Hello, dear readers. I've never had so many guests for Women's History Month, and I hope you're enjoying this wonderful variety of stories about amazing women! My guest today is Maria Yrsa Rönneus, who is not only a fantastic author, she is the designer of the cover art for my novel, But One Life. Maria takes us back to the 16th century and introduces us to a true Renaissance woman, Sofie Brahe.
Welcome, Maria!
~ Samantha
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Urania Titani: Sofie Brahe
Guest Post by Maria Yrsa Rönneus
It is a truth oft perpetuated, that clever, successful, and interesting women make bad relationship choices. Though hardly a universal fact, it was certainly true of Sofie (Sophie) Brahe.
She was a true Renaissance woman – astronomer, astrologer, alchemist, meteorologist, historian, genealogist, gardener, and landlady. Strong, clever, beautiful, but she had a terrible taste in men.
Scania (Da: Skaane, Swe: Skåne) along with the counties of Halland and Blekinge, make up the southernmost tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and aside from a brief interlude of Swedish reign in the 14th century, Scania was historically Danish until 1658. It was a coveted and well-guarded breadbasket, but whichever side of the sound the monarch was on, Scania always had, fought for, and retained its own traditions, culture, and even language.
It was in this rich province, at Knudstrup Castle (Swe: Knutstorp) that Sofie was born the youngest of ten to Otte Brahe and Beate Bille in 1556 or 1559. The noble family of Brahe was ancient aristocracy; they were influential and extremely wealthy – their vast family tree is littered with Councils, Marshals, and Stewards of the Realm and Ladies in Waiting. Needless to say, that they could well afford to give their children the very best education available at the time.
And their oldest son, the famous astronomer Tyge (Swe: Tycho) certainly benefitted from university in Copenhagen. Of all Sofie’s siblings he was the one she was closest to, despite his being at least twelve years her senior. Sharing the same interests and talents, they faced the same opposition from their parents and other siblings. Sciences weren’t seen as suitable occupation for nobility in general, and particularly not for women. Sofie, of course, stood no chance of getting an education equal to her brother’s.
Tyge taught her horticulture and alchemy, but their relationship wasn’t without conflict either. Tyge was a man of his times after all, and wouldn’t teach her astronomy as he feared that her feebler female mind might not be equal to the task.
Sofie, however, wasn’t one to let a few obstacles stand in her way, and promptly proceeded to teach herself Greek mythology, history, German, and astronomy. By her own admission, she had little interest in women’s conventional skills and chores, and already in her teens, she began assisting Tyge in his work.
The scientific disciplines as we know them today had yet to crystallise – astronomy and astrology were one and the same. Consequently, Sofie’s interest in astronomy was inextricably tied to her firm belief in astrology. She achieved great skill in calculating the natal charts for friends and acquaintances, and did so wherever she went for both her own and others’ amusement. Similarly, her aim to find the formula for the elusive “Philosopher’s Stone” taught her to prepare medicines and herbal remedies which she handed out to friends, tenants, and the poor.
In 1577, when she was about twenty-one years of age, she was married to Otte Tagesen Thott of Eriksholm, (presently Trolleholm). Little is known about him, he appears to have been quite unremarkable. We can’t know whether this was a marriage she welcomed or was forced into, but eleven years of marriage didn’t result in more than one child. It’s easy to read lack of love and passion into that, but it’s also possible that Otte Thott wasn’t a healthy man. The cause of his demise seems to be unknown, but he died already in1588, when he was only forty-five.
In any case, Sofie was given quite a lot of freedom to keep up with her interests as well as cultivate new ones. Her garden at Eriksholm was renowned, and she seems to have thrived. Otte Thott may have lead a quiet life, but his funeral was such a lavish affair as to attract the displeasure of the government.
As a widow, Sofie continued to live and work at Eriksholm, managing the estate for her young son. She kept visiting Tyge frequently, much as she had during her marriage. King Frederik II had given Tyge an island in Öresund. Ven is a mere speck on the map, but there he built his wonderful mansion Uraniborg, and his subterranean observatory Stjerneborg (Eng: Star Castle). Underground, his delicate instruments would be protected from the weather, and readings not be influenced by for example winds, which would have been a real problem on the tiny island. Both the castle and the observatory were demolished after Tyge left for Prague in 1599, but the observatory was reconstructed in the 20th century, and now houses a museum.
At Uraniborg, the learned scientific elite of the late 16th century gathered. Sofie became more than merely her brother’s assistant, she participated in all parts of the scientific discourse at Uraniborg. So much so that Tyge planned to include some of her work in the second volume of his ‘Astronomical Letters’, which he sadly never got to finish. Sofie befriended the learned men, and their regard for her knowledge and work is well documented. They called her Urania for the Greek muse of astronomy. (The planet Uranus also named for the same muse wouldn’t be discovered for another two centuries.)
