17th Century Archives - Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

The Girl Who Drew Butterflies

Book 130 pages Level: all audiences This is a book about Maria Sybilla Merian, written for readers at the middle school level and up. The author is Joyce Sidman, and it was published in 2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Merian was a scientist who carefully studied caterpillars, butterflies, and moths and the plants on which they fed—and she was an artist who made beautiful drawings of the creatures that she studied. Merian wrote that “one is full of praise at God’s mysterious power and the wonderful attention he pays to such insignificant little creatures”. While the book is primarily about Merian’s studies, the author also discusses Merian’s religion, which played a large role in her life. From the author’s web page: Everyone knows that butterflies come from caterpillars, right? Not in the 17th century, they didn’t. How would they have known? Metamorphosis took place in hidden places. There were no books describing this process, or Monarch kits to send away for. … Continue reading →

Pascal’s Wager

Article (PDF) 2500 words Level: high school and above Blaise Pascal is known for his work in mathematics, for “Pascal’s Principle”—and for “Pascal’s wager”, his analysis of reasoning and faith. [Click here to download PDF] … Continue reading →

Johannes Kepler: Discovering the Laws of Celestial Motion

Book 144 pages Level: all audiences This book about Johannes Kepler is oriented toward younger readers. Written by William Boerst and was published in 2003, the book provides an overview of Kepler’s life and work that includes Kepler’s religious motivation for his work. For example, it notes that Kepler viewed the heliocentric system as a fitting creation of God, and cites Kepler’s statement that the real purpose of comets is as “witnesses that there is a God in heaven, by whom all future fortune by whom all future fortune and misfortune is foreseen, announced, decreed, regulated, measured and governed”. It contains many historical illustrations. The focus of the book is on Kepler’s science, and particularly on his Laws of Planetary motion. To this end it includes both diagrams and some introductory mathematics. Click here for a preview of this book, courtesy of Archive.org. … Continue reading →

Ferdinand Verbiest – The Emperor’s New Astronomy (1601-1688)

Article (book chapter) 29 pages Level: high school and above The 2017 book Lost Science: Astonishing Tales of Forgotten Genius by author Kitty Ferguson consists of ten free-standing chapters covering different figures from the history of science. The chapter on the astronomer Fr. Ferdinand Verbiest, of the Society of Jesus, focuses on his mission work in China. It also discusses the “automobile” that he invented—a steam-powered, self-propelled toy car. Verbiest both spent time in prison in China and became a great friend of the Chinese Emperor. Click here for information from Sterling Publishing, publisher of Lost Science: Astonishing Tales of Forgotten Genius. Click here for a preview of this chapter. … Continue reading →

Maria Sibylla Merian – Wondrous Transformations (1647-1717)

Article (book chapter) 29 pages Level: high school and above The 2017 book Lost Science: Astonishing Tales of Forgotten Genius by author Kitty Ferguson consists of ten free-standing chapters covering different figures from the history of science. The chapter on Maria Sibylla Merian focuses on her studies of insects, and especially the transformations of caterpillars into moths or butterflies. Merian was for a while a member of a Lutheran pietist community called the “Labadists”, and she viewed the insect transformation as common miracles of God, writing: These wondrous transformations have happened so many times that one is full of praise for God’s mysterious power and his wonderful attention to such insignificant little creatures and unworthy flying things…. Thus I am moved to present God’s miracles such as these to the world in a little book. Click here for information from Sterling Publishing, publisher of Lost Science: Astonishing Tales of Forgotten Genius. Click here for a preview of this chapter. Click here … Continue reading →

