A brief history of the Vatican meteorite collection

Abstract

The Vatican meteorite collection, one of the largest in the world, is based on the 19th century collection of Adrien-Charles, the Marquis de Mauroy, which was donated to the Vatican in three parts, by the Marquis in 1907 and 1912, and by his widow in 1935. Supplemented since then by further donations and trades, it contains more than 1000 pieces representing nearly 500 different meteorite falls. It is curated today at the Specola Vaticana, the Vatican Observatory, located in the Papal Summer Home at Castel Gandolfo, Italy. The collection has played a role in the long history of Papal support for astronomy, going back to the 1582 Gregorian Reform of the Calendar and continuing today with the Observatory's activities in connection with spacecraft missions to the planets. © The Geological Society of London 2006.