The sun in the Church : cathedrals as solar observatories / J.L. Heilbron.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1999Edition: [1st edition]Description: ix, 366 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0674854330
  • 9780674854338
  • 0674005368
  • 9780674005365
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Renaissance and Astronomy -- Counter-Reformation and Cosmology -- Wider Uses of Meridiane -- The Science of Easter -- The Luminaries and the Calendar -- A Scandal in the Church -- A Sosigenes and His Caesars -- Florence -- Bologna -- Rome -- Bononia Docet -- A New Oracle of Apollo -- Astronomia Reformata -- Normal Science -- Perfecting the Parameters -- Repairs and Improvements -- The Pope's Gnomon -- Calendrical and Other Politics -- The Meridian in Michelangelo's Church -- Meridiane and Meridians -- The Accommodation of Copernicus -- Heliometers and Heliocentrism -- Protective Measures -- Book Banning -- The Last Cathedral Observatories -- The Things Themselves -- Their Results -- Their Competitors -- Time Telling -- Some Means of Conversion -- The Equation of Time -- More Light Play.
Review: "Through much of the Scientific Revolution, between 1650 and 1750, Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world. Constructed initially to solve the pressing problem of providing an unquestionable date for Easter, the instruments that made the churches' observatories also threw light on the disputed geometry of the solar system." "A tale of politically canny astronomers and cardinals with a taste for mathematics, The Sun in the Church explains the unlikely accomplishments of the Church-sponsored observers. It engagingly describes Galileo's political overreaching, his subsequent trial for heresy, and his slow and steady rehabilitation in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Despite the Church's prohibition against advocating sun-centered astronomy, Italian clerics managed to teach and advance it. Heilbron describes, with dry wit, the diplomatic discretion on all sides that allowed them to do so."--Jacket.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Books Jost Bürgi Library Reading Room QB29 .H33 1999 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 31560000049763

Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-328) and index.

Renaissance and Astronomy -- Counter-Reformation and Cosmology -- Wider Uses of Meridiane -- The Science of Easter -- The Luminaries and the Calendar -- A Scandal in the Church -- A Sosigenes and His Caesars -- Florence -- Bologna -- Rome -- Bononia Docet -- A New Oracle of Apollo -- Astronomia Reformata -- Normal Science -- Perfecting the Parameters -- Repairs and Improvements -- The Pope's Gnomon -- Calendrical and Other Politics -- The Meridian in Michelangelo's Church -- Meridiane and Meridians -- The Accommodation of Copernicus -- Heliometers and Heliocentrism -- Protective Measures -- Book Banning -- The Last Cathedral Observatories -- The Things Themselves -- Their Results -- Their Competitors -- Time Telling -- Some Means of Conversion -- The Equation of Time -- More Light Play.

"Through much of the Scientific Revolution, between 1650 and 1750, Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world. Constructed initially to solve the pressing problem of providing an unquestionable date for Easter, the instruments that made the churches' observatories also threw light on the disputed geometry of the solar system." "A tale of politically canny astronomers and cardinals with a taste for mathematics, The Sun in the Church explains the unlikely accomplishments of the Church-sponsored observers. It engagingly describes Galileo's political overreaching, his subsequent trial for heresy, and his slow and steady rehabilitation in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Despite the Church's prohibition against advocating sun-centered astronomy, Italian clerics managed to teach and advance it. Heilbron describes, with dry wit, the diplomatic discretion on all sides that allowed them to do so."--Jacket.

31560000049763 443

Probably the most comprehensive english language book on the subject of meridian lines and solar calendars, countless illutrations, index, bibliography, scholarly text but quite accessible.

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