After my September trip, I shared this picture of a really phenomenal clock in a cathedral in Strasburg, France. You may remember that the large gold framed circle in the upper middle depicted the solar system. I know construction of the church started in the 1400s and that, at some point, they changed the depiction of the solar system to show the sun as the center rather than the earth. Now, thanks to my page-a-day trivia calendar, I know a little more about when that happened. In 1543 Polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus published his groundbreaking (and probably back-breaking) astronomical work "Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of Heavenly Orbs" which correctly theorized that Earth and the other planets of our solar system revolve around the sun. Now, I'm not suggesting that the clock was changed right away in 1543. I have to figure that churches then, even cathedrals, functioned much like churches today, which means that the big change to the clock was no doubt preceded by lots of committee meetings. Wouldn't it be interesting to read the minutes of those meetings? I'm willing to bet they are preserved somewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment