The Sun in the Church
Subtitle: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: October 15, 1999
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 374
ISBN-13: 9780674854338
Subjects: Astronomical observation: observatories, equipment & methods; European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland); Religious buildings; Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church; Science; History; History Of Astronomy; Religion And Science; History: World; Europe; Astronomy - General; Christianity - History - Catholic; History / Europe / Western; Europe - General; 17th century; Astronomical observatories; Astronomy, Renaissance; Italy
First sentence: The Roman Catholic Church gave more financial and social support to the study of astronomy for over six centuries, from the recovery of ancient learning during the late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment, than any other, and, probably, all other, institut
Description: "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."--BOOK JACKET.

"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."--BOOK JACKET.