Crüger to Müller, 4/14 April 1624

Peter Crüger, “Crüger to Müller, 4/14 April 1624,” Nova Kepleriana 4, April 14, 1624, 108, transcribed in Plain Old Text, https://sources.vjbe.net/stable/8a45n.

Nova Kepleriana 4 14 Apr, 1624, p. 108 Summary

Part of Die Keplerbriefe auf der Nationalbibliothek und auf der Sternwarte in Paris

Crüger admires Kepler's acumen but will not subscribe to his hypotheses for Mars, hoping God will show another way to the true theory.

English · Latin · Both

Source: Peter Crüger's letter to Philipp Müller of 4/14 April 1624, written at Danzig, on why he still will not accept Kepler's theory of Mars. The original is in the Bibliothèque de l'Observatoire, Paris (B, 1, 9; 89, 9. K. 32). 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), 108.

Transcribed from: the page images of the 1927 printing.

Only the Latin is given; the editors’ German commentary 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.

Quin igitur, inquis, amplectamur Astronomiam Keppleri. Huius viri acumen et subtilitatem merito miror. Sed non omnia acuta etiam recta, inquit alicubi Lipsius … Non igitur hypothesibus Dn. Keppleri subscribo. Dabit, uti spero, Deus aliam rationem deprehendendae verae theoriae Martis.

Why then, you say, should we not embrace Kepler’s astronomy? I rightly admire this man’s acumen and subtlety. But not everything sharp is also straight, as Lipsius says somewhere … So I do not subscribe to Mr Kepler’s hypotheses. God will, I hope, give another way of finding the true theory of Mars.