Urged by his desire to understand the matter
thoroughly, Tycho sought to procure some book which might explain
what he so greatly wanted to know. In those days books of any kind
were but few and scarce, and scientific books were especially
unattainable. It so happened, however, that a Latin version of
Ptolemy's astronomical works had appeared a few years before the
eclipse took place, and Tycho managed to buy a copy of this book,
which was then the chief authority on celestial matters. Young as
the boy astronomer was, he studied hard, although perhaps not always
successfully, to understand Ptolemy, and to this day his copy of the
great work, copiously annotated and marked by the schoolboy hand, is
preserved as one of the chief treasures in the library of the
University at Prague.
After Tycho had studied for about three years at the University of
Copenhagen, his uncle thought it would be better to send him, as was
usual in those days, to complete his education by a course of study
in some foreign university. The uncle cherished the hope that in
this way the attention of the young astronomer might be withdrawn
from the study of the stars and directed in what appeared to him a
more useful way. Indeed, to the wise heads of those days, the
pursuit of natural science seemed so much waste of good time which
might otherwise be devoted to logic or rhetoric or some other branch
of study more in vogue at that time.
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