The Astronomer and the Witch: Kepler's Mother
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2024
- In 1615 Katharina Kepler, illiterate mother of the astronomer Johannes Kepler, was accused of being a witch.
At that time in Germany, there was a witch ‘craze’. Over half of the c.50,000 executions in Europe for witchcraft between 1500 and 1700 took place in Germany. During the next 6 years Katharina fought her accusation.
The astronomer took over her legal defence in 1620. This lecture explores this astonishing story, and asks how the witch craze affected people’s lives.
A lecture by Ulinka Rublack FBA
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and...
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Kepler is fascinating. He worked with Tycho Brahe, corresponded with Galileo, and was also a passionate astrologer. Not unusual for those times. Mathematicians, astronomers and astrologers were often the same people. Galileo cast horoscopes and his first conflict with the Inquisition was over horoscopes. It was Kepler who found the key flaw in Copernicus: planets do not move in perfect circles. Pity that Kepler and Galileo never met.
Very interesting;! I already knew Kepler’s mother was accused to be a witch, but your exposition is full of details; I certainly will read your book.
fascinating - great research and great insight into 16thC German life.
Such an insane story. Katharina's misfortune in being accused being offset by her phenomenal luck in having one of the smartest people on earth as her son. Even if she lacked formal education herself, I bet she did much to instil him with the fascination with the universe that fuelled his career. Wikipedia mentions that she took care to show him a comet and a lunar eclipse, perhaps launching his interest in Astronomy.
Riiiiiight
@@Synistercrayon Leeeeeeft
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Very interesting.
Fascinating
Great storyteller, simply told- not too dramatic. British lecturers learn from this. Best one for 2021. The author of her own misfortune/disturbs the town-why no details.
Thank you for this fascinating lecture. Religion has much to answer for in its continued persecution of women. Misogyny lies at its wicked heart!
You forget who accused her of witchcraft.
Kepler was a wizard too, like John Dee. He channeled the spirits to come up with his theories.
any scientific evidence to back this up?
I'd also be interested in some textual evidence for this claim. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Kepler had, like Newton, interests in subjects like alchemy or divination, but that's a strong claim to make.
@Mats N of course why would anyone be surprised if his mother was a practitioner
The lengths the church went / goes through to avoid any progress of humanity : of course his Mother was accused to stop Johannes's work - the craze was State Terror of evilest kind
Kepler was employed by the state. He held the title of Imperial Mathematician. His scientific investigations were supported by, not repressed by the state. As noted in this lecture, the Holy Inquisition in Catholic countries burned far fewer people than were killed by the secular authorities in the Witch Craze, so it's a big stretch to imagine it was a deliberate ploy by the Church... and which church do you mean? The worst Witch Panics were in Germany, where there were Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist congregations in different areas. Some Protestant nations such as Scotland had serious outbreaks of 'Witch' persecution, but overwhelmingly Catholic countries like Spain tended to have the least. In other words, it seems like NOT having an overwhelmingly powerful church in your community actually INCREASED your risk of being accused of Witchcraft. Most of the people targeted as 'Witches' were women and poorly educated, which is the exact opposite of what you'd expect if the Witch Craze was really some concerted effort to block human progress, as science and philosophy were the preserve of well-educated men. Kepler's mother was accused by her superstitious and resentful neighbours, not by some shadowy cabal of high-ups. There's no need to concoct conspiracy theories.
@@chrisball3778 thanks for the nicely structured response. Seems as if we're steeped in oversimplified stories about history, few of which withstand scrutiny. Instead, the past is fraught with unexpected ambiguities and reversals among baffling varieties of interests and factions we've pretty much forgotten about. Monolithic entities like "the church" and "the crown" are much imagined but hard to find in the record. I can't tell you how many times I thought I had a decent grip on some historic sequence, only to find out otherwise when I actually looked, and the people and events were actually much more interesting than the picture I'd had in mind. Anyway, I appreciate your taking the time to point in that direction.
So, Trump is a witch.
Pretty dull like a lot of the recent lectures.
I was a PhD student in her department. She is dullness personified, and was something of a martinet when it came to discipline.
I found it fascinating.
I enjoyed this lecture very much.
Could easily see the woke mob turning into something resembling the witch trials if left unchecked
I'll echo the sentiment others have expressed: this is an incredibly dull lecture. Even as an audiobook it would be sub-par. I can't make a judgement about your content, because it never got to me.