Müller to Bartsch, 8 May 1631
Philipp Müller, “Müller to Bartsch, 8 May 1631,” Nova Kepleriana 4, May 8, 1631, 103–104, transcribed in Plain Old Text, https://sources.vjbe.net/stable/fmr23.
Nova Kepleriana 4 8 May, 1631, p. 103–104 Summary
Part of Die Keplerbriefe auf der Nationalbibliothek und auf der Sternwarte in Paris
Müller replies to Bartsch about the copies he has received and their prices, advises printing the second volume of the *Ephemerides* at home, sends a gift for Kepler's grandson, and quotes Crüger's excuse for writing no poem on Kepler's death.
Source: Philipp Müller's reply to Jacob Bartsch, written at Leipzig on 8 May 1631: on the tables and copies Bartsch had sent, the second volume of the Ephemerides, a christening gift for Kepler's grandson, and the funeral poems for Kepler, with a passage quoted from a letter of Peter Crüger. The letter is among the Kepler manuscripts at the Pulkovo Observatory (vol. XI), where von Dyck found it. Printed in extracts 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), 103–104.
Transcribed from: the page images of the 1927 printing.
Only the Latin is given; the editors’ German summary and notes are left out. The 1927 edition prints only extracts. Each paragraph below is one of its extracts, and the omission marks (…) are the editors’. Spaced type, which the editors used for emphasis, is given in italics.
English translation of the Latin extracts printed in Nova Kepleriana 4 (1927), made for Plain Old Text. Each paragraph translates the corresponding extract of the original; the omission marks (…) are the 1927 editors’. Italics follow the editors’ emphasis.
Salutem et off. Clarissime et Excell. vir, Domine conpater et amice dilecte.
Greetings and my services. Most famous and most excellent Sir, father of my godson and dear friend.
Bellicis tumultibus quantum interturbari oporteat et distrahi cogitationes, nemo est, qui non intelligat. Faxit Deus, quo cito consilescant hae turbae, et ut more crisium medicarum terminentur bono exitu et cum εὐφορίᾳ oppressorum. Eaque cum sic se habeant, quid multum excusas mihi et rationem reddis diuturni silentii? Ego potius Tibi gratias ago, quod vel in his tuis concatenatis occupationibus, tamen non sis gravatus tam prolixe ad me scribere de singulis, adjuncto munere gratissimo appendicis tabularum, manualis et gamelii. Quod ut suo tempore pensem, nullam occasionem negligam. Jam quidem praeter sinceram gratiam actionem quod rependam, non invenio. …
There is no one who does not understand how much the tumults of war must disturb and distract one’s thoughts. God grant that these disturbances soon die down and, like a medical crisis, end well, in relief for the oppressed. Things being so, why make so many excuses to me and account for your long silence? Rather, I thank you that, even in this chain of business of yours, you did not mind writing to me so fully about each point, adding the most welcome gift of the appendix to the tables, the manual and the wedding poem. I shall let no chance slip of repaying it in due time. For now I find nothing to give in return but sincere thanks. …
Accepi, ut scribis 30 minoris et 20 majoris formae exemplaria Tabularum appendicis. Vellem addidisses precium; nec enim tantum sumo mihi, ut de tuis velim constituere. Quanti aequum sit vendere, Tute, qui sumtus et labores impendisti, scies omnium rectissime. … Tradita mihi sunt insuper 8 exemplaria Tabularum Rudolphinarum, quae vel servabo mecum, vel ex his vendam constituto a R. precio 2 th. 4 g., quot possum sive carius, si quis licitet amplius. Jam nae plaerique ex meis auditoribus quibus quidem eam ad rem suppetunt sumptus, eas sibi aliunde compararunt. Illa vero exemplaria duo in charta scriptoria, quorum mentionem annectis, non inveni in fasciculo; forte propter oblivionem ea domi remanserunt. Alias pro dictis 2 th. 14 g. argenteis mihimetipsi inde retinuissem ex his alterum. Caeterum miror appendicem tuam impressam esse in folio majore et minore; cur non enim eadem forma, quae cum tabulis congruit? …
