After the millennium, Clermont celebrates Cassini. In 2025, we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Jean-Dominique Cassini. And for the occasion, the central urban area of the Oise department is preparing a full-year program in tribute to the Italian astronomer.
For what ? Because the tutelary figure of Cassini and his descendants, over four generations, remains inseparable from the city of Clermont. A street in the city center is named after him. There is a Cassini high school. Portraits of the four main Cassinis hang in the town hall. Not to mention a statue of Cassini I, still in the town hall and a bust of Cassini III a few hundred meters away.
He had to give “a helping hand”
“Colbert (minister of Louis “He asked her to help out at the observatory.”
Eventually, the astronomer extended his stay in the kingdom of France. “Cassini 1st married Geneviève Delaistre, daughter of the lieutenant general of the bailiwick of Clermont,” recalls Emmanuel Bellanger, from the town hall. The scholar also acquired land in Thury-sous-Clermont, including the Château de Fillerval.
What family
Since then, a dynasty of scientists has been created, with cartographers, entomologists, botanists, physicists and mathematicians. As well as men of letters in their spare time. Until Cassini IV, who bequeathed several family documents to Clermont.
The city cultivates this link with the Cassini. She, among other things, acquired a rare edition – 200 copies – of Cassini’s Maps, published from a collection that belonged to Queen Marie-Antoinette.
On the program:
The events planned for this year Cassini begin this January. In particular with a conference on the life of Cassini I, by Gilles Sautot, president of Sciences and culture in Picardy. It will take place on Friday January 31 at the Château de Fillerval, in Thury. (on registration)
Added to this is the reading night on Saturday January 25, with the launch of an investigation novel: Cassini’s map has disappeared. Or even an escape game, based on IGN maps.
But also…
To this will be added visits to the Thury observatory, conference cycles, actions with young people. Other highlights: an exhibition from April 25 to June 15 in the town hall, a planetarium installed in this same monument.
Or a meeting of old astronomical instruments in May in the Pommery room. Plus a theatrical performance, concerts in June. The Summer in Clermont program should also include Cassini in its program. In the fall, the organizers are planning, among other things, a Cassini theme during the amateur artists’ show, or even a nighttime show in November.
No link…
To set up Cassini this year, elected officials and managers of Clermont have set up numerous partnerships. In particular with the Paris observatory, the Maritime Museum, the IGN, the Oise museum and the Thury-sous-Clermont observatory.
As surprising as it may seem, there is no connection between the gigantic device and Cassini 1st. The device was created in this village in the first half of the 20th century. This does not prevent a tenacious association, in people’s minds, with the astronomer from Clermontois.
