The Sun in the Church
Cathedrals as Solar Observatories
J.L. Heilbron(Author)
Harvard University Press
Published on 15. October 1999
Book
Hardback
374 pages
978-0-674-85433-8 (ISBN)
Description
Between 1650 and 1750, four Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world. Built to fix an unquestionable date for Easter, they also housed instruments that threw light on the disputed geometry of the solar system, and so within sight of the alter, subverted church doctrine about the order of the universe. A tale of politically canny astronomers and cardinals with a taste for mathematics, this text tells how these observatories came to be, how they worked, and what they accomplished. It describes Galileo's political overreaching, his subsequent trial for heresy, and his slow and steady rehabilitation in the eyes of the Catholic Church. And it offers an enlightening perspective on astronomy, church history, and religious architecture, as well as an analysis of measurements testing the limits of attainable accuracy, undertaken with rudimentary means and extraordinary zeal. Above all, the book illuminates the niches protected and financed by the Catholic Church in which science and mathematics thrived.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
8 colour illustrations, 42 halftones, 91 line illustrations, 15 tables
Dimensions
Height: 247 mm
Width: 170 mm
Weight
990 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-85433-8 (9780674854338)
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Schweitzer Classification