The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories - Softcover

Heilbron, J L

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674005368 ISBN 13: 9780674005365

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2001

Synopsis

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 altar, subverted Church doctrine about the order of the universe. A tale of politically canny astronomers and cardinals with a taste for mathematics, The Sun in the Church 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. Superbly written, The Sun in the Church provides a magnificent corrective to long-standing oversimplified accounts of the hostility between science and religion.

About this title

Product Description:

Between 1650 and 1750, four Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world. 'The Sun and the Church' tells how these observatories came to be, how they worked and what they accomplished.

Review:

The historical perception of post-Renaissance Italian astronomy has become so over-charged with the Roman Catholic Church's condemnation of Galileo in 1633 that it is commonly assumed that no significant science took place south of the Alps until the 19th century. But, as John Heilbron's learned, elegant and finely phrased book reminds us, this was not the case...Though Heilbron supplies all the necessary geometry to demonstrate how the meridianae [(a solar measuring instrument)] were constructed and used within the great architectural masterpieces into which they were incorporated, his book is arranged and illustrated in such a way that non-mathematical persons can enjoy it.--Allan Chapman "Times Higher Education Supplement "

[The] improbable tale [of an astrological instrument saving a church] is just one of the gems recovered by Heilbron in a book that lingers lovingly over these forgotten instruments. Once big science, now architectural curios not infrequently buried under flagstones and pews, gnomons (or meridian lines, as they are more properly called) lie at the luminous conjunction of mathematics, philosophy, architecture, astronomy and church politics. Dusted off in this idiosyncratic history of astronomy during the scientific revolution, they provide an occasion to revisit perennial questions about the relationship between science and religion, reason and faith...[Readers] will be surprised to discover what Heilbron shows: that the Catholic Church served as perhaps the largest patron of sophisticated astronomical research throughout the controversies over Copernicus and his sun-centered scheme.--D. Graham Burnett "New York Times Book Review "

Dr. Heilbron reveals the ubiquity of the solar observatories, which heretofore were little known among scholars. And he shows that the church was not necessarily seeking knowledge for knowledge's sake, a traditional aim of pure science. Rather, like many patrons, it wanted something practical in return for its investments: mainly the improvement of the calendar so church officials could more accurately establish the date of Easter.--William J. Broad "New York Times "

The spectacle of the image of the sun projected on meridian lines in several of the great Italian cathedrals is captured in the beautiful color plates highlighting this book...This excellent book explains the difficulties posed by the inconvenient lengths of the lunar month and solar year, and discusses how observations of the solar image crossing a precisely aligned mark could solve the problem...The book is well written.--D. E. Hogg "Choice "

The innumerate reader will learn much from Heilbron's book, and may come away with a different appreciation of the stars above us.--Ingrid D. Rowland"New York Review of Books" (02/22/2001)

Heilbron combines the history of astronomy, mathematics, architecture, patronage, and religion to tell a story that very much alters the common picture of the progress in astronomy in the early modern period and the place of the Catholic Church in that history. The story is well told, and the mathematics is given in a way that could discourage only the most innumerate.--Sheila J. Rabin "The Sixteenth Century Journal "

John Heilbron's book does tell a gripping story and with a splendid literary flair...By subtly inserting critical comments, the author evaluates the interactions of science in its gestation with the culture of those centuries and the repercussions that these interactions have has down to our own times. And so it becomes a story about people, and Heilbron tells it in a masterfully human way.--George V. Coyne "Nature "

Heilbron's book tells of the struggle to determine dates more accurately, including a little-known aspect of the history of the calendar--the use of churches as giant sundials to make astronomical measurements.--Kate Noble "Time "

Heilbron chronicles the ironic relationship between astronomy and the Catholic Church as it seeks the means to determine [the date for Easter]. This is the story of politically astute astronomers and cardinals who have to reconcile church doctrine with Galileo's universe...The text is filled with fine detail and is richly illustrated. An erudite and scholarly work.--James Olson "Library Journal "

A fascinating history of astronomy that shows, as no other work has done so well, what happened to Italian science after Galileo's trial. An astonishing display of erudition and linguistic control, with a wealth of fine details, this is a major history that carves out a unique territory.--Owen Gingerich, Harvard University

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0674005368
• ISBN 13: 9780674005365
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384