Who were Galileo's contemporaries?
Italian literature
Whilst the political and social conditions in Italy in the 17th century made it appear that every light of intelligence was extinguished, some strong and independent thinkers, such as Bernardino Telesio, Lucilio Vanini, Bruno and Campanella turned philosophical inquiry into fresh channels, and opened the way for the scientific conquests of Galileo Galilei, the great contemporary of René Descartes in France and of Francis Bacon in England. Galileo was not only a great man of science, but also occupied a conspicuous place in the history of letters. A devoted student of Ariosto, he seemed to transfuse into his prose the qualities of that great poet: clear and frank freedom of expression, precision and ease, and at the same time elegance. Galileo's prose is in perfect antithesis to the poetry of his time and is regarded by some as the best prose that Italy has ever had.
Orazio Grassi
Orazio Grassi, S.J. (b. Savona 1 May 1583 – d. Rome 23 July 1654), was an Italian Jesuit priest, who is best noted as a mathematician, astronomer and architect. He was one of the authors in controversy with Galileo Galilei on the nature of comets. His writings against Galileo were published under the pseudonym "Sarsi".
Galileo Galilei (opera)
In addition to depicting Galileo's trials before the Inquisition, the opera also allows us a glance into Galileo's more personal side. Namely, in showing us his relationship to his daughter Maria Celeste, who was a nun. Maria Celeste shared her father's love of learning and science, but also understood that he was a man of great faith. She recognized that science was the very subject that served to deepen his faith, and she encouraged him on this path. The two met rarely. They were separated not only by distance, but by Galileo's often ailing health. Sadly, they were ultimately separated by her death at the age of 33, a source of incredible sadness for Galileo. However, their connection in this opera serves to give his story a more personal rendering. The story itself is told backwards through time. It begins with an aged Galileo, blinded from having looked at the sun too often and ends with him as a child. This is related to his invention of the telescope, which works by reversing images with lenses. Much of the staging in this production is representative of Galileo's theories and follows the patterns of the discoveries, planets, and constellations that his inventions made known to the world.
Starry Messenger (picture book)
"Starry Messenger" written and illustrated by Peter Sis documents the life of the acclaimed scientist Galileo Galilei. Told from third person point of view and dating back to his birth, Sis walks the reader through the events that shape the life of the recognized scientist, mathematician, philosopher, and physicist, Galileo Galilei. The book opens with a prelude, with careful illustrations, Peter Sis sets the stage for the story by laying the groundwork of what the world was like during Galileo’s era; scientifically, and religiously. He introduces the reader to the then accepted ideology of the Ptolemaic System, which stated that the earth was the center of the solar system. Sis describes Galileo as a boy “born with stars in his eyes”, this metaphor will run throughout the length of the story connecting prominent events that occur within Galileo’s life, including life as a child, a scholar, and later a scientist. Inter sped with Sis’s original illustrations are excerpts of Galileo’s actual drawings and excerpts of his “Starry Messenger” which documents Galileo’s astronomical discoveries and observations especially the (Copernican theory which got him trouble with the Vatican Church. From being celebrated for his other astronomical discoveries to the controversial Copernican theory, Peter Sis documents these events with intricate illustrations that vividly resemble Galileo's own, adding depth to the story that critics have praised him for. The peak of the story occurs when Galileo's Copernican Theory reaches the Pope, and Galileo is viewed in negative light and criticism. Upon Galileo's summoning to the Vatican Church, he was forced to retract his earlier statements that contradicted with the ideologies of the Vatican Church regarding the placement of the Earth, or risk death. Galileo chose to retract his statements and was confined to house arrest for eight years before his death in 1642. The book ends on a positive note when Sis writes about the Pardon that was issued to Galileo more than three hundred years later in October 1992.
Galileo Galilei
In 1612, having determined the orbital periods of Jupiter's satellites, Galileo proposed that with sufficiently accurate knowledge of their orbits, one could use their positions as a universal clock, and this would make possible the determination of longitude. He worked on this problem from time to time during the remainder of his life, but the practical problems were severe. The method was first successfully applied by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1681 and was later used extensively for large land surveys; this method, for example, was used to survey France, and later by Zebulon Pike of the midwestern United States in 1806. For sea navigation, where delicate telescopic observations were more difficult, the longitude problem eventually required development of a practical portable marine chronometer, such as that of John Harrison. Late in his life, when totally blind, Galileo designed an escapement mechanism for a pendulum clock (called Galileo's escapement), although no clock using this was built until after the first fully operational pendulum clock was made by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s.
Science and technology in Italy
The scientist Galileo Galilei is called the first modern scientist. His work constitutes a significant break from that of Aristotle and medieval philosophers and scientists (who were then referred to as "natural philosophers"). Galileo’s achievements include improvements to the telescope, various astronomical observations, and initial formulation of the first and second laws of motion. Galileo was suppressed by the Catholic Church, but was a founder of modern science.
Exploration of Io
The first recorded observation of Io was made by Tuscan astronomer Galileo Galilei on January 7, 1610 using a 20x-power, refracting telescope at the University of Padua in the Republic of Venice. The discovery was made possible by the invention of the telescope in the Netherlands a little more than a year earlier and by Galileo's innovations to improve the magnification of the new instrument. During his observation of Jupiter on the evening of January 7, Galileo spotted two stars to the east of Jupiter and another one to the west. Jupiter and these three stars appeared to be in a line parallel to the ecliptic. The star furthest to the east from Jupiter turned out to be Callisto while the star to the west of Jupiter was Ganymede. The third star, the closest one to the east of Jupiter, was a combination of the light from Io and Europa as Galileo's telescope, while having a high magnification for a telescope from his time, was too low-powered to separate the two moons into distinct points of light. Galileo observed Jupiter the next evening, January 8, 1610, this time seeing three stars to the west of Jupiter, suggesting that Jupiter had moved to the west of the three stars. During this observation, the three stars in a line to the west of Jupiter were (from east to west): Io, Europa, and Ganymede. This was the first time that Io and Europa were observed and recorded as distinct points of light so this date, January 8, 1610 is used as the discovery date for the two moons by the International Astronomical Union. Galileo continued to observe the Jupiter system for the next month and a half. On January 13, Galileo observed all four of what would later be known as the Galilean moons of Jupiter for the first time in a single observation, though he had observed all four at various times in the preceding days. On January 15, he observed the motions of three of these satellites, including Io, and came to the conclusions that these objects were not background stars, but were in fact, "three stars in the heavens moving about Jupiter, as Venus and Mercury round the Sun." These were the first moons of a planet other than the Earth to be discovered.
The discoveries of Io and the other Galilean satellites of Jupiter were published in Galileo's "Sidereus Nuncius" in March 1610. While the Jovian moons he discovered would later be known as the Galilean satellites, after himself, he proposed the name "Medicea Sidera" (Medicean Stars) after his new patrons, the de'Medici family of his native Florence. Initially, he proposed the name "Cosmica Sidera" (Cosmic Stars), after the head of the family, Cosimo II de'Medici, however both Cosimo and Galileo decided on the change to honor the family as a whole. However, Galileo did not name each of the four moons individually beyond a numerical system in which Io was referred to as Jupiter I. By December 1610, thanks to the publication of "Sidereus Nuncius", the news of Galileo's discovery had spread throughout Europe. With high-powered telescopes like Galileo's becoming more available, other astronomers, such as Thomas Harriot in England, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc and Joseph Gaultier de la Vallette in France, Johannes Kepler in Bavaria, and Christopher Clavius in Rome, were able to observe Io and the other Medicean Stars during fall and winter of 1610–1611.
