Inside the Stargazers Palace

Enter the mysterious world of sixteenth-century science, where astronomers and alchemists shared laboratories, mixing magic with mathematics. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus declared the earth revolved around the Sun. Centuries of scholastic presumption, stretching back to the Ancients, were overturned. A new age was coming into view – one guided by observation, technology and logic. But omens, elixirs and alchemy did not disappear from the sixteenth-century laboratory. Charms and potions could still be found nestled between glistening brass instruments and leather-bound tomes. The line between the natural and supernatural remained porous, yet to be defined. From the icy Danish observatory of Tycho Brahe, to the smoky, sulphur-stained workshop of John Dee, Violet Moller tours the intellectual heart of early European science. Exploring its rich, multidisciplinary culture, Inside the Stargazer’s Palace reveals a dazzling forgotten world, where all knowledge, no matter how arcane, was worth pursuing.