In my last post I made a passing, almost throwaway reference to Tycho Brahe's nose being made of copper, or at least a copper alloy. This led to some debate on my facebook page about whether Brahe's nose was actually made of copper alloy, or if it was, as most people believe, a precious metal (probably gold). So I did some digging, asked some friends who know more about the history of astronomy than I've forgotten and found some references!
The canonical reference for Brahe's nose being made of copper is Heinrich Matiegka's "Bericht uber die Untersuchung der Gebeine Tycho Brahe's", (Report on the Investigation of Tycho Brahe's Tomb) published in Prague, 1901. And the issue is discussed in Victor E. Thoren's "The Lord of Uraniborg: A Biography of Tycho Brahe", the rather good 1990 biography of Brahe. The basic gist is that upon exhumation of Brahe's body, it was found that he had traces of green deposit around his nose, generally indicative of oxidized copper deposits. This seems to lend credence to the theory that Brahe's nose was copper, or at least a copper and silver alloy (you need to get it pale enough to match skin tone!), rather than the usual gold or silver that is usually mentioned.
So there you have it, various references to Tycho Brahe's nose. All before breakfast! ;)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I seem to remember reading that Brahe had several prosthetic noses. The copper one was for every day use. He only brought out the gold one at parties to amuse friends. Apparently it was quite heavy and not practical for regular use.
ReplyDeleteNow I've got to run off and find that citation.