Galileo Galilei
Interest in the Galileo affair was revived in the early 19th century, when Protestant polemicists used it (and other events such as the Spanish Inquisition and the myth of the flat Earth) to attack Roman Catholicism. Interest in it has waxed and waned ever since. In 1939, Pope Pius XII, in his first speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, within a few months of his election to the papacy, described Galileo as being among the "most audacious heroes of research... not afraid of the stumbling blocks and the risks on the way, nor fearful of the funereal monuments". His close advisor of 40 years, Professor Robert Leiber, wrote: "Pius XII was very careful not to close any doors (to science) prematurely. He was energetic on this point and regretted that in the case of Galileo."
Galileo Galilei
In 1609, Galileo was, along with Englishman Thomas Harriot and others, among the first to use a refracting telescope as an instrument to observe stars, planets or moons. The name "telescope" was coined for Galileo's instrument by a Greek mathematician, Giovanni Demisiani, at a banquet held in 1611 by Prince Federico Cesi to make Galileo a member of his Accademia dei Lincei. The name was derived from the Greek "tele" = 'far' and "skopein" = 'to look or see'. In 1610, he used a telescope at close range to magnify the parts of insects. By 1624, Galileo had used a compound microscope. He gave one of these instruments to Cardinal Zollern in May of that year for presentation to the Duke of Bavaria, and in September, he sent another to Prince Cesi. The Linceans played a role again in naming the "microscope" a year later when fellow academy member Giovanni Faber coined the word for Galileo's invention from the Greek words "μικρόν" ("micron") meaning "small", and "σκοπεῖν" ("skopein") meaning "to look at". The word was meant to be analogous with "telescope". Illustrations of insects made using one of Galileo's microscopes and published in 1625, appear to have been the first clear documentation of the use of a compound microscope.
History of experiments
Other than Galileo, not many people of his day were able to accurately measure short time periods, such as the fall time of an object. Galileo accurately measured these short periods of time by creating a pulsilogon. This was a machine created to measure time using a pendulum. The pendulum was synchronized to the human pulse. He used this to measure the time at which the weighted balls passed marks that he had made on the inclined plane. He measured to find that balls of different weights reached the bottom of the inclined plane at the same time and that the distance traveled was proportional to the square of the elapsed time. Later scientists summarized Galileo's results as The Equation of Falling Bodies.
Infinity (philosophy)
Galileo Galilei (February 1564 - January 1642 ) discussed the example of comparing the square numbers {1, 4, 9, 16, ...} with the natural numbers {1, 2, 3, 4, ...} as follows:
Florence
Galileo and other scientists pioneered the study of optics, ballistics, astronomy, anatomy, and so on. Pico della Mirandola, Leonardo Bruni, Machiavelli, and many others laid the groundwork for our understanding of science.
Galileo (spacecraft)
Investigators and researchers came from the following institutions, and included famous scientists such as Carl Sagan and James Van Allen.Builders:
Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Ferdinand, like Christina before him, was a patron, ally, and friend of Galileo Galilei. Galileo dedicated his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems to him. This work led to Galileo's second set of hearings before the Inquisition. Ferdinand attempted to keep the concerns of the Holy See from leading to a full-fledged hearing and kept Galileo in Florence until December 1632, when the Roman Inquisitors finally threatened to bring Galileo to Rome in chains if he would not come voluntarily. In June 1633, the Roman Inquisition convicted the astronomer for "vehement suspicion of heresy" and sentenced him to imprisonment for life. After this was commuted to house arrest, the devoutly Catholic Ferdinand welcomed Galileo back to Florence.
Niccolò Cabeo
Cabeo's second publication was a commentary on Aristotle's "Meteorology". In this work, he carefully examined a number of ideas proposed by Galileo Galilei, including the motion of the earth and the law of falling bodies. Cabeo was opposed to Galileo's theories. Cabeo also discussed the theory of water flow proposed by Galileo's student, Benedetto Castelli. He and Castelli were involved over a dispute in northern Italy about the rerouting of the Reno River. The people of Ferrara were on one side of the dispute and Cabeo was their advocate. Castelli favored the other side of the dispute and was acting as an agent of the Pope, Urban VIII. Cabeo also discussed some ideas about alchemy in this book.
Galileo's Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment
Between 1589–92, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (then professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa) is said to have dropped two spheres of different masses from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to demonstrate that their time of descent was independent of their mass, according to a biography by Galileo's pupil Vincenzo Viviani, composed in 1654 and published in 1717.
History of the telescope
Galileo spent his time to improving the telescope, producing telescopes of increased power. His first telescope had a 3x magnification, but he soon made instruments which magnified 8x and finally, one nearly a meter long with a 37mm objective (which he would stop down to 16mm or 12mm) and a 23x magnification. With this last instrument he began a series of astronomical observations in October or November 1609, discovering the satellites of Jupiter, hills and valleys on the Moon, the phases of Venus and observed spots on the sun (using the projection method rather than direct observation). Galileo noted that the revolution of the satellites of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, rotation of the Sun and the tilted path its spots followed for part of the year pointed to the validity of the sun-centered Copernican system over other Earth-centered systems such as the one proposed by Ptolemy. Galileo's instrument was the first to be given the name "telescope". The name was invented by the Greek poet/theologian Giovanni Demisiani at a banquet held on April 14, 1611 by Prince Federico Cesi to make Galileo Galilei a member of the Accademia dei Lincei. The word was created from the Greek "tele" = 'far' and "skopein" = 'to look or see'; "teleskopos" = 'far-seeing'.
Letter to Benedetto Castelli
On 14 December 1613 Galileo's friend and former pupil Benedetto Castelli wrote to him to say that at a recent dinner in Pisa with the Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici a conversation had taken place in which Cosimo Boscaglia, a professor of philosophy, argued that the motion of the Earth could not be true, as it was contrary to the Bible. Castelli had disagreed with him and maintained, as Galileo held, that the Earth's motion was possible. After the dinner, Castelli had been called back by the Dower Duchess Christina of Tuscany to answer points she raised from scriptural arguments against the motion of the Earth. Castelli had responded and Boscaglia had remained silent. Castelli wished to alert Galileo to this exchange, and advised Galileo that their mutual friend Niccolò Arrighetti would come to Florence and explain matters further. This Arrighetti did.
Christina of Lorraine
Christina and the Medici Court also offered patronage to the philosopher Cosimo Boscaglia. When the court was in Pisa during winter, in December 1613, Galileo's former student Benedetto Castelli was invited to court. At a breakfast attended by Cosimo II, his wife, his mother Christina and Boscaglia the Medicean stars were discussed. These were the four moons of Jupiter Galileo had discovered and named after Cosimo II and his brothers. Boscaglia conceded that these moons were real, and not an illusion produced by the lens of the telescope. But Boscaglia argued that Galileo's interpretation of his discoveries was wrong, mainly because "the motion of the Earth seemed incredible and could not be true, all the more so since Holy Scripture was clearly against this opinion." Christina asked Castelli for his opinion on the matter, not as a mathematician but as a theologian. Castelli responded that with regards to the exact workings of nature, he gave precedence to natural philosophers, and that theologians should in the light of these findings determine the meaning of the Bible. In the letter to Galileo, Castelli stated that Christina criticized heliocentrism, and Galileo did not like this. However, Christina's disagreement was prompted by Boscaglia rather than by her own thought.
Galileo thermometer
Although named after the 16th–17th-century physicist Galileo, the thermometer described in this article was not invented by him. Galileo did invent a thermometer, called Galileo's air thermometer (more accurately termed a thermoscope), in or before 1603. The so-called 'Galileo thermometer' was invented by a group of academics and technicians known as the Accademia del Cimento of Florence, who included Galileo's pupil, Torricelli and Torricelli's pupil Viviani. Details of the thermometer were published in the "Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell'Academia del Cimento sotto la protezione del Serenissimo Principe Leopoldo di Toscana e descritte dal segretario di essa Accademia" (1666), the Academy's main publication. The English translation of this work (1684) describes the device ('The Fifth Thermometer') as 'slow and lazy', a description that is reflected in an alternative Italian name for the invention, the "termometro lento" (slow thermometer). The outer vessel was filled with 'rectified spirits of wine' (a concentrated solution of ethanol in water); the weights of the glass bubbles were adjusted by grinding a small amount of glass from the sealed end; and a small air space was left at the top of the main vessel to allow 'for the Liquor to rarefie' [i.e. expand].
