What Tycho Brahe wrote at the entrance to Stjerneborg
At the entrance to the observatory Stjärneborg located underground,
Tycho Brahe built a Ionic portal. On top of this were three sculptured lions.
On both sides were inscriptions and on the backside was a longer inscription
in gold letters on a porfyr stone. Translated from latin:
``Consecrated to the all-good, great God and Posterity. Tycho Brahe,
Son of Otto, who realized that Astronomy, the oldest and most
distinguished of all sciences, had indeed been studied for a long time
and to a great extent, but still had not obtained sufficient firmness
or had been purified of errors, in order to reform it and raise it to
perfection, invented and with incredible labour, industry, and
expenditure constructed various exact instruments suitable for all
kinds of observations of the celestial bodies, and placed them partly
in the neighbouring castle of Uraniborg, which was built for the same
purpose, partly in these subterranean rooms for a more constant and
useful application, and recommending, hallowing, and consecrating this
very rare and costly treasure to you, you glorious Posterity, who will
live for ever and ever, he, who has both begun and finished everything
on this island, after erecting this monument, beseeches and adjures
you that in honour of the eternal God, creator of the wonderful
clockwork of the heavens, and for the propagation of the divine
science and for the celebrity of the fatherland, you will constantly
preserve it and not let it decay with old age or any other injury or
be removed to any other place or in any way be molested, if for no
other reason, at any rate out of reverence to the creator's eye, which
watches over the universe.
Greetings to you who read this and act accordingly. Farewell!''