In the Middle Ages, alchemists were notoriously secretive and guarded their knowledge closely. Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was no different, leaving us with little information about his activities in the alchemical laboratory beneath his residence and observatory, Uraniborg, on the island of Ven, now part of Sweden.
Few of Brahe’s alchemical recipes have survived, and remnants of his laboratory are scarce. After his death in 1601, Uraniborg was demolished, and its building materials were repurposed. However, during an excavation from 1988 to 1990, pottery and glass shards believed to be from the alchemical laboratory were discovered in Uraniborg’s old garden. Five of these shards—four glass and one ceramic—have now been analyzed to identify the elements they came into contact with.
Professor Emeritus Kaare Lund Rasmussen, an expert in archaeometry from the University of Southern Denmark, conducted the chemical analyses, with historical context provided by Senior Researcher and Museum Curator Poul Grinder-Hansen from the National Museum of Denmark. The study, published in the journal Heritage Science, revealed enriched levels of trace elements on four of the shards, with one glass shard showing no specific enrichments.
“Most intriguing are the elements found in higher concentrations than expected, indicating enrichment and offering insights into the substances used in Tycho Brahe’s alchemical laboratory,” said Lund Rasmussen.
The enriched elements—nickel, copper, zinc, tin, antimony, tungsten, gold, mercury, and lead—were found on either the inside or outside of the shards. While most of these elements are typical for an alchemist’s laboratory, tungsten’s presence is particularly mysterious, as it had not been described at that time. Tungsten was first described and produced in pure form over 180 years later by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. It naturally occurs in certain minerals, suggesting it may have inadvertently entered Brahe’s laboratory through one of these minerals.
Lund Rasmussen speculates that Tycho Brahe might have heard about tungsten from earlier reports by German mineralogist Georgius Agricola, who described a troublesome substance in tin ore called “Wolfram” (later renamed tungsten in English).
Tycho Brahe focused on developing medicine for diseases such as plague, syphilis, leprosy, fever, and stomach aches, inspired by the German physician Paracelsus. Unlike some alchemists who attempted to create gold from lesser materials, Brahe kept his medical recipes closely guarded, sharing them only with select individuals, including his patron Emperor Rudolph II.
Brahe’s plague medicine was complex, containing theriac—a remedy with up to 60 ingredients, including snake flesh and opium—along with copper or iron vitriol, various oils, and herbs. Filtration and distillation produced Brahe’s first plague remedy, which could be enhanced with tinctures of coral, sapphires, hyacinths, or potable gold.
Despite his dual interests in astronomy and alchemy, Brahe’s belief in the connections between celestial bodies, earthly substances, and human organs made his pursuits logical in his worldview. He associated the sun with gold and the heart, the moon with silver and the brain, and other celestial bodies with corresponding earthly elements and organs.
Lund Rasmussen’s previous analyses of Brahe’s hair and bones revealed the presence of gold, indicating Brahe himself may have consumed medicine containing potable gold.
For more information, refer to Kaare Lund Rasmussen’s study, “Chemical analysis of fragments of glass and ceramic ware from Tycho Brahe’s laboratory at Uraniborg on the island of Ven (Sweden),” published in Heritage Science (2024).
Provided by the University of Southern Denmark.
Citation: Chemical analyses find hidden elements from Renaissance astronomer Tycho Brahe’s alchemy laboratory (2024, July 24). Retrieved 25 July 2024 from phys.org.
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