The 17th Century, with the work of Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, marked the beginnings of modern science. The whole Galileo story is so rich and complicated, we’ve given it its own separate section; in this section we look at many of the other points of contact between Church and Science that occurred during the 17th century. Indeed, most all of the heroes of science from this era were devout believers, and many were Catholic clergy (and not only Jesuits!).
A Theology of Everything?
During the Enlightenment most scientists, who were religious believers, were unreasonable in their approach to religious belief, since they sought to found their religious belief on purely rational grounds.
Continue reading →Accuracy of Solar Eclipse Observations Made by Jesuit Astronomers in China
Article 10 pages Level: university A 1995 Journal for the History of Astronomy article by F. R. Stephenson and L. J. Fatoohi: Abstract: During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jesuit astronomers at the Chinese court in Beijing observed many eclipses of the Sun and Moon. For most of these events the times of beginning, middle and end were measured and the magnitudes estimated. Summaries of virtually all of the observation made between A.D. 1644 and 1785 are still preserved. In this paper, that various solar eclipse measurements that the Jesuits made during the period are compared with computation based on modern solar and lunar ephemerides. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Anatomy of a fall: Giovanni Battista Riccioli and the story of g
Article (PDF) 5 pages Level: high school and up The first person to conduct precise gravity experiments was Fr. Giovanni Battista Riccioli, S. J. in the early seventeenth century. This 2012 article from the magazine Physics Today discusses Fr. Riccioli’s experiments regarding how gravity works and what was the acceleration due to gravity (now known as ‘g’). Click here for a the article in PDF format (from Physics Today). From the article: Riccioli set a fine example for all the free-fall experiments that would follow. He was thorough. He provided an extensive description of his experimental procedure. He gathered data of sufficient quality to assess accurately the model in question. But Riccioli’s work is also a standard of scientific integrity: He had set out expecting to disprove Galileo, but even when his experiments vindicated Galileo, he made a point of promptly sharing the news with an interested colleague. His attitude, like his experiment, was that of a fine scientist.
Continue reading →Appealing to the Infinite: Philips Lansbergen and the Battling Star-Armies of God
A post by Chris Graney on the Catholic Astronomer website. “why would a prominent Copernican, writing twenty years after the advent of the telescope, call the stars the armies of God? The answer to that is simple. He needed an explanation for why the stars were so giant…” The early Copernicans could not explain a lack of visible parallax in star positions except, ironically, by appealing to divine intervention.
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 →
Decree of Approval for the work “Elements of Astronomy” by Giuseppe Settele, in support of the heliocentric system (1820)
Article 300 words Level: all audiences The 1820 decree under Pope Pius VII removing all remaining prohibitions against the Copernican system. This arose from the request of Fr. Giuseppe Settele for an imprimatur on his book Elementi di ottica e di astronomia (Elements of Optics and Astronomy), which referenced Earth’s motion. The request was denied; Settele appealed to the Pope. This translation is from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. The translation is from the original Latin provided in W. Brandmüller and E.J. Greipl, eds., Copernico, Galilei e la chiesa : fine della controversia (1820) : gli atti del Sant’Uffizio {i.e. Copernicus, Galileo, and the Church: The End of the Controversy (1820), Acts of the Holy Office} (Florence: Leo Olschki, 1992), pp. 300-301. [Rome], 1820 VIII 16 Vol. I, fol. 174v (Bruni, scribe) The Assessor of the Holy Office has referred the … Continue reading →
Discovery in the New Cosmology of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo
Article (PDF) 14 pages, 6100 words Level: university This article for the Paths of Discovery (published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences) by Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, suggests “three components contained in the notion of discovery: newness, an opening to the future and, in the case of astronomical discovery, a blending of theory and observation. Discovery means that something new comes to light and this generally happens suddenly and unexpectedly.” Click here for a link to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences’ entire Paths of Discovery volume. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Early Observations of Sunspots: Scheiner and Galileo
Article 18 pages Level: university A 1997 article by Juan Casanovas, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, published in 1st Advances in Solar Physics Euroconference – Advances in Physics of Sunspots: Abstract: There had been occasional observations of spots on the Sun since antiquity. Kepler observed a sunspot in 1607 but he interpreted it as a Mercury’s transit. One year after the introduction of the telescope astronomers identified spots on the Sun. J. Fabricius was the first to print a book on sunspots at the end of 1611, but this book had little diffusion. Fabricius rightly thought that the spots belonged to the Sun. The Jesuit C. Scheiner independently observed sunspots on the Sun and he announced his discovery at the end of 1611 in three letters under the pseudonym Apelles. Scheiner failed to observe the returning of the spots and hence did not recognize the solar rotation. Therefore he preferred to see the spots as caused by little bodies … Continue reading →
Exploring the first scientific observations of lunar eclipses made in Siam
Article 20 pages Level: high school and above A heavily illustrated 2016 article by Wayne Orchiston, Darunee Lingling Orchiston, Martin George and Boonrucksar Soonthornthum, published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage: Abstract: The first great ruler to encourage the adoption of Western culture and technology throughout Siam (present-day Thailand) was King Narai, who also had a passion for astronomy. He showed this by encouraging French and other Jesuit missionaries, some with astronomical interests and training, to settle in Siam from the early 1660s. One of these was Father Antoine Thomas, and he was the first European known to have carried out scientific astronomical observations from Siam when he determined the latitude of Ayutthaya in 1681 and the following year observed the total lunar eclipse of 22 February. A later lunar eclipse also has an important place in the history of Thai astronomy. In 1685 a delegation of French missionary-astronomers settled in Ayutthaya, and on 10-11 December 1685 they … 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 →French astronomers in India during the 17th – 19th centuries
Article 6 pages Level: high school and above A 1991 article by R. K. Kochhar, published in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association: Abstract: The contributions made by French astronomers from India are reviewed. The French were more successful on the scientific front than on the colonial. The first telescopic discovery from India was made by a French Jesuit priest, Father Jean Richaud (1689). Surprisingly the first ever modern worthwhile map of India was prepared in France by D’Anville (1752). All Indian maps until 1905 used the value of Madras longitude derived by a Frenchman, John Warren (1807). And finally, the first ever discovery from India – and of singular importance – in the then new field of astrophysics, was also due to a visiting Frenchman, Janssen (1868). Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
Book 320 pages Level: high school and above This 2009 book, edited by Ronald Numbers, contains much that will be of interest to many readers. From the publisher, Harvard University Press: If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald L. Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths. Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed … Continue reading →
Galileo’s Telescopic Observations: The Marvel and Meaning of Discovery
Link to an article published for the IAU Symposium. Galileo’s Medicean Moons: Their Impact on 400 Years of Discovery. For the first time in over 2,000 years new significant observational data had been put at the disposition of anyone who cared to think, not in abstract preconceptions but in obedience to what the universe had to say about itself.
