The Universe documents a celebration (winter 2000 through spring 2001) intended to mark twelve centuries of humanity's artistic and scientific description of the galactic system in which we live. Co-organized by eight institutions in Southern California, including the Huntington Library, Norton Simon Museum, Southwest Chamber Music, California Institute of Technology, Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design, New Pasadena Gallery, and Pacific Asia Museum, the exhibitions and events documented in this full-color volume present a huge range of stunning images, from ninth-century European illuminated manuscripts and Renaissance books to the great astronomical photographs of the last 160 years, including images from the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Bringing the theme up to the present day, the book includes work by foremost contemporary American artists including Robert Rauschenberg and Rockne Krebs, specially commissioned for the occasion. Little-known archival materials include photographs from the collections of astronomers Edwin Hubble and George Ellery Hale (who initiated Palomar Observatory), rare books by Galileo, and metal celestial spheres, as well as European Old Master paintings and Asian representations of the universe.

Essays by prominent historians of science and members of the curatorial team are marked by an interdisciplinary approach reflecting the origins of cosmological thought and the integrated relationship between art and science that existed at earlier moments in history. These explore the development of cosmology, the medieval quadrivium, Asian creation myths, the history of astronomical photography, cosmic symbols in twentieth-century art, and the development of technology for space exploration.