaker 1: of his day, went to his grave thinking that the
Speaker 1: Earth was stationary sixty years after Copernicus published his more
Speaker 1: correct model. Science is not a series of steady accomplishments
Speaker 1: at even intervals, where one great man takes on the
Speaker 1: mantle of a great man before him. That's a convenient
Speaker 1: way for some people to oversimplify and create a pretty
Speaker 1: narrow and a little sexist understanding of history, but it's
Speaker 1: also just not the truth. After his publication of Distella
Speaker 1: Nova Ticobrai was an established European astronomer. It was around
Speaker 1: this time that he almost completely rejected the responsibilities of
Speaker 1: his noble position. He had no interest in a castle
Speaker 1: or lordship or fancy aristocratic marriage. Most of the scholars
Speaker 1: that he was engaging with weren't married for that very reason.
Speaker 1: An aristocratic marriage was an ordeal. It took time, energy,
Speaker 1: and attention away from science. But Tico didn't remain unmarried.
Speaker 1: He fell in love with a woman named Kirsten Jorian's daughter,
Speaker 1: a commoner. Though they lived together for almost thirty years
Speaker 1: and had eight children, it was technically illegal for a
Speaker 1: noble and a commoner to get married. Technically illegal, but
Speaker 1: not entirely unusual. There was an established term under judish
Speaker 1: law for what they had together, basically modern day equivalent
Speaker 1: of a common law marriage. The main consequence of their
Speaker 1: relationship was that Tico's children would be commoners. They would
Speaker 1: have to enroll in school as commoners, and they wouldn't
Speaker 1: be allowed to inherit any of his noble property. Presumably,
Speaker 1: the twenty year old Tico who just got his nose
Speaker 1: hacked off, who met a pretty girl named Kirsten wasn't
Speaker 1: thinking about inheritance when they met, and again it wasn't
Speaker 1: scandalous necessarily, or even uncommon that he took up with
Speaker 1: a commoner. It was more just seen as a rebuffed
Speaker 1: Danish high society. Another rebuff Tico Brie was touring around
Speaker 1: Europe looking for a better place to build a laboratory.
Speaker 1: When King Frederick the Second caught wind of Brye planning
Speaker 1: on building a lab in Basil, Switzerland, he panicked that
Speaker 1: simply wouldn't do. Brie had just become a well known scientist,
Speaker 1: and he was Danish. For God's sake. Denmark needed to
Speaker 1: hold on to its scientific celebrities if it wanted to
Speaker 1: be a world player, and so King Frederick offered Bride
Speaker 1: a number of castles and positions, all of which Tico
Speaker 1: Brye rejected. And then the king made another offer, the
Speaker 1: island of Ven, a small island with forty farms which
Speaker 1: Brian could rule over like a fiefdom. Brie thought about it.
Speaker 1: On one hand, Denmark was a little further north than
Speaker 1: he would have liked in terms of astronomical observations, and
Speaker 1: it was often wet and cloudy, but fun was attempting offer.
Speaker 1: It was isolated. That was a plus plus. Frederick the
Speaker 1: second was prepared to give Ticco whatever funds he needed
Speaker 1: to build a truly spectacular laboratory. And remember those farms
Speaker 1: on the island, the king would throw in their free labor,
Speaker 1: and so Ticobrie accepted. Uraniabourg was about to come into being.
Speaker 1: Though the island of Ven had always technically been owned
Speaker 1: by the Crown, the forty or so families that lived
Speaker 1: there were freeholding farmers. They made their own community laws
Speaker 1: and interacted with the outside world in a very limited capacity,
Speaker 1: maybe when someone went to sell on the mainland. But
Speaker 1: when Frederick the second gave ven to Ticobry, that all
Speaker 1: would change. Tico first insisted that they cultivate twice as
Speaker 1: much on their farms, and he was allowed to make
Speaker 1: that insistence. Also, as part of his position as lord,
Speaker 1: he was entitled to two full days from sun up
Speaker 1: to sundown a free labor from each of the farms
Speaker 1: every single week. These farmers were the foot soldiers who
Speaker 1: would help him build Uraniabourg, the Castle of the Heavens,
Speaker 1: named for the Greek muse of astronomy Urania Uranni Aborg
Speaker 1: was a Palladian style castle meant to represent, in its
Speaker 1: dimensions and architectural symmetry, the elegance and order of the cosmos.
