The Life of Tycho Brahe

Regarding the Life of Tycho Brahe

I would set down whatever records pertaining to the Life of Tycho I had at hand. It also came to my mind that the illustrious Ludovicus Keppler, son of the great Johannes, was present in Königsberg, Prussia, and was practicing medicine there, and that he possessed by hereditary right the Observations of Tycho received from his father. Therefore, I immediately sent a letter to that excellent man and dear friend, Johannes Hevelius, Councilor of the Old City of the Danzig Republic (that famous author of the Selenographia), in which I petitioned him to obtain for me, by virtue of the friendship that existed between him and the aforementioned Keppler, whatever singular information he himself knew, or had received from his father, regarding the illustration of the Life of Tycho; and not only that, but also whatever pertained to the father himself, whose life I intended to write, if not separately, at least conjunctively and mixed with the one I was meditating for Tycho. Hevelius wrote back in these words: "As I was sealing these letters, a message was delivered to me from D. Keppler, in which he promises to see to it that you will shortly have the life of both, namely Tycho and Kepler, as well as their origins, with all the circumstances, printed and set in type." Although the excellent Laurentius Eichstadius, writer of Ephemerides, having seen my letters at Hevelius’s, wrote of his own accord and at the same time everything he had observed concerning the matters I had indicated; and at almost the same time, I obtained more from that equally excellent man, Olaus Wormius, Professor of Medicine at Copenhagen (who, upon the recent death of his colleague Longomontanus, had been a familiar friend and knew not a few things about Tycho from him), yet, thinking nonetheless that I would be doing nothing other than "acting the actor" [i.e., performing a redundant task], I completely abandoned the care of organizing the commentaries; and having departed for the province, I devoted myself especially to restoring and strengthening my still wavering health. A year has passed, and now, feeling better and thinking of returning here, when I saw that five years had elapsed since that hope had been given to me, I appealed to Hevelius again so that he might hint at what the matter was; for indeed, I had wanted to attempt nothing since that time. He, although he had given our mutual friend, the illustrious Bullialdus, the expectation of a reply, nevertheless gave no response; and for that reason, as it is right to believe, because he had been laboring long and gravely; as it has been made known to me from elsewhere, not without my great sorrow.