events it was currently believed that the ill-feeling between Valkendorf and Tycho arose from a quarrel about a dog,[1] but the story is told in different ways. We have already alluded to the version of the story according to which the quarrel occurred on the occasion of the visit of the young king to Hveen, and it was pointed out that Valkendorf was not at Hveen at that time. The well-known French writer, Pierre Daniel Huet, who was at Copenhagen in 1652, tells the story differently.[2] According to him, an English envoy had a dog which Tycho wanted for a watch-dog at Uraniborg; but as Valkendorf also coveted it, and the envoy wished to keep friendly with both of them, he promised to send them each a dog when he went home. But when the dogs came, one was much finer and larger than the other, and the king, who was asked to arbitrate between them, gave the large one to Valkendorf, which roused Tycho's ire and caused the enmity between them. But all this probably
- ↑ Danske Magazin, ii. p. 322, quotes Th. Bartholin, De medicina Danorum (1666). Gassendi (p. 140) also knows the story.
- ↑ Pet. Dan. Huetii, Episcopi Abrincensis, Commentarius de rebus ad eum pertinentibus. Amstelodami, 1718, 12mo, p. 90. Huet was on his way to Queen Christina of Sweden when he visited Copenhagen and Hveen. As he mentions the Danish savant Ole Worm, he may have had the story from him.
says that "duo Dynastæ," either from ignorance of science, or from hatred and malice towards him, or from both causes, got his endowments taken from him. In a letter to Magini, dated 3rd January 1600, Tycho speaks in stronger terms. He wanted Magini to get some Italian writer to compose a panegyric on him, and had sent Magini some materials for this, but he mentions that he does not want his country, nor the king, nor the nobility at large to be abused, as most of these had nothing to do with his exile. "Perstringendi vero solummodo pro merito Cancellarius modernus et Aulæ Magister; qui cum patriæ honorem ex officio promovere debuissent, eum potius ob avaritiam et sorditiem pari invidia, malignitate et odio coniunctum (cum ipsi liberalibus scieintis vel nihil vel admodum parum tincti essent) impediverunt et exterminarunt. Nomina eorum invenies in iis quæ de caussis discessus mei Latine exarata nunc mitto." He adds that their names are as well worth preserving as that of Herostratos who burned the temple of Diana at Ephesus! (F. Burckhardt, Aus Tycho Brahes Briefwechsel, Basel, 1887, pp. 10 and 14. Magini printed the letter in his Tabulæ primi Mobilis, but left out the above passage, which, therefore, does not occur in the Carteggio, p. 418.)
