Kepler to Müller, 16/26 January 1630
Johannes Kepler, “Kepler to Müller, 16/26 January 1630,” Nova Kepleriana 4, January 26, 1630, 72–73, transcribed in Plain Old Text, https://sources.vjbe.net/stable/68txp.
Nova Kepleriana 4 26 Jan, 1630, p. 72–73 Summary
Part of Die Keplerbriefe auf der Nationalbibliothek und auf der Sternwarte in Paris
Kepler reports the arrival of paper from Prague, asks Müller to stop any further Leipzig paper beyond what is ordered, and says the printing of Terrentius's letter from China and of the first pages of the *Ephemerides* has begun.
Source: Johannes Kepler's letter to Philipp Müller written at Sagan on 16/26 January 1630, about paper for his press, the printing of the Jesuit Terrentius's letter from China with his commentary, and the start of work on the Ephemerides. The original is lost; the copy is in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris (Nouv. acq. lat. 1635, fol. 96; 89, 8. N). First printed in Nova Kepleriana 4, ed. Walther von Dyck and Max Caspar, Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Math.-naturw. Abteilung 31, no. 1 (Munich, 1927), 72–73.
English translation of the letter as printed in Nova Kepleriana 4 (1927), made for Plain Old Text. Each paragraph translates the corresponding paragraph of the original; [gap] marks a gap in the 1927 text.
Many greetings.
Most famous and most friendly Sir.
I have received three letters, of 20 and 26 December and 4 January.
All of them give a most welcome sign of the services and work you have undertaken. As an answer to them, it is enough for you to know that they have arrived. For the rest, I report to you as on a business we share, which it is, so that, knowing enough, you may see your way in procuring paper. On 7/17 January eight bales of large Prague paper were at last delivered to me, of a slightly narrower format than your Leipzig paper, which was sent to me for the Sportula. If you have a copy of the Sportula on the other Prague paper, that is the very format now as well. With it came a promise of twelve more bales, already ordered by the treasury at Gitschin. So first of all take care that you are not out of pocket, and, I add, for your good name, since you are hard pressed by the trust the Grosses place in you. Beyond that, if the matter is still open, stop the making of that paper, as much of it as remains, for the present. For though I asked the treasury at Gitschin to send 50 florins to Leipzig for the paper I had procured there as a reserve, they do not answer at all. So for the paper you have already bought or ordered, I shall have to pay out of my own pocket. Before that day we took up the printing of the Letter from China,The Epistolium of the Jesuit Johann Terrentius from China (1630), which Kepler printed at Sagan with his commentary. with a little commentary of mine, on small [gap] paper. We stopped at the dedication, for I referred it to the General,Wallenstein, generalissimo of the imperial armies and Kepler's patron. both for the jest it makes and for the title. As soon as the paper came, we set about the Ephemerides, and we already have two pages, one from 1630 and one from 1631. For of 1630 Bartsch sent back only half from Strasbourg, promising to send the other half later, to spare the postage. And Hofkunz reported that the packet had been brought to your postmaster, but that when he went to collect it on his way out, the Görlitz messenger had already left with it. I hope to receive that packet within a week. Or if it does not contain the half of the Ephemeris, our Lauban messenger will bring it, since the other half is due to reach him at the end of this month.
The Leipzig paper, if any is ready, I shall keep for the Observations, dividing it into as many parts as I reckon one copy will take pages.
The Prague paper is wide enough for the Ephemerides. But the binders will need to take care, if four printed pages are joined in the larger format. The carter is in a hurry; forgive my brevity! I thank Mr Avianus diligently and dutifully for the 2 bales. I shall ask the Breslau carters passing through here to present themselves to the founder in good time. Farewell. Sagan, 16/26 January 1630.
Your Excellency’s
dutiful servant
J. Kepler,
Mathematician.
To the most famous and most excellent Mr Philipp Müller, Licentiate
of Medicine, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Leipzig,
my most kindly friend,
Leipzig.