Galileo Galilei
In 1619, Galileo became embroiled in a controversy with Father Orazio Grassi, professor of mathematics at the Jesuit Collegio Romano. It began as a dispute over the nature of comets, but by the time Galileo had published "The Assayer" ("Il Saggiatore") in 1623, his last salvo in the dispute, it had become a much wider controversy over the very nature of science itself. The title page of the book describes Galileo as philosopher and "Matematico Primario" of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Vincentio Reinieri
Vincentio (Vincenzio, Vincenzo) Reinieri (Renieri, Reiner) (March 30, 1606 – November 5, 1647) was an Italian mathematician and astronomer. He was a friend and disciple of Galileo Galilei.
Pendulum
Italian scientist Galileo Galilei was the first to study the properties of pendulums, beginning around 1602. The earliest extant report of his research is contained in a letter to Guido Ubaldo dal Monte, from Padua, dated November 29, 1602. His biographer and student, Vincenzo Viviani, claimed his interest had been sparked around 1582 by the swinging motion of a chandelier in Pisa Cathedral. Galileo discovered the crucial property that makes pendulums useful as timekeepers, called isochronism; the period of the pendulum is approximately independent of the amplitude or width of the swing. He also found that the period is independent of the mass of the bob, and proportional to the square root of the length of the pendulum. He first employed freeswinging pendulums in simple timing applications. His physician friend, Santorio Santorii, invented a device which measured a patient's pulse by the length of a pendulum; the "pulsilogium". In 1641 Galileo conceived and dictated to his son Vincenzo a design for a pendulum clock; Vincenzo began construction, but had not completed it when he died in 1649. The pendulum was the first harmonic oscillator used by man.
Galileo (1975 film)
Galileo is a 1975 biographical film about the 17th century scientist Galileo Galilei, whose astronomical observations with the newly invented telescope led to a profound conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. The film is an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's play of the same name. The film was produced by Ely Landau for the American Film Theatre, which presented thirteen film adaptations of plays in the United States from 1973 to 1975. Brecht's play was recently called a "masterpiece" by veteran theater critic Michael Billington, as Martin Esslin had in 1960. The film's director, Joseph Losey, had also directed the first performances of the play in 1947 in the US — with Brecht's active participation. The film is fairly true to those first performances, and is thus of historical significance as well.
Villa Il Gioiello
Shortly after Galileo moved to Arcetri, he received visits from Ferdinando II de' Medici as well as the painter Giusto Sustermans, who painted a portrait of the famous scientist. Other guests were the Ambassador of the Netherlands (Galileo had printed many of his books in Leiden) and the English poet John Milton. He made frequent visits to the students of Villa Castelli, and the young Vincenzo Viviani and Evangelista Torricelli assisted Galileo until his death.
Giacomo Badoer
Giacomo Badoer (c.1575 – c.1620) was a French-born diplomat, of Venetian parentage, and pupil of Galileo Galilei.
Orazio Grassi
Galileo received a copy of Grassi's lecture and was very angered by it. The notes he scribbled in the margin of his copy are full of insults - 'pezzo d'asinaccio' ('piece of utter stupidity'), 'bufolaccio' ('buffoon'), 'villan poltrone' ('wicked idiot'), 'balordone' ('bumbling idiot'). Galileo responded with his "Discourse on Comets", which was a rebuttal of many of the arguments, advanced by Grassi, but originally made by Tycho Brahe. It suggested that the absence of parallax with comets was due not to their great distance from the Earth, but to their probably being atmospheric effects. Galileo also maintained their paths were straight, rather than circular, as Brahe and Grassi believed. As well as attacking Grassi, the "Discourse" also continued an earlier dispute with another Jesuit, Christoph Scheiner about sunspots.
Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina
Late in 1613, Galileo's former student Benedetto Castelli, a Benedictine monk, wrote to Galileo about the events at a recent dinner with the Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici. In the course of conversation at the dinner Cosimo Boscaglia, a professor of philosophy, argued that the motion of the Earth could not be true, being contrary to the Bible. After dinner ended, Castelli was called back to answer scriptural arguments against the motion of the Earth from Christina. The monk took on the role of theologian in response, and convinced everyone there except the Duchess (whom he thought was arguing mainly to hear his answers) and Boscaglia (who said nothing during this dialogue). Galileo decided to address Christina because of her desire to learn more about astronomy. Christina's position of power would also give the letter more exposure to other nobles and Church leaders.
Galileo Galilei
Galileo was born in Pisa (then part of the Duchy of Florence), Italy, on 15 February 1564, the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei, a famous lutenist, composer, and music theorist, and Giulia (née Ammannati), who had married in 1562. Galileo became an accomplished lutenist himself and would have learned early from his father a scepticism for established authority, the value of well-measured or quantified experimentation, an appreciation for a periodic or musical measure of time or rhythm, as well as the results expected from a combination of mathematics and experiment.
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei (; 15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Galileo has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of the scientific method", and the "father of modern science".
Mass
On 25 August 1609, Galileo Galilei demonstrated his first telescope to a group of Venetian merchants, and in early January 1610, Galileo observed four dim objects near Jupiter, which he mistook for stars. However, after a few days of observation, Galileo realized that these "stars" were in fact orbiting Jupiter. These four objects (later named the Galilean moons in honor of their discoverer) were the first celestial bodies observed to orbit something other than the Earth or Sun. Galileo continued to observe these moons over the next eighteen months, and by the middle of 1611 he had obtained remarkably accurate estimates for their periods.
Galileo Galilei
His observations of the satellites of Jupiter caused a revolution in astronomy: a planet with smaller planets orbiting it did not conform to the principles of Aristotelian cosmology, which held that all heavenly bodies should circle the Earth, and many astronomers and philosophers initially refused to believe that Galileo could have discovered such a thing. His observations were confirmed by the observatory of Christopher Clavius and he received a hero's welcome when he visited Rome in 1611. Galileo continued to observe the satellites over the next eighteen months, and by mid-1611, he had obtained remarkably accurate estimates for their periods—a feat which Kepler had believed impossible.
Cesare Cremonini (philosopher)
At Padua Cremonini was both a rival and a friend of his colleague Galileo. When Galileo announced that he had discovered mountains on the Moon in 1610, he offered Cremonini the chance to observe the evidence through a telescope. Cremonini refused even to look through the telescope and insisted that Aristotle had definitely proved the Moon could only be a perfect sphere. When Galileo decided to move to Tuscany that year, Cremonini warned him that it would bring him under the Inquisition's jurisdiction. Indeed, the next year the Inquisition reviewed Cremonini's case for evidence against Galileo. Years later, in his book "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems", Galileo would include the character Simplicio, a dogmatic Aristotelian philosopher who was partly based on Cremonini.
Giorgio Coresio
Coregio was one of the group described scornfully by Galileo as the 'Pigeon League' of Aristotelian philosophers, associated with Lodovico delle Colombe. Galileo argued for an approach which he described as 'pluming the wings [i.e. of natural philosophy] with the feathers of mathematics, without which it is impossible to rise even an arm's measure above the earth'. Traditional scholars objected to the mixing of mathematics with the established forms of scholarly speculation and argument. Coresio described this approach as one which was 'full of radical change, and represented all things in the universe under different faces'.
Mario Guiducci
Mario Guiducci (Florence 18 March 1583 - Florence 5 November 1646) was an Italian scholar and writer. A friend and colleague of Galileo, he collaborated with him on the "Discourse on Comets" in 1618.
