Kepler's Witch: An Astronomer's Discovery of Cosmic Order Amid Religious War, Political Intrigue, and the Heresy Trial of His MotherSet against the backdrop of the witchcraft trial of his mother, this lively biography of Johannes Kepler – 'the Protestant Galileo' and 16th century mathematician and astronomer – reveals the surprisingly spiritual nature of the quest of early modern science. In the style of Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter, Connor's book brings to life the tidal forces of Reformation, Counter–Reformation, and social upheaval. Johannes Kepler, who discovered the three basic laws of planetary motion, was persecuted for his support of the Copernican system. After a neighbour accused his mother of witchcraft, Kepler quit his post as the Imperial mathematician to defend her. James Connor tells Kepler's story as a pilgrimage, a spiritual journey into the modern world through war and disease and terrible injustice, a journey reflected in the evolution of Kepler's geometrical model of the cosmos into a musical model, harmony into greater harmony. The leitmotif of the witch trial adds a third dimension to Kepler's biography by setting his personal life within his own times. The acts of this trial, including Kepler's letters and the accounts of the witnesses, although published in their original German dialects, had never before been translated into English. Echoing some of Dava Sobel's work for Galileo's Daughter, Connor has translated the witch trial documents into English. With a great respect for the history of these times and the life of this man, Connor's accessible story illuminates the life of Kepler, the man of science, but also Kepler, a man of uncommon faith and vision. |
From inside the book
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... Counter-Reformation comes to Prague in force. Letter from Kepler to an Unknown Nobleman October 23, 1613 From Kepler's Journal, 1614 XI To Quiet the Gossip Where Kepler, after moving to Linz, Austria, must come forth to defend his ...
... Counter-Reformation. excommunicated by his own church. And yet, throughout most of these years he was writing a book called The Harmony of the World. This,” I said, “is a man worth knowing.” He was The German student eyed me and sucked ...
... Catholic, even when it would have benefited his career to do so. People all around him were jumping from one church to ... Counter-Reformation chased the Lutherans out of their homes, he went with them, all the while fighting with the ...
... Reformation or Counter- Reformation. Jesuits were everywhere, whispering into the ears of kings. And, admittedly, Johannes Kepler had tried to bring the warring factions together, and for his pains was excommunicated by his own Lutheran ...
... Catholic, so was Weil der Stadt. As the Reformation heated up, partly out of religious zeal and partly out of pique, the Duke of Württemberg put increasing economic pressure on Weil. But then, as the Counter-Reformation gathered ...
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Kepler's Witch: An Astronomer's Discovery of Cosmic Order Amid Religious War ... James A. Connor No preview available - 2004 |