Continue reading →Giuseppe Settele and the final annulment of the decree of 1616 against Copernicanism
Article (PDF) 3500 words Level: university In 1820 Fr. Giuseppe Settele requested an imprimatur on his book Elementi di ottica e di astronomia (Elements of Optics and Astronomy), which referenced Earth’s motion. The request was denied; Settele appealed to Pope Pius VII. This article by Fr. Juan Casanovas, an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, provides a brief historical background on and summary of the actions surrounding this event. Casanovas writes: It is a merit of Settele that he insisted on obtaining the imprimatur. If he had just rewritten his textbook to say: supposing or in the case the earth moves around the sun… there would have been no difficulty. However he insisted and his insistence earned freedom for all subsequent writers of astronomy. Settele didn’t give in to the requests of the Pope’s palace “maggiordomo”. Click here to access this article, published in Memorie della Società Astronomia Italiana, Vol. 60, p.791 (1989) via NASA ADS. [Click here to download PDF] … Continue reading →
God’s Universe
Book 160 pages Level: high school and above A short book by Harvard University astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich, published in 2006 by Harvard University Press. Gingerich addresses whether “mediocrity” (the “Copernican Principle”) is a good idea, whether a scientist dare believe in design, and the idea of questions without answers (persuasion vs. proof in science). From the publisher: We live in a universe with a very long history, a vast cosmos where things are being worked out over unimaginably long ages. Stars and galaxies have formed, and elements come forth from great stellar cauldrons. The necessary elements are present, the environment is fit for life, and slowly life forms have populated the earth. Are the creative forces purposeful, and in fact divine? Owen Gingerich believes in a universe of intention and purpose. We can at least conjecture that we are part of that purpose and have just enough freedom that conscience and responsibility may be part of the … Continue reading →
Heliocentrism Condemned: 400 Years Ago
A post by Fr. Paul Gabor on the Catholic Astronomer website, outlining the history of the first Galileo “trial”, in 1616, when heliocentrism was condemned by the Church
Continue reading →How Frs. Riccioli and Dechales Argued that Science Shows the Earth to be at Rest – The Coriolis Effect
Article (blog post) 600 words Level: all audiences In this post on The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney discusses how the effect of Earth’s rotation on objects travelling through the air (now known as the “Coriolis effect”) was foreseen by Jesuit scientists, who argued that the absence of this effect indicated that Copernicus was wrong about the Earth being in motion. This scientific argument against the Earth’s motion turned out to be wrong because the effect did in fact exist, but was very hard to detect. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →How many great minds does it take to invent a telescope?
Article 1300 words Level: all audiences An article published in Aeon in 2017 by Thony Christie, discusses the people who contributed to the development of the reflecting telescope, including the Jesuit astronomer Niccolò Zucchi. Christie is the author of The Renaissance Mathematicus. Click here to access this article directly from Aeon. On 11 January 1672, the Fellows of the British Royal Society were treated to a demonstration of Isaac Newton’s reflecting telescope, which formed images with mirrors rather than with the lenses that had been used since the time of Galileo. Afterward, the fellows hailed Newton as the inventor of this marvellous new instrument, an attribution that sticks to the present. However, this linear historical account obscures a far more interesting, convoluted story. Newton’s claim was immediately challenged on behalf of two other contenders, James Gregory and Laurent Cassegrain. More confounding, the earliest known concept of using a curved mirror to focus light predated Newton by more than 1,500 years; the … Continue reading →
Jesuit Astronomers in Beijing 1601-1805
Article 16 pages Level: university This 1994 article by Agustín Udías in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society provides an overview of two hundred years of astronomical and Jesuit history in China: Abstract: Jesuit astronomers worked in Beijing for almost 200 years from 1601 to 1805 and occupied posts as directors of the Astronomical Observatory and presidents of the Board of Astronomy. During this time, they carried out an unprecedented transfer of scientific knowledge between Europe and China, especially in the fields of astronomy and mathematics. They took advantage of the need to reform the calendar to introduce western astronomy to China. They built astronomical instruments, brought European astronomical tables and made an extensive programme of observations. The work, in particular, of Ricci, Schall, Verbiest, Kogler and Hallerstein highlights this story. Click here to access this article from NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
Jesuits: Savants
Article (book chapter) 46 pages Level: university This article by Mordechai Feingold is the introductory chapter to the 2003 book Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters, edited by Feingold and published by The MIT Press. Feingold provides an overview of Jesuit scientists and of the advantages and disadvantages (from a scientific point of view) of doing science within the Jesuit order—an organization whose mission was not scientific but spiritual. Feingold writes: The aim of this introductory chapter is to get past the stereotypes that surrounded the Society of Jesus during the first 200 years of its existence and evaluate the scientific dimension of its intellectual contribution, independent of its religious mission. It is my contention that, by and large, the scholarly activities and aspirations of Jesuits were indistinguishable from those of other contemporary savants, secular or ordained, irrespective of denomination. True, constraints on the pursuit of secular learning were more stringent among Jesuits, as were the mechanisms regulating their … Continue reading →
Johannes Kepler and the New Astronomy
Book 144 pages Level: all audiences This book by James Voelkel is part of the Oxford Portraits in Science series for young adults. The general editor of this series is Owen Gingerich, a historian of science with Harvard University, and an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. This book discusses the work and life of Johannes Kepler, one of the more prominent figures in the history of astronomy. Kepler was a deeply religious man living in a time of great religious strife. He included hymns of praise to God and prayers for Christian unity within his published works. Click here for a preview from Google Books. From the publisher, Oxford University Press: Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) is remembered, along with Copernicus and Galileo, as one of the greatest Renaissance astronomers. A gifted analytical thinker, he made major contributions to physics, astronomy, and mathematics. Kepler was trained as a theologian, yet did not hesitate to challenge church doctrine and prevailing scientific beliefs … 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 →Johannes Kepler’s Harmony of the World
Article (blog post) 1500 words Level: all audiences A post by Christopher Graney on The Catholic Astronomer blog, focusing on how the work of Johannes Kepler contains important scientific content, extravagant expressions of religious devotion, and speculative writings regarding life on other planets. Graney writes: Readers will also find Kepler closing chapters with sentences such as this: Holy Father, keep us safe in the concord of our love for one another, that we may be one, just as Thou art one with Thy Son, Our Lord, and with the Holy Ghost, and just as through the sweetest bonds of harmonies Thou hast made all Thy works one; and that from the bringing of Thy people into concord the body of Thy Church may be rebuilt up in the Earth, as Thou didst erect the heavens themselves out of harmonies. It is difficult to overstate the religious content of Harmony. Yet this is a book that contains important scientific content as well. Generally, Kepler is proclaiming … Continue reading →
Kepler and the Laws of Nature
Article 6 pages Level: high school and above Owen Gingerich, an astronomer and historian of science with Harvard University, discusses Johannes Kepler and the idea of “Laws of Nature” in this 2011 article published in the journal Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith: Kepler is famous for his three laws of planetary motion, but he never assigned a special status to them or called them laws. More than a century and a half passed before they were singled out and ordered in a group of three. Nevertheless, he believed in an underlying, God-given rationale to the universe, something akin to laws of nature, and as he matured he began to use the word archetype for this concept. Most physicists today have, quite independently of religious values, a feeling that deep down the universe is ultimately comprehensible and lawful. Such ultimate laws are here called ontological laws of nature. In contrast, what we have (including Kepler’s third law, for example) are … Continue reading →
