The New Star of 1572 and Hungary

Hellman C. Doris , The comet of 1577: Its place in the history of astronomy (New York, 1944), 111 The importance of the new star is discussed by Thorndike Lynn , A history of magic and experimental science, vi (New York, 1941), 67–98; Hellman C. Doris , “The new star of 1572: Its place in the history of astronomy”, in Actes du IXe Congrès Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences (Barcelona and Paris, 1959), 482–7; or more recently Weichenhan M. , “Ergo perit coelum…”: Die Supernova des Jahres 1572 und die Überwindung der aristotelischen Kosmologie (Stuttgart, 2004). After more than 400 years since its appearance, the star still has considerable interest for astrometry and astrophysics; see Green D. W. E. : “Astrometry of the 1572 supernova (B Cassiopeiae)”, Astronomische Nachrichten, cccxxv (2004), cols 689–701; and Ruiz-Lapuente Pilar , “Tycho Brahe's supernova: Light from centuries past”, Astrophysical journal, dcxii (2004), 2004–63.

Brahe Tycho , Astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata (Frankfurt, 1610). Republished in Brahe Tycho , Opera omnia, ed. by Dreyer J. L. E. (Copenhagen, 1913–29), ii–iii. We shall refer to this edition as TBOO in what follows.

Leovitius Cyprianus , De nova stella (Lauingen, 1573), also in TBOO, iii, 218–19. Its effect in the nineteenth century is discussed by Zsoldos E. Lévai Zs , “‘Novae’ over Kiskartal”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxx (1999), 1999–30; and Zsoldos E. , “Kövesligethy Radó, Jókai Mór és az Androméda-köd” [”Radó Kövesligethy, Mór Jókai and the Andromeda Nebula”], Aetas, xvii (2002), 2002–11.

Hellman C. Doris , “Maurolyco's ‘lost’ essay on the new star of 1572”, Isis, li (1960), 322–36.

Methuen C. : “This comet or new star: Theology and interpretation of the nova of 1572”, Perspectives on science, v (1997), 499–514.

Tóth István György (ed.), A concise history of Hungary: The history of Hungary from the early Middle Ages to the present (Budapest, 2005).

Miles Matthias , Siebenbürgischer Würg-Engel (Herman-Stadt, 1670), 138: “Auch haben etlige Astrologi einen newen Stern erfahren und observieret in Cassiopoeja, welchen sie vormahls nie gesehen war von einer trefligen groesse und sehr hell leüchtet in die 9 Monatt lang”.

Dudith was born in Buda and died in Wrocław. His father was Croatian, his mother was from the Venetian Sbardellati family. He attended the universities of Verona and Padua from 1550. He travelled to Brussels in 1553 with Cardinal Reginald Pole, and then continued his studies in Paris from 1554, returning to Padua in 1558. He was a member of the humanist circle of Paulo Manuzio, Gian Vincenzo Pinelli and Nicolaos Sophianos, and became a friend of Nicasius Ellebodius. He represented the clergy of Hungary in the Council of Trent between 1562 and 1563, where he defended communion under both kinds and protested against celibacy. He became Bishop of Csanád and Pécs in southern Hungary in 1563. The Vienna court sent him to Poland in 1565 with a diplomatic mission; he settled in Cracow in 1567, married and left the church. He lived in Wrocław from 1579 to the end of his life. See Costil P. , André Dudith humaniste hongrois 1533–1589: Sa vie, son oeuvre et ses manuscrits grecs (Paris, 1935). A new study of the career of Dudith is Gábor Almási, “Két magyarországi humanista a császári udvar szolgálatában: Dudith András (1533–1589) és Zsámboky János (1531–1584)” [“Two humanists from Hungary in the service of the Imperial Court: András Dudith (1533–1589) and Zsámboky János (1531–1584)”], Századok, cxxxix (2005), 2005–922, 1131–67.

Dudith Andreas , De cometarum significatione commentariolus (Basel, 1579).

Szczucki Lech Szepessy Tibor (eds), Andreas Dudithius epistulae, Pars II, 1568–1573 (Budapest, 1995). The letters were written to Tadeáš Hájek (1525–1600): #287, 12 April 1573 (pp. 394–6), #313, 23 August 1573 (pp. 444–5), #353, 21 November 1573 (pp. 551–3); and to Johann Crato von Krafftheim (1519–85): #286, 25 March 1573 (pp. 392–4).

