De Nova Stella – an astronomical rarity

Small book, major consequences

It isn’t big and with a mere 54 pages and just a few, simple illustrations, it looks quite unassuming. But make no mistake, Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe’s little book “De Nova et Nullius” – popularly known as “De Nova Stella” (the new star) – plays a unique role in both world history and the history of science. The book brought Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) worldwide fame and heralded the start of a veritable scientific revolution, namely astronomy.

A brand new star

Much to his amazement on the evening of 11 November 1572, Brahe discovered a new luminous phenomenon in the constellation Cassiopeia. Without the aid of a telescope or binoculars, but just with the naked eye and a new sextant he had built himself, he set out to examine the phenomenon. Over the course of several months, he measured the distance of the star from the other stars in Cassiopeia and noted down his observations on the star’s colour, light and power in a diary. Contrary to all available astronomical theory since Aristotle (384 B.C.–322 B.C.), he concluded that this was not a comet, but a brand new fixed star.

Aristotelian astronomy

That there could be something new in the night sky, in the so-called Eighth sphere, was, according to the geocentric world view at that time, unthinkable. In this outermost sphere, further away than the moon, the comets and the moving planets, the sky’s phenomena were fixed in relation to each other. So said all astronomical science, which until then had been based on ancient observations dating back to Aristotle, Ptolemy, Hipparch et al. New thoroughly tested observations were not a method used. Even Copernicus’ revolutionary theory about the sun as the centre of the universe from 1543 – which was not proven conclusively until several centuries later – was based on analyses of ancient observations, not on his own measurements. 

The new exact method

Tycho Brahe, who had been interested in astronomy since his childhood, had, however, long doubted the ancient observations. He had stumbled across mistakes on numerous occasions when testing the observations himself. When, in spring 1573, he became aware of a number of erroneous observations of the new star, he took his friends’ advice and published parts of the diary to disprove the postulates.

In his concise yet precise work, he not only proved the shortcomings of the theories, but also revealed an immense need to change the approach to astronomy as a science – to change the method. And it was Brahe’s groundbreaking approach, seen for the first time in “De Nova Stella”, that really signaled the start of the Copernican Revolution. He showed that scientific analyses could no longer be based exclusively on ancient traditions.

The Tychonic influence  – from Europe to China

Brahe’s observations and methodology inspired a great many scientists in Europe and abroad in the centuries that followed – including Brahe’s student, Kepler, and Galileo and Newton. In the 1660-1670's his scientific reach even spread to China where a group of Jesuit monks assigned by the Chinese emperor – led by the Flemish missionary Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688) – raised a number of full scale copies of the instruments of Tycho Brahe on the walls of the Observatory of Beijing. The instruments, built with Chinese decorations, still exist in the Observatory of Beijing today. The Jesuits also adopted Brahe's Tychonic system which had enormous influence on Chinese astronomy for many years.

Urania’s gift

“De Nova Stella” was printed by renowned Danish printer Lorentz Benedicht in May 1573. Besides the factual observations, in true Renaissance style the work contains astrological considerations on the importance of the star, and not least a long allegorical poem by Tycho Brahe. In the poem, Brahe is urged by the Goddess of Astronomy Urania to seek the truth in the sky and answers to scientific questions rather than strive for a noble, yet empty, life. She therefore gives him this new star. The poetic epilogue is a form of emotional processing of the unique significance of the observations. It gives the work a distinctive Renaissance character, uniting the strictly scientific with a more literary, spiritual side.

A rarity of astronomical proportions

According to Tycho Brahe’s own later writings, only a few copies of the book were printed. Today, there are 20 known copies in public collections worldwide. There are, in addition, a couple in private ownership, of which the copy up for auction is one of the few complete copies – if not the only one. Bruun Rasmussen sold a copy of the work, which was bound together with another work, back in 1964 for a hammer price of DKK 71,000, which in today’s money is around 10 times that.

The work up for auction comes from the privately-owned institution Tycho Brahe Planetarium in Copenhagen. The book has been the property of the Planetarium for a number of years. The Planetarium has however chosen to sell the book as they are planning to renovate the entire exhibition area to make way for a new, interactive exhibition, which does not include the book as a physical part of the exhibition. In addition to the rare book by Brahe, we are offering the book on Hven and Tycho Brahe’s instruments from Joan Blaeu’s “Grande Atlas” from 1663 with hand-coloured copperplate engravings of Tycho Brahe, his instruments and the observatory at Hven, as well as three coloured copperplate engravings – one which depicts the instruments at the Observatory of Beijing.

Preview and auction

“De Nova Stella” and Blaeu’s atlas of Hven have been selected as two of the exquisite works to be sold in connection with Jesper Bruun Rasmussen’s 50th anniversary auction at 6 pm on 28 November at Bredgade. The preview will also take place at Bredgade from 24-27 November.

View all the lots featured in Jesper Bruun Rasmussen’s anniversary auction