It was here that she met and fell head-over-heels in love with Erik Lange of Engelsholm. He was a young nobleman who had received education in Paris and Wittenburg. There are no known paintings of Erik, but I imagine he must have been handsome. Erik was clever, but could hardly compare to the intellectual giants that Sofie was used to rubbing shoulders with. Yet she was decidedly dazzled. Sofie was thirty-four when they got engaged.
But, let loose in the well-equipped laboratory at Uraniborg, Erik’s love of alchemy trumped his love for Sofie. He gave himself over to the gold-making business with such abandon that he distilled away almost all his assets. Two years later, the wedding had still not taken place, and Erik had to flee from his creditors. Erik left Denmark in 1592.
Sofie returned to Eriksholm, to her son, her studies, and her garden. It’s from this time that a poem called Urania Titani originates. It is a long letter professing Urania’s passionate love for Titan (Erik) composed in sonorous Latin hexameter. It tells of her sadness and longing for her beloved, and Urania reassures Titan of her trust in him.
Accounts conflict on whether she actually wrote the poem herself, or if she commissioned it; some sources say that she didn’t know Latin. She was known to write poetry, albeit in Danish. Her brother Tyge, who also wrote poetry, took credit for it. It seems to me a very odd thing to write a fervent love letter to one’s sister’s lover. Far more reasonable then to assume that he translated it. Regardless of who wrote the poem, it’s safe to say that Sofie was besotted.
Erik meanwhile, was mostly besotted with the thought of making gold, and letters from him were brief and far between. Travelling from place to place in present day Germany, Poland, and Czech Republic, he accumulated new debt where ever he went. Gold-feverish addiction had him in a firm grip, and little else mattered. He neglected his duties as landlord, yet forced his tenants to work too hard, and ultimately pawned his estate.
Sofie’s family tried to persuade her to break it off with him, but her loyal heart wouldn’t hear of it.
Instead, she sent him such sums of money that her family intervened with legal actions, and seized her assets on behalf of her son, then still a minor.
Sofie was not about to let true love slip away, and in 1599, when her son reached majority, she managed to scrape together enough to travel to Germany. Erik, however, could barely tear himself away from his “art”. Sofie was well liked and had many friends and connections in Europe who sent her invitations to stay, but Sofie couldn’t bring herself to give up on Erik. When he left for a new place, she found some excuse to follow. But with her closest relatives in Scania, she found neither help nor compassion.
Sofie and Erik returned to Denmark in 1602, where Erik was arrested and put in debtors’ prison. Help came from her extended family, and finally when she was forty-six, they were married. She wrote in a vivid and acerbic letter to her sister that she did not own one pair of stockings without holes for the wedding and that the groom’s clothes had been hocked.
The wedding bells had barely stilled before Erik took off again. Inheritances made Sofie’s life more bearable, but her holdings were now Erik’s and his debts devoured much of that too. Erik died destitute in Prague in 1613.
Another woman might have returned full of remorse and sorrow to her son’s Eriksholm, but not Sofie. It was not for nothing that her brother Tyge spoke of her “animus invictus” – her invincible spirit. In 1616, she moved to Helsingør (Elsinore) where she devoted herself to genealogical research. Her work resulted in a folio of over 900 pages in 1626. Genealogy was a popular pursuit with the ladies of nobility of the time, but Sofie’s family book was considered a pinnacle among similar works, not least because of her animated storytelling.
As a female scientist, Sofie Brahe was a new phenomenon is Nordic history. Her work defied norms in terms of both sex and class. She died in Helsingør in 1643, at an age of eighty-seven. Made possible, partly by her brother’s support, partly by her own stubbornness, hers was a remarkable life on her own terms.
Sources:
https://kvindebiografiskleksikon.lex.dk/Sophie_Brahe_-_Tycho_Brahes_søster_og_hjælper
https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk
https://nordicwomensliterature.net/da/2011/01/04/slaegtens-kreds-og-venskabets-tempel/
‘Dansk Biografisk Leksikon’, C. F. Bricka (1887 – 1905)
‘Breve og aktstykker angaaende Tyge Brahe og hans slægtninge’, F. R. Friis (1875)
‘Sofie Brahe Ottesdatter. En biografisk skildring’, F. R. Friis (1905)
‘Tycho Brahes "Urania Titani": et digt om Sophie Brahe’. P. Zeeberg (1994)
Images from Wikipedia, Alvin and Flickr. Artwork by Joan Blaeu and Edith Annie Ibbs.
In Orbits of Attraction, the fictional protagonist, Juliet, is an astronomer in the early 19th century Britain. Two hundred years had changed very little for women in sciences. It highlights the particular challenges that being female in a male dominated pursuit entailed. The protagonist meets Caroline Herschel, another clever female astronomer, doomed to playing second fiddle to a celebrated brother.
Although privileged, Juliet too faces sexism in her work, and has to wrestle the issues arising in combining independence and love.
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