 From the seventeenth century onward, Galileo has been seen by many as the “hero” of modern science. He is renowned for his discoveries: he was the first to report telescopic observations of the mountains on the moon, the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the rings of Saturn. He invented an early microscope and a predecessor to the thermometer. In mathematical physics—a discipline he helped create—he calculated the law of free fall, conceived of an inertial principle, determined the parabolic trajectory of projectiles, and advocated the relativity of motion. He is thought to be the first “real” experimental scientist, who dropped stones from towers and ships’ masts, and played with magnets, clocks, and pendulums (noting the isochrony of the latter). Much of his cultural stature also arises from his advocacy and popularization of Copernicanism and the resulting condemnation by the Catholic Inquisition, which has made him a purported “martyr” to the cause of rationality and enlightened modernity in the subsequent history of a supposed “warfare” between science and religion. This is no small set of accomplishments for one seventeenth-century Italian, who was the son of a court musician and who left the University of Pisa without a degree.