Arjen Dijkstra

There are quite a few awe-inspiring museums in the world. The Louvre, the Hermitage and the Rijksmuseum are the most famous. However, I want to add the Franeker Planetarium to that list. Preserved almost exactly as it was built in the second half of the 1700s, the working model of the planets stands as a testament to a wool processor and amateur astronomer Eise Eisinga.

The story is wonderfully told by Arjen Dijkstra in this book De Hemelbouwer (lit. The Heaven Builder). It's in Dutch, and written not as an academic work but carefully presented as a book for anyone to read.

The story is in a few parts: Eisinga's birth into the world of wool-combing (actually, that including buying, and processing through it it being ready for spinning), his interest in astronomy, his building of his planetarium in his home and its relation to public anxiety on what the alignment of the planets meant for the world, his involvement in politics and eventual exile to Germany, the Napoleonic wars, the rise and fall of the Franeker University, and Eisinga's later life and his status in The Netherlands.

Thanks to my brother for giving me a copy. We visited the museum some 20 years ago, and I have been back twice since than. A long way to go for an Australian, but well worth it.… (mehr)