You probably remember Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer from the 1500s who created a vast catalog of amazingly accurate (for the 1500s) astronomical observations. But you might now know that his younger sister, Sophia Brahe (who was born on August 24) was his research partner and shared a great deal of the work (but usually doesn’t get a share of the credit).
Sophia Brahe was born in 1559 (and there’s a bit of controversy about whether it was today) in Knudstrup, which at the time was in Denmark (it’s now in Sweden) into a noble family. Her brother Tycho was more than ten years older, and they were raised in separate households, and weren’t close as children. She received an education thanks to her social station, and it appeared at first that she was going to be a fairly typical noblewoman — she married into another noble family when she was in her early 20s, and they had a son. But then her husband died, and Sophia took charge of the entire estate (it’s now Trolleholm Castle, which sits on a 12,000 acre property). She got interested in horticulture and designed gardens that were said to be exceptional. She was also interested in chemistry and medicine, and concocted doses to cure various complaints of the people living on her vast estate.
At about the same time, she got interested in the same areas as her brother Tycho, which initially centered on astrology, and they worked together to produce horoscopes for people. Her estate thrived, and Sophia Brahe became a woman of considerable wealth — and while visiting her brother at his estate, she met Erik Lange. He was a nobleman similarly interested in the sciences of the time, but his interest was in alchemy and he was obsessed with trying to create gold. Obsessed to the extent that he spent himself into relative poverty. The two became engaged, but perhaps because Sophia may have taken a dim view of Erik’s lack of financial acumen, they weren’t married until about 12 years later.
According to the standards of the time, Erik did not receive a share in Sophia’s (or her family’s) wealth — instead, she received a full share of his poverty, and was cut off by her family. They didn’t approve of her marriage, her interest in science, or her work in astronomy with her brother Tycho. And as a woman in Europe in the 1500s, she wasn’t in charge of her own cash. When Erik died, Sophia moved back to her old castle — now managed by her son — and he supported her. In spite of her family, though, she continued her work in astronomy and astrology. She also wrote an extensive (900 page) genealogy of Danish noble families.
Neither Tycho nor Sophia made note of exactly how much she contributed to his catalog of observations, but since she apparently took charge whenever Tycho travelled (which was a lot), and had her own observatories, it was most likely quite a lot. Oddly enough, the most important reference is a long poem, Urania Titani, written (or at least published) by Peder Resen. It’s also possible that it was written by Tycho, or even by Sophia herself. It’s ostensibly fictional, but describes the close working relationship between the siblings, and how Tycho was quite open about his sister’s contributions. Not only that — the poem actually includes Sophia’s and Tycho’s horoscopes, and Peder Resen did not (as far as we know) create horoscopes.
