Sophia Brahe, astronomer, landscape designer, historian – 08/22/2023 – Marcelo Viana

The Dane Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) was the last great astronomer before the invention of the telescope. For decades, he made meticulous observations of the positions of stars in the sky. His assistant Johannes Kepler used them to deduce the famous three laws of planetary motion, which in turn influenced Isaac Newton’s discovery of the law of gravitation. This ensures Brahe an honored place in the history of science.

Equally notable, but far less known, is his colleague and younger sister, Sophia Brahe (1559–1643). Born into the aristocracy, the brothers shared a taste for science, which the family considered inappropriate for people of their class.

Sophia studied chemistry and horticulture with Tycho, and later became interested in medicine as well. But her brother resisted teaching her astronomy, initially, because he doubted that she could master the area considered more complex (and lucrative): astrology.

So Sophia studied astronomy on her own, in books in German or Latin that she had translated at her own expense, and ended up collaborating with Tycho in his observations. They were together on November 11, 1572 when they discovered a new star (the supernova SN1572, in current terminology) in the constellation of Cassiopeia. A shocking discovery for the time, as it contradicted the dogma that the stellar sphere was eternal and immutable.

We know that they also observed the lunar eclipse of December 8, 1573 together. The appreciation that Tycho developed for his colleague Sophia is evident in his subscribers, where he refers to her as “animus invictus” (determined mind, in Latin). He represented Sophia in the character of Urania, the Greek muse of astronomy, protagonist of the Latin epic poem “Urania Titani”, which he published in 1594. He even delegated to her the task of writing his clients’ horoscopes!

Sophia applied her knowledge of horticulture to the design of the gardens of the castle of Trolleholm, which currently belongs to Sweden. In the last years of his life he also wrote a genealogy of the noble families of Denmark which is still an important source of historical information. He died in 1643 in the city of Helsingor.

The poet Johan L. Heiberg expressed how close the two brothers were like no one else: “Denmark must never forget the noble woman who, in spirit even more than in flesh and blood, was the sister of Tycho Brahe; the shining star in the Danish sky is double”.

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