Kepler's Witch (46 page)
Authors: James A. Connor
5.
According to Max Caspar, the butcher's name was Christoph Frick, not Stoffer.
6.
This may have been a cocky answer under interrogation, possibly indicating some hostility toward Einhorn.
7.
Admittedly, I am going out on a limb speculating about this. It is unlikely that Hafenreffer played a direct part in the trial of Katharina Kepler, and unlikely that he did much more than cluck over these terrible accusations from a distance, but his actions and the actions of the consistory certainly gave Einhorn power that he would not have had otherwise.
8.
Rolbert A. Kann,
A History of the Habsburg Empire: 1526â1918
(Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1974), p. 49.
9.
The German term
Wassersuppe
implies a not very nourishing soup and is often used metaphorically to represent “poor man's food.” It is a soup made from water rather than more nourishing ingredients like meat, milk, or wine.
10.
Michael Kerrigan,
The Instruments of Torture
(New York: Lyons Press, 2001), p. 81.
11.
Kerrigan,
Instruments of Torture,
p. 89.
C
HAPTER
14
1.
William P. Guthrie,
Battles of the Thirty Years' War: From White Mountain to Nordlingen
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002), p. 64.
2.
Guthrie,
Battles of the Thirty Years' War,
pp. 59â60.
3.
Peter Demetz,
Prague in Black and Gold: Scenes from the Life of a European City
(New York: Hill and Wang, 1997), p. 227.
4.
Demetz,
Prague in Black and Gold,
p. 228.
5.
Kepler to Wackher von Wackenfels,
GW
xvii, nr. 783:46â48.
6.
Grüninger to Osiander, July 1, 1619,
GW
xvii, nr. 843:10â19.
7.
Kepler to Hafenreffer, November 28, 1618,
GW
xvii, nr. 808:65â67.
8.
Calendar for 1619, Frisch,
Opera Omnia,
i, 486â87.
9.
Harmonice Mundi, GW
vi, 289:35â39.
10.
GW
vi, 480. No citation given by Caspar. Kepler's third law of planetary motion is best expressed in modern notation as:
p
2
/a
3
= k
or, the period (p) of a planet's orbit, that is, the time it takes to make one revolution, squared, i.e., multiplied by itself, divided by the mean distance (a) that the planet is from the sun, cubed, i.e., multiplied by itself two times, is equal to a constant (k). This means that the relationship between (p
2
) and (a
3
) remains constant throughout the motion of the planet in its orbit. This is Kepler's harmonic law because as Kepler saw it, this relationship possessed the same kind of harmony that one could find in musical chords or in colors that work together. This harmony is innate in the human soul, placed there by God as a key to understanding God's mind.
11.
Harmonice Mundi, GW
vi, 215:30â33.
12.
Harmonice Mundi, GW
vi, 223:26â35.
13.
I refer the reader to Edwin A. Abbott's wonderful little science fiction book
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
(New York: Penguin, 1998), in which different shapes are given different personalities and the sharper the points that a polygon has in two dimensions, the nastier its disposition.
14.
Harmonice Mundi, GW
vi, 16:35â38.
15.
Mysterium Cosmographicum, GW
viii, 33â35.
16.
Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae, GW
vii, 9:10â12.
17.
Around that time, the authorities in Graz publicly burned Kepler's astrological calendar for 1624, his last ever, even though it had been dedicated to the representatives of Styria. One of Kepler's friends asked him if his calendar had offended the religious sensibilities of the people there, for it predicted that forcing the people to attend “hated divine services” would lead to great hardship, so “that the ordinary people would be willing to bargain a golden cup for a simple slice of bread.” Kepler knew better, however, and informed his friend of the true reason. Apparently, the people in Graz did not like the fact that Kepler gave Styria second billing under that other provinceâAustria above the Enns. Local pride trumps religious sensibilities any day.
C
HAPTER
15
1.
Kepler to Schickard, April 19, 1627,
GW
xviii, nr. 1042:42â48.
2.
Kepler to Schickard, February 10, 1627,
GW
xviii, nr. 1037:60â62.
3.
Kepler to Guldin, February 24, 1628,
GW
xviii, nr. 1072:41â44.
4.
Kepler to Guldin, February 24, 1628,
GW
xviii, nr. 1072:45â49.
5.
Kepler to Guldin, Spring 1628,
GW
xviii, nr. 1083:85â86.
6.
