Decoding narratives on halo phenomena: an approach to Tycho Brahe's Vision of Urania in De nova stella (1573)

Abstract

The booklet De nova stella, published by Tycho Brahe in 1573, contains various texts, some of which have little to do with the stellar explosion known today as a supernova: Towards the end there is a poem In Uraniam Elegia Autoris, 232 verses long, in which Tycho condenses a visionary encounter with the goddess of the muses, Urania. But who or what is "Urania"? Is it just a literary fiction, an allegory of the supernova, an epiphany in the style of Ovid, a self-reflection projected onto the outside world? In a close reading, text passages that have re- ceived less attention so far are decoded - the evidence found in the process makes it clear: Tycho's "Urania" has a fundamentum in re. An hitherto underexposed side of the Renaissance scholar becomes visible: Tycho Brahe as a gifted observer of rare meteorological phenomena, who stands in the tradition of halo visionaries. The first part of the article attempts to provide an introduction to this complex subject.