Is this so? [Cathedrals as observatories]

[Rosanne]

This may not be the correct forum to place this, so if it needs shifting please do so.
I have been given a book called 'How the Catholic Church built Western Civilisation' by Thomas E Woods jnr. Provacatively titled neh? It is an interesting read about the fostering of science by the Catholic Church since medieval times. It talks about Art and Architecture,Universities, Meteorology, Solar Physics, Seismology, Star maps and symbolic logic to name a few subjects. There is one statement that I am querying. If anyone can give me their views I would appreciate it. (there is lots of things I would like to query )....
"From about the time of the unwisely censured Galileo, Catholic Cathedrals in Bolgna, Florence, Paris and Rome were built to function as solar observatories. No more precise instruments for the sun's apparent motion could be found anywhere....."
I have not heard that Cathedrals were solar observatories. Have you?
~Rosanne

 

[jmd]

There are certainly a number of cathedrals that have very precise astronomical considerations built in (including rays of the Sun or Moon shining at precise locations via selected holes).

Also, some have what may be called observation tables (as in literal tables).

That they were built to function as observatories seems to me a little more than warranted.

 

[Rosanne]

Thanks jmd, I think a lot of the statements in the book are 'overstatements'. I was given the book because I made a caustic thoughtless remark about the Jesuit order search of wealth and fame. I know many Jesuits were scholars of the highest calibre and contributed greatly to our scientific knowledge(seismology was what I was interested in). The Author wrote 'The Political Incorrect guide to American History' and it was well received, but I have no idea how unbiased he is or how accurate. ~Rosanne

 

[DoctorArcanus]

My uncle Ettore used to say "Si ite cum Jesu non ite cum Jesuitis": if you go with Jesus don't go with the Jesuites

Marco

 

[Rosanne]

I think I would have liked your Uncle, Marco. I am always getting into hot water with my acerbic tongue...and I don't seem to pick my moments. The book is very interesting nevertheless.~Rosanne

 

[venicebard]

I'm not a student of the details, but the great cathedrals--before Galileo's time, of course--made careful use of alignment and the shifting angle of sunlight to produce various effects having to do with marking holidays and the like, so the tradition of careful alignment of edifices was already in place, certainly.

And I remember being thrilled by the chapter somewhere in Thomkins' Secrets of the Great Pyramid about how the Grand Gallery with its notches along the sides was almost certainly structured so as to be used to make an unprecedentedly detailed star-map of one important swath of the heavens, then the pyramid completed so that no-one else could again use it to do the same. Ha! (selfish bastards)

 

[Tryska]

interesting. i think i would attribute any astronomical "coincedences" to the Masons tho, and not necessarily the Church itself.

 

[Abrac]

"From about the time of the unwisely censured Galileo, Catholic Cathedrals in Bolgna, Florence, Paris and Rome were built to function as solar observatories. No more precise instruments for the sun's apparent motion could be found anywhere....."

It wouldn't really surprise me if this were true.

-fof

 

[Fulgour]

The surprising thing about Solar Observations is that
anyone can make them any day, for the whole year.
You just keep the Solstices in mind and point across
the sky ~ a walking stick helps... and it's seasonally
as accurate as having a 'window' to look through.

 

[Ross G Caldwell]

"From about the time of the unwisely censured Galileo, Catholic Cathedrals in Bolgna, Florence, Paris and Rome were built to function as solar observatories. No more precise instruments for the sun's apparent motion could be found anywhere....."

And several other cities...
http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/teaching/heilbron.html

I have seen the Meridian lines in St. Petronio, Bologna; Santa Maria degli Angeli, Rome; Duomo, Milan; and St. Sulpice, Paris. The Churches were used to make these long lines because the of the contrast between darkness and light in the interior, which could focus the sun's image sharply when pinpointed through a high window.

JMD is right that the Churches weren't "built to function" as solar observatories - they were built to function as places of worship, and were *adapted* as solar observatories when astronomical theory began its great shift in the late sixteenth century.

The list above gives a clear idea of the dates.