Kepler’s Prayers to God in Harmony of the World
Articles 2200 words total Level: high school and above Johannes Kepler is one of the major figures in the history of astronomy. He was a profoundly religious man who interspersed prayers and hymns within his scientific writings. One example of this is his 1619 book Harmony of the World, which contains, among other things, this prayer for his scientific work: Holy Father, keep us safe in the concord of our love for one another, that we may be one, just as Thou art one with Thy Son, Our Lord, and with the Holy Ghost, and just as through the sweetest bonds of harmonies Thou hast made all Thy works one; and that from the bringing of Thy people into concord the body of Thy Church may be rebuilt up in the Earth, as Thou didst erect the heavens themselves out of harmonies. Click here for an excerpt from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced … 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 →
Mathematical Disquisitions – The Booklet of Theses Immortalized by Galileo
Book 176 pages Level: high school and above This 2017 book by Christopher M. Graney is the first complete English translation of an astronomical text written by scientists who stood opposite Galileo in the debate on the question of Earth’s motion. Galileo painted a very unfavorable portrait of Mathematical Disquisitions and its Jesuit authors, but the book itself turns out to be a competent scientific work and not much like Galileo’s portrayal of it. From the publisher, the University of Notre Dame Press: Mathematical Disquisitions: The Booklet of Theses Immortalized by Galileo offers a new English translation of the 1614 Disquisitiones Mathematicae, which Johann Georg Locher wrote under the guidance of the German Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner. The booklet, an anti-Copernican astronomical work, is of interest in large part because Galileo Galilei, who came into conflict with Scheiner over the discovery of sunspots, devoted numerous pages within his famous 1632 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—Ptolemaic and Copernican to ridiculing Disquisitiones. The brief text (the … Continue reading →
Mathematics Against the Multiverse in 1614
A post by Chris Graney, a historian of astronomy, on The Catholic Astronomer about a 1614 book that discusses (in passing) a concept we can recognize as the Multiverse
Continue reading →Maximilian Hell and the Northernmost Transit of Venus Expedition of 1769
Article 16 pages Level: university An article by Elvira Botez of the Astronomical Observatory Cluj-Napoca (Romania). This article appeared in The Journal of Astronomical Data in 2004: Abstract: A short biography of the Jesuit astronomer Maximilian Hell (1720-1792), founder and director of the Astronomical Observatory in Vienna and editor of the Viennese Astronomical Almanac is presented. He was the leader of the expedition to Vardö Island for observing the transit of Venus of 1769. The journey of the participants, the preparations for observing the important phenomenon and its successful observations are described. Hell’s scientific merits won him the membership in several European Academies, and his name is found on the lunar maps. Click here to access this article from NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Meet the Priest Who First Recorded the Transit of Mercury: Pierre Gassendi
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer, reflecting on the work of Fr. Gassendi to synthesize faith and science. He concludes,”it is my opinion that the best approach is to allow science to be science and theology to be theology, trusting that this mutual exploration of truth will provide natural “bridges” between these great disciplines while respecting the integrity of each.”
Continue reading →Michael Buckley SJ: God in the Project of Newtonian Mechanics
Includes an essay by Michael Buckley, “God in the project of Newtonian mechanics” discussing the theological question in Newton’s mechanics, Newton’s methodical resolution of the theological question, Light and the inner structure of natural bodies.
Continue reading →Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science
Book 304 pages Level: high school and above This 2015 book, published by Harvard University Press (HUP) and edited in part by Ronald Numbers, is a follow-up to the 2009 book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion which was also published by HUP and edited by Numbers. From HUP: A falling apple inspired Isaac Newton’s insight into the law of gravity—or so the story goes. Is it true? Perhaps not. But the more intriguing question is why such stories endure as explanations of how science happens. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science brushes away popular misconceptions to provide a clearer picture of great scientific breakthroughs from ancient times to the present. Among the myths refuted in this volume is the idea that no science was done in the Dark Ages, that alchemy and astrology were purely superstitious pursuits, that fear of public reaction alone led Darwin to delay publishing his theory of evolution, and that … Continue reading →
On Sunspots – Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner
Book 432 pages Level: university On Sunspots by Eileen Reeves and Albert Van Helden features the work of Galileo Galilei, whose fame is well-known, and of Christoph Scheiner, the Jesuit astronomer who would go on to produce detailed, groundbreaking studies of the sun that far exceeded Galileo’s observations of sunspots. This 2010 book is unusual in that it contains complete translations of both Galileo’s writing and the writing of someone he considered to be one of his opponents (in this case Scheiner). As Nick Wilding of Georgia State University stated in a review of On Sunspots, “For the first time, readers have access to both sides of this important debate in the same language. This will be an essential text.” Click here for a preview from Google Books. From the publisher, University of Chicago Press: Galileo’s telescopic discoveries, and especially his observation of sunspots, caused great debate in an age when the heavens were thought to be perfect and unchanging. … Continue reading →
Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
Article 1000 words Level: all audiences This article by Christopher Graney was originally published by Aeon, and later republished by The Atlantic and others. It discusses astronomical work published in 1614 by Johann Georg Locher, a student of the Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner. There is a great contrast between how Galileo portrayed Locher’s work, and the work itself. Graney writes, “Locher matters. Science’s history matters. Anti-Copernicans such as Locher and Brahe show that science has always functioned as a contest of ideas, and that science was present in both sides of the vigorous debate over Earth’s motion.” Click here for this article from Aeon. Click here for this article from The Atlantic.
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 →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 →
Scientific Spectacle in Baroque Rome: Athanasius Kircher and the Roman College Museum
Article (book chapter) 60 pages Level: university This article by Paula Findlen is a chapter in the 2003 book Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters, edited by Mordechai Feingold and published by The MIT Press. Findlen discusses the museum constructed by Fr. Athanasius Kircher, S. J., in the seventeenth century—a museum filled with everything from demonstrations of optical illusions and magnetic clocks, to lodestones and asbestos, to artifacts from the cultures of Egypt and China. Findlen writes: Kircher’s story not only sheds light on his own circumstances and on the formation of a remarkable museum; it also illuminates the importance of his religious order to early modern scientific culture. The Jesuits are one of the most important and understudied groups of scholars active during the scientific revolution. Through their vast networks and proliferation of education institutions, the Jesuits rightfully may claim to have developed one of the largest and most influential scientific communities in early modern Europe. Kircher certainly … Continue reading →
Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories [with book reviews]
Book 369 pages Level: university Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories, is a 2003 book by Agustín Udías, S. J. of the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, Universidad Complutenese (Madrid, Spain). From the publisher: Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now … Continue reading →
Setting aside all authority: news from the history of astronomy
A post by on The Catholic Astronomer announcing a new book by Christopher Graney about Fr. Riccioli’s 17th century work defending the heliocentric system on scientific grounds.
Continue reading →Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving
Articles (blog posts) 1000-2000 words each Level: high school and above In this series of posts on The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney examines the prevalence of the common myth that Galileo proved that Earth moves around the sun, and contrasts that myth with some of the scientifically questionable things that Galileo in his 1632 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems wrote regarding the subject of proving that Earth moves. Click here for the post ‘Punished for Proving‘ on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Omitted Data and the Tides‘. Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Splitting the Stars‘. Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Telescopic Evidence for Earth’s Immobility through Double Stars‘.
Continue reading →Teaching sunspots: Disciplinary identity and scholarly practice in the Collegio Romano
Article 24 pages Level: university This 2014 by Renee Raphael, published in the journal History of Science, discusses how the subject of sunspots was addressed by professors at the Jesuit Roman College during the seventeenth century, when the nature of sunspots was a matter of controversy: Abstract: This article examines how Jesuit Gabriele Beati (1607-1673) taught the subject of sunspots in two textbooks commemorating his teaching of natural philosophy and mathematics at the Collegio Romano. Whereas Beati defended the incorruptibility of the heavens in his natural philosophical course, he argued that sunspots were located on the face of the sun itself and generated and corrupted like terrestrial clouds in his mathematical one. While it may be tempting to attribute these different presentations to censorship practices within the Jesuit Order, they are best understood as the result of disciplinary distinctions and scholarly practices shared widely by scholars across Europe. Click here to access this article via Ebscohost (available through many libraries). … 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 →
The “Memorial” of Blaise Pascal
Poem (PDF) 230 words Level: high school and above Blaise Pascal is a prominent figure in the history of science. Students in science classes everywhere learn of “Pascal’s Principle” concerning hydraulic pressure. Pascal also wrote on theological matters, with his best-known work being the Pensées. The PDF below is the text of a poem and prayer written by Pascal, referred to as his “Memorial”. Below the poem are links to two commentaries on the “Memorial”. [Click here to download PDF] The two commentaries below have been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti: “Faith and Reason in Blaise Pascal’s ‘Memorial’”, by Romano Guardini (click here). “Science and Religion in Blaise Pascal’s Life,” by William R. Shea (click here).
Continue reading →The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy
Book 380 pages Level: high school and above As suggested by our research team. This description is from the publisher: Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, and one which has repeatedly led to fundamental changes in our view of the world. This book covers the history of our study of the cosmos from prehistory through to a survey of modern astronomy and astrophysics (sure to be of interest to future historians of twentieth-century astronomy). It does not attempt to cover everything, but deliberately concentrates on the important themes and topics. These include stellar astronomy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at the time subordinate to the study of the solar system, but the source of many important concepts in modern astronomy, and the Copernican revolution, which led to the challenge of ancient authorities in many areas, not just astronomy. This is an essential text for students of the history of science and for students of astronomy who require a historical background … Continue reading →
The earliest telescope preserved in Japan
Article 10 pages Level: university This 2008 article, written by Tsuko Nakamura and published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, features abundant full-color illustrations of the (Jesuit-influenced) telescope that is the subject of the article. Abstract: This paper describes the antique telescope owned by one of Japan’s major feudal warlords, Tokugawa Yoshinao. As he died in 1650, this means that this telescope was produced in or before that year. Our recent investigation of the telescope revealed that it is of Schyrlean type, consisting of four convex lenses, so that it gives erect images with a measured magnifying power of 3.9 (± 0.2-0.3). This also implies that Yoshinao’s telescope could be one of the earliest Schyrlean telescopes ever. The design, fabrication technique, and the surface decoration of the telescopic tube and caps all suggest that it is not a Western make at all, but was produced probably under the guidance of a Chinese Jesuit missionary or by the Chinese, in Suzhou or … Continue reading →
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 →
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 →
The Parallel Worlds of Christoph Scheiner and Galileo Galilei
Article 14 pages Level: high school and above This 2016 article—written by Oddbjørn Engvold of the University of Oslo, Norway, and Jack B. Zirker, of the National Solar Observatory, USA, and published in the Journal for the History of Astronomy—provides an overview that compares and contrasts the solar observations made by Galileo Galilei on one hand, and by Christoph Scheiner of the Society of Jesus on the other. While Galileo is better known, Scheiner would go on to study the sun far more extensively that Galileo, and to become the world’s first true solar astronomer. Engvold and Zirker write: Scheiner was a keen observer, who shares with Galileo the credit of discovering and describing many of the sunspot phenomena we know today. He recorded the behaviour of sunspots, sometime several times per day, allegedly over 16 years. From this mass of data, he deduced several important properties of the Sun, such as the latitude variation of rotation, as well as … 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 →The Seashell on the Mountaintop: A Story of Science, Sainthood, and the Humble Genius who Discovered a New History of the Earth
Book 228 pages Level: high school and above The Seashell on the Mountaintop is a 2003 book by Alan Cutler, published by Dutton/Penguin, about the seventeenth century scientist and bishop Nicholaus Steno. From the dust jacket: It was an ancient puzzle that stymied history’s greatest minds: How did the fossils of seashells find their way far inland, sometimes high up into the mountains? Fossils only made sense in a world old enough to form them, and in the seventeenth century, few people could imagine such a thing. Texts no less authoritative than the Old Testament laid out very clearly the timescale of Earth’s past; in fact one Anglican archbishop went so far as to calculate the exact date of Creation…October 23, 4004, B.C. A revolution was in the making, however, and it was started by the brilliant and enigmatic Nicholaus Steno, the man whom Stephen Jay Gould called “the founder of geology.” Steno explored beyond the pages of the Bible, … Continue reading →
Tradition and Today: Religion and Science
Article (PDF) 12 pages Level: university Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, presents four case histories which indicate that the relationship between religion and science has, in the course of three centuries, passed from one of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue, to show that the natural sciences have played a significant role in helping to establish the kind of dialogue that is absolutely necessary for the enrichment of the multifaceted aspects of human culture, whether traditional or modern. He argues that the approach of science to religion in each of these periods can be characterized respectively as: (l) temptress, (2) antagonist, (3) enlightened teacher, (4) partner in dialogue. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Accuracy of Solar Eclipse Observations Made by Jesuit Astronomers in China
Article 10 pages Level: university A 1995 Journal for the History of Astronomy article by F. R. Stephenson and L. J. Fatoohi: Abstract: During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jesuit astronomers at the Chinese court in Beijing observed many eclipses of the Sun and Moon. For most of these events the times of beginning, middle and end were measured and the magnitudes estimated. Summaries of virtually all of the observation made between A.D. 1644 and 1785 are still preserved. In this paper, that various solar eclipse measurements that the Jesuits made during the period are compared with computation based on modern solar and lunar ephemerides. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Anatomy of a fall: Giovanni Battista Riccioli and the story of g
Article (PDF) 5 pages Level: high school and up The first person to conduct precise gravity experiments was Fr. Giovanni Battista Riccioli, S. J. in the early seventeenth century. This 2012 article from the magazine Physics Today discusses Fr. Riccioli’s experiments regarding how gravity works and what was the acceleration due to gravity (now known as ‘g’). Click here for a the article in PDF format (from Physics Today). From the article: Riccioli set a fine example for all the free-fall experiments that would follow. He was thorough. He provided an extensive description of his experimental procedure. He gathered data of sufficient quality to assess accurately the model in question. But Riccioli’s work is also a standard of scientific integrity: He had set out expecting to disprove Galileo, but even when his experiments vindicated Galileo, he made a point of promptly sharing the news with an interested colleague. His attitude, like his experiment, was that of a fine scientist.