Speaker 1: The castle itself was surrounded by a square wall oriented
Speaker 1: perfectly to the north, southeast, and west. Diagonal paths cut
Speaker 1: through perfectly manicured gardens towards the main central castle, which
Speaker 1: was three stories high and home to dozens of people
Speaker 1: at any given time. On the top floor, Braye built
Speaker 1: unheeded apartments where his servants and assistants lived. On the
Speaker 1: second floor there was a summer room, the Queen's Chamber
Speaker 1: where Queen Sophia of Denmark once came to stay, and
Speaker 1: the king's chambers. The first floor had living quarters, four
Speaker 1: huge observatories, a kitchen, and a massive museum library, where
Speaker 1: Tico kept the giant brass celestial globe that he had
Speaker 1: personally commissioned. The globe took years to make and get
Speaker 1: to bra but in a sense it would actually take
Speaker 1: twenty five years to be completed Brah. He would carefully
Speaker 1: engrave it with the position of stars he measured one
Speaker 1: by one. In the basement of Uranniaborg were salt and
Speaker 1: wood sellers and also Tico's alchemy lab for someone who
Speaker 1: became famous for the rigor of his mathematical precision and
Speaker 1: skills of observation. Bray was also fascinated by alchemy and
Speaker 1: other sciences that are let's say, dubious at best. He
Speaker 1: studied not just astronomy but also astrology for his entire life.
Speaker 1: He did readings of the lives of famous men from
Speaker 1: history and would sometimes perform them for the royal family.
Speaker 1: At some point, Tico Brie kept at Uranniaburg a dwarf
Speaker 1: named Jip who acted as a sort of court jester.
Speaker 1: Brian would bring Jep out at parties to tell the
Speaker 1: future for his guest because he believed that he had
Speaker 1: psychic abilities, and Tico's guests were often incredibly prominent people
Speaker 1: the Danish royal family, famous writers and fingers, even King
Speaker 1: James the sixth of Scotland later King James the First
Speaker 1: of England came to visit Ven when he came to
Speaker 1: Denmark to pick up his new wife to be. If
Speaker 1: you're a longtime listener of the podcast, you might remember
Speaker 1: James the six the witch hunter King, and his trip
Speaker 1: to Denmark. Another of the visitors to then would be
Speaker 1: a young astronomy student named Johannes Kepler. He'll come back
Speaker 1: into the story later, so remember that name. And if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this podcast and planning a Mozart Salieri
Speaker 1: Onmadeus Style Oscar drama about these two men. I imagine
Speaker 1: the scene of a young Kepler in tram By the
Speaker 1: strange and enigmatic, brass nosed Tico Brie at the height
Speaker 1: of his power, would make a good cold open. Uranni
Speaker 1: a Boorg was sort of a Wonka's factory for science.
Speaker 1: There was running water, something Queen Elizabeth the First didn't
Speaker 1: have at Hampton Court, nor did Henry the third of
Speaker 1: France at the Louver. And it wasn't just the castle.
