Astronomy, Astrology and Alchemy - People in Prague #1

On my last trip to Prague, I started thinking about a new set of posts which are a slight departure from my normal subject matter. The idea came about because of a framed poster on the wall in my apartment. It was an image ** created by a local Prague artist, Jiří Votruba, and it depicts a number of famous people and fictional characters associated with Prague. The ensemble includes politicians, musicians, artists, writers, and religious figures and royalty.

There are also two scientists, or more accurately, astronomers, shown - Tycho Brahe and Johann Kepler. The two men could not have been more different, Brahe (1546-1601) was a Danish nobleman while Kepler (1571-1630) was from a poor German family. Their paths crossed in Prague in 1600 when Brahe was the Royal Mathematician at the court of Rudolf II and he invited Kepler to become his assistant.

The statue of Brahe and Keppler near Pohořelec

Not only were the two men from different backgrounds, but their approaches to science were radically different. Brahe, who had been fascinated by eclipes since boyhood, made painstaking observations of celestial bodies and collected vast amounts of data relating to their positions in the sky. Kepler, the mathematician who only became interested in astronomy after meeting Brahe, used calculations to derive theories to test against. Neither man's contribution to the fledgeling field of astronomy would have had much value without the other. Ironically, the two men fought continuously while working together, because Brahe refused to share his data. After Brahe's death in 1601, only a year after they met, Kepler stole the data he needed. In 1609, Kepler published his first two Laws of Planetary motions, using the data from Brahe and improving on the model developed by Copernicus from 1543. The third law was published ten years later in 1619.

The statue of Brahe and Keppler near Pohořelec

Brahe was an eccentric character who was widely regarded as an obnoxious and arrogant drunk. As a student, he lost his nose in a duel (over who was a better mathematician) and had it replaced by a gold one. It has been speculated that his death was due to kidney failure as a result of his excessive lifestyle, although there is some evidence that he had ingested a large amount of mercury - perhaps in association with his dalliance with alchemy. Incidentally, I've written about Tycho de Brahe in an earlier post as he was a resident Nový Svět. 

Plaque indicating Brahe's House in Novy Svet

Kepler struggled to find support for his work following Brahe's death, and he made his income by telling astrological fortunes. As a Protestant, Kepler had frequent clashes with the Catholic authorities who were now well established in Prague following the Battle of Bilá Hora. He lost his wife and son to plague and his mother was imprisoned for witchcraft although her sentence was commuted to exile after a five-year struggle, during which Kelper wrote what is considered to be the first ever science fiction novel called "Somnium" (The Dream).

These were strange times across Europe. The realms of Astrology, Alchemy and Astronomy were inevitably interlinked. Golden Lane (Zlatá ulička), a little street within the confines of the Prague castle complex was named after the goldsmiths who lived there, but it was once known as Alchemists Lane. There is no evidence that alchemy was seriously practiced there but Rudolph II played a large part in the development of alchemy across Bohemia, and it was considered a mainstream science.

Golden Lane

Golden Lane

Rudolph II even brought two English alchemists to his court, Edward Kelly and John Dee. Ultimately, Dee fell out with Kelly and returned home. Kelly was imprisoned after failing to deliver on any of his promises and eventually died from injuries sustained while trying to escape.

There is still evidence of Brahe and Kepler's work in Prague. Some of their instruments are still on show in the Klementinum. Until the end of 2017, there was a tiny but fascinating Kepler Museum,   located in a back alley off Karlova, but this has now closed and has been relocated to the National Technology Museum.

 ** I'm currently trying to get permission from the artist to reproduce the image in this blog, until then, here's a link!