Kepler to Müller, 2 September 1630
Johannes Kepler, “Kepler to Müller, 2 September 1630,” Nova Kepleriana 4, September 2, 1630, 78–79, transcribed in Plain Old Text, https://sources.vjbe.net/stable/kve91.
Nova Kepleriana 4 2 Sep, 1630, p. 78–79 Summary
Part of Die Keplerbriefe auf der Nationalbibliothek und auf der Sternwarte in Paris
Kepler sends Friedrich Bartsch to see to the sale of the *Ephemerides* and defends giving Wallenstein his title as Duke of Mecklenburg in the dedication. His last letter to Müller; he died at Regensburg two months later.
Source: Johannes Kepler's letter to Philipp Müller written at Lauban on 2 September 1630, sent with Friedrich Bartsch to see to the sale of the Ephemerides, and defending the title he had given Wallenstein, as Duke of Mecklenburg, in their dedication. It is the last of Kepler's letters to Müller in the collection; Kepler died at Regensburg two months later. The original is lost; the copy is in the Bibliothèque de l'Observatoire, Paris (B, 1, 9 (89); 89, 8. L). 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), 78–79.
Transcribed from: the page images of the 1927 printing.
Only the letter is given; the editors’ German summary and notes are left out.
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.
S. P. D.
Many greetings.
Clarissime excellentissimeque vir, D. amice benevolentissime.
Most famous and most excellent Sir, most kindly friend.
Spero literas ante dies 6 Torgam missas cum exemplarium Ephemeridum sarcinis Lipsiam perlatas, tibique redditas. Iis curandis Francofurti (sive Lipsiae restiterint, sive jam praemissa Francofurtum sint) submitto hunc generi mei fratrem Friedericum Bartschium. Ei rogo etiam atque etiam consilia tua et super insertione in catalogum et super distractione suppedites. Quae etsi ipsum non obligabunt, ut mandatis meis, quae oretenus accepit, deroget; non poterunt tamen non admonere ipsum de multis, quae forsan ex se ipso non deprompsisset. Praeterea instruxi ipsum viatico tenuissimo, praecipue ob pericula itinerum praesentia. Pauca adjeci, quae a cive vestro Sebast. Mejero, jubente per schedam cambiariam cive nostro Paulo Werner peteret. Et si metus plane nullus est, ne scheda haec ipsum frustretur; si tamen inopinati quid incideret, ut est praesens rerum status: rogo Cl. Ex. Tua ipsi petenti, quae necessitas itineris postulaverit, qua Lipsiae, pecunia praesenti, qua Francofurti, per cambium, cum hominum illic usum nullum habeat adhuc dum, suppeditet, ejusque quod dederit refusionem a me sine mora expectet. Dedi ei reliquos 4 annos partis tertiae Ephemeridum cum titulo, ut habeas eam integram. Titulum patroni mei excusabis veris causis: quae Caesar Electoribus et Cancellariae imperii dictat, quae Patronus meus et literis et mandatis et numismatibus de se profitetur, quae subditi Principum Mechelb. acceptarunt, ea mihi nefas fuit infringere. Nec conductus sum propalator tituli, sed cum necessario esset scribenda Principi dedicatio, non potuit ea scribere nisi solenni titulo. Nec hic a me usurpatus titulus ejecit priores principes suis sedibus, nec cujusque impediet fortunam; potestque concedi surrogationis seu substitutionis beneficio sine etiam injuria eorum, qui priora habent jura; et nisi saeviunt atrocius irritata fata, potest pax coalescere, manente nobis titulo, restituta suis dominis provincia. Ego dudum Saxonis filium, nunc Caesaris filium salutassem Episcopos Magdeburgenses et Halberstatenses, si quid habuissem scribendum ad ipsos. Vale, nunciosque rerum laetarum, si Lipsiae vili pretio prostant, mihi quoque transmitte.
I hope that the letter I sent to Torgau six days ago has been carried to Leipzig with the packs of copies of the Ephemerides, and handed to you. To see to them at Frankfurt (whether they have stayed at Leipzig or have already been sent on to Frankfurt) I send you the bearer, Friedrich Bartsch, my son-in-law’s brother. I beg you again and again to give him your advice, both on the entry in the catalogue and on the selling. Though it will not oblige him to depart from my orders, which he has received by word of mouth, it cannot fail to remind him of many things he might not have thought of himself. I have also given him the slenderest of travelling money, chiefly because of the present dangers of the roads. I have added a little that he is to collect from your citizen Sebastian Meyer, on a bill of exchange drawn by our citizen Paul Werner. And though there is no fear at all that this bill will let him down, yet if anything unexpected should happen, as things now stand, I beg Your Excellency to give him, when he asks, whatever the needs of the journey require, at Leipzig in ready money and at Frankfurt by exchange, since he knows nobody there as yet, and to expect repayment of what you give from me without delay. I have given him the remaining four years of the third part of the Ephemerides, with the title page, so that you may have it complete. You will excuse my patron’s titleWallenstein, Kepler's patron, was invested by the Emperor with the duchy of Mecklenburg in 1629, after its dukes were deposed for siding with Denmark. The dedication of the Ephemerides calls him Duke of Mecklenburg. for its true reasons: what the Emperor prescribes to the Electors and to the imperial chancery, what my patron professes of himself in letters, decrees and coins, what the subjects of the Princes of Mecklenburg have accepted, it was not for me to overturn. Nor was I hired to proclaim the title; but since a dedication to the Prince had to be written, it could be written only with his formal title. Nor has this title, as I used it, driven the former princes from their seats, nor will it hinder anyone’s fortune; it can be granted by way of surrogation or substitution without wrong to those who hold the prior rights; and unless the fates, provoked, rage more cruelly still, peace can grow back, with the title left to us and the province restored to its lords. I would long ago have greeted as Bishops of Magdeburg and Halberstadt first the son of the Elector of Saxony, and now the Emperor’s son,The see of Magdeburg was disputed: its chapter had chosen August, son of the Elector of Saxony, while the Emperor sought it, with Halberstadt, for his son Archduke Leopold Wilhelm. Kepler would give either claimant the title in use. had I had anything to write to them. Farewell, and if news of happy events is going cheap at Leipzig, send me some too.
Laubani, 2. Sept. anno 1630.
Lauban, 2 September 1630.
Caetera ex latore.
The rest from the bearer.
Cl. Ex. T.
officiose colens
J. Kepler
Mathematicus.
Your Excellency’s
dutiful servant
J. Kepler,
Mathematician.
Clarissimo excellentissimoque Viro D.
Philippo Millero, Medicinae Licentiato,
inclytae Academiae Lipsiensis Professori
Philosophico D. amico meo colendo
Leipzig.
To the most famous and most excellent Mr
Philipp Müller, Licentiate of Medicine,
Professor of Philosophy in the renowned University of Leipzig,
my honoured friend.
Leipzig.