IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB320428943

Medieval Round Churches and the Shape of the Earth (2015)

Erling Haagensen (Author)
Niels C. Lind (Author)

Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 106
Issue: 4
Pages: 825-834

URI: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/684766

DOI: 10.1086/684766

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Geometry Church history Christianity Building construction Earth (planet) Astronomy Measurement Architecture Measuring instruments Medieval Europe

There is a unique cluster of four medieval round churches, linked by a simple geometry, on Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea. Why so many and why so close together? Immediate simple answers are “Just by chance” and “For no reason.” Why are the churches round? “Defense.” This essay proposes another hypothesis for this unique situation: the churches are astronomical observatories, meant to solve a scientific problem (Is the Earth really spherical?) and a practical problem (How far is it to sail west to the Orient?). The capacity and desire to find answers, together with other practical needs related to astronomy, can better explain these round churches’ special architecture. The geometry that connects them fits the ideal pattern with an angular accuracy of 1 minute of a degree. The round churches may be the earliest astronomical observatories in Christian Europe; other hypotheses have been shown to be untenable. Their location provides for a good method to estimate the Earth’s extent in the east–west direction, seemingly the earliest such measurements.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB320428943/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article C. Philipp E. Nothaft; (2020)
A Medieval European Value for the Circumference of the Earth (/isis/citation/CBB582779972/)

Article Maitane Urrutia-Aparicio; A. César González-García; Juan Antonio Belmonte; (2021)
East or Easter? Keys to the orientation of Romanesque churches along the Way of Saint James (/isis/citation/CBB338337112/)

Chapter Zenner, Marie-Thérèse; (2002)
Imaging a Building: Latin Euclid and Practical Geometry (/isis/citation/CBB000350352/)

Book Giovanni Coppola; (2022)
L'edilizia nel Medioevo (/isis/citation/CBB829859310/)

Book Hiscock, Nigel; (2007)
The Symbol at Your Door: Number and Geometry in Religious Architecture of the Greek and Latin Middle Ages (/isis/citation/CBB000774599/)

Article Mozaffari, S. Mohammad; (2013)
Limitations of Methods: The Accuracy of the Values Measured for the Earth's/Sun's Orbital Elements in the Middle East, A.D. 800--1500, Part 1 (/isis/citation/CBB001200864/)

Article Themis G. Dallas; (2018)
On the Orientation of Early Christian Churches in Præfectura Illyricum (/isis/citation/CBB967427242/)

Article Anne Teather; Andrew Chamberlain; Mike Parker Pearson; (2019)
The Chalk Drums from Folkton and Lavant: Measuring Devices from the Time of Stonehenge (/isis/citation/CBB041422172/)

Chapter Rowe, Tamsin; (2010)
“Bless, O Lord, This Fruit of the New Trees”: Liturgy and Nature in England in the Central Middle Ages (/isis/citation/CBB001033029/)

Article Phillip J. Wolfram; Wayne F. Lorenz; (2016)
Longstanding Design: Roman Engineering of Aqueduct Arcades (/isis/citation/CBB104482426/)

Book Huerta, Santiago; (2004)
Arcos, bóvedas y cúpulas: geometría y equilibrio en el cálculo tradicional de estructuras de fábrica (/isis/citation/CBB000770192/)

Essay Review Grant, Edward; (2011)
The Middle Ages and Modern Science (/isis/citation/CBB001566747/)

Book Violaine Giacomotto-Charra; Sylvie Nony; (2021)
La Terre plate: Généalogie d'une idée fausse (/isis/citation/CBB619051418/)

Article Valerie Allen; (2022)
To Measure Is to Feel: The Mathematics of Middle English Metric Relics (/isis/citation/CBB939455952/)

Book Enrico Giannetto; Giulia Giannini; (2009)
Da Archimede a Majorana: la fisica nel suo divenire (/isis/citation/CBB945473809/)

Chapter Mauro Pesce; (2019)
La lettera di Galileo a Cristina e la certezza culturale della Bibbia (/isis/citation/CBB236679562/)

Article Walton, Steven A.; Boothby, Thomas; (2014)
What Is Straight Cannot Fall: Gothic Architecture, Scholasticism, and Dynamics (/isis/citation/CBB001551590/)

Chapter George V. Coyne; (2019)
Dov'e finito il cielo? Galileo e la nascita della scienza moderna (/isis/citation/CBB400820189/)

Chapter Danilo Capecchi; (2009)
Le origini della scienza delle costruzioni (/isis/citation/CBB924410609/)

Book Gunthild Peters; (2018)
Zwei Gulden vom Fuder Mathematik der Fassmessung und praktisches Visierwissen im 15. Jahrhundert (/isis/citation/CBB692507153/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}