Kepler to Guldin, February 24, 1628,
GW
xviii, nr. 1072:104â10.
7.
Kepler to Guldin, February 24, 1628,
GW
xviii, nr. 1072:114â33.
8.
Frisch,
Opera Omnia,
viii, 348.
9.
Gerhard von Taxis to Kepler, December 14, 1625,
GW
xvii, nr. 704.
10.
Frisch,
Opera Omnia,
viii, 351â52.
11.
Gerhard von Taxis to Kepler, September 25, 1625,
GW
xviii, nr. 1016:18â20.
12.
The “White Rose” was a student-based, anti-Nazi movement that suffered terrible martyrdom in the 1930s.
1527 | Sack of Rome; end of the Renaissance; beginning of the Counter-Reformation. |
1571 | Johannes Kepler born in Weil der Stadt on December 27. |
1573 | Brother Heinrich born. |
1575 | Kepler family moves to Leonberg. |
1577 | Kepler's parents attain citizenship; Kepler becomes “Burgerssohn of Löwenberg.” |
 | Kepler sees the great comet with his mother. |
1577â83 | Kepler attends school in Leonberg (with interruptions). |
1578â79 | Kepler attends the Latin school. |
1579 | At year end, Kepler's education interrupted due to family move to Ellmendingen, near Pforzheim. |
1580â82 | In Ellmendingen, “heavily burdened by farming chores.” |
1582â83 | During the winter Kepler back at Latin school in Leonberg; probably lived with the Guldenmann grandparents in Etlingen. |
1584 | Family returns to Leonberg. |
 | Sister Margaretha born on June 26. |
 | Kepler attends lower cloister school of Adelberg. |
1586 | Kepler promoted to upper cloister school in Maulbronn. |
1587 | Brother Christoph is born on March 5. |
 | Kepler matriculates at Tübingen University. |
1589 | Father Heinrich leaves family for good on January 5. |
 | Sixteen-year-old Heinrich runs away from home. |
1591 | Kepler receives baccalaureate degree and begins theological studies. |
1596 | Mysterium Cosmographicum |
1597 | Marriage to Barbara Müller von Mühleck on April 27. |
1598 | Due to Counter-Reformation measures, exiled from Graz for a short time. |
1600 | First meeting with Tycho Brahe in Prague at Benatky Castle. |
 | Final exile from Graz on August 7. |
 | Arrival in Prague as a refugee on October 19. |
1601 | Death of Tycho Brahe; Kepler appointed imperial mathematician. |
1604 | Astronomiae Pars Optica |
1605 | At Easter time, Kepler discovers that the orbit of Mars is elliptical. |
1609 | Astronomia Nova |
1611 | Death of wife, Barbara Kepler nee Müller. |
1612 | Excluded from Communion by Pastor Hitzler and the Württemberg consistory. |
 | Death of Rudolf II; ascension of Matthias to imperial throne. |
1613 | Marriage to Susanna Reuttinger on October 30. |
1614 | Brother Heinrich returns to Leonberg. |
1615â16 | Six witches are executed in the jurisdiction of Leonberg. |
1615 | Nova Stereometria Doliorum Vinariorum |
1617 | First volume of the |
1618 | On May 23, the Second Defenestration of Prague and the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. |
1619 | Battle of White Mountain and the flight of Friedrich V, the Winter King. |
 | Harmonice Mundi, |
 | Death of Emperor Matthias; five months later Ferdinand II ascends to the throne. |
1620 | Second volume of |
1602â21 | Kepler assists his mother, who is released after fourteen months of imprisonment on the charge of witchcraft. |
1621 | Third and final volume of |
1626 | Under pressure from the Counter-Reformation, Kepler and his family leave Linz. |
1626â27 | The |
1626 | Kepler declines to convert to Catholicism. |
 | Wallenstein offer his patronage and Kepler moves to Sagan; four months later the Counter-Reformation begins in Sagan. |
1630 | Death of Johannes Kepler in Regensburg on November 15. |
1633 | Galileo Galilei is tried by the Inquisition in Rome. |
1647â50 | Peace conference in Westphalia, slow end to the Thirty Years' War. |
C
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Dreyer, John Lewis E., ed.
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15 vols. Copenhagen: Libraria Gyldendaliana, 1913â29.
Frisch, Christian.
Joannis Kepleris Astronomi Opera Omnia.
Frankfurt and Erlangen, 1858â71.
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