Philippe van Lansberge
Kepler and Galileo, who lived in the same period, were very interested in the work of Lansbergen. Based on his tables, they could predict the movements of the planets more accurately. (citation needed)
Guidobaldo del Monte
He corresponded with several mathematicians including Giacomo Contarini, Francesco Barozzi and Galileo Galilei. His invention of a drafting instrument for constructing regular polygons and dividing a line into any number of segments was incorporated as a feature of Galileo's geometric and military compass.
House of Medici
Although none of the Medici themselves were scientists, the family is well known to have been the patrons of the famous Galileo Galilei, who tutored multiple generations of Medici children and was an important figurehead for his patron's quest for power. Galileo's patronage was eventually abandoned by Ferdinando II, when the Inquisition accused Galileo of heresy. However, the Medici family did afford the scientist a safe haven for many years. Galileo named the four largest moons of Jupiter after four Medici children he tutored, although the names Galileo used are not the names currently used.
Ascanio II Piccolomini
Ascanio was a mathematics pupil of Bonaventura Cavalieri. He hosted Galileo in Siena. According to Dava Sobel, Galileo's ability "to rise from the ashes of his condemnation by the Inquisition" and complete perhaps his most influential book, the Two New Sciences, was "due in large measure to Piccolomini's solicitous kindness".
Tommaso Rinuccini
Rinuccini was an established figure in Florentine cultural life. Among his associates were Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, Carlo Strozzi and Francesco Segaloni. In January 1616 Galileo proposed him for membership of the Accademia dei Lincei, though he never actually joined. He did however join the Accademia Fiorentina, and from 1620-1622 he was a councillor while Galileo was consul; he was himself consul in 1631. On 17 July 1641 he became a member of the Accademia della Crusca (of which his father had also been a member), serving as censor together with Giovanni Battista Doni. As a writer Rinuccini undertook genealogical research into his own family and supervised the publication of "l’Abbozzo di Calendario Istorico Fiorentino Estratto dalla Storia dell’Ammirato e dalla vita del Gran Duca Cosimo del Cini" ("Sketch for a Historical Calendar of Florence, drawn from the History of Ammirato and from the Life of Grand Duke Cosimo by Cini"). He also wrote a pamphlet on the evolution of social customs and court ceremonies in seventeenth century Florence, published as "Le Usanze Fiorentine del Secolo XVII" ("Florentine Customs of the XVIIth Century") (1665).
Scientific Revolution
It is also true that many of the important figures of the Scientific Revolution shared in the general Renaissance respect for ancient learning and cited ancient pedigrees for their innovations. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), Kepler (1571–1630) and Newton (1642–1727), all traced different ancient and medieval ancestries for the heliocentric system. In the Axioms Scholium of his "Principia," Newton said its axiomatic three laws of motion were already accepted by mathematicians such as Huygens (1629–1695), Wallace, Wren and others. While preparing a revised edition of his "Principia", Newton attributed his law of gravity and his to a range of historical figures.
Galileo Galilei
Galileo published a description of sunspots in 1613 entitled "Letters on Sunspots" suggesting the Sun and heavens are corruptible. The "Letters on Sunspots" also reported his 1610 telescopic observations of the full set of phases of Venus, and his discovery of the puzzling "appendages" of Saturn and their even more puzzling subsequent disappearance. In 1615, Galileo prepared a manuscript known as the "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina" which was not published in printed form until 1636. This letter was a revised version of the "Letter to Castelli", which was denounced by the Inquisition as an incursion upon theology by advocating Copernicanism both as physically true and as consistent with Scripture. In 1616, after the order by the inquisition for Galileo not to hold or defend the Copernican position, Galileo wrote the "Discourse on the Tides" ("Discorso sul flusso e il reflusso del mare") based on the Copernican earth, in the form of a private letter to Cardinal Orsini. In 1619, Mario Guiducci, a pupil of Galileo's, published a lecture written largely by Galileo under the title "Discourse on the Comets" ("Discorso Delle Comete"), arguing against the Jesuit interpretation of comets.
Michelagnolo Galilei
Michelagnolo Galilei (sometimes spelled Michelangelo; 18 December 1575 – 3 January 1631) was an Italian composer and lutenist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, active mainly in Bavaria and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was the son of music theorist and lutenist Vincenzo Galilei, and the younger brother of the scientist Galileo Galilei.
Role of Christianity in civilization
In this most famous example cited by critics of the Catholic Church's "posture towards science", Galileo Galilei was denounced in 1633 for his work on the heliocentric model of the solar system, previously proposed by the Polish clergyman and intellectual Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernicus's work had been suppressed de facto by the Church, but Catholic authorities were generally tolerant of discussion of the hypothesis as long as it was portrayed only as a useful mathematical fiction, and not descriptive of reality. Galileo, by contrast, argued from his unprecedented observations of the solar system that the heliocentric system was not merely an abstract model for calculating planetary motions, but actually corresponded to physical reality – that is, he insisted the planets really do orbit the Sun. After years of telescopic observation, consultations with the Popes, and verbal and written discussions with astronomers and clerics, a trial was convened by the Tribunal of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. Galileo was found "vehemently suspect of heresy" (not "guilty of heresy," as is frequently misreported), placed under house arrest, and all of his works, including any future writings, were banned. Galileo had been threatened with torture and other Catholic scientists fell silent on the issue. Galileo's great contemporary René Descartes stopped publishing in France and went to Sweden. According to Polish-British historian of science Jacob Bronowski:
Giovanni Ciampoli
In 1614, after completing his studies, Ciampoli moved to Rome where he took holy orders. He was soon introduced to the circles of the Roman Curia and when Galileo was first investigated in 1615-16, out of consideration for his loyalty to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, kept up regular communication with his friend Galileo about developments within the senior ranks of the Catholic Church. Thereafter, in 1618, thanks to the good offices of Galileo, he was inducted into the Accademia dei Lincei together with his friend Virginio Cesarini.
Cesare Marsili
Marsili's friendship with Galileo and the extensive correspondence between them cast light on the nature of Galileos' work and the activities of the Accademia dei Lincei. Because of his social standing, he was a vital link between Galileo and the political elites in Rome and Bologna. From this correspondence emerges Marsili's passion for experiments and measuring instruments, to which he devoted his own studies and activities. On one occasion, we know that Galileo send him two top-quality telescope lenses, and promised him a telescope in due course.
Accademia della Crusca
The linguistic purism of the Accademia found opposition in Cesare Beccaria and the Verri brothers (Pietro and Alessandro), who through their journal "Il Caffè" systematically attacked the Accademia's archaisms as pedantic, denouncing the Accademia while invoking for contrast no less than the likes of Galileo and Newton and even modern intellectual cosmopolitanism itself. However, since Galileo published his scientific works in his native Florentine Italian, as opposed to the Latin which was customary for academic works of the time, it has also been argued that he implicitly supported the Accademia's purpose.
Sidereus Nuncius
The first astronomer to publicly support Galileo's findings was Johannes Kepler, who published an open letter in April 1610, enthusiastically endorsing Galileo's credibility. It wasn't until August 1610 that Kepler was able to publish his independent confirmation of Galileo's findings, due to the scarcity of sufficiently powerful telescopes.
Volpaia
The name of the Castello di Volpaia was adopted by a Florentine family, which originated in that locality and which in the 15th and 16th centuries produced a series of scholars, artists and makers of clocks, armillary spheres, compasses and other highly intricate instruments. This special branch of precision engineering and mechanics was studiously cultivated in the period before Galileo revolutionized science. The considerable development of the art or science at Florence was due primarily to the Volpaias. The first members of the family to establish enduring reputations were Benvenuto and Lorenzo, who lived in the 15th century. Lorenzo was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci and often gave him advice on technical problems. Lorenzo constructed for the Medicis a planetary clock that is now exhibited in the Palazzo Vecchio. In addition to Benvenuto, he had two other brothers, Eufrosino and Cammillo. A large number of instruments made or used by Camillo's son, Girolamo, have survived.
