Johannes Kepler: Dates of his life

Other Events

 

 

 

 

1533 Grynaeus' Latin edition of Euclid's Elements

 

 

 

 

1543 Death of Copernicus (born 1473)
Publication of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

 

 

 

 

1545-1563 Council of Trent

 

 

 

 

1546 Death of Luther (born 1483)

Birth of Tycho Brahe

 

 

 

 

1558 Commandino's Latin edition of Conics of Apollonius

 

 

 

 

1560 Barocius' Latin translation of Commentary of Proclus on Euclid

 

 

 

 

1564 Birth of Galileo Galilei

Birth of Shakespeare

Death of Michelangelo (born 1475)

 

 

 

 

1566 Commandino's Latin edition of works of Archimedes

 

 

 

1571 December 27 Birth in Weil, Württemberg (now known as Weil der Stadt)

 

 

 

 

 

1572 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

 

 

 

1575 Seriously ill with smallpox

 

 

 

 

 

1576 Rudolph II became Holy Roman Emperor (Court located in Prague)

 

 

 

1577 Taken by his mother to view 'Great Comet'

 

 

 

 

1578 Started Latin school in Leonberg

 

 

 

 

1580 Taken by his father to see a lunar eclipse

 

 

 

 

 

1582 Gregorian Calendar Reform – adopted in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal

 

 

 

 

1583 Gregorian Calendar adopted in German Catholic States and others

 

 

 

1584 Oct. Entered junior school, Adelberg (instruction in Latin)

 

 

 

 

1586 Nov. Entered monastic senior school, Maulbronn (instruction in Latin)

 

 

 

 

1587 Oct. 5 Enrolment, University of Tübingen, Arts Faculty. Studied mathematics (including astronomy) with Michael Mästlin (1550-1631)

 

 

 

 

 

1588 Defeat of Spanish Armada

Commandino's Latin edition of the Collection of Pappus

 

 

 

1589 Sept. Entered Theological Faculty (Stift) at Tübingen; studied under Protestant theology lecturer Matthias Hafenreffer (1561-1619)

 

 

 

 

1591 August 11 Awarded Master's degree

 

 

 

 

1594 March Moved to Graz, as mathematics teacher at the Protestant seminary

 

 

 

 

1596 Mysterium cosmographicum (Tϋbingen)

1596 Birth of René Descartes (died 1650)

 

 

 

1597 April 27 Married Barbara Müller (aged 23, twice widowed) in Graz

 

 

 

 

1600 Feb. to April Visited Tycho Brahe in Prague

July, Observed solar eclipse in marketplace at Graz

August, Non-Catholics expelled from Graz

October, Arrived in Prague with family

1600 William Gilbert (1544-1603) published De Magnete

Giordano Bruno burned as heretic in Rome

 

 

 

1601 October 24 Death of Tycho Brahe

Later that month, Kepler appointed Imperial Mathematician

 

 

 

 

 

1603 King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England

 

 

 

1604 Astronomiae pars optica (Frankfurt)

October 17 Observed Supernova in Serpentarius (Ophiuchus)

 

 

 

1606 De stella nova (Prague)

 

 

 

1609 Astronomia nova (Heidelberg)

1609 Telescopic observations by Galileo of surface of Moon, satellites of Jupiter, phases of Venus, Milky Way

Thomas Harriot (1560-1621) made telescopic observations of Moon

 

 

1610 Dissertatio cum nuncio sidereo (Prague): open letter to Galileo

1610 Galileo published discoveries in Siderius nuncius

 

 

1611 July 3 Death of Barbara Kepler (born c.1574)

Dioptrice (Augsburg)

De nive sexangula (Frankfurt)

1611 Emperor Rudolph abdicated in favour of his brother Matthias

 

 

1612 May Moved to Linz as District Mathematician

Excommunicated by Lutheran church in Linz

1612 Death of Rudolph

 

 

1613 Oct. 30 Married Susanna Reuttinger (aged 24) in Linz

Summoned to Regensburg to speak on calendar reform

 

 

 

 

1614 Napier (1550-1617) published Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio

 

 

1615 Nova Stereometria doliorum (Linz)

 

 

 

1616 Messekunst Archimedis (Linz)

1616 Copernicus' De revolutionibus put on Index Librorum Prohibitorum

Death of Shakespeare

 

 

1617 Oct. to Dec. In Württemberg to defend his mother Katharina on charge of witchcraft

 

 

 

1618 Epitome astronomiae copernicanae Lib. I, II, III (Linz)

1618 Start of the Thirty Years’ War

 

 

1619 Harmonices mundi libri V (Linz)

1619 Ferdinand succeeded Matthias as Holy Roman Emperor

 

 

1620 Epitome astronomiae copernicanae Lib. IV (Linz)

Epitome put on Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Rome)

From Sept. until Nov. 1621 Multiple visits to Württemberg

Read Napier's book (1614) on logarithms

Read Vincenzo Galilei's book (1581) on music

1620 Pilgrim Fathers emigrated from Plymouth, England, landed at Plymouth, N. America

 

 

1621 Epitome astronomiae copernicanae Lib. V, VI, VII (Frankfurt)

Nov. Katharina Kepler released

 

 

 

1622 Death of Katharina Kepler (born c.1546)

 

 

 

1624 Chilias logarithmorum (Marburg)

 

 

 

1627 Tabulae Rudolphinae (Ulm)

 

 

 

1628 July Moved to Zagan, under patronage of Wallenstein

 

 

 

1630 Oct. 8 Left Zagan on final journey

1630 November 15 Death in Regensburg

 

 

 

 

1631 Nov. 7 Transit of Mercury predicted by Kepler was observed by Gassendi (accurate within hours)

 

 

1632 Kepler's grave in Regensburg destroyed

1632 Sack of Regensburg

 

 

1634 Somnium (ed. Jakob Bartsch)

1634 Murder of Wallenstein (born 1583)

 

 

1636 August Second wife Susanna Kepler (born 1589) died in Regensburg

 

 

 

 

1642 Death of Galileo Galilei

Birth of Isaac Newton

 

 

 

1648 Peace of Westphalia, end of Thirty Years’ War

 

 

 

All dates after 1582 are New Style unless otherwise indicated.

 

Some of this material has been taken (in translation) from the website of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences  www.kepler-kommission.de/index.html.

October 2010.

 

For more details see: Max Caspar, Johannes Kepler, Stuttgart (Library of History of Science and Technology, fourth edition, 1995).