The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of Nine Popes

by Sabino S.J. Maffeo

The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of Nine Popes records the history of the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana). It was originally published in 1991 on the occasion of the one-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the observatory by Pope Leo XIII. This revised edition brings together many facts hidden in archival material, correspondence, previous publications on the observatory's history, as well as fresh material derived from interviews. Of particular interest is new research on the difficult period in the observatory's history as it moved from an institute struggling to establish research programs to a true astronomical observatory. The volume presents the most complete written history of the Vatican Observatory.

429 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

Reviews

[Michal Paszkiewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised by the amount of information I was gaining from every page. Full of interesting facts that you wouldn't have heard of before, because you had never read this book and most other books don't mention the Vatican Observatory. I liked the fact that many of the documents were presented at the end of the book, as it was particularly interesting to see how various people in the Holy See have communicated over the past century. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in physics, astronomy and/or the relationship between science and religion.