The role of biblical interpretation in the cosmology of Tycho Brahe

If standard histories of sixteenth-century science are to be believed, there were two men who lived the majority of their lives on the island of Hven under the name Tycho Brahe. One was the great pre-telescopic astronomer, whose premier contribution to science was his comprehensive and meticulous program of observation that would provide the foundation for Johannes Kepler's discovery of the elliptical orbits of the planets. Unfortunately, because this Tycho held rather traditional views of physics and scriptural literalism, he was hindered from recognizing the truth of Copernicus' revolutionary cosmology. His world system turned out be a rather trivial looking inversion of the Copernican system which in the end consigned its author to the oblivion of pre-modern science.