I have received, as you write, 30 copies of the Appendix to the Tables in the smaller format and 20 in the larger. I wish you had added the price; for I do not take so much on myself as to decide about what is yours. What it is fair to sell them for, you, who spent the money and the labour, will know best of all. … I was also handed 8 copies of the Rudolphine Tables, which I shall either keep with me or sell, as many as I can, at the price fixed by R., 2 thalers 4 groschen, or dearer, if anyone bids more. Indeed most of my students who have the means for it have already got them elsewhere. But the two copies on writing paper that you mention in your letter I did not find in the packet; perhaps they were forgotten and left at home. Otherwise I should have kept one of them for myself at the said 2 thalers 14 silver groschen. For the rest, I am surprised that your appendix is printed in a larger and a smaller folio; why not in the same format that matches the Tables? …
Nescio an postulatio tua sumptus alteri tomo Ephemeridum sit praebitura. Vestro si essem loco, cum instrumenta et operae typographicae vobis sint in promtu, soceri factum imitarer et domi impressum postea venderem bibliopolis, sparsim, conjunctim prout res ferret. Fortasse in Argentinensibus bibliopolis aliquid tomo primo jam praelusum est ad famam tibi. Sine dubio sequens erit ex hac fama vendibilior.
I do not know whether your request will provide the costs of the second volume of the Ephemerides. If I were in your place, since you have the equipment and the printing workmen at hand, I should follow your father-in-law’s example: print it at home and then sell it to the booksellers, singly or together as the matter allowed. Perhaps the first volume has already played a prelude to your fame among the Strasbourg booksellers. No doubt the next will sell the better for this fame.
Profiliolo meo tenue mnemosynum rei inter nos gestae, et meae bonae voluntatis qualecunque indicium hic mitto, una cum voto repetito, quod is pulchre adolescat in honorem Dei et parentum gaudium sit, ut avi et patris vestigiis suo tempore strenue insistat. Denuo quoque gratias ago pro honore patrimatus, ut sic loquar, ea in re mihi habito. Utinam hanc meam mentem vobis declarare possem in pluribus. Ut desint vires, tamen aderit semper animus.
To my little godson I send here a slight keepsake of what passed between us, and some token, such as it is, of my goodwill, with my repeated wish that he may grow up finely, to the honour of God and the joy of his parents, and in time follow keenly in the footsteps of his grandfather and his father. I thank you again, too, for the honour of godfatherhood, if I may call it so, that you did me in this. I wish I could show you this mind of mine in more ways. Though the strength be lacking, the will shall always be there.After Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto 3.4.79: “though the strength be lacking, the will is to be praised.”
Transmitto epicedia super obitum soceri tui p. m. Debebam meum adjungere; sed nescio qui mihi idem eveniat, quod de se in suis proximis queritur Crügerus Dantiscanus his verbis:
I send the funeral poems on the death of your father-in-law, of pious memory. I ought to add my own; but somehow the same thing happens to me that Crüger of Danzig complains of in his last letter, in these words:
„Quod mihi copiam Musarum in promtu esse putas ad condecorandum defuncti tumulum, errare te doleo. Vena mea Poëtica dudum exaruit, ut ex pumice citius aquam quam ex ea succum aliquem Poëticum expresseris. Nec a triennio proximo versiculum ullum a me compositum videris, imo Voto me quasi obstrinxi valedicente carminibus. Itaque me excusatum habeas et alia mihi possibilia imponas oro.”
“As for your thinking that I have a store of the Muses at hand to adorn the dead man’s tomb, I am sorry to say you are mistaken. My poetic vein dried up long ago, so that you would sooner squeeze water from a pumice stoneProverbial since Plautus (Persa 41). than any poetic juice from it. Nor will you have seen a single little verse composed by me these last three years; indeed I have, as it were, bound myself by a vow, bidding farewell to poetry. So please hold me excused, and lay on me other tasks within my power.”
Haec ille. Me quod attinet, si non multa, aliquid tamen submittam. Credo satis adhuc tempus futurum.
So he. As for me, I shall send something, if not much. I believe there will still be time enough.