Continue reading →Appealing to the Infinite: Philips Lansbergen and the Battling Star-Armies of God
A post by Chris Graney on the Catholic Astronomer website. “why would a prominent Copernican, writing twenty years after the advent of the telescope, call the stars the armies of God? The answer to that is simple. He needed an explanation for why the stars were so giant…” The early Copernicans could not explain a lack of visible parallax in star positions except, ironically, by appealing to divine intervention.
Continue reading →Decree of Approval for the work “Elements of Astronomy” by Giuseppe Settele, in support of the heliocentric system (1820)
Article 300 words Level: all audiences The 1820 decree under Pope Pius VII removing all remaining prohibitions against the Copernican system. This arose from the request of Fr. Giuseppe Settele for an imprimatur on his book Elementi di ottica e di astronomia (Elements of Optics and Astronomy), which referenced Earth’s motion. The request was denied; Settele appealed to the Pope. This translation is from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. The translation is from the original Latin provided in W. Brandmüller and E.J. Greipl, eds., Copernico, Galilei e la chiesa : fine della controversia (1820) : gli atti del Sant’Uffizio {i.e. Copernicus, Galileo, and the Church: The End of the Controversy (1820), Acts of the Holy Office} (Florence: Leo Olschki, 1992), pp. 300-301. [Rome], 1820 VIII 16 Vol. I, fol. 174v (Bruni, scribe) The Assessor of the Holy Office has referred the … Continue reading →
Early Observations of Sunspots: Scheiner and Galileo
Article 18 pages Level: university A 1997 article by Juan Casanovas, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, published in 1st Advances in Solar Physics Euroconference – Advances in Physics of Sunspots: Abstract: There had been occasional observations of spots on the Sun since antiquity. Kepler observed a sunspot in 1607 but he interpreted it as a Mercury’s transit. One year after the introduction of the telescope astronomers identified spots on the Sun. J. Fabricius was the first to print a book on sunspots at the end of 1611, but this book had little diffusion. Fabricius rightly thought that the spots belonged to the Sun. The Jesuit C. Scheiner independently observed sunspots on the Sun and he announced his discovery at the end of 1611 in three letters under the pseudonym Apelles. Scheiner failed to observe the returning of the spots and hence did not recognize the solar rotation. Therefore he preferred to see the spots as caused by little bodies … Continue reading →
Exploring the first scientific observations of lunar eclipses made in Siam
Article 20 pages Level: high school and above A heavily illustrated 2016 article by Wayne Orchiston, Darunee Lingling Orchiston, Martin George and Boonrucksar Soonthornthum, published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage: Abstract: The first great ruler to encourage the adoption of Western culture and technology throughout Siam (present-day Thailand) was King Narai, who also had a passion for astronomy. He showed this by encouraging French and other Jesuit missionaries, some with astronomical interests and training, to settle in Siam from the early 1660s. One of these was Father Antoine Thomas, and he was the first European known to have carried out scientific astronomical observations from Siam when he determined the latitude of Ayutthaya in 1681 and the following year observed the total lunar eclipse of 22 February. A later lunar eclipse also has an important place in the history of Thai astronomy. In 1685 a delegation of French missionary-astronomers settled in Ayutthaya, and on 10-11 December 1685 they … Continue reading →
French astronomers in India during the 17th – 19th centuries
Article 6 pages Level: high school and above A 1991 article by R. K. Kochhar, published in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association: Abstract: The contributions made by French astronomers from India are reviewed. The French were more successful on the scientific front than on the colonial. The first telescopic discovery from India was made by a French Jesuit priest, Father Jean Richaud (1689). Surprisingly the first ever modern worthwhile map of India was prepared in France by D’Anville (1752). All Indian maps until 1905 used the value of Madras longitude derived by a Frenchman, John Warren (1807). And finally, the first ever discovery from India – and of singular importance – in the then new field of astrophysics, was also due to a visiting Frenchman, Janssen (1868). Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Galileo’s Telescopic Observations: The Marvel and Meaning of Discovery
Link to an article published for the IAU Symposium. Galileo’s Medicean Moons: Their Impact on 400 Years of Discovery. For the first time in over 2,000 years new significant observational data had been put at the disposition of anyone who cared to think, not in abstract preconceptions but in obedience to what the universe had to say about itself.
Continue reading →Giuseppe Settele and the final annulment of the decree of 1616 against Copernicanism
Article (PDF) 3500 words Level: university In 1820 Fr. Giuseppe Settele requested an imprimatur on his book Elementi di ottica e di astronomia (Elements of Optics and Astronomy), which referenced Earth’s motion. The request was denied; Settele appealed to Pope Pius VII. This article by Fr. Juan Casanovas, an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, provides a brief historical background on and summary of the actions surrounding this event. Casanovas writes: It is a merit of Settele that he insisted on obtaining the imprimatur. If he had just rewritten his textbook to say: supposing or in the case the earth moves around the sun… there would have been no difficulty. However he insisted and his insistence earned freedom for all subsequent writers of astronomy. Settele didn’t give in to the requests of the Pope’s palace “maggiordomo”. Click here to access this article, published in Memorie della Società Astronomia Italiana, Vol. 60, p.791 (1989) via NASA ADS. [Click here to download PDF] … Continue reading →
Heliocentrism Condemned: 400 Years Ago
A post by Fr. Paul Gabor on the Catholic Astronomer website, outlining the history of the first Galileo “trial”, in 1616, when heliocentrism was condemned by the Church
Continue reading →How Frs. Riccioli and Dechales Argued that Science Shows the Earth to be at Rest – The Coriolis Effect
Article (blog post) 600 words Level: all audiences In this post on The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney discusses how the effect of Earth’s rotation on objects travelling through the air (now known as the “Coriolis effect”) was foreseen by Jesuit scientists, who argued that the absence of this effect indicated that Copernicus was wrong about the Earth being in motion. This scientific argument against the Earth’s motion turned out to be wrong because the effect did in fact exist, but was very hard to detect. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →How many great minds does it take to invent a telescope?
