Verhouding Aarde tot de Zon 1706

Sébastien Leclerc I created this print, "Verhouding Aarde tot de Zon," with etching. It depicts the Earth and Sun within geometrical figures. Produced in the Dutch Republic, a centre for scientific innovation, it's an attempt to make cosmic knowledge legible. You see the earth’s orbit around the sun, a heliocentric model gaining traction in the scientific community. Yet, the print exists amidst the complex politics of imagery. The Catholic Church, a major patron of the arts and science, still propagated a geocentric model. Consider then, the public role of such an image. Is Leclerc disseminating knowledge, or engaging in scientific debate? Understanding its meaning involves looking at how institutions like the Dutch Republic's universities fostered empirical observation. By consulting period scientific texts and social studies of 17th-century science, we reveal the print as a flashpoint in the era’s shifting understanding of our place in the universe.