La Città del Sole

The catalogue of the exhibition at Palazzo Barberini in Rome La Città del Sole. Arte barocca e pensiero scientifico nella Roma di Urbano VIII brings to the public's attention the multiform cultural richness of the century of the Scientific Revolution and the Baroque through works of art, personalities, instruments and ideas destined to profoundly change European civilisation, right up to the present day.

This story, marked by the publication of Galileo Galilei's Saggiatore in the same year as the election of Urban VIII to the papal throne, is articulated through testimonies from the most significant centres of scientific production in Rome at the time and offers the reader the opportunity to move through that field of intellectual experimentation that was significantly expanding in those very years between art, architecture and science: from the infinitely wide perspective of Galileo's astronomy to the infinitely small one of microscopic observation.

Portraits, sculptures, books, drawings, instruments, and reconstructions make up the varied exhibition, which is declined with scientific rigour even if it is intended for the large audience of enthusiasts,  students and tourists.