Misocacus Wilhelm , Observationes astronomicae pertinentes ad novam cometam qui visus est iam anno 1577 (Danzig, 1578). It is no. 2840 in Zinner E. , Geschichte und Bibliographie der astronomischen Literatur in Deutschland zur Zeit der Renaissance (Leipzig, 1941). The Hungarian translation appeared as Prognosticon (Colosuár, 1578).

It has been edited and published with a Hungarian translation by Barsi J. Farkas G. F. : “Egy ismeretlen kézirat az 1572-es szupernóváról” [“An unknown manuscript on the supernova of 1572”], Magyar Könyvszemle, cxxi (2005), 435–42. Because Magyar Könyvszemle has a limited international circulation, it was thought worth while to republish the full and improved text in the Appendix.

He changed the language of the text from Latin to German in one sentence. He was presumably from Hungary, since he knew about the plot of János Vitéz against King Matthias of Hungary (see below).

The colligation includes elegies of the German poet Johann Stigel (1515–62) and the works of the German Protestant theologians Nikolaus Selnecker (1532–92) and Johannes Wigand (1523–87).

Mrković M. , Matija Vlačić Ilirik (Zagreb, 1960).

Peucer Kaspar (1525–1602). See Koch U. (ed.), Zwischen Katheder, Thron und Kerker: Leben und Werk des Humanisten Caspar Peucer 1525–1602 (Bautzen, 2002); and Hasse H.-P. Wartenberg G. (eds), Caspar Peucer (1525–1602): Wissenschaft, Glaube und Politik im konfessionellen Zeitalter (Leipzig, 2004).

Rüdinger Esrom (1523–90), German philologist and theologian, professor of Greek in Wittenberg. Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, xvii (Leipzig, 1906), 191–3.

Widebram Friedrich (1533–89), German Lutheran reformer. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, xlii (Leipzig, 1897), 338–40.

Widebram F. , Elegia de stella prodigiosa, quae interdiu coelo sereno apparuit Vinariae in Duringia 28. Martii, anno 1566 (Wittenberg, 1566).

Baade Walter , “B Cassiopeiae as a supernova of type I”, Astrophysical journal, cii (1945), 309–17; and Ruiz-Lapuente , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Barsi Farkas , op. cit. (ref. 12), 438 (cf. our transcription in Appendix below): “Fulget sub asterismo Cassiopeae sidus novum, cuius simile nulla vidit aetas antea, cum specie et lumine similimum sit stellis, sed puritate nitoris, et vibrato radiatu et magnitudine quantum ad visum omnes tam errantes quam inerrantes, superat, soli Veneri cedit. Haeret immobile in eo loco coeli, in quo primo effulsit, vel a nobis conspectum est. Nos aliter quam cometam nominare non possumus, etsi nondum satis habemus exploratam eius naturam et conditionem. Incidit in Tauri, et quia novum est, haud dubie fatales portendit mutationes, et tanto quidem maiores, quanto dissimilis est iis cometis, qui ab artificibus describuntur. Videtur autem accensum esse a Jove, quod sub Arietis fulget, ideo metuendum ne adferat Ecclesiae tetras illas religionum confusiones quas filius Dei praedixit extremum diem antecessuras esse”.

Hieronymus Wolf (1516–80), German humanist philologist. Adam Melchior , Vitae Germanorum philosophorum (Frankfurt, 1615), 304–8. See Brahe Tycho , op. cit. (ref. 2), 535, also in TBOO, iii, 49–50: “Quibus nuper tuis respondi, eas te accepisse spero. Has ut submitterem, fecit Novum et insolitum Sidus, quod in Septimanam quartam sub Asterismo Cassiopeae conspicamur haerere, uno in loco Fixum, et Lumine Stellae similimum, sed puritate Lucis, Splendoreque radiante, Vibratu et Magnitudine, quoad visum, cunctis tam Errantibus quam Inerrantibus nitidius, Venere excepta.” Peucer even wrote an epigram on the new star: “Epigramma de nova stella quae hisce noctibus ad finem LXXII anni supra M.D. conspicitur, sub Tauri in dextro humero Cassiopeae” which has, however, remained unpublished (Ms. Dresd. a 21, ff. 101–2).

Cf. Leovitius , op. cit. (ref. 3), A2r. “Hinc ratiocinari licet, Stellam illam a Sydere Iovis ac Martis accensam esse, quorum Planetarum uterque, maxime vero Iupiter, non procul a Dodecatemorio Tauri, sub quo Stella illa fulget, abest”.