Article 1300 words Level: all audiences An article published in Aeon in 2017 by Thony Christie, discusses the people who contributed to the development of the reflecting telescope, including the Jesuit astronomer Niccolò Zucchi. Christie is the author of The Renaissance Mathematicus. Click here to access this article directly from Aeon. On 11 January 1672, the Fellows of the British Royal Society were treated to a demonstration of Isaac Newton’s reflecting telescope, which formed images with mirrors rather than with the lenses that had been used since the time of Galileo. Afterward, the fellows hailed Newton as the inventor of this marvellous new instrument, an attribution that sticks to the present. However, this linear historical account obscures a far more interesting, convoluted story. Newton’s claim was immediately challenged on behalf of two other contenders, James Gregory and Laurent Cassegrain. More confounding, the earliest known concept of using a curved mirror to focus light predated Newton by more than 1,500 years; the … Continue reading →
Jesuit Astronomers in Beijing 1601-1805
Article 16 pages Level: university This 1994 article by Agustín Udías in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society provides an overview of two hundred years of astronomical and Jesuit history in China: Abstract: Jesuit astronomers worked in Beijing for almost 200 years from 1601 to 1805 and occupied posts as directors of the Astronomical Observatory and presidents of the Board of Astronomy. During this time, they carried out an unprecedented transfer of scientific knowledge between Europe and China, especially in the fields of astronomy and mathematics. They took advantage of the need to reform the calendar to introduce western astronomy to China. They built astronomical instruments, brought European astronomical tables and made an extensive programme of observations. The work, in particular, of Ricci, Schall, Verbiest, Kogler and Hallerstein highlights this story. Click here to access this article from NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
Jesuits: Savants
Article (book chapter) 46 pages Level: university This article by Mordechai Feingold is the introductory chapter to the 2003 book Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters, edited by Feingold and published by The MIT Press. Feingold provides an overview of Jesuit scientists and of the advantages and disadvantages (from a scientific point of view) of doing science within the Jesuit order—an organization whose mission was not scientific but spiritual. Feingold writes: The aim of this introductory chapter is to get past the stereotypes that surrounded the Society of Jesus during the first 200 years of its existence and evaluate the scientific dimension of its intellectual contribution, independent of its religious mission. It is my contention that, by and large, the scholarly activities and aspirations of Jesuits were indistinguishable from those of other contemporary savants, secular or ordained, irrespective of denomination. True, constraints on the pursuit of secular learning were more stringent among Jesuits, as were the mechanisms regulating their … Continue reading →
Johannes Kepler’s Harmony of the World
Article (blog post) 1500 words Level: all audiences A post by Christopher Graney on The Catholic Astronomer blog, focusing on how the work of Johannes Kepler contains important scientific content, extravagant expressions of religious devotion, and speculative writings regarding life on other planets. Graney writes: Readers will also find Kepler closing chapters with sentences such as this: Holy Father, keep us safe in the concord of our love for one another, that we may be one, just as Thou art one with Thy Son, Our Lord, and with the Holy Ghost, and just as through the sweetest bonds of harmonies Thou hast made all Thy works one; and that from the bringing of Thy people into concord the body of Thy Church may be rebuilt up in the Earth, as Thou didst erect the heavens themselves out of harmonies. It is difficult to overstate the religious content of Harmony. Yet this is a book that contains important scientific content as well. Generally, Kepler is proclaiming … Continue reading →
Kepler and the Laws of Nature
Article 6 pages Level: high school and above Owen Gingerich, an astronomer and historian of science with Harvard University, discusses Johannes Kepler and the idea of “Laws of Nature” in this 2011 article published in the journal Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith: Kepler is famous for his three laws of planetary motion, but he never assigned a special status to them or called them laws. More than a century and a half passed before they were singled out and ordered in a group of three. Nevertheless, he believed in an underlying, God-given rationale to the universe, something akin to laws of nature, and as he matured he began to use the word archetype for this concept. Most physicists today have, quite independently of religious values, a feeling that deep down the universe is ultimately comprehensible and lawful. Such ultimate laws are here called ontological laws of nature. In contrast, what we have (including Kepler’s third law, for example) are … Continue reading →
Kepler’s Prayers to God in Harmony of the World
Articles 2200 words total Level: high school and above Johannes Kepler is one of the major figures in the history of astronomy. He was a profoundly religious man who interspersed prayers and hymns within his scientific writings. One example of this is his 1619 book Harmony of the World, which contains, among other things, this prayer for his scientific work: Holy Father, keep us safe in the concord of our love for one another, that we may be one, just as Thou art one with Thy Son, Our Lord, and with the Holy Ghost, and just as through the sweetest bonds of harmonies Thou hast made all Thy works one; and that from the bringing of Thy people into concord the body of Thy Church may be rebuilt up in the Earth, as Thou didst erect the heavens themselves out of harmonies. Click here for an excerpt from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced … Continue reading →
Mathematics Against the Multiverse in 1614
A post by Chris Graney, a historian of astronomy, on The Catholic Astronomer about a 1614 book that discusses (in passing) a concept we can recognize as the Multiverse
Continue reading →Maximilian Hell and the Northernmost Transit of Venus Expedition of 1769
Article 16 pages Level: university An article by Elvira Botez of the Astronomical Observatory Cluj-Napoca (Romania). This article appeared in The Journal of Astronomical Data in 2004: Abstract: A short biography of the Jesuit astronomer Maximilian Hell (1720-1792), founder and director of the Astronomical Observatory in Vienna and editor of the Viennese Astronomical Almanac is presented. He was the leader of the expedition to Vardö Island for observing the transit of Venus of 1769. The journey of the participants, the preparations for observing the important phenomenon and its successful observations are described. Hell’s scientific merits won him the membership in several European Academies, and his name is found on the lunar maps. Click here to access this article from NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Meet the Priest Who First Recorded the Transit of Mercury: Pierre Gassendi
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer, reflecting on the work of Fr. Gassendi to synthesize faith and science. He concludes,”it is my opinion that the best approach is to allow science to be science and theology to be theology, trusting that this mutual exploration of truth will provide natural “bridges” between these great disciplines while respecting the integrity of each.”
Continue reading →Michael Buckley SJ: God in the Project of Newtonian Mechanics
Includes an essay by Michael Buckley, “God in the project of Newtonian mechanics” discussing the theological question in Newton’s mechanics, Newton’s methodical resolution of the theological question, Light and the inner structure of natural bodies.
Continue reading →Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
Article 1000 words Level: all audiences This article by Christopher Graney was originally published by Aeon, and later republished by The Atlantic and others. It discusses astronomical work published in 1614 by Johann Georg Locher, a student of the Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner. There is a great contrast between how Galileo portrayed Locher’s work, and the work itself. Graney writes, “Locher matters. Science’s history matters. Anti-Copernicans such as Locher and Brahe show that science has always functioned as a contest of ideas, and that science was present in both sides of the vigorous debate over Earth’s motion.” Click here for this article from Aeon. Click here for this article from The Atlantic.
