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The court hunt provided relaxation and vigorous sport in the open air, but it could also be a powerful engine of economic growth. King Frederik II of Denmark and Norway demonstrated this when he reorganized his entire domain to serve the needs of a particular kind of royal hunt. But what was the Great Hunt (storjagt, Hauptjagen) at a northern court of the late sixteenth century? When did this form of hunting make the transition from a fiercely dangerous field sport into a safe and secure public ritual of domination over nature? That question remains elusive.

Three Danish kings of the period 1550–1650 strove to create terrestrial spaces that would acquire divine power by emulating celestial order. King Christian III (reigned 1536–59) did so by carrying out a religious reformation under royal leadership. King Frederik II (reigned 1559–88) was inspired by a prominent courtier, Tycho Brahe, to create spaces for investigating the divine powers of nature. King Christian IV (regency 1588–96, reigned 1596–1648) combined the two approaches and created microcosmic spaces that aimed to capture both religious and natural powers for his court.A version of this article was presented at the conference on ‘The Politics of Space: Courts of Europe and the Mediterranean, c. 1500-1750‘, held at The Huntington in San Marino, California, on 26-27 January 2007.

L'heritage de Tycho Brahe, astronome danois du XVIe siecle, vu sous trois angles differents : tel que l'auteur le percoit apres avoir suivi un symposium marquant le 400e anniversaire de la mort de Brahe, en reprenant la perception de l'astronome lui-meme, et enfin, tel que les historiens de la science percoivent cet heritage de nos jours, notamment a travers le travail de Kepler, son disciple a Prague.

Tycho Brahe est un savant universel dont les travaux scientifiques ont ete publies en plusieurs langues au profit de la communaute scientifique mondiale

Until its final revision by Longomontanus in 1600, Tycho's lunar theory was fundamentally Copernican: Tycho (or Longomontanus) had been able to represent the Variation by simply putting an extra circle, AB in Figure A.3.1, into the center of Copernicus's theory. By making the center of the deferent ( B ) revolve around the earth ( A ) at twice the synodic velocity of the moon, he produced displacements that mounted to ±45' 20′ when the moon was in the octants and yet vanished in syzygy and quadrature. But the Variation was not the only extra circle grafted onto the traditional theory. The center of the large epicycle also moved on a new circle, CD , producing a periodic displacement up to ±11'. This correction appears without a prior hint of any kind in either Tycho's log notes or his letters and would therefore be unknown if Tycho had not allowed Jostel to “prepublish” his theory in 1599. What it represented, although somewhat imperfectly, was a phenomenon called the annual equation . When it finally attained recognition as a legitimate lunar phenomenon and was explained by Newton a hundred years later, it was seen as an annual variation of the speed of the moon in its orbit, owing to the annual fluctuation of the sun's distance from (and hence influence on) the earth–moon system. That Tycho also associated the phenomenon with the sun in some sense is obvious from the fact that his period for it was a year.

The Lord of Uraniborg is a comprehensive biography of Tycho Brahe, father of modern astronomy, famed alchemist and littérateur of the sixteenth-century Danish Renaissance. Written in a lively and engaging style, Victor Thoren's biography offers interesting perspectives on Tycho's life and presents alternative analyses of virtually every aspect of his scientific work. A range of readers interested in astronomy, history of astronomy and the history of science will find this book fascinating.

Preface 1. A noble humanist 2. The new star 3. Becoming a professional 4. The first years on Hven: 1576-1579 5. Urania's castle 6. The flowering of Uraniborg 7. First renovations: the solar theory 8. The tychonic system of the world 9. High tide: 1586-1591 10. The theory of the motion of the moon 11. The last years at Uraniborg 12. Exile 13. A home away from home? Epilogue Appendices Author index Subject index.