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though not uncommon in those days, is one which we find it difficult to
realise at the present time. His mother, Catherine Kepler, had attained
undesirable notoriety by the suspicion that she was guilty of witchcraft. Years
were spent in legal investigations, and it was only after unceasing exertions
on the part of the astronomer for upwards of a twelvemonth that he was
finally able to procure her acquittal and release from prison.
It is interesting for us to note that at one time there was a proposal that
Kepler should forsake his native country and adopt England as a home. It
arose in this wise. Tlie great man was distressed througliout the greater part of
his life by pecuniary anxieties. Finding him in a strait of this description, the
English ambassador in Venice, Sir Henry Wotton, in the year 1620, besought
Kepler to come over to England, where he assured him that he would obtain a
favourable reception, and where, he was able to add, Kepler’s great scientific
work was already highly esteemed. But his efforts were unavailing ; Kepler
would not leave his own country. He was then forty-nine years of age, and
doubtless a home in a foreign land, where people spoke a strange tongue, had
not sufficient attraction for him, even when accompanied with the substantial
inducements which the ambassador was able to offer. Had Kepler accepted
this invitation, he would, in transferring his home to England, have
anticipated the similar change which took place in the career of another great
astronomer two centuries later. It will be remembered that Herschel, in his
younger days, did transfer himself to England, and thus gave to England the
imperishable fame of association with his triumphs.
The publication of the Rudolphine tables of the celestial movements
entailed much expense. A considerable part of this was defrayed by the
Government at Venice, but the balance occasioned no little trouble and
anxiety to Kepler. No doubt the authorities of those days were even less
willing to spend money on scientific matters than are the Governments of
more recent times. For several years the imperial Treasury was importuned to
relieve him from his anxieties. The effects of so much worry, and of the long
journeys which were involved, at last broke down Kepler’s health completely.
As we have already mentioned, he had never been strong from infancy, and he
finally succumbed to a fever in November, 1630, at the age of fifty-nine. He
was interred at St. Peter’s Church, at Ratisbon.
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Buch Great Astronoms - Johannes Kepler"
Great Astronoms
Johannes Kepler
- Titel
- Great Astronoms
- Untertitel
- Johannes Kepler
- Autor
- Robert S. Ball
- Datum
- 1907
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 16
- Schlagwörter
- Astronom, Philosopher, Englisch, English, Astronomie, Philosophie
- Kategorien
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Physik