Kepler to Müller, 27 February 1630
Johannes Kepler, “Kepler to Müller, 27 February 1630,” Nova Kepleriana 4, February 27, 1630, 73–74, transcribed in Plain Old Text, https://sources.vjbe.net/stable/yv4q1.
Nova Kepleriana 4 27 Feb, 1630, p. 73–74 Summary
Part of Die Keplerbriefe auf der Nationalbibliothek und auf der Sternwarte in Paris
Kepler sends copies of the letter from China and asks for Müller's judgement, ethical as well as astronomical, with a bitter remark on the portents the war has brought Germany.
Source: Johannes Kepler's letter to Philipp Müller written at Sagan on 27 February 1630, about sending type and copies of the Epistolium from China, with a sharp remark on the war in Germany. The original is in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris (Nouv. acq. lat. 1635, fol. 98; 89, 8. F. 19), with a copy at fol. 97. 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), 73–74.
Transcribed from: the page images of the 1927 printing.
Only the letter is given; the editors’ German summary and notes are left out. Words in square brackets were cut out of the original and filled in by the editors from the copy.
S. P. D.
Clarissime Excellentissimeque Vir.
Scripsi ante 10 dies Laubam misique fasciculu[m ad D.] Tuam, rogans affinem meum Christopho[rum Hofm]an, ut per transeuntes aurigas fasciculum [ad Te] mitteret, et typos meos asportari Görlicium curaret. Ante quatriduum etiam sarcinam 500 Exemplarium, eodem itinere misi, tradendam Voigtio vestro: Utriusque consilii jam poenitet, postquam ex improviso in civem Saganensem incidi, qui merces recta Lipsiam mittit, cujus vehes e vestigio Saganum revertetur cum aliquot vini doliis. Itaque si nondum praevertit jamque asportavit alius auriga, Lauba commendatus, rogo huic jam tradi cures et typos, et quicquid de tribus molibus papyri necessario retinendum est, nec renunciari sine offensa potest; pecuniae, quantum supererogaveris, significa; curabo, ut nundinis Paschalibus tibi satisfiat per Saganenses.
Cum Ephemeridis 1630 semissis paucos ante dies ad me sit reversa, nondum tota potuit absolvi. Aegre adducor ut paginas excusas mittam, ne vel oblivione mea vel casu alio pereat unum exemplar. Pulchrius exisset vestibulum, si potuissemus expectare typos Lipsenses. Nam cursorii mei, quibus sum usus, manci sunt, ut facile apparet.
Puto me priori fasciculo inclusisse Epistolam Sinensem. Dedi tamen D. Voigtio in mandatis, ut, reserato fasciculo 500 Exemplarium, tibi et Aviano det singula exemplaria. Nunc etiam unum mitto, certitudinis causa. De singulis expecto responsa, et tuum judicium liberum, non astronomicum tantum, id scio, facies ultro; sed ethicum etiam, uti puto te, nisi urgearis, tergiversaturum. Eo qua licet; foelicior. non sanctior, qui qua libet. Gratulor dolens de dolentibus, Germanus de alto Regum, nunc quidem etiam Germano, sanguine. Sic fertur ille ipse meus, gratulatus esse Henrico Friderico de victoria de Dumeto.Frederick Henry of Orange's capture of 's-Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc) in September 1629; dumetum, a thicket, renders bosch. Ac cum τέρατα mera nobis per hoc decennium tulerit fatum Germaniae, mirum ne si et in oratione mea insint τέρατα? Si non fortiora mea verba, quam patria facta?
Expecto magna generositatis exempla ex vestra Misnia, quae ego tum demum etiam stilo imiter. Vale. Sagani 27. Feb. anno 1630.
Ex. D. T.
officiosissimus
Jo. Keplerus.
Clarissimo Exellentissimoque Viro D.
Philippo Millero, Medicinae Licentiato,
Mathematicarum artium Professori in
Academia Lipsensi D. amico meo veteri
fide.
Leipzig.