Backblip: Meridian Line

Two days ago we visited the Basilica di San Petronio in Bologna. Inside was the 60 metre meridian line designed in 1665 by Goovanni Domenico Cassini, after whom the Cassini space probe is named. And this afternoon, another meridian line, this time in the beautiful Basilica di Santa Maria Novella. In the extra - light enters that little hole above the rose window each day, tracing the days of the year along the line. Although because of the motion of the Earth and the Sun, the light does not follow the anticipated straight line.

Another extra - the Ptolemaic Planetarium fresco in the Basilica of San Lorenzo. There is much debate about its significance. One theory is that the specific “star map” represented commemorates the meeting of the Council of Florence in 1439, an unsuccessful attempt to heal the 1054 rupture between the Greek and Roman churches.

And ….. our tour guide is a huge fan of Anna Maria Luisa de Medici, the last lineal descendent of the main branch of the Medici family (many of them have tombs in San Lorenzo). The Grand Duchy of Tuscany passed over to the Lorraine branch of the Hapsburgs, but she got them to sign a “Family Pact”. This insisted that all the Medici possessions and collections in Florence stayed in Florence for the delight and enjoyment of the Florentines. Without that pact things would have been broken up and sold off, her forethought is why Florence remains the great Renaissance city.