Design of the main buildings of Uraniborg

Source. Tycho Brahe, Astronomiæ instauratæ mechanica.(Wandesburgi, 1598), fol. 41v.

Translation

DESIGN OF THE MAIN BUILDING OF URANIBORG ON THE ISLAND OF VENUSIA, IN DANISH HVEN, IN THE DANISH SOUND, BUILT FOR THE REDINTEGRATION OF ASTRONOMY BY TYCHO BRAHE ABOUT THE YEAR 1580

A. The eastern door. C. The western door. Q Four corridors, which meet at right angles; later, however, they were reduced to three, in order that the winter dining­room or the heating installation D might be expanded, and that in one of its corners, behind the furnace, there might be a small hidden chemical laboratory, in which, however, five furnaces were placed apart, which might be more quickly at disposal for the chemical work there, in order that it should not always be necessary to go down into the larger room. B. A fountain provided with a water­carrying figure, which turned round and threw the water into the air in all directions when this was wanted. D. The winter dining­room mentioned. E. F. G. Spare bedrooms. L. Stairs leading to the upper floor. H. Kitchen. K. A built­up well, forty ells deep, which served a pumping­ apparatus and, through pipes stretching in all directions, hidden in the walls, distributed the water to the various rooms, both in the upper and the lower storey. P. Stairs leading down to the chemical laboratory. T. Library. W. The large brass globe. V. Four tables for the collaborators. 4. Chimneys leading from the lower laboratory and filling the corners of the four rooms. Y. Beds in these rooms, put in various places. The rest is easily understood by an acute reader. But all this must be imagined as being of such dimensions as to correspond to the base of the larger house depicted above, although in order to take up less space it is represented in about half the scale.