The Universe: A Convergence of Art, Music, and Science

This title documents a celebration intended to mark 12 centuries of humanity's artistic and scientific description of the galactic system which we inhabit. This illustrated volume presents a huge range of images, from ninth-century European illuminated manuscripts and Renaissance books to the great astronomical photographs taken since 1840, including images from the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Bringing the theme up to the present day, the book includes work by foremost contemporary American artists including Robert Rauschenberg and Rockne Krebs, specially commissioned for the occasion. Little-known archival materials include photographs from the collections of astronomers Edwin Hubble and George Ellery Hale (who initiated Palomar Observatory), rare books by Galileo, and metal celestial spheres, as well as European Old Master paintings and Asian representations of the universe. Written by prominent historians of science and other specialists, the essays are interdisciplinary, reflecting the integrated relationship that existed between art and science at earlier moments in history. They explore the development of cosmology, the medieval quadrivium, Asian creation myths, the history of astronomical photography, cosmic symbols in 20th-century art and the development of technology for space exploration.