Collection of Kepler's Works. 391 



taking the difficulty of which he is perfectly aware of. Every 

 communication made to him will be received with thanks. 

 The owners of MSS. of Kepler especially might greatly assist 

 the undertaking by the loan of them, or the transmission of 

 accurate copies. Even of the printed works of Kepler, Prof. 

 Frisch has not been able to see the following: — 



1. Almanack of the Year 1594*. 



2. De Fundamentis Astrologies, Prague 1602. 



3. Epistola ad rerum ccelestiim amatores de Sal is deliquio, 

 Prague 1605. 



4. Dissertatio cum nuncio sidereo, fyc, Florence 1610, 4to. 

 [The edition of Prague 1610, 4to, and Frankfort 1611, 8vo, 

 are at hand.] 



5. Responsio ad Epislolam Bontschii, Sagan 1609. 



In conclusion, Prof. Frisch requests the loan, or offers the 

 purchase of any of these works of Kepler. 



A considerable time having elapsed since the programme 

 of the Stutgardt Professor was published, the aim of which 

 undoubtedly was to excite attention in, and to obtain aid also 

 from, this country, which has associated itself in every useful 

 undertaking all over the world, I have now been induced to 

 take up this subject, as my studies at Prague had led me often 

 in the very track of the life of Kepler, who remained eleven 

 years in that city. But the attention of an English public 

 cannot and ought not to be called for without searching for 

 some connecting link between the activity of Kepler and 

 those of English savants. A brief search, indeed, showed me 

 that such existed, and I have been able to complete and cor- 

 rect the programme of Prof. Frisch. If we refer to the names 

 of the various possessors of Kepler's MSS., we find that it was 

 Hevel who obtained them from Kepler's son, and we find the 

 number of volumes or fasciculi to have been twenty-two. It 

 was not to be supposed that the Stutgardt Professor should 

 have known the long array of volumes composing the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions of the Royal Society, else he would have 

 found a letter of that very Hevel addressed to the Society (or 

 their publisher) on these very MSS., in which they are called 

 the famous Kepler MSS. (vide Phil. Trans, vol. ix. No. 102, 

 p. 27, anno 1674). The title of this remarkable communi- 

 cation is as follows: — "An Extract of M. Hevelius's Letter, 

 lately written to the publisher, concerning the famous Kep- 

 ler's MSS., together with some Observations of his about the 



* This is the first thing Kepler printed at Gratz. It is very probable 

 that a copy of this work may exist safe in some neglected collection of 

 rubbish. 



