Sophia (or Sophie) Thott Lange (née Brahe; 24 August 1559 or 22 September 1556 – 1643), known by her maiden name, was a Danish noblewoman and horticulturalist with knowledge of astronomy, chemistry, and medicine. She worked alongside her brother Tycho Brahe in making astronomical observations.
Life She was born in Knudstrup Castle, Denmark as the youngest of ten children, to Otte Brahe, the rigsråd, or advisor, to the King of Denmark; and Beate Bille, leader of the royal household for Queen Sophie. Sophia's oldest brother was astronomer Tycho Brahe. Though he was both more than a decade her senior and raised in a separate household, the pair became quite close by the time Sophia was a teenager. The brother and sister were united by their work in science, and by their family's opposition to science as an appropriate activity for members of the aristocracy. They both desired a life filled with science and knowledge instead of the duties of a noble person. She married Otto Thott in 1579, when he was 33 and she was at least twenty, though possibly older. They had one child before he died on 23 March 1588. Their son was Tage Thott, born in 1580. Upon her husband's death, Sophia Thott managed his property in Eriksholm (today Trolleholm Castle), running the estate to keep it profitable until her son came of age. During this time, she also became a horticulturalist, in addition to her studies in chemistry and medicine. The gardens she created in Eriksholm were said to be exceptional. Sophia was particularly interested in studying chemistry and medicine according to Paracelsus, in which small doses of poison might serve as strong medicines, and used her skills to treat the local poor. Sophie enjoyed the partial freedom she was allowed in the medical field. However, women were often not entitled to receive a college degree, the lack of which prevented her from practicing medicine as a legitimate physician. Similarly, she was devoted to the study of astrology and helped her brother with producing horoscopes. On 21 July 1587, King Frederick II of Denmark signed a document transferring to Sophia Brahe the title of Årup farm in what is now Sweden. Sophia continued to be a frequent visitor at Uraniborg where she met Erik Lange, a nobleman who studied alchemy and a friend of Tycho's. Erik Lange was a nobleman yet had little money to his name. His pursuit of alchemy left him financially unstable. He was especially fixated on producing gold, which led to his monetary problems. In 1590, Sophia took 13 visits to Uraniborg and became engaged to Lange. Since Lange used up most of his fortune with alchemy experiments, their marriage was delayed some years while he avoided his creditors and traveled to Germany to try to find patrons for his work. Tycho Brahe wrote the Latin epic poem "Urania Titani" during the couple's separation, expressed as a letter from his sister Sophia to her fiancé in 1594. Tycho casts Sophia as Urania, muse of astronomy, a further suggestion of his respect for her scientific endeavours. In 1599, she visited Lange in Hamburg, but they did not marry until 1602 in Eckernförde. They lived in this town for a while in extreme poverty. Sophia wrote a long letter to her sister Margrethe Brahe, describing having to wear stockings with holes in them for her wedding. Lange's wedding clothes had to be returned to the pawn shop after the wedding, because the couple could not afford to keep them. She expressed anger with her family for not accepting her science studies, and for depriving her of money owed to her. By 1608, Erik Lange was living in Prague, and he died there in 1613 (Det Kongelige Bibliotek). Sophia was often ridiculed and avoided due to her personal life and marriage. Many alienated her due to her marriage to Erik Lange which was opposed by all in her family except for her brother Tycho. Sophia Brahe personally financed the restoration of the local church, Ivetofta Kyrka. She planned to be buried there, and the lid for her unused sarcophagus remains in the church's armory. But, by 1616 she had moved permanently to Zealand and settled in Helsingør. In Zealand, she lived specifically in Elsinore where she worked primarily on horticulture and healing plants. She spent her last years writing up the genealogy of Danish noble families, publishing the first major version in 1626 (there were later additions). Her work is still considered a major source for early history of Danish nobility (Det Kongelige Bibliotek). She died in Helsingør in the year 1643, and was buried in the Torrlösa old church in the village of Torrlösa, east of the town of Landskrona in what was then Denmark but now is southern Sweden. That church housed a burial chapel for the Thott family that remained for some time even after the church itself was pulled down in the mid-19th century (the new Torrlösa church was built nearby). Currently, a stone setting marks the outlines of the Thott chapel, while the tombstone for Sophie Brahe is still standing on the site.
Career and research
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