Speaker 1: Uranniaboorg became a compound. Bray recognized the importance of publishing
Speaker 1: his own work, but he was also highly suspicious of
Speaker 1: thieves and copycats, and so he hired a printer and
Speaker 1: built his own printing press on the island. When he
Speaker 1: couldn't find access to paper of a high enough quality
Speaker 1: that he demanded, he also built a paper mill that
Speaker 1: produced sheets with a water mark, the name and an
Speaker 1: illustration of his castle. The island also had a tannery
Speaker 1: that made the parchment for book binding, a grain mill,
Speaker 1: and a machine shop for Tico to continue to build
Speaker 1: new and better astronomical instruments. Telescopes weren't in use yet,
Speaker 1: but Brahi designed and built large specialty equipment that would
Speaker 1: allow him to record measurements far more precisely than anyone
Speaker 1: else in Europe. His instruments out on balconies, though, were
Speaker 1: exposed to wind and the elements, and that could distort
Speaker 1: his readings, and so Tico Brahi built another laboratory called Serenberg,
Speaker 1: or Castle of the Stars. This one dug under the ground,
Speaker 1: so he and his many assistants and proteges could measure
Speaker 1: angles and distances in the sky from beneath ground level,
Speaker 1: where wind couldn't affect the readings. Along the halls of Serenberg,
Speaker 1: Tico hung portraits of great astronomers throughout history, with the
Speaker 1: stated purpose of inspiring his students. Of course, one of
Speaker 1: the portraits was of himself, and the final portrait was
Speaker 1: of someone who hadn't even been born yet. It was
Speaker 1: an imaginary person named Ticondas, a descendant of Tico Brye,
Speaker 1: whose inscription beneath his portrait read that he only wished
Speaker 1: to be worthy of his great ancestor. Modesty wasn't one
Speaker 1: of Ticobrie's strongest suits. It was that ego that would
Speaker 1: eventually lead to trouble for Ticobrye. His laboratory was renowned,
Speaker 1: but it was also a massive expense. At one point
Speaker 1: one percent of Denmark's wealth was going to urania Borg.
Speaker 1: After Frederick the Second died, his son, Christian the fourth
Speaker 1: was far less amused by Tico's science and his antics.
Speaker 1: Tico had already made a number of enemies at court,
Speaker 1: and these enemies were far closer to Christian the fourth.
Speaker 1: When he came of age, Tico was just a thorn
Speaker 1: in his side, and incredibly expensive thorn. For one thing,
Speaker 1: the peasants on Fen kept complaining about Tico exploiting them.
Speaker 1: If you can imagine, the commoners would riot sometimes in
Speaker 1: front of Brye's family home in Copenhagen. The winds were
Speaker 1: changing for Tico Brie, and he knew it. He tried
Speaker 1: quickly before he lost too much favor, to get the
Speaker 1: Dowager Queen to put into writing that his kids could
Speaker 1: maybe be an exception to the no commoners inheriting noble
Speaker 1: property rule. But Soon after, he left Fen and then Denmark.
Speaker 1: On his way out, he wrote one of his famous
Speaker 1: Latin poems about his exile, called an Elegy to Denmark,
Speaker 1: all about what fools they were for letting him go.
Speaker 1: It was the Latin poem equivalent of the email you
Speaker 1: write to your ex who breaks up with you, the
Speaker 1: one that you're not supposed to send. Brie spent a
Speaker 1: year at a friend's castle in Germany before he became
Speaker 1: court astronomer to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph the Second. Tico
Speaker 1: and his family then moved to Prague along with Tico's
Speaker 1: most famous assistant, Johannes Kepler. Tico Brie worked in Prague
Speaker 1: for a year before his death, and for that year
Speaker 1: he and Kepler endeavored side by side to create the
Speaker 1: most accurate astronomical tables possible. Keppler would eventually publish them
Speaker 1: after Brie's death, and they'd be known as the Rudolphin Tables, named,
Speaker 1: of course, for their royal patron Kepler kept all of
Speaker 1: Tico Brie's incredibly important work and notes after Brie died,
Speaker 1: no doubt taking advantage of the confused and when it
Speaker 1: came to the ability of Brie's children to inherit his property.
Speaker 1: Using Brie's data, Kepler was able to make one of
Speaker 1: the most important scientific discoveries of the last thousand years.
Speaker 1: The planet don't move in perfect circles. Their orbits are elliptical.
Speaker 1: Tico Brie, in his lifetime, had made his own model
Speaker 1: of the Solar system, a sort of compromise between Plato
Speaker 1: and Copernicus, where the Sun does revolve around the Earth,
Speaker 1: but the other planets revolve around the Sun. Depending on
Speaker 1: the size of those orbits and the way you draw it.
