My position is delicate. Rudolph is fast in the hands of wizards amp; all manner of mountebank. I consider astrology a political more than a prophetical tool, and that one should take care, not only that it be banished from the senate, but from the heads of those who would advise the Emperor in his best interests. Yet what am I to do, if he insists? He is virtually a hermit now in the palace, and spends his days alone among his toys and his pretty monsters, hiding from the humankind which he fears and distrusts, unwilling to make the simplest of decisions. In the mornings, while the groom puts his Spanish amp; Italian steeds through their paces in the courtyard, he sits gloomily watching from the window of his chamber, like an impotent infidel ogling the harem, and then speaks of this as his exercise! Yet, despite all, he is I confess far from ineffective. He seems to operate by a certain Archimedian motion, which is so gentle it barely strikes the eye, but which in the course of time produces movement in the entire mass. The court functions somehow. Perhaps it is just the nervous energy, common to all organisms, which keeps things going, as a chicken will continue to caper after its head has been cut off. (This is treasonous talk.)
My salary, need I say, is badly in arrears. I estimate that I am owed by now some 2,000 florins. I have scant hope of ever seeing the debt paid. The royal coffers are almost exhausted by the Emperor's mania for collecting, as well as by the war with the Turks and his efforts to protect his territories against his turbulent relatives. It pains me to be dependent upon the revenues from my wife's modest fortune. My hungry stomach looks up like a little dog to the master who once fed it. Yet, as ever, I am not despondent, but put my trust in God amp; my science. The weather here is atrocious.
Your servant, sir, Joh: Kepler
Aedes Cramerianis
Prague
April 1608
Dr Michael Mästlin: at Tübingen
Greetings. That swine Tengnagel. I can hardly hold this pen, I am so angry. You will not credit the depths of that man's perfidy. Of course, he is no worse than the rest of the accursed Tychonic gang-only louder. A braying ass the fellow is, vain, pompous amp; irredeemably stupid. I will kill him, God forgive me. The only bright spot in all the horrid darkness of this business is that he still has not been paid, nor is he ever likely to be, the 20,000 florins (or 30 pieces of silver!) for which he sold Tycho Brahe's priceless instruments to the Emperor while the Dane was not yet cold in his grave. (He receives 1,000 florins annually as interest on the debt. This is twice the amount of my salary as Imperial Mathematician.) I confess that, when Tycho died, I quickly took advantage of the lack of circumspection on the part of the heirs, by taking his observations under my care, or, you may say (and certainly they do), purloining them. Who will blame me? The instruments, once the wonder of the world, are scattered across half of Europe, rusted and falling to pieces. The Emperor has forgotten them, and Tengnagel is content with his annual 5 per cent. Should I have let the same fate befall the mass of wonderfully precise amp; invaluable observations which Tycho devoted his lifetime to gathering?
The cause of this quarrel lies in the suspicious nature amp; bad manners of the Brahe family, but, on the other hand, also in my own passionate amp; mocking character. It must be admitted, that Tengnagel all along has had good reason for suspecting me: I was in possession of the observations, and I did refuse to hand them over to the heirs. But there is no reason for him to hound me as he does. You know that he became a Catholic, in order that the Emperor might grant him a position at court? This shows the man's character for what it is. (His lady Elizabeth goads him on-but no, I shall not speak of her.) Now he is Appellate Counsellor, and hence is able to impose his condirions on me with imperial force. He forbade me to print anything based upon his father-in-law's observations before I had completed the Rudolphine Tables; then he offered me freedom to print, provided I put his name with my own on the title pages of my works, so that he might have half the honours with none of the labour. I agreed, if he would grant me one quarter of that 1,000 florins he has from the Emperor. This was a shrewd move on my part, for Tengnagel, of course, true to his nature, considered the sum of 250 per annum too high a price to pay for immortal fame. Next, he got it into his thick head that he would himself take on the mighty task of completing the Tables. You will laugh with me, magister, for of course this is a nonsense, since the Junker has neither the ability for the task, nor the tenacity of purpose it will require. I have noticed it before, that there are many who believe they could do as well as I, nay, better, had they the time amp; the interest to attend the trifling problems of astronomy. I smile to hear them blowing off, all piss amp; wind. Let them try!
Luckily Tengnagel was vain enough to promise the Emperor that he would complete the work in four years: during which time he has sat upon the material like the dog in the manger, unable to put the treasure to use, and preventing others from doing so. His four years are now gone, and he has done nothing. Therefore I am pressing ahead with my Astrono-mia noua, the printing of which has at last begun at Vogelin's in Heidelberg. Good enough. But now the dolt insists that the book shall carry a preface written amp; signed by him! I dare not think what twaddle he will produce. He claims he fears I have used Tycho's observations only in order to disprove the Dane's theory of the world, but I know all he cares for is the clinking of coins. Ach, a base amp; poisonous fool.
K
Gutenbergplatz Heidelberg Midsummer Eve 1609
Helisaeus Röslin, physician-in-ordinary to Hanau-Lichtenberg: at Buchsweiler in Alsace
Av. I have your interesting amp; instructive Diseurs von heutiger Zeit Beschaffenheir, which provokes in me, along with much speculation, many pleasant amp; wistful memories of those fraternal debates which engaged us in our student days together at Tübingen. I intend presently to reply with a public Antwort on those of my points on the Nova of 1604 which you challenge with such passion amp; skill, but first I wish to say a few words to you in private, not only in honour of our long friendship, but also in order to clarify certain matters which I may not air in print. For my position here in Prague grows more precarious daily. The royal personage no longer trusts anyone, and is particularly watchful concerning that science which you so energetically defend, and by which he puts much store. I would prefer to say pseudo-science. Please destroy this letter immediately you have read it.
I would grant in you, my dear Röslin, the presence of an instinctus divinus, a special illumination in the interpretation of celestial phenomena, which, however, has nothing to do with astrological rules. After all, it is true that God sometimes allows even pure simpletons to announce strange amp; wonderful things. No one should deny that clever amp; even holy things may come out of foolery amp; godlessness, as out of unclean amp; slimy substances comes the pretty snail or the oyster, or the silk-spinner out of caterpillar dirt. Even from the stinking dung heap the industrious hen may scrape a little golden grain. The majority of astrological rules I consider to be dung; as to what may be the grains worth retrieving from the heap, that is a more difficult matter.
The essence of my position is simply stated: that the heavens do something in people one sees clearly enough, but what specifically they do, remains a mystery. I believe that the aspects, that is the configurations which the planets form with one another, are of special significance in the lives of men. However, I hold that to speak of good amp; bad aspects is nonsensical. In the heavens it is not a question of good or bad: here only the categories harmonic, rhythmic, lovely, strong, weak amp; unarranged, are valid. The stars do not compel, they do not do away with free will, they do not decide the particular fate of an individual; but they impress on the soul a particular character. The person in the first igniting of his life receives a character amp; pattern of all the constellations in the heavens, or of the form of the rays flowing on to the earth, which he retains to the grave. This character creates noticeable traces in the form of the flesh, as well as in manners amp; gestures, inclinations amp; sympathies. Thus one becomes lively, good, gay; another sleepy, indolent, obscurantist; qualities which are comparable to the lovely amp; exact, or the extensive amp; unsightly configurations, and to the colours amp; movements, of the planets.