Product Description
Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Johannes Kepler," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Johannes Kepler in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Johannes Kepler when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Johannes Kepler, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Imagine you could travel to the Moon... circa 1600
(Here's a review I wrote years ago, while researching an exhibit for Chicago's
Museum of Science and Industry.)

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was the astronomer who recognized
that the planets move around the Sun in ellipses, a discovery
which led directly to the Newtonian revolution which gave us our
present understanding of the laws of physics.One of his books, *Somnium*
or, in English, *Dream*, is a fictional voyage
to the Moon.

This story is only a few pages long, but Kepler added many notes
to it and editor Rosen supplies a lengthy commentary.

Duracotus, a native of Iceland, studies astronomy with Tycho Brahe in Denmark.
When he returns home he discovers that his mother knows far more
about the Moon than Tycho does; she reveals that she is a witch
and converses with demons who regularly travel through space.(Kepler
studied with Tycho, the greatest astronomical observer of his age, and
his mother was once accused of witchcraft and imprisoned.)

The witch summons a demon, who explains that travel to the oon is
possible only when the shadow of the Earth touches it-- that is,
during a lunar eclipse."Because the opportunity is so fleeting, we
take few human beings along, and only those who are most devoted to
us.Some man of this kind, then, we seize as a group and all of us,
pushing from underneath, lift him up into the heavens.In every
instance the take-off hits him as a severe shock, for he is hurled
just as though he had been shot aloft by gunpowder to sail over
mountains and seas.For this reason at the outset he must be lulled
to sleep immediately with narcotics and opiates.His limbs must be
arranged in such a way that his torso will not be torn away from his
buttocks nor his head from his body, but the shock will be distributed
among his individual limbs.Then a new difficulty follows: extreme
cold and impeded breathing.

"The cold is relieved by a power which we are born with; the

breathing, by applying damp sponges to the nostrils.After the first
stage of the trip is finished, the passage becomes easier. At that
time we expose their bodies to the open air and remove our hands.
Their bodies roll themselves up, like spiders, into balls which we
carry along almost entirely by our will alone, so that finally the
bodily mass proceeds toward its destination of its own accord.But
this onward drive is of very little use to us, because it is too late.
Hence it is by our will, as I said, that we move the body swiftly
along, and we forge ahead of it from now on lest it suffer any harm by
colliding very hard with the moon.When the humans wake up, they
usually complain about an indescribable weariness of all their limbs,
from which they later recover well enough to walk."

In this passage Kepler demonstrates that he understands many of the
problems of space flight: the need for sudden acceleration, the
dangers of its effect on the body, the cold of space, the gradual
thinning of the atmosphere, the "onward drive" provided as the Moon's
attraction grows.Some of these he must solve by magic, such as the
demons' lifting power and warmth.Some he tries to solve by plausible
invention-- arranging the passengers' limbs and applying the damp
sponges-- just as a modern science fiction writer would.Though
*Somnium* was written in 1609, nearly sixty years before Newton
published a complete theory of gravity, Kepler evidently knew that
planets attracted other massive bodies and that the attraction became
weaker with distance.

The bulk of the story is concerned with a detailed description of
astronomy as seen from the Moon.The Earth hangs fixed in the sky,
the Sun arcs slowly overhead every 28 days, eclipses are markedly
different from terrestrial ones, and the behavior of the planets is
somewhat novel.Kepler evidently delighted in working out the facts
of lunar astronomy, and his whole story is carefully consistent with
the known facts of seventeenth-century science.He speculates on the

effect of long days and nights on life on the Moon.Plants and
animals take forms with tough skins to endure the scorching Sun, and
the oceans boil at noon.

The *Somnium* may be said to be the earliest "hard-science" SF story:
one which hews closely to the line of contemporary science.
Amusingly, Kepler yielded to a temptation that must have afflicted
many a subsequent hard-SF writer-- he added footnotes to explain the
meticulously built scientific background to his story.The footnotes
run more than four times the length of the story itself!

