Kepler to Müller, 4 January 1630
Johannes Kepler, “Kepler to Müller, 4 January 1630,” Nova Kepleriana 4, January 4, 1630, 70–71, transcribed in Plain Old Text, https://sources.vjbe.net/stable/6nfh1.
Nova Kepleriana 4 4 Jan, 1630, p. 70–71 Summary
Part of Die Keplerbriefe auf der Nationalbibliothek und auf der Sternwarte in Paris
Kepler hopes the type and paper are ready at Leipzig and arranges carriage to Sagan, reports what he has heard of Bartsch at Strasbourg, and settles the accounts, resolved to go on printing whatever happens.
Source: Johannes Kepler's letter to Philipp Müller written at Sagan on 4 January 1630, about the type and paper ordered at Leipzig for printing Tycho Brahe's observations, and the money held for him and Jacob Bartsch. The original is lost; the copy is in the Bibliothèque de l'Observatoire, Paris (B, 1, 9 (89); 89, 8. M). 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), 70–71.
Transcribed from: the page images of the 1927 printing.
Only the letter is given; the editors’ German summary and notes are left out. Kepler’s marginal note, which the 1927 edition prints as a footnote, is given as a footnote. Fractional dates (7/17, old and new style) are written with a slash.
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, including the German direction on the cover; Kepler’s marginal note is translated as a footnote.
S. P. et foelicissimi
ineuntis anni omina.
Greetings, and omens of a most happy
new year.
Clarissime Excellentissimeque Vir, D. amice veteri fide.
Most famous and most excellent Sir, friend of old loyalty.
Etsi ad duas meas epistolas nihil ego ad hanc usque diem abs Ex. T. accepi responsi (haeret enim fasciculus ad me spectans Görlicii jam per 14 dies, absente quippe, qui eas curaturus, cista sua conclusit),1 spe tamen plenus sum, et perlatas meas ad te (praesertim priores, Torgae a nostro Saganensi latore Halberstadium eunte traditas Tabellario Lipsensi noto, cum Angelio) et te, qua es aequanimitate, sic tecum statuere, unum quodlibet genus et animantum et hominum a sui generis aliis, qua re et me Astronomiae cultorem abs te ejusdem professore publico, opem, in excudendis praesertim Observationibus Brahei expectare debere. Si me non fallit spes mea, nec in uno nec in altero: sequitur, ut credam, typos Ciceroniano antiquo charactere jam fusos et perfectos esse; papyri etiam tres moles a papyrario vestro vicino jam confectas Lipsiamque advectas esse. Egi igitur cum nostratibus mercatoribus et aurigis Saganensibus; ut quicquid erit sarcinarum ad me spectantium, id tuo indicio a fusore et papyrario in currus et plaustra sua recipiant. Si fusori jam satisfecisti de meis Bartschianisve pecuniis, sperabo typos ad praescriptum perfectos futuros. Sin autem aequo animo patitur fusor neque tibi molestia nascetur: velim sane prius recognoscere mercem, quam pretium condictum ipse universum recipiat. Poterit enim te sponsore mercem facile et sine periculo e sua potestate emittere; praesertim si diligentiae adhibitae et observatae praescriptionis sibi erit conscius. Tu vero in damno nequaquam esse debes: quicquid enim vel erogasti vel promittes: de meis et Bartschianis pecuniis, sine nostra contradictione defalcabis.
Although I have had no answer from Your Excellency to this day to my two letters (for the packet meant for me has been stuck at Görlitz for 14 days now, since the man who was to see to it is away and has locked it in his chest),1 I am nevertheless full of hope that my letters have reached you (especially the earlier ones, handed over at Torgau by our Sagan carrier, on his way to Halberstadt, to the Leipzig messenger you know, with Angelius), and that you, with your fair-mindedness, have resolved that, just as every kind of creature, beast or man, should expect help from others of its kind, so I too, a cultivator of astronomy, should expect help from you, its public professor, above all in printing Brahe’s observations. If my hope deceives me in neither, it follows that I should believe the type has already been cast and finished in the old Cicero face, and that three bales of paper have already been made by your paper-maker nearby and brought to Leipzig. So I have arranged with our merchants and the Sagan carters that, on your word, they should take whatever packs concern me from the founder and the paper-maker onto their carts and wagons. If you have already paid the founder from my money or Bartsch’s, I shall hope the type will be finished as prescribed. But if the founder is willing, and it causes you no trouble, I should certainly like to inspect the goods before he receives the whole agreed price. For on your guarantee he can easily, and without risk, let the goods out of his hands, especially if he knows he has taken care and kept to the specification. But you must in no way be out of pocket: whatever you have paid out or will promise, deduct from my money and Bartsch’s, without objection from us.
