Johannes Kepler is rightly considered one of the greatest scientific minds in history; his planetary laws of motion and other insights were a foundation upon which modern astronomy rests. Despite his genius, though, Kepler was by some accounts a difficult person to like: vindictive, jealous, and prone to violent rages when he didn’t get his way. There is little doubt that he appropriated the data of his mentor, Tycho Brahe, and used it for his own purposes; Kepler openly admitted as much, and evidently felt not the slightest pang of conscience. But recent forensic evidence hints that Kepler may have done more than steal from Brahe — he might have murdered him as well.
The Collaboration of Brahe and Kepler
By 1595, Kepler was teaching mathematics in Austria and had already formulated a Copernican theory of the universe, positing planetary orbits in nested spheres. He wrote a letter to renowned astronomer Tycho Brahe, asking the man’s opinion of his theory. Brahe replied diplomatically that his own data cast doubt on Kepler’s suppositions, but invited Kepler to visit so the two men could share ideas on the subject. Kepler, irritated by the perceived tone of the letter but intrigued by the mention of unpublished data, took the older man up on the offer.
Kepler Moves In
It was a disaster almost from the start. Kepler did not like the constant whirlwind of activity in the Brahe household, and was annoyed that Brahe would not allow him to copy from his extensive log books, in which he had recorded forty years’ worth of astronomical observations.
Despite Brahe’s saintly patience and willingness to secure a salary and lodgings for Kepler, the younger astronomer often stormed out of the house or wrote letters to friends insulting Brahe and his family. A few surviving letters also confirm that Kepler was trying to manipulate acquaintances into helping him secure Brahe’s data, which he felt he needed in order to prove his own theories.
The Death of Tycho Brahe
At fifty-four, Brahe had always been a healthy person. But on October 13, 1601, Brahe was attending a banquet when he suddenly fell ill, delirious and unable to urinate. Over the next eleven days, the astronomer hovered at the point of death, suffering from fever and severe abdominal pain.
On the evening of October 23, he seemed to rally somewhat; his fever broke, his pain subsided, and he regained lucidity. But by the next morning he was dead. Until recently, it was thought that Brahe had died from uremia, or possibly from a burst bladder. But recent forensic analysis of his hair shows a curious spike in the amount of mercury in Brahe’s body shortly before his death.
Alchemy and Mercury Poisoning
Brahe, besides his mastery of astronomy, was also an enthusiastic alchemist, though he was less concerned with turning base metals into gold than he was with making medicines. A few of his medicines did contain mercury, and it is known that he had taken a few of his own preparations for various minor illnesses. However, the type and amount of mercury in these preparations was not nearly enough to kill him, and at any rate Brahe was expert enough to know what dosage to administer.
The amount of mercury in Brahe’s hair sample, analyzed in the early 1990s, was enormous, and actually suggested two separate poisonings: The first at the dinner party, where he had suddenly fallen ill, and the second the night before his death, when his condition had seemed to be improving. A spike in his calcium level a few hours before his death suggests that the poison was administered in a glass of milk.
Kepler the Prime Suspect?
Although there are many other possible explanations for Brahe’s death, not all of them involving murder, Joshua and Ann-Lee Gilder, in their book Heavenly Intrigue, argue that Kepler was the most likely suspect. Kepler was well versed in alchemy and had access to Brahe’s alchemical lab, and he had often expressed his hatred of Brahe in letters; he felt that merely being Brahe’s assistant would never bring him any glory.
There was also the case of the data, which Kepler made no secret of wanting to get his hands on; indeed, after Brahe’s death, even though the older astronomer had asked for the logbooks to go to his family, Kepler took off with them. Brahe’s son-in-law was able to wrest most of the books back from Kepler’s grasp, but only after Kepler had copied all the data he needed out of them.
Was Tycho Brahe’s Death Really Murder?
Critics of the poisoning theory argue that Brahe could have died from a urinary tract infection or a similar ailment, or from long-term exposure to toxic mercury fumes. Other critics have blamed the presence of mercury in the hair sample on the embalming process done on Brahe’s body.
The Gilders assert, however, that a urinary disease would not have come on as suddenly as Brahe’s illness did, and could have been treated with a simple catheterization, a common practice even in the 16th century. An accident involving mercury fumes would have caused symptoms far more dramatic than those seen in Brahe in the week before his death, including corrosion of the sinus passages as well as burning in the eyes and throat. Finally, analysis of Brahe’s hair sample showed that the mercury was present inside the hair, suggesting it came from the bloodstream, and not on the outside, where it would be expected if the chemical was a remnant of the embalming process.
Source:
Gilder, Joshua and Ann-Lee (2004). Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History’s Greatest Scientific Discoveries. Doubleday. ISBN: 0385508441.
Jenny Ashford - Jenny Ashford is a writer and graphic artist from central Florida. Her main area of interest in her Suite 101 articles is science, with a ...
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