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86 Four days after, on the 22nd February 1576, Tycho paid his first visit (at least as far as we know) to the little island which was destined to become famous through him, and the same evening took his first observation there of a conjunction of Mars and the moon. If he could have foreseen that he was destined to furnish the means of circumventing the tricks of the inobservable Sidus (as Pliny called Mars), and himself to add more to our knowledge of the moon's motion than any one had done since Ptolemy, he would certainly by this coincidence have been confirmed in his belief in astrology. On the 23rd May a document was signed by the king of which the following is an exact translation: —

"We, Frederick the Second, &c., make known to all men, that we of our special favour and grace have conferred and granted in fee, and now by this our open letter confer and grant in fee, to our beloved Tyge Brahe, Otte's son, of Knudstrup, our man and servant, our land of Hveen, with all our and the crown's tenants and servants who thereon live, with all rent and duty which comes from that, and is