Tycho and Kepler by Kitty Ferguson

Author:Kitty Ferguson [Ferguson, Kitty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448167234
Publisher: Transworld Digital
Published: 2013-01-21T14:00:00+00:00

IN GRAZ, later that same month, on April 27, Johannes Kepler and Barbara Müller were wed in a splendid celebration at Barbara’s own residence. In spite of Kepler’s less than sanguine mood as the date drew near, the days and weeks that followed were happy for them. Barbara was only twenty-three, two years younger than he. A miniature portrait made at the time (see color plate section) shows her looking somewhat older than her age, with lovely, intelligent eyes, a sweet mouth, and a prominent nose. Contemporary descriptions called her pretty and plump. Kepler had grown extremely fond of Barbara’s seven-year-old daughter Regina and treated her as his own child. Barbara was soon expecting another baby.

Not long after the wedding, the first copies of Kepler’s book arrived from the printers. It was a slim volume with a long title: Prodromus Dissertationum Cosmographicarum, Continens Mysterium Cosmographicum, de Admirabili Proportione Orbium Coelestium, deque Causis Coelorum Numeri, Magnitudinis, Motuumque Periodicorum Genuinis & Proprijs, Demonstratum, per Quinque Regularia Corpora Geometrica (The Introduction to the Cosmographical Essays, Containing the Cosmographical Mystery of the Marvelous Proportion of the Celestial Spheres, and of the True and Particular Causes of the Number, Size, and Periodic Motions of the Heavens, Demonstrated by Means of the Five Regular Geometric Bodies). For convenience, that title is usually abbreviated to Mysterium Cosmographicum, or simply Mysterium. Looking back from old age, Kepler commented that this small book was the point of departure for the path his life would take from that time on.fn1 He might justifiably have said the same with regard to its watershed significance for all of science, for though the polyhedral theory was erroneous, Kepler had been the first, and would be the only, scientist until René Descartes (in the 1630s and ’40s) to insist on physical explanations for celestial phenomena. In the words of Owen Gingerich, “Seldom in history3 has so wrong a book been so seminal in directing the future course of science.”

Kepler hastened to send copies to other scholars, requesting their opinions. Galileo Galilei, then teaching at the University of Padua, was not yet well known and perhaps not known at all to Kepler, and Mysterium probably came into his hands purely by serendipity through a third person. But Galileo wrote to Kepler4 that though he had read only the preface so far, he was looking forward with pleasure to reading the rest. He also mentioned that he had been a Copernican for some years but not admitted it publicly for fear of the ridicule of his colleagues. In a return letter written in his most exuberant style, Kepler urged Galileo to espouse Copernicanism openly, for “would it not be better5 to pull the rolling wagon to its destination with united effort?” He also begged for Galileo’s opinion of Mysterium: “You can believe me, I prefer a criticism even if sharp from a single intelligent man to the ill-considered approval of the great masses.” Galileo did not reply. There would be no further correspondence between them for thirteen years.

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