The programme includes a special display of the original 1647 edition of Selenographia - Hevelius’s groundbreaking map of the Moon - and a musical improvisation inspired by Selenographia, performed by the celebrated Polish pianist Marcin Masecki. It also features lectures, talks, workshops, and family activities.
This Hevelius celebration is part of the Oxford Science and Ideas Festival and is presented in collaboration with the Oxford Polish Association, the Polish Cultural Institute in London, and the Warsaw-based Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Hevelius was born in the Baltic port of Gdańsk in 1611, into a German-speaking family of wealthy brewing merchants of Bohemian origin, but considered himself part of the Polish world.
After studying in the Netherlands, he returned to Gdańsk and built an observatory on the roofs of his three connected houses.
It was visited by members of the Polish royalty and the English astronomer Edmund Halley, who came as an emissary of the Royal Society in London, of which Hevelius became a member in 1664.
Known as the founder of lunar topography, Hevelius compiled an atlas of the Moon and created a catalogue of over 1,500 stars. He also constructed several innovative astronomical instruments.
Hevelius died in Gdańsk in 1687, on his 76th birthday.
(mk/mp)