Olavo de Carvalho
Olavo strongly criticizes several figures who occupy a prominent place in the history of the sciences, such as Isaac Newton, and Giordano Bruno, who according to him "did not make any discoveries... He did not even study modern sciences, physics, astronomy, biology or mathematics, he was not condemned for defending scientific theories, but for practicing witchcraft, which at the time was a crime". , The criticism extends to Galileo, of whom he writes:
A background of charlatanism appears to have already been introduced into physics by Galileo, when he proclaimed that he had overturned the notions of ancient science, according to which an object not propelled by an external force stands still - an illusion of the senses, he said. In fact, he pontificated, an object in such conditions remains stationary or in uniform and rectilinear motion. But, after having thus overthrown the old physics, he discreetly clarified that rectilinear and uniform movement does not really exist, but is a fiction conceived by the mind to facilitate measurements. Now if the object not moved from without stands still or has a fictitious movement, it means, strictly speaking, that it stands still in every case, just as ancient physics said, and that Galileo, by means of a new system of measurements, could only explain why it stands still. That is to say, Galileo did not dispute ancient physics, he merely invented a better way of proving that it was correct, and that the testimony of the senses, being true enough, does not have in itself proof of its veracity, which was well known since the time of Aristotle. It was this episode that inaugurated the craze of modern scientists to take simple changes of methods as if they were "proofs" of a new constitution of reality.
Ferdinando Cesarini
Born in Rome in a noble family. Brother of the better-known Virginio Cesarini (1596–1624) to whom Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) addressed "Il Saggiatore" [The Assayer] (Rome, 1623) in the form of a letter. Ferdinando Cesarini, as a "referendarius utriusque signaturae" and patron, corresponded with Benedetto Castelli (1577/8-1643), who described the Galilean thermoscope to him in a letter of September 20, 1638.
Gae Aulenti
Her contemporaries were Vittorio Gregotti, Giancarlo de Carlo and Aldo Rossi.
Two New Sciences
In the First Day, Galileo addressed topics that were discussed in Aristotle's Physics and also the Aristotelian school Mechanics. It also provides an introduction to the discussion of both of the new sciences. The likeness between the topics discussed, specific questions that are hypothesized, and the style and sources throughout give Galileo the backbone to his First Day. The First Day introduces the speakers in the dialogue: Salviati, Sagredo, and Simplicio, the same as in the Dialogue. These three people are all Galileo just at different stages of his life, Simplicio the youngest and Salviati, Galileo's closest counterpart. It also provides an introduction to the discussion of both of the new sciences. The second day addresses the question of the strength of materials.
Galileo (1968 film)
Galileo (also known as "Galileo Galilei") is a 1968 Italian-Bulgarian biographical drama film directed by Liliana Cavani. It depicts the life of Galileo Galilei and particularly his clash with the Catholic Church regarding the interpretation of his astronomical observations with the newly invented telescope.
Gabriele Falloppio
This was the golden age of anatomy and Falloppio's contemporaries included such great anatomists as Vesalius, Eustachius, and Realdo Colombo (whom he succeeded at Padua). It has sometimes been asserted that he was jealous of certain of the great discoverers in anatomy and that this is the reason for his frequent criticisms and corrections of their work. However, Heinrich Häser, an authority in the history of medicine, declared that Falloppio was noted for his modesty and deference to his fellow workers and especially to Vesalius. His purpose in suggesting corrections, therefore, was the advance of the science of anatomy.
Galileo (horse)
Galileo's sons have begun to make an impact as stallions with his sons.
Galileo (disambiguation)
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) was a scientist and philosopher.
Giovanni de' Bardi
Bardi is mainly famous for being host, patron, and inspiration to the group of composers, music theorists and scholars who made up the Florentine Camerata, the group which attempted to restore the aesthetic effect of ancient Greek music to contemporary practice. The group included Vincenzo Galilei (father of the astronomer Galileo), Giulio Caccini, and Pietro Strozzi, and derived its inspiration from a correspondence with Girolamo Mei, the foremost scholar of ancient Greek drama and music at the time. The result of the association was the invention of monody, and shortly thereafter, opera; in addition, the innovations brought to music by the Camerata under the guidance of Bardi were one of the defining characteristics of what we now know as Baroque music.
Galileo Galilei
On 7 January 1610, Galileo observed with his telescope what he described at the time as "three fixed stars, totally invisible by their smallness", all close to Jupiter, and lying on a straight line through it. Observations on subsequent nights showed that the positions of these "stars" relative to Jupiter were changing in a way that would have been inexplicable if they had really been fixed stars. On 10 January, Galileo noted that one of them had disappeared, an observation which he attributed to its being hidden behind Jupiter. Within a few days, he concluded that they were orbiting Jupiter: he had discovered three of Jupiter's four largest moons. He discovered the fourth on 13 January. Galileo named the group of four the "Medicean stars", in honour of his future patron, Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Cosimo's three brothers. Later astronomers, however, renamed them "Galilean satellites" in honour of their discoverer. These satellites were independently discovered by Simon Marius on 8 January 1610 and are now called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto the names given by Marius in his "Mundus Iovialis" published in 1614.
Discourse on Comets
Galileo had not observed the comets as he was unwell in the autumn of 1618. However he learned that the Collegio Romano had held four lectures on the comets, respectively by a theologian, a mathematician, a philosopher and a rhetorician. The mathematician was Orazio Grassi, a pupil of Maelcote and Grienberger. Grassi argued that the absence of parallax meant that the comets must be very distant from the Earth, and he suggested that they existed beyond the moon. Soon afterwards the lecture was published in Rome as an anonymous pamphlet entitled "De Tribus Cometis Anni MDCXVIII".
Galileo Galilei
Galileo's dispute with Grassi permanently alienated many of the Jesuits who had previously been sympathetic to his ideas, and Galileo and his friends were convinced that these Jesuits were responsible for bringing about his later condemnation. The evidence for this is at best equivocal, however.
Lodovico delle Colombe
The disputes between delle Colombe and Galileo grew more protracted when Galileo first published new findings which challenged Artistotelian cosmology, and then moved from Padua to Florence. In 1609 Galileo had built a telescope, through which he had observed the moons of Jupiter, as well as the mountains and craters on the moon. In March 1610 he published his findings in "Siderius Nuncius" ("The Starry Messenger"), which he dedicated to Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, naming the moons of Jupiter the 'Medician stars'. He then negotiated with the Grand Duke to secure for himself the position of Philosopher and Chief Mathematician at the court in Florence.
Galileo's Daughter
Besides being a biography of Galileo and his daughter, the book describes Galileo's scientific work. In addition to Galileo's well-known enhancements and use of the telescope and his conviction of the correctness of the Copernican system, he had many other scientific achievements. Dava Sobel claims he discovered and investigated sunspots, which again did not bring him much favor with the Church, which, she claims, held the Aristotelian beliefs of the heavens containing only perfect unchanging celestial spheres. He improved the compass and developed a rudimentary thermometer. He devoted the last ten years of his life to the study of bodies in motion, laying the groundwork for Isaac Newton's laws of motion formalized in the next decades. Perhaps his greatest achievement was his promulgation of experimental science, the cornerstone of the scientific method, as his Aristotelian predecessors in science claimed something is true simply because it is obvious.
Galileo Galilei
It was common for mid-sixteenth-century Tuscan families to name the eldest son after the parents' surname. Hence, Galileo Galilei was not necessarily named after his ancestor Galileo Bonaiuti. The Italian male given name "Galileo" (and thence the surname "Galilei") derives from the Latin "Galilaeus", meaning "of Galilee", a biblically significant region in Northern Israel. Because of that region, the adjective "galilaios" (Greek "γαλιλαίος", Latin "Galilaeus", Italian "galileo"), which means "Galilean", has been used in antiquity (particularly by emperor Julian) to refer to Christ and his followers; after this, the adjective has been adopted as a name with a meaning similar to "Jesus" or "Christian".
