Johannes Kepler:

Johannes Kepler [Dec. 27, 1571-Nov. 15, 1630], the renowned astronomer and mathematician, was born into a wealthy Protestant family from Weil der Stadt. After having survived smallpox and seen a comet in A.D. 1577, he attended schools at Leonberg, Adelsberg, and Maulbronn and learned Latin to perfection. After his years of study at Tübingen University he became a teacher at Graz, and Imperial Mathematician in Prag in 1600. At that time he calculated new Ephemerides [Rudolphine Tables] and wrote e.g. his Astronomia Nova. Later he moved to Linz and worked as an expert for calendrical matters. In this context he published this sharp-witted and interdisciplinary text in clear and elaborate Latin in 1613, in which he displays particular aptness for the account of historical events and for constitutional law. Based on a lunar eclipse of 4 B.C., Flavius Iosephus, Roman historians, and the Gospels, Kepler demonstrates that Christ was born five years prior to the accepted date, although this has never had any effect on the actual calculation of the Christian Era. Additionally, he is occupied with the Star of Bethlehem, although it still remains a matter of debate whether it was a comet or a celestial conjunction.