Johannes Kepler’s Mother Charged with Witchcraft
Be careful who you give birth to
On the night of August 7, 1620, an elderly German woman was torn from her bed and thrust into a linen chest. Terrified and screaming, she was locked inside a small windowless room and charged with witchcraft. The evidence? She was the mother of Johannes Kepler, the controversial mathematician and scientist.
Johannes Kepler’s main contribution to science was his three laws of planetary and satellite motion. During his lifetime he also invented a primitive vacuum cleaner, used logarithms to measure astronomical distances, devised a method for calculating the volume of irregular shapes, and improved the telescope. I’m tired just writing that.
He also authored the first science fiction novel in 1593, “Somnium, Sive Astronomia Lunaris, “Dream on the Astronomy of the Moon,” predicting the future of space travel and a trip to the moon. The book wasn’t published until after Kepler died, but his political, scientific, and/or religious enemies got a copy of the manuscript. Since they couldn’t harm Kepler directly due to his high position at court, they decided to go after his 74-year-old bitch of a mother instead.
Katharina Kepler was, by all accounts, a cantankerous old woman. But she was also an herbalist and gifted her son with a love of…
