Papal document- 1600 words
- Level: university
De Vaticana Specula Astronomica Restituenda Et Amplificanda, issued by Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903; elected Pope, 1878) in 1891, is the founding document of the Vatican Observatory. Pope Leo writes:
Among all of these [natural] studies astronomy holds a preeminent position. It proposes to investigate those inanimate creatures which more than all others proclaim the glory of God and which gave marvelous delight to the wisest of beings, the one who exulted in his divinely inspired knowledge, especially of the yearly cycles and of the positions of the heavenly bodies (Wisdom VII.19).
Click here for the original Latin text, published in 1894 (from Google Books).
Click here for English translation from the Vatican Observatory web site.
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De Vaticana Specula Astronomica Restituenda Et Amplificanda