============

The lengthy quote is from Edward Rosen's translation,
*Kepler's Somnium.For another translation and further
commentary, see John Lear, ed., Kepler's Dream, trans. by Patricia
Kirkwood, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1965. ... Read more

Product Description
Definitive biography by foremost scholar offers fascinating erudite picture of great mathematician’s scientific accomplishments: formulation of laws of planetary motion, work with optics and calculus, much more. Also detailed chronicle of Kepler’s public and personal life (childhood and youth, education, mother’s trial as a witch, fear of religious persecution, etc.). Introduction and Notes by Owen Gingerich. Bibliography.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Quite good
This biography is fine, but it cannot be recommended above Koestler's biography, which is more beautifully written and, I think, not as scholarly inferior as some people say. The discrepancy in terms of style seems to be due in part to this translation being rather clumsy (although I have not compared it with the German original). Let us consider some comparisons between this book and Koestler's in this regard. Where Koestler has (quoting Kepler) "geometry was implanted into man ... and not merely conveyed to his mind through the eyes" (p. 262), Caspar reads: "geometry ... has been transferred to man ... [and] not received inside through the eyes" (p. 381). Or (again quoting Kepler): "be greeted, double knob, children of Mars" (Caspar, p. 201) versus "hail, burning twin, offspring of Mars" (Koestler, p. 377). Now it may be said that Koestler operates with a poetic licence (which is probably true in the latter case, but often not), but so should this book, which is also a popular account with no footnotes or references. No footnotes or references, that is, except those added by the translator/editor. And in these she reveals her appalling lack of taste. She is extremely inconsistent in what gets a footnote and what does not, which seems to be due, firstly, to the fact that she does not know the material very well, and, secondly, to the fact that she shamelessly wants to refer to her own work whenever possible. And she completely destroys the flair of Caspar's stylish sentence "[Kepler] did not start with doubt, as another soon did, but with an unquestioned faith in ratio" (p. 377) by inserting a dimwitted attempt at a joke: "Ed. note: Doubtless, reference here is to Descartes (1596-1650)."

Quibbles aside, this is of course still a very interesting book. Here are some of my favourite themes:

"Aesthetic-artistic consideration of the universe" (p. 382). "I consider it my duty and task ... to advocate ... what I ... have recognized as true and whose beauty fills me with unbelievable rapture on contemplation." (Kepler, p. 298). "I may say with truth that whenever I consider in my thoughts the beautiful order, how one thing issues out of and is derived from another, then it is as though I had read a divine text, written onto the world itself ... saying: Man, stretch thy reason hither, so that thou mayest comprehend these things" (p. 152).

Mathematics a means to this end. "Kepler consciously renounced [Archimedean] rigor and wanted to take over from Archimedes only so much as 'is sufficient for the pleasure of the lovers of geometry.'" (p. 234). "Don't sentence me completely to the treadmill of mathematical calculations and leave me time for philosophical speculations, which are my sole delight. Each one has his own particular pleasure, one the tables and nativities, I the flower of astronomy, the artistic structure of the motions." (Kepler, p. 308).

Man's cognitive abilities designed for this purpose. "[T]he world partakes of quantity and the mind of man grasps nothing better than quantities for the recognition of which he was obviously created." (p. 96). "Nature loves these relationships in everything that is capable of thus being related. They are also loved by the intellect of man who is an image of the Creator." (p. 94). Cf. also p. 93 and above.

The universe designed for this purpose. "The earth's axis in inclined to the ecliptic in consideration of the people distributed over the whole surface of the earth, so that the change of the heavenly phenomena should extend to all places on the earth and consequently all people have a share in it. ... Sun and moon have the same apparent sizes, so that the eclipses, one of the spectacles arranged by the Creator for instructing observing creatures in the orbital relations of the sun and the moon, can occur. The earth moves around the sun to make it possible for man to get to know the world and its dimensions." (p. 296).

