Pratensis and Dancey were as surprised as Tycho had been when they saw this new star, so utterly different from a comet (the only class of celestial bodies with which anybody thought of comparing it), and yet, according to Tycho's observations, more distant than the planets, and probably belonging to "the eighth sphere," which had always hitherto been considered the very picture of immutability. Pratensis at once recollected the statement made by Pliny in the second book of his Natural History (on which he happened to be then lecturing at the University), that Hipparchus is said to have observed a new star; and perceiving the importance of the manuscript essay which Tycho had given him to read, he urged him to have it printed. But Tycho declined, on the pretence that the essay had not received the final touches from his hand, but really because he was not quite free from the prejudice of some of his fellow-nobles, that it was not proper for a nobleman to write books.[1]
Tycho therefore returned to Scania with his manuscript. But when the spring came, and communication with Germany was reopened, he received from thence through Pratensis so many accounts of the star, both written and printed, containing a vast amount of nonsense, that he became inclined to let his own book be published, as it might serve to refute the erroneous statements circulated about the star. During a second visit to Copenhagen he was entreated to publish the book, not only by Pratensis, but also by his kinsman, Peter Oxe, high treasurer of Denmark, whose sister had been the wife of Jörgen Brahe, and consequently had been a second mother to Tycho. Shaken in his resolution by the persuasions of this intelligent man, who even suggested that he might hide his name under an anagram if he did not wish to put it on the title-page,
- ↑ Progymnasmata, p. 579.