Aristotle, Meteorologica I, 7; quoted in Hellman, The comet of 1577 (ref. 1), 21.

Thorndike Lynn , “Peter of Limoges on the comet of 1299”, Isis, xxxvi (1945), 3–6.

Goldstein Bernard R. , “Theory and observation in medieval astronomy”, Isis, xliii (1972), 39–47; and idem, The astronomy of Levi ben Gerson (1288–1344) (New York, 1985), 107, 188.

Brosseder C. , Im Bann der Sterne: Caspar Peucer, Philipp Melanchthon und andere Wittenberger Astrologen (Berlin, 2004), 81–112.

It had been observed, among others, by Johannes Regiomontanus.

Barsi Farkas , op. cit. (ref. 12), 438: “Anni sunt praecise centum, quando exarsit cometes sub Libra exigua primum specie, quae sensim aucta postea magnam molem attraxit et ingentia pericula non solum Europae, sed toti terrarum orbi attulit. Quia commissi sunt inter se potentissimi sive monarchae, sive Tyranni. Praecessit adventum Tamerlani in Asiam, pontifices commiserunt regem Ungariae et Poloniae. Germania tunc quoque turbata est facta irruptione Caroli Burgundi. Hispania ingentibus bellis est implicata, et Alphonsus Mauritaniam invasit. Videtur igitur hoc novum sive sidus sive cometes allasurum ingentem et quidem universalem mutationem in omnibus regnis. Haec ideo moneo, ne securis animis illud aspiciatis. Sed de magnitudine periculorum impendentium cogitantes serio Deum pro mitigatione paenarum oretis”.

According to Cyprianus Leovitius, De coniunctionibus magnis insignioribus superiorum planetarum, solis defectionibus, et cometis, in quarta monarchia, cum eorundem effectuum historica expositione (Lauingen, 1564), Eiijv—Eiiijr, this war was the result of the comet of 1477. This comet is not listed in Kronk Gary W. , Cometography: A catalogue of comets, i: Ancient–1799 (Cambridge, 1999), but is mentioned in A. Pingré, Cométographie, i (Paris, 1783), 477.

Letter to the Landgrave, William IV, 1 January 1573. Tycho Brahe, op. cit. (ref. 2), 606, also in TBOO, iii, 121: “Parallaxin nisi majorem invenerimus 19. scrup. distantia ejus a terra superabit 164. semidiametros terrae”.

Szczucki Lech Szepessy Tibor (eds), Andreas Dudithius epistulae, Pars VI, 1577–1580 (Budapest, 2002), 99–101. The letter (#900) had been written to Rüdinger himself, around January—February 1578. “Meteorologica tua videbo, cum tu aut amicus et discipulus aliquis tuus meam hanc explere sitim volet, quae me iam pridem coquit. Legi de cometa. Praeclara sunt omnia.” The editors were unable to identify the quoted publication of Rüdinger.

The same happened in the nineteenth century, when the star was supposed to reappear, if one accepted a 150-years periodicity. See Zsoldos , op. cit. (ref. 3).

Brahe Tycho , op. cit. (ref. 2), 600, also in TBOO, iii, 114–15: “Quantum itaque, nos iudicare valeamus, censetur nobis insigne quoddam miraculum, et quidem unum ex eorum numero, quae novissimum diem praecessura sunt. Ex quo enim Dominus Deus primum filii sui Domini nostri Christi adventum ante per Stellam significari, Magisque annunciari voluit, speramus illum per hanc quoque ultimum adventum Domini Christi praenuntiaturum. Sed sit quomodocunque velit, experientia docebit quippiam admodum notabile subsecuturum”.

Hellman , The comet of 1577 (ref. 1), 248–58.

Warburg A. , Heidnisch-antike Weissagung in Wort und Bild zu Luthers Zeiten , in Wuttke D. (ed.), Ausgewählte Schriften und Würdigungen (Baden-Baden, 1979), 208–21; and Hoppmann J. , “The Lichtenberger prophecy and Melanchthon's horoscope for Luther”, Culture and cosmos, i/2 (1997), 49–59.