Speaker 1: Tico's model isn't too geometrically different from Copernicus is more
Speaker 1: correct theory, but it was a compromise that the Church
Speaker 1: and established scientific community at large could swallow. Kepler disagreed
Speaker 1: with his boss. He knew, like Copernicus knew that the
Speaker 1: Earth actually revolved around the Sun. But Kepler also knew
Speaker 1: that Tikobray's measurements were extraordinarily precise. Using ticho Bray's measurements
Speaker 1: for the path of Mars, Kepler realized that his calculations
Speaker 1: for a circular orbit we're off by about eight arc minutes. Now,
Speaker 1: eight arc minutes is not a lot to be off by.
Speaker 1: To put it in layman's terms. If you were to
Speaker 1: hold a penny out at arm's length and turn the
Speaker 1: penny sideways the edge of the penny, that amount of
Speaker 1: space was the distance of the margin of error that
Speaker 1: Kepler got. But Bray was more precise than that, and
Speaker 1: Kepler knew it. Ray would never be off by more
Speaker 1: than four or five arc minutes. And so Coupler tried again,
Speaker 1: this time with the calculation for an elliptical orbit, and
Speaker 1: there was it fit. Kepler became a scientific hero, and
Speaker 1: the idea that planets traveled in elliptical orbit became the
Speaker 1: first of his three laws of planetary motion. Kepler was
Speaker 1: a german Man born to a struggling mercenary and the
Speaker 1: daughter of an innkeeper. Very convenient, how Brie died, and
Speaker 1: then Kepler was able to use all of the data
Speaker 1: he left behind to achieve glory. Almost too convenient. Some
Speaker 1: positive just an idea that Kepler had poison Ticobrie, who
Speaker 1: died at age fifty four. Kepler, his assistant, would have
Speaker 1: had the opportunity, he would have had access to the
Speaker 1: poison mercury, and he definitely had the motive. In his writings,
Speaker 1: Kepler explained Brie his death a little differently. He wrote
Speaker 1: that on October one, he and Brie were at a
Speaker 1: banquet for Rudolph the Second. Bran had to urinate, but
Speaker 1: as royal decorum dictated that you couldn't leave the table
Speaker 1: before the king, he had to hold it in. Eleven
Speaker 1: days later, now unable to urinate and in extreme pain,
Speaker 1: brah died, but not before begging his pupil to finish
Speaker 1: his work and published the Rudolphine Tables. Of course, Kepler
Speaker 1: readily agreed. The Lord of Uranni Aborg died a urine
Speaker 1: related death. Urania urine sounds like fate. Unfortunately, there is
Speaker 1: no etymological link between those two words, but you know,
Speaker 1: doesn't make it any less interesting. Ticobrie's achievements were vast
Speaker 1: and remarkable, especially when one remembers that all of his
Speaker 1: work was done with the naked eye. Galileo wouldn't use
Speaker 1: a telescope until eight years after Tico Brie's death, so
Speaker 1: Tico did all of his work just looking up at
Speaker 1: the sky. That's all it took. Well, that and the
Speaker 1: sponsorship of King's a near infinite supply of money in
Speaker 1: free labor. But just that, that's the life and death
Speaker 1: of Tico Bride, but keep listening after a brief sponsor
Speaker 1: break to hear about when scientists decided to examine those
Speaker 1: pesky murder rumors Tico bri His body was exhumed twice,
Speaker 1: first in one and then in when scientists investigated once
Speaker 1: and for all whether those kepler murder rumors had any
Speaker 1: truth to them. Unfortunately, the answer is no. Brian did
Speaker 1: have a little bit of mercury in his hair follicles,
Speaker 1: but no more than the normal amount that an alchemist
Speaker 1: slash scientist in the sixteenth century would have. Plus, the
Speaker 1: data didn't indicate a sudden amount of mercury flooding his
Speaker 1: system right before his death. Brian also had gold in
Speaker 1: his system, which people tended to drink at the time
Speaker 1: in their wine for medicinal purposes, so it was more
Speaker 1: likely scientists decided that Tico had some bladder or kidney
Speaker 1: issue before that fateful banquet that ultimately led to his demise.
Speaker 1: So no murder by a jealous, ambitious assistant, exciting as
Speaker 1: that might have been, thanks a lot science. Noble Blood
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Minky. The show was written and hosted
Speaker 1: by Dana Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social
Speaker 1: media at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more
Speaker 1: about the show over at Noble blood tails dot com.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. M