Introduction to the Special Issue for the INSAP Conference

It is a pleasure for me to present this publication and to provide the following few paragraphs to explain its origins, and to express the hope that these papers represent only the beginning of a continuing dialogue between astrophysics and the arts.
In June 1994 the Vatican Observatory was delighted to host a meeting on The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena. Although the Observatory is strictly speaking a scientific research institute dedicated to astrophysical and cosmological research, we have for the past decade also ventured into areas of interdisciplinary interest, especially those which derive from the sciences, philosophy and theology. The meeting mentioned above, however, was the first time that the Observatory entered into organized dialogue with the arts, literature and history. The eighty attendees at the meeting ranged from astronomers through historians and anthropologists to artists and musicians. The meeting was frankly an experiment in dialogue and it has been the inspiration of this publication which is intended be a visible monument to our desire for continued conversations with the world of the arts.

These new ventures of the Observatory are actually deeply rooted in the Observatory's traditions. In fact, the origins of astronomy in the Vatican are closely linked to the so-called "Tower of the Winds," which rises above the Vatican Museums. It was there that a meridian, constructed by the Dominican, Ignazio Danti, was used to convince Pope Gregory XIII of the need to reform the Julian calendar. Danti also had painted on the four walls of the meridian room beautiful frescoes which depict the four winds. In fact, it is from a small hole in the mouth of the south wind that the ray of sunlight enters to fall upon the meridian. Thus the first astronomical observatory in the Vatican (although it consisted only of a meridian), was intimately linked to the visual arts.

With such traditions and this publication to guide us, it is my fond hope that we can continue to nourish this fruitful dialogue between the arts and the sciences.

George V. Coyne, S.J., Ph.D.
Director, Vatican Observatory
Tucson, Arizona
12 February 1995

Links to Other Pages
Go to the INSAP homepage
Go to the First INSAP Conference page
Go to the Second INSAP Conference page
Go to introductory note and welcome by G.V. Coyne, S.J.
Go to Introduction, by R.M. Sinclair
Go to "Table of Contents" for Vistas in Astronomy 39(4)
Go to Amy Sandback's Prologue to the Leonardo papers
Go to "Table of Contents" for Leonardo 29(2)
Go to an album of photos taken during the First Conference

This page modified on: 25 March 2007