Continue reading →Scientific Spectacle in Baroque Rome: Athanasius Kircher and the Roman College Museum
Article (book chapter) 60 pages Level: university This article by Paula Findlen is a chapter in the 2003 book Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters, edited by Mordechai Feingold and published by The MIT Press. Findlen discusses the museum constructed by Fr. Athanasius Kircher, S. J., in the seventeenth century—a museum filled with everything from demonstrations of optical illusions and magnetic clocks, to lodestones and asbestos, to artifacts from the cultures of Egypt and China. Findlen writes: Kircher’s story not only sheds light on his own circumstances and on the formation of a remarkable museum; it also illuminates the importance of his religious order to early modern scientific culture. The Jesuits are one of the most important and understudied groups of scholars active during the scientific revolution. Through their vast networks and proliferation of education institutions, the Jesuits rightfully may claim to have developed one of the largest and most influential scientific communities in early modern Europe. Kircher certainly … Continue reading →
Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories [with book reviews]
Book 369 pages Level: university Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories, is a 2003 book by Agustín Udías, S. J. of the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, Universidad Complutenese (Madrid, Spain). From the publisher: Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now … Continue reading →
Setting aside all authority: news from the history of astronomy
A post by on The Catholic Astronomer announcing a new book by Christopher Graney about Fr. Riccioli’s 17th century work defending the heliocentric system on scientific grounds.
Continue reading →Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving
Articles (blog posts) 1000-2000 words each Level: high school and above In this series of posts on The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney examines the prevalence of the common myth that Galileo proved that Earth moves around the sun, and contrasts that myth with some of the scientifically questionable things that Galileo in his 1632 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems wrote regarding the subject of proving that Earth moves. Click here for the post ‘Punished for Proving‘ on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Omitted Data and the Tides‘. Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Splitting the Stars‘. Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Telescopic Evidence for Earth’s Immobility through Double Stars‘.
Continue reading →Teaching sunspots: Disciplinary identity and scholarly practice in the Collegio Romano
Article 24 pages Level: university This 2014 by Renee Raphael, published in the journal History of Science, discusses how the subject of sunspots was addressed by professors at the Jesuit Roman College during the seventeenth century, when the nature of sunspots was a matter of controversy: Abstract: This article examines how Jesuit Gabriele Beati (1607-1673) taught the subject of sunspots in two textbooks commemorating his teaching of natural philosophy and mathematics at the Collegio Romano. Whereas Beati defended the incorruptibility of the heavens in his natural philosophical course, he argued that sunspots were located on the face of the sun itself and generated and corrupted like terrestrial clouds in his mathematical one. While it may be tempting to attribute these different presentations to censorship practices within the Jesuit Order, they are best understood as the result of disciplinary distinctions and scholarly practices shared widely by scholars across Europe. Click here to access this article via Ebscohost (available through many libraries). … Continue reading →
The earliest telescope preserved in Japan
Article 10 pages Level: university This 2008 article, written by Tsuko Nakamura and published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, features abundant full-color illustrations of the (Jesuit-influenced) telescope that is the subject of the article. Abstract: This paper describes the antique telescope owned by one of Japan’s major feudal warlords, Tokugawa Yoshinao. As he died in 1650, this means that this telescope was produced in or before that year. Our recent investigation of the telescope revealed that it is of Schyrlean type, consisting of four convex lenses, so that it gives erect images with a measured magnifying power of 3.9 (± 0.2-0.3). This also implies that Yoshinao’s telescope could be one of the earliest Schyrlean telescopes ever. The design, fabrication technique, and the surface decoration of the telescopic tube and caps all suggest that it is not a Western make at all, but was produced probably under the guidance of a Chinese Jesuit missionary or by the Chinese, in Suzhou or … 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 →
The Parallel Worlds of Christoph Scheiner and Galileo Galilei
Article 14 pages Level: high school and above This 2016 article—written by Oddbjørn Engvold of the University of Oslo, Norway, and Jack B. Zirker, of the National Solar Observatory, USA, and published in the Journal for the History of Astronomy—provides an overview that compares and contrasts the solar observations made by Galileo Galilei on one hand, and by Christoph Scheiner of the Society of Jesus on the other. While Galileo is better known, Scheiner would go on to study the sun far more extensively that Galileo, and to become the world’s first true solar astronomer. Engvold and Zirker write: Scheiner was a keen observer, who shares with Galileo the credit of discovering and describing many of the sunspot phenomena we know today. He recorded the behaviour of sunspots, sometime several times per day, allegedly over 16 years. From this mass of data, he deduced several important properties of the Sun, such as the latitude variation of rotation, as well as … 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 →Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
A Theology of Everything?
During the Enlightenment most scientists, who were religious believers, were unreasonable in their approach to religious belief, since they sought to found their religious belief on purely rational grounds.
Continue reading →Anatomy of a fall: Giovanni Battista Riccioli and the story of g
Article (PDF) 5 pages Level: high school and up The first person to conduct precise gravity experiments was Fr. Giovanni Battista Riccioli, S. J. in the early seventeenth century. This 2012 article from the magazine Physics Today discusses Fr. Riccioli’s experiments regarding how gravity works and what was the acceleration due to gravity (now known as ‘g’). Click here for a the article in PDF format (from Physics Today). From the article: Riccioli set a fine example for all the free-fall experiments that would follow. He was thorough. He provided an extensive description of his experimental procedure. He gathered data of sufficient quality to assess accurately the model in question. But Riccioli’s work is also a standard of scientific integrity: He had set out expecting to disprove Galileo, but even when his experiments vindicated Galileo, he made a point of promptly sharing the news with an interested colleague. His attitude, like his experiment, was that of a fine scientist.
Continue reading →Discovery in the New Cosmology of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo
Article (PDF) 14 pages, 6100 words Level: university This article for the Paths of Discovery (published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences) by Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, suggests “three components contained in the notion of discovery: newness, an opening to the future and, in the case of astronomical discovery, a blending of theory and observation. Discovery means that something new comes to light and this generally happens suddenly and unexpectedly.” Click here for a link to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences’ entire Paths of Discovery volume. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Giuseppe Settele and the final annulment of the decree of 1616 against Copernicanism
Article (PDF) 3500 words Level: university In 1820 Fr. Giuseppe Settele requested an imprimatur on his book Elementi di ottica e di astronomia (Elements of Optics and Astronomy), which referenced Earth’s motion. The request was denied; Settele appealed to Pope Pius VII. This article by Fr. Juan Casanovas, an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, provides a brief historical background on and summary of the actions surrounding this event. Casanovas writes: It is a merit of Settele that he insisted on obtaining the imprimatur. If he had just rewritten his textbook to say: supposing or in the case the earth moves around the sun… there would have been no difficulty. However he insisted and his insistence earned freedom for all subsequent writers of astronomy. Settele didn’t give in to the requests of the Pope’s palace “maggiordomo”. Click here to access this article, published in Memorie della Società Astronomia Italiana, Vol. 60, p.791 (1989) via NASA ADS. [Click here to download PDF] … Continue reading →
The “Memorial” of Blaise Pascal
Poem (PDF) 230 words Level: high school and above Blaise Pascal is a prominent figure in the history of science. Students in science classes everywhere learn of “Pascal’s Principle” concerning hydraulic pressure. Pascal also wrote on theological matters, with his best-known work being the Pensées. The PDF below is the text of a poem and prayer written by Pascal, referred to as his “Memorial”. Below the poem are links to two commentaries on the “Memorial”. [Click here to download PDF] The two commentaries below have been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti: “Faith and Reason in Blaise Pascal’s ‘Memorial’”, by Romano Guardini (click here). “Science and Religion in Blaise Pascal’s Life,” by William R. Shea (click here).
Continue reading →Tradition and Today: Religion and Science
Article (PDF) 12 pages Level: university Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, presents four case histories which indicate that the relationship between religion and science has, in the course of three centuries, passed from one of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue, to show that the natural sciences have played a significant role in helping to establish the kind of dialogue that is absolutely necessary for the enrichment of the multifaceted aspects of human culture, whether traditional or modern. He argues that the approach of science to religion in each of these periods can be characterized respectively as: (l) temptress, (2) antagonist, (3) enlightened teacher, (4) partner in dialogue. [Click here to download PDF]
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 →
Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
Book 320 pages Level: high school and above This 2009 book, edited by Ronald Numbers, contains much that will be of interest to many readers. From the publisher, Harvard University Press: If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald L. Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths. Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed … Continue reading →
God’s Universe
Book 160 pages Level: high school and above A short book by Harvard University astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich, published in 2006 by Harvard University Press. Gingerich addresses whether “mediocrity” (the “Copernican Principle”) is a good idea, whether a scientist dare believe in design, and the idea of questions without answers (persuasion vs. proof in science). From the publisher: We live in a universe with a very long history, a vast cosmos where things are being worked out over unimaginably long ages. Stars and galaxies have formed, and elements come forth from great stellar cauldrons. The necessary elements are present, the environment is fit for life, and slowly life forms have populated the earth. Are the creative forces purposeful, and in fact divine? Owen Gingerich believes in a universe of intention and purpose. We can at least conjecture that we are part of that purpose and have just enough freedom that conscience and responsibility may be part of the … Continue reading →
Johannes Kepler and the New Astronomy
Book 144 pages Level: all audiences This book by James Voelkel is part of the Oxford Portraits in Science series for young adults. The general editor of this series is Owen Gingerich, a historian of science with Harvard University, and an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. This book discusses the work and life of Johannes Kepler, one of the more prominent figures in the history of astronomy. Kepler was a deeply religious man living in a time of great religious strife. He included hymns of praise to God and prayers for Christian unity within his published works. Click here for a preview from Google Books. From the publisher, Oxford University Press: Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) is remembered, along with Copernicus and Galileo, as one of the greatest Renaissance astronomers. A gifted analytical thinker, he made major contributions to physics, astronomy, and mathematics. Kepler was trained as a theologian, yet did not hesitate to challenge church doctrine and prevailing scientific beliefs … 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 →Mathematical Disquisitions – The Booklet of Theses Immortalized by Galileo
Book 176 pages Level: high school and above This 2017 book by Christopher M. Graney is the first complete English translation of an astronomical text written by scientists who stood opposite Galileo in the debate on the question of Earth’s motion. Galileo painted a very unfavorable portrait of Mathematical Disquisitions and its Jesuit authors, but the book itself turns out to be a competent scientific work and not much like Galileo’s portrayal of it. From the publisher, the University of Notre Dame Press: Mathematical Disquisitions: The Booklet of Theses Immortalized by Galileo offers a new English translation of the 1614 Disquisitiones Mathematicae, which Johann Georg Locher wrote under the guidance of the German Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner. The booklet, an anti-Copernican astronomical work, is of interest in large part because Galileo Galilei, who came into conflict with Scheiner over the discovery of sunspots, devoted numerous pages within his famous 1632 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—Ptolemaic and Copernican to ridiculing Disquisitiones. The brief text (the … Continue reading →
Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science
Book 304 pages Level: high school and above This 2015 book, published by Harvard University Press (HUP) and edited in part by Ronald Numbers, is a follow-up to the 2009 book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion which was also published by HUP and edited by Numbers. From HUP: A falling apple inspired Isaac Newton’s insight into the law of gravity—or so the story goes. Is it true? Perhaps not. But the more intriguing question is why such stories endure as explanations of how science happens. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science brushes away popular misconceptions to provide a clearer picture of great scientific breakthroughs from ancient times to the present. Among the myths refuted in this volume is the idea that no science was done in the Dark Ages, that alchemy and astrology were purely superstitious pursuits, that fear of public reaction alone led Darwin to delay publishing his theory of evolution, and that … Continue reading →
On Sunspots – Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner
Book 432 pages Level: university On Sunspots by Eileen Reeves and Albert Van Helden features the work of Galileo Galilei, whose fame is well-known, and of Christoph Scheiner, the Jesuit astronomer who would go on to produce detailed, groundbreaking studies of the sun that far exceeded Galileo’s observations of sunspots. This 2010 book is unusual in that it contains complete translations of both Galileo’s writing and the writing of someone he considered to be one of his opponents (in this case Scheiner). As Nick Wilding of Georgia State University stated in a review of On Sunspots, “For the first time, readers have access to both sides of this important debate in the same language. This will be an essential text.” Click here for a preview from Google Books. From the publisher, University of Chicago Press: Galileo’s telescopic discoveries, and especially his observation of sunspots, caused great debate in an age when the heavens were thought to be perfect and unchanging. … 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 →
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 →
The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy
Book 380 pages Level: high school and above As suggested by our research team. This description is from the publisher: Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, and one which has repeatedly led to fundamental changes in our view of the world. This book covers the history of our study of the cosmos from prehistory through to a survey of modern astronomy and astrophysics (sure to be of interest to future historians of twentieth-century astronomy). It does not attempt to cover everything, but deliberately concentrates on the important themes and topics. These include stellar astronomy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at the time subordinate to the study of the solar system, but the source of many important concepts in modern astronomy, and the Copernican revolution, which led to the challenge of ancient authorities in many areas, not just astronomy. This is an essential text for students of the history of science and for students of astronomy who require a historical background … Continue reading →
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 →
The Seashell on the Mountaintop: A Story of Science, Sainthood, and the Humble Genius who Discovered a New History of the Earth
Book 228 pages Level: high school and above The Seashell on the Mountaintop is a 2003 book by Alan Cutler, published by Dutton/Penguin, about the seventeenth century scientist and bishop Nicholaus Steno. From the dust jacket: It was an ancient puzzle that stymied history’s greatest minds: How did the fossils of seashells find their way far inland, sometimes high up into the mountains? Fossils only made sense in a world old enough to form them, and in the seventeenth century, few people could imagine such a thing. Texts no less authoritative than the Old Testament laid out very clearly the timescale of Earth’s past; in fact one Anglican archbishop went so far as to calculate the exact date of Creation…October 23, 4004, B.C. A revolution was in the making, however, and it was started by the brilliant and enigmatic Nicholaus Steno, the man whom Stephen Jay Gould called “the founder of geology.” Steno explored beyond the pages of the Bible, … Continue reading →