De Bartschio hoc unum habemus ex relatu studiosi Laubanensis, Argentorato domum reversi: illum 7/17. Novembris Argentoratum pervenisse, die vero 13/23 quo nuncius hujus rei Argentorato discessit, ab urbe abfuisse, Durlacum profectum. Quid ille tibi dederit in mandatis de suis pecuniis, mihi est incompertum. Non puto, per Lipsiam esse reversurum. Itaque si nulla habes contraria mandata, decerpe etiam de eo, quod ille meis pecuniis superaddidit, quantum opus erit. Sin aliter est: mercator Hofcunz paratus est exsolvere, quantum mihi insuper erit necesse. Summa meae pecuniae erat, ni fallor, 76 Joachimici; de qua retines nunc non totos 23: quibus pro typis addendi 10 vel quod minus poteris; tum jam tribus ballis papyri conductae, et pro duabus aliis vulgaris impressoriae, quas rogavi Avianum ut coëmeret. Alea jacta est: quicquid fiat in publicis, pergendum mihi est in perficiendis inceptis: omnino typi conducti requiruntur ad perfectionem: ut, si etiam discedendum Sagano fuerit, integra potius relinquam, quam mutila et disjecta. Caetera scripsi ad D. M. Avianum, rogo D. Tua cum illo communicet. Et jam vale.
Of Bartsch we have only this, from the report of a Lauban student come home from Strasbourg: that he arrived at Strasbourg on 7/17 November, but on 13/23 November, the day the messenger with this news left Strasbourg, he was away from the city, gone to Durlach.The seat of the Margrave of Baden, whose secretary was Bartsch's rival for Susanna's hand (see Kepler's letter of 13/23 November 1629). What he has instructed you about his money I do not know. I do not think he will come back by way of Leipzig. So if you have no instructions to the contrary, take from what he added to my money as much as is needed. If it is otherwise, the merchant Hofkunz is ready to pay whatever more I need. My money came, if I am not mistaken, to 76 joachimstalers, of which you now hold not quite 23: to these must be added 10 for the type, or less if you can; then the three bales of paper already ordered, and two more of ordinary printing paper, which I asked Avianus to buy. The die is cast: whatever happens in public affairs, I must go on and finish what I have begun. The type ordered is absolutely needed to finish it, so that, even if I have to leave Sagan, I shall leave things whole rather than maimed and scattered. The rest I have written to M. Avianus; please share it with him. And now farewell.
Sagani 4. Januarii anno 1630.
Sagan, 4 January 1630.
Cl. Ex. T.
officiis devotus
J. Keppler
Mathematicus.
Your Excellency’s
devoted in service,
J. Kepler,
Mathematician.
Clarissimo Excellentissimoque viro D.
Philippo Millero, Medicinae Licentiato,
Astronomiae Professori in Academia
Lipsiaca, D. amico benevolentissimo
Leipzig.
To the most famous and most excellent Mr
Philipp Müller, Licentiate of Medicine,
Professor of Astronomy in the University
of Leipzig, my most kindly friend,
Leipzig.
In abweßen Herrn
M. Wilhelm Aviano
zu erbrechen.
In his absence
to be opened by Mr
M. Wilhelm Avianus.
[Margin:] Cum inclusa quitantia pro 53 Thaleris imp. ut petiisti.↩︎
[Margin:] With a receipt enclosed for 53 imperial thalers, as you asked.↩︎