Galileo's Dream
Robinson was praised for his depiction of Galileo in both his greatness and his weaknesses, and for the handling of themes such as the relation between our perception of time and memory.
History of physics
The contributions that Galileo made to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus; his discovery, in 1609, of Jupiter's four largest moons (subsequently given the collective name of the "Galilean moons"); and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also pursued applied science and technology, inventing, among other instruments, a military compass. His discovery of the Jovian moons was published in 1610 and enabled him to obtain the position of mathematician and philosopher to the Medici court. As such, he was expected to engage in debates with philosophers in the Aristotelian tradition and received a large audience for his own publications such as the "Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciences" (published abroad following his arrest for the publication of "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems") and "The Assayer". Galileo's interest in experimenting with and formulating mathematical descriptions of motion established experimentation as an integral part of natural philosophy. This tradition, combining with the non-mathematical emphasis on the collection of "experimental histories" by philosophical reformists such as William Gilbert and Francis Bacon, drew a significant following in the years leading up to and following Galileo's death, including Evangelista Torricelli and the participants in the Accademia del Cimento in Italy; Marin Mersenne and Blaise Pascal in France; Christiaan Huygens in the Netherlands; and Robert Hooke and Robert Boyle in England.
Giacomo Badoer
Badoer remained close to Galileo, according to Élie Diodati, writing around 1620, when Badoer was already dead.
Ostilio Ricci
Galileo was enrolled at the University of Pisa, by his father Vincenzo, in order to study medicine. Instead, Galilei became more interested in mathematics, after meeting Ostilio Ricci, a former student of Niccolò Tartaglia. Ricci taught Galileo the mathematics of Euclid and Archimedes, who both deeply influenced Galileo's later work. Ricci considered mathematics not to be a distinct science, but a practical tool for problems in mechanics and engineering. Ostilio Ricci is systematically cited in the various biographies of Galileo Galilei.
Jean Tarde
Jean Tarde wrote about his meeting and discussion with Galileo in his diary. However, the section of the interview in which he had discussed sunspots with Galileo was crossed out. The reasons Jean Tarde did this is unknown and are a subject of debate among historians. Some historians have suggested that Jean Tarde learned that Galileo was not the first to discover sunspots as he had claimed at the time. Galileo and Tarde met up a few times after this.
Western philosophy
Other notable modern philosophers include Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant. Many other contributors were philosophers, scientists, medical doctors, and politicians. A short list includes Galileo Galilei, Pierre Gassendi, Blaise Pascal, Nicolas Malebranche, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Christiaan Huygens, Isaac Newton, Christian Wolff, Montesquieu, Pierre Bayle, Thomas Reid, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Adam Smith, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Galileo Galilei
Galileo defended heliocentrism based on his astronomical observations of 1609 ("Sidereus Nuncius" 1610). In December 1613, the Grand Duchess Christina of Florence confronted one of Galileo's friends and followers, Benedetto Castelli, with biblical objections to the motion of the earth. According to Maurice Finocchiaro, this was done in a friendly and gracious manner, out of curiosity. Prompted by this incident, Galileo wrote a letter to Castelli in which he argued that heliocentrism was actually not contrary to biblical texts, and that the bible was an authority on faith and morals, not on science. This letter was not published, but circulated widely.
List of lay Catholic scientists
Many Catholics have made significant contributions to the development of science and mathematics from the Middle Ages to today. These scientists include Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Louis Pasteur, Blaise Pascal, André-Marie Ampère, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, Pierre de Fermat, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Alessandro Volta, Augustin-Louis Cauchy, Pierre Duhem, Jean-Baptiste Dumas, Alois Alzheimer, Georgius Agricola, and Christian Doppler.
Jean Tarde
First learning of Galileo's work through Robert Balfour who knew Galileo, Jean Tarde read Sidereus Nuncius and wanted to find out more about Galileo's work. During his visit to Florence, Jean Tarde went to see Galileo in 1614, November 12. Tarde admired Galileo writing in his own diary after the encounter, "In the morning I went to see Master Galileo, famed philosopher and astronomer... I told him that his fame had crossed the Alps, traversed France, and reached even to the ocean." In their conversation, he talked with Galileo about several topics such as the "moons" (ring) of Saturn and phases of Venus. Galileo believed that the spots traveled the same path as Venus and Mercury taking 14 days to cross the middle of the earth. Galileo also felt that there was no parallax for the spots, meaning the spots had to be very close to or on the sun, not the earth. He knew his claims may have been hard to believe, so Galileo also told Tarde that others had seen the same spots he had seen, which in effect helped validate his sightings.
Johannes Kepler
In the first months of 1610, Galileo Galilei—using his powerful new telescope—discovered four satellites orbiting Jupiter. Upon publishing his account as "Sidereus Nuncius" [Starry Messenger], Galileo sought the opinion of Kepler, in part to bolster the credibility of his observations. Kepler responded enthusiastically with a short published reply, "Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo" [Conversation with the Starry Messenger]. He endorsed Galileo's observations and offered a range of speculations about the meaning and implications of Galileo's discoveries and telescopic methods, for astronomy and optics as well as cosmology and astrology. Later that year, Kepler published his own telescopic observations of the moons in "Narratio de Jovis Satellitibus", providing further support of Galileo. To Kepler's disappointment, however, Galileo never published his reactions (if any) to "Astronomia Nova".
Letters on Sunspots
Together with Niccolò Lorini and Tommaso Caccini, delle Colombe was one of three Florentine Dominicans who opposed Galileo. Along with Raffaelo's brother Lodovico delle Colombe they formed what Galileo called the 'Pigeon League'. Caccini and delle Colombe both used the pulpit to preach against Galileo and the ideas of Copernicus, but only delle Colombe is known to have preached, on two separate occasions, against Galileo's ideas about sunspots. The first occasion was 26 February 1613, when his sermon concluded with these words:
Guidobaldo del Monte
Guidobaldo was also important in helping Galileo Galilei in his academic career. Galileo, then a promising, but unemployed 26-year-old, had written an essay on hydrostatic balance, which struck Guidobaldo as being nothing short of genius. He then commended Galileo to his brother, the Cardinal Del Monte, who referred him to the powerful Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando I de' Medici. Under his patronage, Galileo got an indication to a professorship of mathematics at the University of Pisa, in 1589. Guidobaldo became a staunch friend of Galileo and helped him again in 1592, when he had to apply to the chair of mathematics at the University of Padua, due to the hatred and machinations of Giovanni de' Medici, a son of Cosimo I de' Medici, against Galileo. Notwithstanding their friendship, Guidobaldo was a critic of Galileo's principle of the isochronicity of the pendulum, a major discovery which Guidobaldo thought was impossible.
Gellio Sasceride
Sasceride was also friends with Galileo. On December 28, 1592, after Galileo had begun his studies, he wrote a letter to Sasceride (at the time no longer Brahe's assistant) with the words "Exordium erat splendidum" ("[my] debut was excellent"). In 1590, Sasceride had sent to Galileo the only copy of a book until then found in Italy detailing the heliocentric system.
Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Galileo Galilei was named court mathematician to Cosimo in 1610, a post that freed Galileo from the constraints of teaching mathematics at universities. As court mathematician, Galileo was free to challenge the distinction between disciplines and advance theories of Nicolaus Copernicus by using mathematics to address questions of physics. The already famous Galileo had used his telescopic accomplishments in his bid for patronage. Once appointed, Galileo moved to the Florence court and found a resource rich environment where he worked as philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. Galileo was actively involved in court life and supported the dynastic rhetoric of the Medici family. Aside from producing intellectual spectacles, Galileo used the Medici court to advance his theoretical claims and discoveries. The four moons of Jupiter he had discovered were named "Medicean Stars" in reference to Cosimo and his three brothers. Tuscan ambassadors were used to advance scientific debate in Europe. Ambassadors in Prague, Paris, London and Madrid received copies of Galileo's "Sidereus Nuncius" and were sent telescopes constructed by Galileo, paid for by the court treasury.
Lucius Caninius Gallus
Gallus was a contemporary and friend to dictator Gaius Julius Caesar, also to politicians Marcus Terentius Varro and Marcus Tullius Cicero. Gallus was a man of political talent and acquirements.
Galileo (1968 film)
In 1597, the scientist Galileo Galilei meets the philosopher Giordano Bruno, author of treatises that upset the Church for their extreme accuracy on the nature of the world. In fact the period is that of the oppressor and the Counter-Reformation and Bruno having worsened his relations with the Church, is unjustly tried and condemned to the stake. Meanwhile, Galileo discovers the telescope, a gift from a friend, and perfects its potential. Thanks to it, therefore the scientist makes his first experiments on the stars and began to write his treatises. But the new Pope Urbano VIII and his beloved cardinal discover these theories, find them heretical and order the scientist to recant publicly and to allow his lyrics are declared heretics and burned at the stake."Galileo" was released in 2010 as a Region 2 DVD. A Region 1 DVD has not been released.
Giovanni de Galliano Pieroni
Giovanni de Galliano Pieroni (1586–1654) – military engineer specializing in erecting fortifications (authored "Trattato delle fortificazioni moderne"), architect, mathematician and astronomer who gained particular fame in his day as also as author of horoscopes. Just the same he was a practicing astronomer and a contemporary and a friend of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) while both spent time in Prague. Earlier he became friendly with the astronomer, mathematician and physicist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) – like Pieroni, Galileo also wrote on constructing fortifications, and the two shared interest in mathematics and astronomy.
Benedetto Castelli
He was a long-time friend and supporter of his teacher, Galileo Galilei, and in turn teacher to Galileo's son. He assisted Galileo's study of sunspots and participated in the examination of the theories of Nicolaus Copernicus. Castelli was interested in mathematics and hydraulics. He was appointed as a mathematician to the University of Pisa, replacing Galileo, and later at the University of Rome La Sapienza. Castelli introduced Cavalieri to Galileo, leading to an extensive correspondence between the latter; Galileo was instrumental in procuring a position for Cavalieri at the University of Bologna in 1629.
Accademia Galileiana
Galileo Galilei • Cesare Cremonini • Fortunio Liceti • Elena Cornaro Piscopia • Antoinette Deshoulières • Anne-Marie Du Boccage • Marie-Jeanne L'Héritier de Villandon • Catherine Bernard • Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy • Marie-Catherine de Villedieu • Charlotte-Rose de Caumont La Force • Anne Dacier • Madeleine de Scudéry • Maria Selvaggia Borghini • Georgios Kalafatis (professor)
Lodewijk Elzevir
His oldest son Matthijs and his sixth son Bonaventure Elzevir and his grandsons Abraham and Isaac Elzevir continued and expanded the business. The Lodowijk Elzevir who famously met Galileo in Arcetri in 1636 was the grandson of this Lodwijk (1604-1670).
Mario Guiducci
While Guiducci and Galileo were working in the "Discourse", a second anonymous Jesuit pamphlet appeared in Milan - "Assemblea Celeste Radunata Nuovamente in Parnasso Sopra la Nuova Cometa" (sometimes wrongly attributed to Giovanni Rho). This argued for the new model of the universe proposed by Tycho Brahe and against the traditional cosmology of Aristotle. Guiducci and Galileo collaborated on a response to this as well, which set out the arguments for a heliocentric model. The debate continued when, in Perugia later in 1619, Grassi published a reply to the "Discourse" in "La Libra Astronomica ac Philosophica" under the pen-name Lotario Sarsi Sigensano. This work dismissed Guiducci as a mere 'copyist' for Galileo, and attacked Galileo's ideas directly. While the Accademia dei Lincei were considering what tone a reply from Galileo ought to take, Guiducci replied directly to Grassi in the Spring of 1620. The reply was formally addressed to another Jesuit, Father Tarquinio Galluzzi, his old rhetoric master. Guiducci countered the various arguments Grassi had put forward against Galileo, describing some of Grassi's experiments as 'full of errors and not without a hint of fraud.' Guiducci concluded with an attempt to reconcile experimental evidence with theological arguments, but firmly asserted the primacy of data gathered through observation. Galileo was very pleased with Guiducci's efforts, proposing him for membership of the Accademia dei Lincei in May 1621 (although he did not actually become a member until 1625).
Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina
"With his deprecating tone Galileo effectively marks off a group of philosophers and theologians as adversaries whose faults he proceeds to define". Within that group were progressive Aristotelians, including Bishop Dini, Cardinals Bellarmine and Barberini, as well as famous Jesuit astronomers at the Collegio Romano (Roman College). These men were open to scientific demonstration to progress Copernicus' theories, however Galileo attacks them stating that they "determine in 'hypocritical zeal' to preserve at all costs what they believe, rather than admit what is obvious to their eyes." This compounds his problems rather than aiding him. Moreover, his letter misses out on key facts that include the Church's non-attacking stance on Copernicus when the canon proposed his heliocentric model. A Dominican theologian Tolosani made an unpublished attack on the Copernican system as early as 1544.
Cesare Marsili
Cesare Marsili (Bologna, 31 January 1592 – Bologna, March 22, 1633) was an Italian intellectual and associate of Galileo Galilei.
Michiel Coignet
Coignet invented several instruments and corresponded with Galileo Galilei (from 1588), Gerhard Mercator, Godefroy Wendelin, Ludolph van Ceulen and Fabrizio Mordente, whom he met during the latter’s 1584 sojourn in Antwerp. Among other things, Coignet invented and described instruments that had a function similar to that of the proportional compass. During the dispute over the invention of the proportional compass in 1610, Giovanni Camillo Gloriosi attributed the invention to Coignet and not to Galileo, although the instrument is now mainly attributed to Coignet’s friend Mordente. Coignet distributed the computational functions over several bars and described the instrument in several treatises: on the "flat ruler" ("Traité des Sinus", 1610); flat-legged proportional compasses ("De regulae pantometae", 1612); and four-point proportional compasses ("El uso del compas proportional", 1618).
Antonio Nardi
In the 1630s, Nardi became active in a group of Castelli's students in Rome that included Evangelista Torricelli, Michelangelo Ricci, and Raffaello Magiotti. Nardi, along with Torricelli and Magiotti, wrote a number of letters to Galileo praising his "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" and faulting its detractors after its publication in 1632. Galileo, recognizing their devotion, referred to the three as his "triumvirate" in Rome. In 1635, Nardi's uncle, Baldassarre Nardi secured him a position in the court of Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Guidi di Bagno in Rome, which was home to many intellectuals like the Cardinal's librarian, Gabriel Naudé. Nardi served there until the Cardinal's death in 1641.
Around this time, Nardi renewed his correspondence with Galileo, sending him this time samples of his own geometrical work. These were from Nardi's "Ricercate Geometriche sopra Archimede", which is made up of newer, more efficient proofs of Archimedes' original theorems using the new method of indivisibles developed by Bonaventura Cavalieri. Galileo's responses are not extant, but Nardi's subsequent letters indicate that Galileo approved of his work and that Nardi was even considering publishing it. This plan appears, however, to have fallen through when Galileo died in 1642 shortly after the death of Nardi's other patron, Cardinal di Bagno.
Museo Galileo
Museo Galileo, the former "Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza" (Institute and Museum of the History of Science) is located in Florence, Italy, in Piazza dei Giudici, along the River Arno and close to the Uffizi Gallery. It is housed in Palazzo Castellani, an 11th-century building which was then known as the Castello d’Altafronte.
Museo Galileo owns one of the world’s major collection of scientific instruments, which bears evidence of the crucial role that the Medici and Lorraine Grand Dukes attached to science and scientists.
