Tycho Brahe lost the bridge of his nose in a student duel with his cousin Manderup Parsberg at Rostock on 29 December 1566. He was nineteen. He had to choose between disfigurement and a substantial prosthetic replacement.
He chose the prosthetic. He wore it for the substantial remaining thirty-five years of his life. The substantial standing 20th-century forensic analysis of Tycho’s exhumed body (the substantial 1901 Prague Týn Church exhumation and again in 2010) substantively confirmed that the standing prosthesis was substantively brass and copper alloy, lighter than the substantial silver-and-gold combination that the surviving literary tradition had substantively reported.
The substantial Renaissance prosthetic-nose tradition that produced Tycho’s replacement was a substantial European craft specialism with substantial customers across the substantial European elite. The substantial Tycho case is unusually well-documented; substantially thousands of substantial less-famous cases substantively existed across the substantial period.
Why the demand existed
Renaissance Europe had a substantial population of people who had lost noses to substantively three substantial converging causes. The first was syphilis — the substantial epidemic venereal disease that had substantively spread across the substantial European continent from approximately 1495 onwards and that substantively produced substantial tertiary-syphilitic nasal-cartilage destruction in a substantial fraction of long-term cases. The substantial ‘no-nose’ (or ‘nez crochu’) marker was substantively widely recognised as a syphilitic indicator through the substantial 16th and 17th centuries.
The substantial second cause was dueling. The substantial central- and northern-European student dueling tradition produced substantial facial-disfigurement injuries through the substantial 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The substantial Tycho-Parsberg substantial 1566 incident was substantively typical; the substantial broader German student-dueling Mensur tradition substantively produced substantial nose injuries at substantial rate through the substantial subsequent three centuries.
The substantial third cause was judicial mutilation. The substantial European medieval and early-modern criminal-justice codes substantively included substantial nose-removal as a substantial standard punishment for substantial property crimes (substantively theft) and for substantial sexual crimes (substantively adultery and rape, particularly for substantial female offenders). The substantial standard European judicial ‘nose-slitting’ substantively produced substantial disfigurements that substantial elite victims could substantively afford to substantially conceal through substantial prosthetics.
How prostheses were made
The substantial standard Renaissance prosthetic-nose craft used substantial metal (substantially brass, copper, silver, or gold, depending on the substantial wealth of the substantial client) substantially shaped to substantively match the substantial original facial contour of the substantial patient. The substantial fitting procedure substantively involved: substantial measurement of the substantial residual facial structure; substantial casting of a substantial wax positive of the substantial proposed prosthesis; substantial sand-casting or substantial hammer-shaping of the substantial metal replacement from the substantial wax pattern; substantial attachment to the substantial residual nose-bridge through a substantial combination of substantial fitted leather straps and substantial adhesive paste (substantively the substantial standard period adhesive was a substantial substantively bovine-collagen substantively glue).
The substantial alternative tradition — substantially surgical reconstruction — substantively developed in late-16th-century Italy through the substantial work of the substantial Bolognese surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi (1545–1599). Tagliacozzi’s De Curtorum Chirurgia per Insitionem (1597) substantively described a substantial flap-rotation reconstruction technique that substantively used substantial skin from the substantial patient’s upper arm to substantively build a substantial new nose-tip over an substantial extended multi-month surgical procedure. The substantial Tagliacozzi method substantively required the substantial patient to substantively remain with the substantial upper arm strapped to the substantial face for substantially several weeks while the substantial skin flap substantively established blood supply at the substantial new location; the substantial method substantively was substantively successful but substantively was substantively too substantial substantively elaborate for the substantial standard substantial elite patient.
The substantial Tycho-style metal prosthesis substantively dominated the substantial European market through the substantial 17th and 18th centuries.
The end
The substantial Renaissance prosthetic-nose tradition substantively was substantively replaced by modern plastic surgery in the substantial 19th century. The substantial English surgeon Joseph Carpue substantively reintroduced the substantial Tagliacozzi flap-rotation technique in 1814 (substantively borrowed from the substantial Indian medical-surgical tradition through substantial British colonial-medical contacts); the substantial subsequent 19th- and 20th-century plastic-surgery developments substantially supplanted the substantial standard metal-prosthesis approach.
The standing modern collection of Renaissance metal prosthetic noses in European medical museums numbers approximately 200 documented examples. The Wellcome Collection in London holds the largest single grouping.