Oxford’s Savilian Professors of Astronomy

The Savilian Professorships in Astronomy and Geometry at Oxford University were founded in 1619 by Sir Henry Savile, distinguished scholar and Warden of Merton College. The Astronomy professorship, in particular, is the earliest University-based chair of astronomy in England, predating the earliest Cambridge equivalent by about sixty years.

Written by renowned astronomers and historians of science, this accessible and lavishly illustrated book outlines the first 400 years of Oxford's Savilian Professors of Astronomy.

Starting with John Bainbridge, Seth Ward, and Christopher Wren, this volume proceeds via such major figures as David Gregory, James Bradley, and Thomas Hornsby, to the 19th- and 20th-century figures of Stephen Rigaud, Charles Pritchard, and Herbert Hall Turner, concluding with the most recent professor, Steven Balbus, one of the editors of this book.

This volume assumes no technical background in astronomy, and should therefore appeal to the general reader with an interest in astronomy and related sciences. It should also be of interest to anyone interested in the history of astronomy or in the development of Oxford and its University. To all of these audiences it offers portraits of astronomers at work and an accessible exposition of astronomy's history in the context of its times.