Friday 3rd October 2025 Tycho Brahe and the Restoration of Astronomy

Dr Emma Perkins

This Wikimedia image is of a mural showing Tycho Brahe taking celestial measurements in a Quadrant, and is from the Danish Royal Library.

From his island observatory funded by the Danish king, astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) conducted a systematic programme of observation that would lay the foundations for significant astronomical innovations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Yet while his empirical approach resonates with modern scientific sensibilities, Tycho’s view was retrospective: he aimed at no less than the restoration of astronomy. In this he was inspired, like many of his Renaissance counterparts, by the example of the ancient world. This lecture will explore the ways in which Tycho looked to the past to inform his own practices, which were themselves motivated by contemporary debates within the discipline of astronomy. .

Dr Emma Perkins, University of Cambridge

Emma Perkins is a Teaching Associate in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and a Fellow of Newnham College at the University of Cambridge. Her main interests are in early modern astronomy, especially its visual and material culture and systems of patronage.

A video recording of this lecture is available here.