Reception of the above. These ideas were quite well received e.g. in the case of the Mysterium Cosmographicum: "Professor Georg Limnäus in Jena ... is ecstatic that at last someone had again revived the time-honoured Platonic art of philosophising. ... [Tycho Brahe] takes unusual pleasure in the book: ... the zeal, the fine understanding and acumen ought to be praised [even though] certain details give him pause." (p. 69-70). It was different with the more modern physics of the Astronomia Nova: "Kepler ran up against rejection and lack of understanding on all sides. Maestlin, Fabricius, Longomontanus and others shook their heads." (p. 135).

The Complete Story of Johannes Kepler the Heretic Astronomer
This biography is simply the best on the life and trials of Johannes Kepler.Anyone,who is exploring the field of astronomy,should invest their time in reading this great book.It's the fascinating story of a genius scientist having to deal with the heretical zeitgeist and relentless religious persecution of his times.Ironically,more from his own protestant leadership rather than the catholic church.Kepler was like the modern Socrates during this epoch leading to the Age of Reason. Kepler supported the Greek Copernican world model,which was in direct oppossion to the teachings of all christian-jewish European schools.Kepler did not want to 'drag the owls of knowledge to Athens',yet to bring their greek pagan wisdom to the heart of the European centers of learning.This is just an excellent book for any astute historian with a budding interest in the laws of the stars above us.

If you dig Kepler, you'll love this book
Like the other reviewers have said, this book is simply the best combination of an account of Kepler's life, theories, and works.

Widely considered Kepler's definitive biography
Although written in 1948, Caspar's biography is today still the most comprehensive attempt to portray the person of Kepler in a unified manner. This work reflects Caspar's lifetime of work dedicated to Kepler's many publications, manuscripts, and correspondences, and, thanks to additional citations made by editor Owen Gingerich, the reader may now find where nearly all of these passages derive from. Both the common reader and serious student may benefit from this book, for it combines Kepler's scientific studies with the deeply personal conflicts of an early modern genius. Caspar's biography is fundamental not only for studies made on Kepler, but also for the Scientific Revolution in general.

If you are at all serious......
....about Kepler, you must have this book. Period.

By the way, Arthur Koestler's Sleepwalkers (and the Kepler chapters
which were published under the title The Watershed) rely heavily
on Caspar's book. ... Read more

Product Description
The Optics was a product of Kepler's most creative period. It began as an attempt to give astronomical optics a solid foundation, but soon transcended this narrow goal to become a complete reconstruction of the theory of light, the physiology of vision, and the mathematics of refraction. The result is a work of extraordinary breadth whose significance transcends most categories into which it might be placed. It gives us precious insight into Kepler's thought during this crucial period, an insight all the more valuable in that most of his working papers from that time have been lost. Second, it is the culmination of a long and rich tradition in the science of optics, in distinct contrast with the new optical thought represented by Descartes---though Descartes built on insights derived from Kepler's work. And third, it presents discoveries in the physiology of vision, photometry, and the geometry of conic sections which have become part of our intellectual heritage. Especially notable are Kepler's discovery of the inverted retinal image, his theoretical grounding of the inverse-square photometric law, and his insights into the relations between the various conic sections.Among the treasures the Optics contains are Kepler's theory of the metaphysics of light and other quasi-material powers, a substantial commentary on Aristotle's theory of light, a remarkable, though ultimately unsuccessful, theory of refraction, and a fascinating speculation about the half-hidden heliocentrism of Euclid's Optics. The sections on parallax and atmospheric refraction are ancillary to the New Astronomy, and are frequently referred to in that work.Unlike many other scientific works of the first rank, the Optics is for the most part sufficiently nontechnical to be accessible to nonspecialists. At the same time, it is interesting enough to attract the attention of the educated layman as well as scholars in a wide variety of fields.The translation is accompanied by extensive footnotes (not end notes). Nearly all the diagrams were drawn anew for this edition. The two exceptions are reproductions of Kepler's original illustrations, used where the sense of the text requires them. Kepler's original index has been retained, supplemented by a second index prepared by the translator. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This Book Is In Latin. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more