Overview
- Eyewitnesses said Brahe refused to leave Emperor Rudolf II’s banquet to urinate, setting the stage for a medical crisis.
- Accounts from his assistants describe days of agony with fever, delirium, and urinary retention consistent with a ruptured bladder or severe infection.
- Scientists who examined his remains in 2010 and 2012 reported no lethal mercury levels, undermining long-standing poisoning rumors.
- Archaeological analysis indicated obesity, a meat- and fish-heavy diet, and bone changes consistent with DISH that may have contributed as co-morbid factors.
- Brahe’s uniquely precise pre-telescopic observations were passed to Johannes Kepler, and his biography includes the famous metal nose prosthesis and a oft-repeated elk anecdote.