The Sleepwalkers (105 page)

"My
grandfather
Sebald,
mayor
of
the
imperial
city
of
Weil,
born
in
the
year
1521
about
St.
James's
day
...
is
now
75
years
of
age...
He
is
remarkably
arrogant
and
proudly
dressed
...
short-tempered
and
obstinate,
and
his
face
betrays
his
licentious
past.
It
is
a
red
and
fleshy
face,
and
his
beard
gives
it
much
authority.
He
was
eloquent,
at
least
as
far
as
an
ignorant
man
can
be...
From
the
year
1578
onward
his
reputation
began
to
decline,
together
with
his
substance..."
⁴

This
thumbnail
sketch,
and
the
others
which
follow,
are
part
of
a
kind
of
genealogical
horoscope,
embracing
all
members
of
his
family
(including
himself)
which
Kepler
drew
up
when
he
was
twenty-six.
It
is
not
only
a
remarkable
document,
but
also
a
precious
contribution
to
the
study
of
the
hereditary
background
of
genius,
for
it
happens
only
rarely
that
the
historian
has
such
ample
material
at
his
disposal.
^*

____________________

When
Grandfather Sebald was twenty-nine, he married Katherine Mueller from
the nearby village of Marbach. Kepler describes her as:

"restless,
clever
and
lying,
but
devoted
to
religion;
slim
and
of
a
fiery
nature;
vivacious,
an
inveterate
troublemaker;
jealous,
extreme
in
her
hatreds,
violent,
a
bearer
of
grudges...
And
all
her
children
have
something
of
this..."
⁵

He
also
accuses
his
grandmother
of
pretending
that
she
married
at
eighteen,
when
she
was
really
twenty-two.
However
that
may
be,
she
bore
Sebaldus
twelve
children
in
twenty-one
years.
The
first
three,
named
Sebaldus,
Johan
and
Sebaldus,
all
died
in
infancy.
The
fourth
was
Kepler's
father,
Heinrich,
whom
we
leave
aside
for
a
moment.
Of
numbers
5
to
9
among
his
aunts
and
uncles,
Kepler
records:
⁶

"5.
Kunigund,
born
1549,
23
May.
The
moon
could
not
have
been
worse
placed.
She
is
dead,
the
mother
of
many
children,
poisoned
they
think,
in
the
year
1581,
17
July"
[Added
later
on:
"Otherwise
she
was
pious
and
wise"].
*

"6. Katherine, born 1551,
30 July. She too is dead.

"7.
Sebaldus,
born
1552,
13
November.
†
An
astrologer
and
a
Jesuit,
he
underwent
the
first
and
second
ordinations
for
the
priesthood;
though
a
Catholic,
he
imitated
the
Lutherans
and
led
a
most
impure
life.
Died
in
the
end
of
dropsy
after
many
earlier
illnesses.
Acquired
a
wife
who
was
rich
and
nobly
born,
but
one
of
many
children.
Contracted
the
French
sickness.
Was
vicious
and
disliked
by
his
fellow
townsmen.
In
1576,
16
August,
he
left
Weil
for
Speyr
where
he
arrived
on
the
18th;
on
the
22
December
he
left
Speyr
against
the
will
of
his
superior
and
wandered
in
extreme
poverty
through
France
and
Italy.
[He
was
held
to
be
kind
and
a
good
friend.]

"8. Katherine, born 1554,
5 August. She was intelligent and skilful, but married most
unfortunately, lived sumptuously, squandered her goods, now a beggar.
[Died in 1619 or 1620.]

"9. Maria, born 1556, 25
August. She too is dead."

Of
Nos. 10 and 11, he has nothing to say; No. 12, the last born of his
uncles and aunts, also died in infancy.‡

____________________

All
this
mis-shapen
progeniture
–
except
those
who
died
in
their
cots
–
lived
with
old
choleric
Sebaldus
and
his
shrewish
wife,
crowded
into
the
narrow
Kepler
house,
which,
in
fact,
was
rather
a
cottage.
Kepler's
father,
Heinrich,
though
the
fourth
child,
was
the
oldest
among
those
who
survived,
and
thus
inherited
the
house,
producing
seven
children
in
his
turn.
Kepler
describes
him
thus:

"4.
Henrich,
my
father,
born
1547,
19
January...
A
man
vicious,
inflexible,
quarrelsome
and
doomed
to
a
bad
end.
Venus
and
Mars
increased
his
malice.
Jupiter
combust
⁷
in
descension
made
him
a
pauper
but
gave
him
a
rich
wife.
Saturn
in
VII
made
him
study
gunnery;
many
enemies,
a
quarrelsome
marriage
...
a
vain
love
of
honours,
and
vain
hopes
about
them;
a
wanderer...
1577:
he
ran
the
risk
of
hanging.
He
sold
his
house
and
started
a
tavern.
1578:
a
hard
jar
of
gunpowder
burst
and
lacerated
my
father's
face...
1589:
treated
my
mother
extremely
ill,
went
finally
into
exile
and
died."