John Robert Christianson Collection
In March 2022, John Robert Christianson donated 180 books related to the astronomer Tycho Brahe. This generous donation reinforces the reputation of OU as a research destination for scholars from around the world interested in Tycho and the history of astronomy.
Astronomers today revere Tycho Brahe as the leading observational astronomer in early modern Europe. Among its most prized treasures, the History of Science Collections holds many of Tycho’s original works.
Christianson’s book On Tycho’s Island explores the lives and works of the various students and colleagues who went to the island of Hven to work with Tycho. Christianson’s recent study, Tycho Brahe and the Measure of the Heavens, places Tycho in the context of humanist scholarship and culture. Christianson there explains that Tycho “elevated astronomy from an elementary academic subject into a prestigious focus of courtly natural philosophy,” and “Tycho’s leadership and generous willingness to collaborate… transformed astronomy into a collective endeavor linking courts and philosophers across Europe.”
In honor of his Tycho scholarship, Danish King Harald V made Christianson a Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit in 1995.
Photo: John Christianson (left), at his home in Minneapolis on March 30, 2022, showing Curator Kerry Magruder (right) some of the books being donated.
The Collection
Only about 30 titles of the Christianson Collection are in English. Many books are hard-to-find publications in Danish, Swedish, or Norwegian languages, and not found in North American libraries. Some volumes contain annotations that will make them of special interest to researchers.
For more information, please inquire at the History of Science Collections.
Christianson books in the History of Science Collections:
On Tycho’s Island
Tycho Brahe and the Measure of the Heavens