The Holy Office in the Republic of Letters

Article 23 pages Level: university This 2019 article by Daniel Stolzenberg, published in the history of science journal Isis, discusses the treatment of the Copernican theory by Roman officials in the decades after Galileo’s death, as seen in the case of the 1660 book Harmonia Macrocosmica by Andreas Cellarius and its review by Fr. Athanasius Kircher, S. J. Stolzenberg argues for a reading of the of role of the Holy Office that is different from the usual one (where it is thought of as only serving to hinder the creation and communication of knowledge). The abstract of “The Holy Office in the Republic of Letters: Roman Censorship, Dutch Atlases, and the European Information Order, circa 1660” is as follows: This essay reconstructs the story of hidden collaborations between the Amsterdam bookseller Johannes Janssonius and the Roman Inquisition in 1660. It provides evidence that the papacy tacitly permitted the circulation of an explicitly Copernican book at a surprisingly early date and … Continue reading →

Astronomical Essays of Fr. G. V. Leahy: Cassini, Piazzi, Sechi, Denza, and Clerke

Book (sections) 20 pages Level: all audiences This volume of astronomical essays has been compiled from a series of articles originally published in the Boston Pilot over the pen-name of Catholicus. The series is here presented connectedly at the request of the Most Reverend Archbishop of Boston, who has graciously written the author, “I highly commend your articles on astronomy for publication in book form.” So begins the Astronomical Essays, published in 1910, of Rev. George V. Leahy, S.T.L., who was professor of astronomy at St. John’s seminary in Brighton. The Boston Pilot is a Catholic newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts. Parts of Essays are as dated as one might expect for a science book from 1910, but Leahy’s discussions of various Catholic scientists are generally easy to read, interesting, and still relevant. All of these sections are available courtesy of Google Books: Mr. D. Cassini and Saturn—click here to read Fr. Piazzi and the discovery of the first asteroid—click here to read Fr. … Continue reading →

The Popular Creation Story of Astronomy Is Wrong

Article 3000 words Level: all audiences In this May 2018 article in Nautilus, author C. M. Graney discusses Johannes Kepler’s view of the universe, a view that does not conform at all to modern ideas. Graney argues that understanding the views of scientists such as Kepler, even when they are unusual, is important to understanding science today, and important to countering anti-science attitudes. Graney writes: In the early years of the 17th century, Johannes Kepler argued that the universe contained thousands of mighty bodies, bodies so huge that they could be universes themselves. These giant bodies, said Kepler, testified to the immense power of, as well as the personal tastes of, an omnipotent Creator God. The giant bodies were the stars, and they were arrayed around the sun, the universe’s comparatively tiny central body, itself orbited by its retinue of still tinier planets. Click here to access this article from Nautilus. … Continue reading →

Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass

Book 234 pages Level: all audiences This book by Marvin Bolt was published in 2009, the year of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of the telescope. It provides a readable history of the telescope by way of highlighting items that are on exhibit in the “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass” exhibit at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Scattered throughout this beautifully illustrated book can be found references to the works of various clerics, such as Bartholomaeus Anglicus (1203-1274), Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729), and others. Those planning a visit to the Adler might enjoy a look through this book in advance. From the publisher, Adler Planetarium: Through the Looking Glass celebrates the 400th anniversary of the telescope and the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. This exhibition catalogue focuses on ninety-nine artifacts from the Adler Planetarium’s world-class collection of historic telescopes. From the simple lenses of the world’s earliest telescopes 400 years ago to the complex computer-driven mirrors of … Continue reading →

Priest of Nature – The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton

Book 522 pages Level: university level It is often said that Isaac Newton, arguably the most prominent scientist in human history, wrote more about the Bible and religion than about science and math. However, his religious writings were generally unpublished, and have always been relatively inaccessible and little studied. Robert Iliffe, the author of the 2017 book Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton, tells us that this is due to a number of reasons: in part due to Newton’s own views on publishing; in part due to the anti-Trinitarian nature of Newton’s own Christian faith; in part due to how Enlightenment-era thinkers who were perplexed by these writings explained them away as something Newton produced only later in life, when he had gone senile or even mad; in part due to modern scholars rejecting them as bizarre, irrelevant to his more significant work, and unbecoming of his genius. However, in the 21st century these writings have all … Continue reading →

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Category Archives: 17th Century