Kepler

by Max Caspar

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.

Genres: Biography, Science, Astronomy, History, History Of Science

596 pages, Hardcover

First published September 8, 1993

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I may not be the most objective person to review this book, I have been a fan of Kepler my entire life so while in many places the book might seem to drag, I was riveted to the details of his life which is so well chronicled through letters, appointments, and the writings of others.

Kepler stands above many more famous names based on his accomplishments alone, but where he was most deft was to avoid the political and religious landscapes that made those who wanted to martyr themselves more (in)famous. Kepler may have been held back from various appointments and jobs, but he stayed out of trouble and out of jail - all to carry on his work.

What I found most interesting is that through this life, Kepler gave all praise to God - for his intelligence to figure something out or for him to be chosen for whatever. The wonders of the universe, being God’s creation, was to be recognized as such and celebrated that it was there to challenge us with mystery after mystery to be solved.

Kepler is not quite the enigma he appears to be in most of the history books I was raised with. It was a life well lived through some very harsh times, and yet he made a huge imprint on so many things we take for granted today.

[Ultra Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to believe - I finally finished this incredibly long biography on Kepler. I only started years ago to actually DNF. It first caught my interest because my alma mater in Linz, Austria, is named after Kepler. Yet I never made it to the section on Linz. I picked it back up recently because a reading challenge had me read a book situated in space, and I really don't like science fiction and the like. Plus I finally got to read about his life in Linz.

I think this is an amazing reference for academics who study Kepler in more detail. I'm already an academic, so I don't have that much fun reading a dense book in my spare time. The old style English didn't exactly help. I could've read the original in German actually.

So in summary, an interesting book about the ways of astronomy back in the 1600s and how they were so tightly connected to religion. It also outlines the exceptional political turmoil at the time with reformation, counterreformation, and the 30 year war. Part of the book was about Kepler's mother, who had to go through a witch trial!

[Mike Viccary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very readable and engaging story about one of the most important early seventeenth century physicists. Caspar brings out the history of Kepler's achievements and shows us the mathematician's motivation. Despite many trials and difficulties Kepler remained true to God and continued on his quest to think as God required. We learn, for example, that Kepler held closer to Calvinism on the Lord's Supper but favoured orthodox catholic thinking concerning the presence of the risen Lord, not going along with Lutheranism of the time even though he held tenaciously to the Augsburg Confession. His conscience would not let him depart from the views he had seen in Scripture. A peace-loving man, Kepler fit into neither if the two polarised camps (Lutheran vs Catholic). Kepler married twice, his first wife having died, but suffered the loss of several children in infancy. His salary was always a matter of concern. His views meant that he had to move from one location to another to avoid persecution. Despite these terrible obstacles Kepler sought the truth as far as he believed God had revealed it. He was a man of his time and so accepted that the heavens influenced humanity on the earth but he repudiated superstitious astrology (astrology was a part of astronomy at this time).
Of the many history of science books I have read this is one of the best. Caspar does a very good job of describing Kepler's discoveries within the context of life in seventeenth century Germany and he does not ignore the astronomers vital faith in the Lord.

[Melissa Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding biography from the preeminent Kepler scholar of the 20th century. Never dull.

[Steve Schinke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tedious. I read biographies of scientists for the science, and this was light on the science and heavy on religion. Although his struggles with organized religion were important, they should not overshadow what he was able to accomplish, despite their interference in his life and on his work.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a highly comprehensive biography of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a German astronomer who is considered one of history's greatest scientific minds. It was written by Professor Max Caspar the world's foremost Kepler scholar. "Kepler, himself was a great mathematician and one of the fathers of modern astronomy. He is best known for his discovery of the three laws of planetary motion i.e. (1) planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun as a focus, (2) a planet covers the same area of space in the same amount of time no matter where it is in its orbit, and (3) a planet's orbital period is proportional to the size of its orbit (it's semi-major axis)."

There was a "Kepler Telescope" that was launched by NASA in 2009. It "spent nine years in deep space collecting data that revealed our night sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets (roughly one planet for every star) thus, there are more planets than even stars. The Telescope eventually ran out of fuel and now floats in an inert block of space."

There are eight planets in our solar system, i.e., Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. And. although difficult to comprehend, "there are approximately 200 billion trillion stars in the universe."

To be quite honest, this was a very difficult book to get through. Although very interesting, it contains a great deal of highly complex material by an author who possesses great academic knowledge.

[Mihaela Rusu · Rating 5 out of 5]

My hero, Johannes Kepler, followed along his life. Easy to read but not simplistic. The mathematics it discusses (Kepler's) are elegantly integrated in the big picture. Detailed descriptions. Together with Arthur Koestler's The Lunatics, one of the basic books to read if you are interested in Kepler: you get to know the person. The scientist nonetheless...

[Ivan Kapec · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and comprehensive biography of Kepler. Not only does it detail Kepler's life, but it also provides insights into the historical and cultural circumstances of that time. It is rich with numerous quotes from Kepler's works and letters, which are meticulously listed at the end of the book. A top-notch biographical work.

[Steven Yaskell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caspar was a German mathematician and an historian of mathematics. He was considered to be the most eminent of Kepler scholars. Both men had similar trajectories in life, though Caspar's ended much more gracefully than in an unmarked grave on a counter-reformation battlefield somewhere east of Germany.

What we see here is an addled man, the son of a soldier of fortune and a fortune teller, and a math wizard. It is most poignant to note that, from the astrological "aspects" this pioneering astronomer (less the astrologer!) derived his three laws of planetary motion - the major breakthrough in the concentric world view (and, one shoulder for Newton to later stand on) whom he wrote Galileo about - his supposed bete noir of a Catholic in Italy (Johannes was Protestant). More interesting material concerns Kepler's "ravings" (you could call them) which served as a sort of metaphysical exercise in appreciating objects of study - most of which lead to an intricate geometrical construction (dodecahedrons!) of space that could still bear examination.

A threadbare fellow finds patronage in the pre-telescopic observatory of Tycho Brahe, the Dane, who uses him harshly, yet who performs avidly (and not for much pay). He has teaching jobs such as at Linz. Taking his star measurement data on the road to King Rudolph, he gets patronage enough to commit to the Rudolphine Tables - the first fairly-modern star measurements using transit instruments. In and out of this, not getting the money he needed in a world that could not even conceive of what he was trying to do, like the Wandering Jew, he disappears into history.

My Dover Reprint was translated from German to English (most likely) by C. Doris Hellmann. Intriguingly, my 1993 edition has an introduction and comments by Owen Gingerich, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian CfA. An author of more than just technical studies, Gingerich lent his weight at underlining the scholarly significance of this work.

[Scott Kardel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Max Caspar's Kepler is THE biography of the great Seventeenth Century astronomer Johannes Kepler. It is a dense and authoritative look at the life and science of the famed astronomer.

While I enjoyed the book very much, it is a difficult slog in places. Caspar, however, was the world's foremost expert on the life of Kepler and I learned much that I hadn't picked up from other books on the history of astronomy.