The Paris Observatory

The artwork

At the bottom, those lines stretched towards the Moon are telescopes without a tube: the lens sat on top of a pole or a wooden tower, and the astronomer, down on the grass, held the eyepiece in his hand. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The Paris Observatory in three views, with telescopes aimed at the Moon.
• Above a desk or beside a telescope it brings the sky into the study.
• A gift for anyone who watches the stars or has roots in Liguria.

The man aiming them came from Liguria: Giovanni Domenico Cassini, born in 1625 in Perinaldo, above Sanremo. He was teaching astronomy in Bologna when, in 1669, Colbert called him to Paris, with the Pope's reluctant consent, and he stayed in Paris until his death in 1712. From here he discovered four moons of Saturn, two of them in 1684 with telescopes of exactly this kind, and the gap in the rings that bears his name. To hold the longest lenses, in 1685 he had a wooden tower, built for the Marly Machine, brought to the Observatory. After him the Observatory stayed with the Cassinis for three generations, yet the official title of director only arrived in 1771, for his grandson.

Above are the “Veue septentrionale” and the “Fasade meridionale” of Claude Perrault's building, laid out on 21 June 1667 right on the Paris meridian; below, the night scene. The plate dates from 1705 and belongs to the Atlas Curieux of Nicolas de Fer, geographer to the Dauphin, who sold his maps on the Île de la Cité at the sign of the Sphère Royale: an atlas whose title promises the heavens and the earth. The engraver, Antoine Coquart, signed at the bottom right. The original of this print is part of the David Rumsey Map Collection.

Next to a home telescope or above a desk, it is a gift for anyone who spends nights looking at the sky and for anyone with roots in Liguria. Down on the grass, someone is still holding the line trained on the Moon.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass