Crüger to Müller, 31 December 1634
Peter Crüger, “Crüger to Müller, 31 December 1634,” Nova Kepleriana 4, December 31, 1634, 111, transcribed in Plain Old Text, https://sources.vjbe.net/stable/kpyjz.
Nova Kepleriana 4 31 Dec, 1634, p. 111 Summary
Part of Die Keplerbriefe auf der Nationalbibliothek und auf der Sternwarte in Paris
Commissioned by the Danzig council, Crüger asks Müller for a catalogue of Kepler's papers for sale, and whether Tycho's observations are the widow's to sell.
Source: Peter Crüger's letter to Philipp Müller written at Danzig on the day before the Kalends of January (31 December) 1634, now with a commission from the city council to find out what Kepler's posthumous papers and Tycho's observations would cost. The original is in the Bibliothèque de l'Observatoire, Paris (B, 1, 9; 89, 9. Bb. 48). 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), 111.
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.
De scriptis Keppleri etc. posthumis mandatum habeo a magistratu nostro, ut explorem, qualia sint illa scripta et quanti prostent. Quaeso itaque cum jam facilior sit occasio Lipsia quam Dantisco Saganum, Exc. T. procuret mihi Catalogum scriptorum, quae vendi possint, et, si inter ea etiam Observationes Tychonicae, exploret, an etiam Viduae sit integrum, eas vendere, si quidem procul dubio Caesar eas sibi vindicare posset tamquam Kepplero tantum concreditas. Quaeso rem hanc agat serio, et si non hac occasione (quod sane fieri nequit) saltem alia me omnium certiorem faciat.
About Kepler’s posthumous writings, and the rest, I have a commission from our Council to find out what those writings are like and what they are offered at. So, since there is an easier chance from Leipzig than from Danzig to Sagan, please get me a catalogue of the writings that can be sold, and, if Tycho’s observations are among them, find out whether the widow is also free to sell them, since without doubt the Emperor could claim them for himself, as only entrusted to Kepler. Please take this matter seriously, and if not by this chance (which indeed cannot be done) at least by another, let me know about it all.