The New Star, the New Nose: Tycho Brahe's Nasal Prosthesis: A Nosepiece for Peter

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Tycho Brahe’s loss of part of his nose in a duel has become an important part
of his afterlife. The exact nature of his nasal prosthesis–of brass, gold, or
silver–remains an enigma, not even solved at his exhumation in 2010. This essay discusses the materiality of Brahe’s new nose and contextualizes it within cutting-edge sixteenth-century rhinoplasty. The shiny nose, given fetish status by Freud in 1927, became an object of ridicule in seventeenth-century satire, but only Brahe knew how to link the microcosmic and the macrocosmic, the heavenly and the earthly stars.
Original languageEnglish
JournalNordic Journal of Renaissance Studies
Volume12
Pages (from-to)93-105
Number of pages11
ISSN2597-0143
Publication statusPublished - 21 Apr 2017

ID: 176797399