Crusius Martin , Annalium svevicorum dodecas tertia ab anno Christi MCCXIII usque ad MDXCIIII. annum perducta (Frankfurt, 1596), 747: “Novemb. 18. audiebamus, stellam quandam novam apparere, imo iam antea, circae sanguinarii Bartholomaei diem, conspectam esse. Stella magna, candida, clara, tremula, miranda, quae duravit, et si tandem decrescens, usque ad finem Ianuarii, in 1574. anno. Sita in Firmamento, ad septentrionem, in sede Cassiopeiae. De qua stella, quae non fuerit Cometa, multi multa scripserunt. Iudicabant, praenuntiam esse maximarum calamitatum, atque adeo extremi diei”.

Camden William , Annales rerum gestarum Angliae et Hiberniae regnante Elizabetha (Amsterdam, 1677), 256–7: “Theodorus Beza ad stellam illam quae Christo nascenti praeluxit, et internecionem infantium sub Herode, ingeniose accommodavit, Carolumque IX Galliae regem qui se Parisiensis lanienae authorem fassus erat, ut timeret, hoc versiculo monuit, Tu vero Herodes sanguinolente, time. Nec vana quidem fide. Mense enim post stellae huius disparitionem quinto ille sangvinis profluvio inter longos et graves dolores expiravit.” See also Lynn W. T. , “The nova of 1572 as observed in England”, The observatory, xvii (1894), 1894–14.

There is no addressee in de Bèze T. , Epistolarum theologicarum Theodori Bezae Vezelij, liber unus (Geneva, 1575), 304: “Genevae, 2. Decembris 1572. Multi in Gallia respirant, et multis iam locis acerrime certatur. Ac mihi quidem insignis quaedam mutatio videtur toti illi regno imminere, quod ipsam Sodomam et Gomorrham iustificat. Sed quam mallem ego nos ad arma resipiscentiae confugere! Omnia sunt in manu Domini. Vigilemus tantum, et alios ad vigilandum excitemus, ne nos imparatos opprimat dies Domini. Si quos istic habetis Astrologos, monebis nobis hic apparere stellam inusitatae prorsus magnitudinis et splendissimi luminis qua parte via lactea proxime polum accedit circa Cassiopaeam quam vocant, ut opinor, qua de re cupio quid ipsi censeant intelligere, quamuis ab uno syderum opifice pendere didicerim.” According to the modern edition of his correspondence, Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze, ed. by Aubert H. , xiii (Geneva, 1988), 227–29, it had been written to Olevianus.

Brahe Tycho , op. cit. (ref. 2), 327, also in TBOO, ii, 326.

Epicedia illustri heroi Casperi Colignio (Geneva, 1573). The epigram is given in Correspondance, xiii (ref. 39), 229, as: “Iste novus, nullo metuendus, crine cometes / Et radians puro cui nitet igne jubar / Ecquid portendat terris, Deus ille deorum / Novit, et ostendent tempore fata suo. / Quod si humanae aliquid possunt praesciscere mentes / Talia scrutari nec mihi signa, nefas. / Hic ille est olim parvam Davidis in urbem / Duxit ab Eoo qui prius orbe Magos / Et qui nascenti praeluxit, nuntiat idem / Ecce redux reducem rursus adesse Deum. / Huic igitur felix ô turba applaude piorum / Tu vero insonti merse cruore time.” The last line has changed in the later editions.

Leovitius C. , De coniunctionibus magnis insignioribus superiorum planetarum, solis defectionibus, et cometis, in quarta monarchia, cum eorundem effectuum historica expositione. Item pii cuiusdam viri, de stella qua citra natura ordinem proximo mense Decembri aparuit epigrammate conclusum iudicium (London, 1573). The epigram has been partly republished in M. A. Granada's introduction to G. Bruno, Oeuvres complètes, vii: Des fureurs héroïques (Paris, 1999), pp. xxviii–xxix (we thank Dr Granada for making this available to us). The last line is “Tu vero Herodes sanguinolente time”, an allusion to Charles IX, as Camden, op. cit. (ref. 38) was quick to point it out.

Hájek T. , Dialexis de novae et prius incognitae stellae inusitate magnitudinis (Frankfurt, 1574; reprinted Prague, 1967), 128.

de Bèze T. , Poemata (Geneva, 1576), 171; Poemata varia (Hanover, 1598), 194. The former edition has the Leovitius version, the latter saw a change in the last line again: “Herodes, caveas tu tibi quisquis eris”.

“In novam illam, et seculis omnibus superioribus inauditam stellam, cum illa carnificina Gallica nefandissima exortam, Augusto mense, Anno Domini 1572”.

