Image 1 Caption: Portrait of Johannes Kepler (1571--1630), detail from the frontispiece of the Rudolphine Tables (1627). This is Kepler in relative old age (he was 56), hoping for more gold coins from the Reichsadler (i.e, Imperial Eagle), and looking like Santa Claus.

Features:

1. Kepler is often cited as the second most representative figure of the Scientific Revolution (c.1543--c.1687). First, is Galileo Galilei (1564--1642).

2. Kepler's greatest claim to fame is his discovery of Kepler's 3 laws of planetary motion.

   He also wrote an account of SN 1604 (AKA Kepler) which is the last supernova observed in the Milky Way.

3. Kepler was born in Weil der Stadt in Duchy of Wuerttemburg in Germany. The city was a free imperial city, but a very small one.

4. In 1600--1612, Kepler lived in Prague, then in the Kingdom of Bohemia now in the Czech Republic. Prague was then the capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800--1806) and Kepler served the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552--1612, reigned 1576--1612) as Imperial Mathematician (which was essentially court astronomer and court astrologer).

   

5. Image 2 Caption: The frontispiece and title page of the Rudolphine Tables (1627), written by Johannes Kepler (1571--1630) and named in honor of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552--1612, reigned 1576--1612), Kepler's patron

   The Rudolphine Tables (1627) consist of a star catalogue and emphemeris tables (i.e., tables for calculating emphemerides). The Rudolphine Tables (1627) were based on Tycho Brahe's (1546--1601) observations (see Wikipedia: Tycho Brahe: Career: observing the heavens) and Kepler's 3 laws of planetary motion for heliocentric Solar System, and were by far the most accurate/precise star catalogue and emphemeris tables (i.e., tables or calculating emphemerides) ever published to 1627. But of course, were surpassed within a century since the telescopic era (1608--) of astronomy had begun. The Rudolphine Tables (1627) because they were based on the heliocentric Solar System added significant evidence for heliocentrism. The growth of such evidence from many sources convinced most astronomically interested persons in Europe that heliocentrism was probably true by circa 1660 (see Wikipedia: Heliocentrism: Age of Reason (c.1600--c.1800)).

6. Kepler died of natural causes in 1630 in Regensburg on the Danube in Bavaria.

   In 1630, Germany was in the midst of the Thirty Years' War. Kepler did notice the war. It had a tendency to interfere with travel plans---and then when under bombardment ...

   When the storm rages and the state is threatened by shipwreck, we can do nothing more noble than anchor our quiet studies in the ground of eternity.
   ---from a letter of Johannes Kepler (1571--1630) from 1629 in his last years.

Images

1. Credit/Permission: Anonymous engraver, 1627 (uploaded to Wikipedia by User:Jacques_Mrtzsn, 2022) / Public domain.
   Image link: Wikipedia: File:Johannes Kepler 1610.jpg.
   
2. Credit/Permission: Johannes Kepler (1571--1630), Anonymous engraver 1627; photographer Steve Nicklas, before or circa 2005 (uploaded to Wikipedia by User:Mattes, 2005) / Public domain.
   Image link: Wikimedia Commons: File:Libr0309.jpg.

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