Article: The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories.(Review)

John L. Heilbron. The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999. x + 8 pls. + 366 pp. $35. ISBN: 0-674-85433-0.

This excellent book adds a welcome complexity to the historiography of astronomy in the years after Galileo's abjuration allegedly brought Italian astronomy to its knees. Heilbron's title refers specifically to the precise projections of the celestial meridian on a spate of church floors during this period (and well into the nineteenth century). Through an aperture high on a south-facing wall or roof, a measurable image of the sun daily crossed these finely graduated lines at local noon. More ...

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