The Museo di Storia della Scienza re-opened to the public under the new name "Museo Galileo" on June 10, 2010, after a two-year closure due to important redesigning and renovation works. It was inaugurated four hundred years after the publication in March 1610 of Galileo’s "Sidereus Nuncius" ("The Starry Messenger"), the booklet that revolutionized mankind’s conception of the universe, decisively contributing to the advent of modern science.
Galileo Galilei
In his 1638 "Discorsi", Galileo's character Salviati, widely regarded as Galileo's spokesman, held that all unequal weights would fall with the same finite speed in a vacuum. But this had previously been proposed by Lucretius and Simon Stevin. Cristiano Banti's Salviati also held it could be experimentally demonstrated by the comparison of pendulum motions in air with bobs of lead and of cork which had different weight but which were otherwise similar.
Lodovico delle Colombe
Lodovico delle Colombe (Florence 1565(?) – Florence(?) after 1623) was an Italian Aristotelian scholar, famous for his battles with Galileo Galilei in a series of controversies in physics and astronomy.
Patronage in astronomy
In his book, "Galileo Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism," Mario Biagioli looks to shed light on the ways in which a society characterized by patronage relationships affected one of astronomy's, and modern science's, greatest heroes: Galileo Galilei. Biagioli looks to uncover aspects of Galileo's life by “vividly [presenting] the pioneer physicist to us through the active social relations he experienced with persons in the different courts with which he was connected.” The book reveals how Galileo “used patronage to obtain his teaching position in Pisa… [and] maneuvered his transfer from Padua to the “home court” of the Medicis... used contacts with Prince Cesi and other well-placed persons in Roman circles to become an Academian, and a person of influence, and how all of this turned to dust for Galileo, when he lost the patronage of Urban VIII, one of his two most special patrons”. In a review of Biagioli's work, Larry Wolff noted Biagioli as demonstrating Galileo's legitimacy as a direct consequence of “his ‘career strategies’” and not just “his ‘cognitive attitudes’” and that Galileo is shown to be a master of attaining power and a seventeenth-century career in science The book acknowledges that “gifts within the logic of patronage [explain] the role of spectacular scientific production in Galileo’s career… [in that he] needed to produce or discover things that could be used as gifts for his patrons” Jardine adds, as Biagioli has shown, Galileo's gift to Cosimo II of his discovery of the satellites of Jupiter, transformed into emblems of Medici dynastic power, was a spectacularly successful instance. Through exchange of gifts, highly ritualized and often highly competitive, princes and nobles achieved social distinction, maintaining their honour and mutual recognition.
History of experiments
Galileo Galilei was a scientist who performed many quantitative experiments by addressing many topics. Using several different methods, Galileo was able to accurately measure time. Previously, most scientists had used distance to describe falling bodies using geometry, which had been used and trusted since Euclid. Galileo himself used geometrical methods to express his results. Galileo's successes were aided by the development of a new mathematics as well as cleverly designed experiments and equipment. At that time, another kind of mathematics was being developed—algebra. Algebra allowed arithmetical calculations to become as sophisticated as geometric ones. Algebra also allowed the discoveries of scientists such as Galileo—as well as later scientists like Newton, Maxwell and Einstein—to be later summarized by mathematical equations. These equations described physical relationships in a precise, self-consistent manner.
Niccolò Riccardi
Virginio Cesarini tried to arrange a meeting between him and Galileo, but although he enthusiastically endorsed "Il Saggiatore" for publication in 1623, he only met Galileo for the first time in May 1624. The two men corresponded thereafter - although no direct trace of their letters to each other remains, Galileo's surviving letters to Mario Guiducci and Giovanni Faber, include pleas to them to ask Riccardi to reply to him.
Galileo affair
Some historians emphasize Galileo's confrontation not only with the church, but also with Aristotelian philosophy, either secular or religious.
Virginio Cesarini
In 1619, the Jesuit Orazio Grassi, writing under the pseudonym Lotario Sassi, published "Libra Astronomica ac Philosophica", which attacked Galileo. In May 1622, Cesarini wrote to Galileo asking him to publish a reply to Sarsi, which he owed it to the world to write. In October of the same year, Galileo’s response, The Assayer, was ready. It was published the following year, in the form of a letter to Cesarini.Information about Cesarini's membership of Italian academies, and of his links with other intellectuals of his time can be found on the British Library's database of Italian Academies and their members
Role of Christianity in civilization
The famous astronomers Nicholas Copernicus, who put the sun at the centre of the heavens in 1543, and Galileo Galilei, who experimented with the new technology of the telescope and, with its aid declared his belief that Copernicus was correct – were both practising Catholics – indeed Copernicus was a catholic clergyman. Yet the church establishment at that time held to theories devised in pre-Christian Greece by Ptolemy and Aristotle, which said that the sky revolved around the earth. When Galileo began to assert that the earth in fact revolved around the sun, he therefore found himself challenging the Church establishment at a time where the Church hierarchy also held temporal power and was engaged in the ongoing political challenge of the rise of Protestantism. After discussions with Pope Urban VIII (a man who had written admiringly of Galileo before taking papal office), Galileo believed he could avoid censure by presenting his arguments in dialogue form – but the Pope took offence when he discovered that some of his own words were being spoken by a character in the book who was a simpleton and Galileo was called for a trial before the Inquisition.
Conflict thesis
The Galileo affair is one of the few examples commonly used by advocates of the conflict thesis. Maurice Finocchiaro writes that the Galileo affair epitomizes the common view of "the conflict between enlightened science and obscurantist religion," and that this view promotes "the myth that alleges the incompatibility between science and religion." Finocchiaro writes, "I believe that such a thesis is erroneous, misleading, and simplistic," and refers to John Draper, Andrew White, Voltaire, Einstein, Bertrand Russell, and Karl Popper as writers or icons who have promoted it. Finocchiaro also describes as mythical the notion that Galileo "saw" the earth's motion, since this direct observation was only possible in the 21st century, and the idea that Galileo was "imprisoned," since he was "actually held under house arrest." He notes that the situation was complex and objections to the Copernican system included scientific, philosophical, and theological arguments.
Discourse on Comets
While Guiducci and Galileo were working in the "Discourse", a second anonymous Jesuit pamphlet appeared in Milan - "Assemblea Celeste Radunata Nuovamente in Parnasso Sopra la Nuova Cometa". This argued for the new model of the universe proposed by Tycho Brahe and against the traditional cosmology of Aristotle. Guiducci and Galileo collaborated on a response to this as well, which set out the arguments for a heliocentric model. The debate continued when, in Perugia later in 1619, Grassi published a reply to the "Discourse" in "La Libra Astronomica ac Philosophica" under the pen-name Lotario Sarsi Sigensano. This work dismissed Guiducci as a mere 'copyist' for Galileo, and attacked Galileo's ideas directly. While the Accademia dei Lincei were considering what tone a reply from Galileo ought to take, Guiducci replied directly to Grassi in the Spring of 1620. The reply was formally addressed to another Jesuit, Father Tarquinio Galluzzi, his old rhetoric master. Guiducci countered the various arguments Grassi had put forward against Galileo, describing some of Grassi's experiments as 'full of errors and not without a hint of fraud.' Guiducci concluded with an attempt to reconcile experimental evidence with theological arguments, but firmly asserted the primacy of data gathered through observation. Galileo was very pleased with Guiducci's efforts, proposing him for membership of the Accademia dei Lincei in May 1621 (although he did not actually become a member until 1625).
Galileo Galilei
Three of Galileo's five siblings survived infancy. The youngest, Michelangelo (or Michelagnolo), also became a noted lutenist and composer although he contributed to financial burdens during Galileo's young adulthood. Michelangelo was unable to contribute his fair share of their father's promised dowries to their brothers-in-law, who would later attempt to seek legal remedies for payments due. Michelangelo would also occasionally have to borrow funds from Galileo to support his musical endeavours and excursions. These financial burdens may have contributed to Galileo's early desire to develop inventions that would bring him additional income.