Brahe Tycho , op. cit. (ref. 2), 327, also in TBOO, ii, 326. Here the last line returned to the version published in the London edition of Leovitius's De magnis coniunctionibus (ref. 42).

Misocacus , op. cit. (ref. 11).

Bielz E. A. , Beitrag zur Geschichte merkwürdiger Naturbegebenheiten in Siebenbürgen (Hermannstadt, 1862), 18: “Visa est nova stella in Cassiopoea tam fulgida, ut ceteras obscurare et cum Lucifero certare putaretur”.

Ibid., 18: “Im Anfang des November wurde ein neuer Stern am Himmel gesehen bis in das folgende 1574. Jahr”.

Ibid., 70: “Ward ein neuer Stern am Firmament gesehen”.

Uj és O Kalendariom (Lötse, 1671), E1r.

Mikó Imre (ed.), Erdélyi történelmi adatok, iii (Kolozsvár, 1858), 21.

See Leovitius , op. cit. (ref. 30); and Misocacus , op. cit. (ref. 11). A modern study is Sarah Schechner Genuth, Comets, popular culture, and the birth of modern cosmology (Princeton, 1997).

Suetonius: “Divus Iulius”, 88, in C. Suetonius Tranquilli opera, i: De vita Caesarum Libri VIII, ed. by Ihm Maximilianus (Leipzig, 1908), 45. “Periit sexto et quinquagensimo aetatis anno atque in deorum numerum relatus est, non ore modo decernentium, sed et persuasione uolgi. Siquidem ludis, quos primo[s] consecrato[s] ei heres Augustus edebat, stella crinita per septem continuos dies fulsit exoriens circa undecimam horam, creditumque est animam esse Caesaris in caelum recepti; et hac de causa simulacro eius in uertice additur stella”.

Hunyadi (c. 1407–56) died after the successful defence of Nándorfehérvár (today Beograd, in Serbia), when Comet Halley made its return. The two events were linked in the chronicle of János Thuróczy, Johannes de Thurocz, Chronica Hungarorum, i: Textus, ed. by Galántai Elisabeth Kristó Julius (Budapest, 1985), 272: “Nam et alta in celo fixa eius obitum sidera prenunciaverant, admirandum siquidem sublimi in ethere sidus comatum eius ante sublationem apparuerat”.

Funck J. , Chronologia (Wittenberg, 1578), 170f: “1572. X. Novemb. Mira prodigiosaque stella nova apparuit in sydere Cassiopeae, quae eodem in loco stetit immota continuos menses 15. donec paulatim attenuata corpore evanuit…. Succedit Stephanus Bathori. Rudolphus Archidux Austriae Imperatoris filius in Regem Ungariae Posonii creatur.” Similarly, see Bucholzer A. , Index chronologicus (Frankfurt, 1616), 630: “Rudolphus primogenitus Max. II. Imp. Coronatur Rex Ungariae 25. Septemb. Mense Novembri conspeximus Stellam illam novam in sidere Cassiopeae, de qua multi multa scripserunt. Haec stella cum immota diutius anno constitisset, sub initium anni 74. prorsus evanuit”.

Mikó , op. cit. (ref. 52).

Wood engraving by Lucas Mayr: Ein wunderbarliche Newe Zeitung. Wie auff den 5. tag des abgelauffnen Weinmonats in diesem 1595. Jar auff des Fürsten auß Sibenbürger Veldläger ein Comet etlich stund lang erschienen und volgends ein fliegender Adler sich erzeyat welcher auff des Fürsten Gezelt gesessen, nachmalen Ihme selbsten genahnet, und ohne widerstreben von demselben sich hat fangen lassen, darauff ihr Fürstl. S. gleich baldden Sinan Bassa auß zweyen Vestungen, und uber die Schiffbrucken bey Sanct Georgio getrieben, die Vestungen sampt dem Schloß Georgio eingenommen…. (Nürnberg, c. 1595); and de Bry Theodore , Pannoniae historia chronologica (Frankfurt, 1596), 121.

The case of the 1595 object was discussed recently in detail by Farkas Gábor F. , “Az 1595-ös rejtélyes csillag” [“The enigmatic star of 1595”], Magyar Könyvszemle, cxxii (2006), 162–200.

Univ. Budapest Ant. 5334.

Deleted: Et tantas.

Deleted: De quibus.

Deleted: Ibi.