0,49 €
Niedrigster Preis in 30 Tagen: 1,99 €
Niedrigster Preis in 30 Tagen: 1,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
In "Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia," Karl von Gebler meticulously examines the fraught relationship between the pioneering astronomer Galileo Galilei and the Roman Catholic Church during the early 17th century. Utilizing a rich historical narrative interwoven with philosophical inquiry, Gebler's prose reflects a commitment to detail and clarity, illustrating the tension between scientific innovation and religious dogma. The book offers an insightful perspective on the political and theological climate of the time, highlighting how the interplay between Galileo's groundbreaking discoveries and the Roman Curia's authoritative stance on cosmology reflects larger conflicts about epistemology and faith; a striking exploration of the Enlightenment's dawn amid ecclesiastical entrenchment. Born in 1840 in a landscape steeped in intellectual ferment, Karl von Gebler was a historian and philosopher with a fervent dedication to elucidating the complexities of human thought. His academic background in philosophy and natural sciences undoubtedly shaped his approach to this work, as he sought to contextualize Galileo's plight within the larger thematic framework of science and religion, power and dissent, illuminating the broader implications of Galileo's trial for subsequent generations. Gebler's analysis sheds light not only on Galileo's individual challenges but also on the enduring struggle between faith and reason. This compelling narrative is essential reading for historians, scientists, and anyone interested in the intersection of knowledge systems, making it a vital addition to both scholarly discourse and the bookshelf of any intellectually curious reader.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
Ähnliche
Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia
Table of Contents
WORKS CONSULTED.[5]
Albèri (Eugenio): “Le opere di Galileo Galilei.” Prima edizione completa condotta sugli autentici manoscritti Palatini. Firenze, 1842-1856.
*“Sul Processo di Galileo. Due Lettere in risposta al giornale S’opinione.” Firenze, 1864.
Anonym: “Der heilige Stuhl gegen Galileo Galilei und das astronomische System des Copernicus.” Historisch-politische Blätter für das katholische Deutschland; herausgegeben von G. Phillips und G. Görres. Siebenter Band. München, 1841.
“Galileo Galilei. Sein Leben und seine Bedeutung für die Entwickelung der Naturwissenschaft.” Die Fortschritte der Naturwissenschaft in biographischen Bildern. Drittes Heft. Berlin, 1856.
“Galileo Galilei.” Die Grenzboten. XXIV. Jahrgang. I. Semester. Nr. 24. 1865.
*Arduini (Carlo): “La Primogenita di Galileo Galilei rivelata dalle sue lettere.” Florence, 1864.
Barbier (Antoine Alexandre): “Examen critique et complément des dictionnaires historiques les plus répandus.” Paris, 1820. Article Galilée.
*Berti (Prof. Domenico): “La venuta di Galileo Galilei a Padova. Studii. Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, dal Novembre 1870 all’ ottobre 1871.” Tomo decimosesto, seria terza, dispensa quinta, ottava, nono e decima. Venezia, 1870, 1871.
*“Copernico e le vicende del Sistema Copernicano in Italia nella seconda metà del secolo XVI. e nella prima del secolo XVII.” Roma, 1876.
“Il Processo originale di Galileo Galilei, pubblicato per la prima volta.” Roma, 1876.
“La Critica moderna e il Processo contro Galileo Galilei.” (Nuova Antologia, Gennajo, 1877 Firenze.)
Bouix (L’Abbé): “La condamnation de Galilée. Lapsus des écrivains, qui l’opposent à la doctrine de l’infaillibilité du Pape.”—Revue des Sciences ecclésiastiques. Arras-Paris, février et mars, 1866.
Cantor (Professor Dr. Moritz): “Galileo Galilei.” Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik. 9. Jahrgang. 3. Heft. Leipzig, 1864.
“Recensionen über die 1870 erschienenen Schriften Wohlwill’s und Gherardi’s über den Galilei’schen Process.” Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik. 16. Jahrgang. 1. Heft. 1871.
Caspar (Dr. R.): “Galileo Galilei. Zusammenstellung der Forschungen und Entdeckungen Galilei’s auf dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaft, als Beitrag zur Geschichte der neueren Physik.” Stuttgart, 1854.
Chasles (Prof. Philarète): “Galileo Galilei, sa vie, son procès et ses contemporains d’après les documents originaux.” Paris, 1862.
*Combes (Louis): “Galilée et L’Inquisition Romaine.” Paris, 1876.
Delambre (Jean Baptiste Joseph): “Histoire de l’astronomie ancienne.” Paris, 1821.
Eckert (Professor Dr.): “Galileo Galilei, dessen Leben und Verdienste um die Wissenschaften.” Als Einladung zur Promotionsfeier des Pädagogiums. Basel, 1858.
Epinois (Henri de L’): “Galilée, son procès, sa condamnation d’après des documents inédits.” Extrait de la Revue des questions historiques. Paris, 1867.
*“Les Pièces du Procès de Galilée, précédées d’un avant-propos.” Rome, Paris, 1877 v. Palmé société Générale de Librairie Catholique.
*“La Question de Galilée, les faits et leurs conséquences.” Paris Palmé, 1878.
Figuier (Louis): “Galilée.” Vies des savants illustres du dix-septième siècle. Paris, 1869.
Friedlein (Rector): “Zum Inquisitionsprocess des Galileo Galilei.” Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik. 17. Jahrgang. 3. Heft. 1872.
Gherardi (Prof. Silvestro): “Il Processo Galileo riveduto sopra documenti di nuova fonte.” Rivista Europea. Anno 1. Vol. III. Firenze, 1870.[6]
“Sulla Dissertazione del dott. Emilio Wohlwill. Il processo di Galileo Galilei.” Estratto della Rivista Europea. Firenze, 1872.
*Gilbert (Prof. Ph.): “Le Procès de Galilée d’après les Documents contemporains.” Extrait de la Revue Catholique tomes I., II. Louvains, 1869.
Govi (Gilberto): “Intorno a certi manuscritti apocrifi di Galileo.” Torino, 1869. Estr. dagli Atti della Accadémia delle Scienze di Torino Vol. V. Adunanza del 21 Nov. 1869.
“Intorno a tre lettere di Galileo Galilei tratte dall’ archivio dei Gonzaga.” Bollettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche pubblicato da B. Boncompagni. Tomo III. Roma, 1870.
Govi (Gilberto): “Il S. Offizio, Copernico e Galileo a proposito di un opuscolo postumo del P. Olivieri sullo stesso argomento.” Torino, 1872.
*Grisar (Prof. H. S. J.): “Der Galilei’sche Process auf der neuesten Actenpublicationen historisch und juristisch geprüft.” Zeitschrift für Kath. Theol. II. Jahrgang, pp. 65-128. Innsbruck.
Jagemann: “Geschichte des Lebens und der Schriften des Galileo Galilei.” Neue Auflage. Leipzig, 1787.
Libri: “Galileo Galilei, sein Leben und seine Werke.” Aus dem Französischen mit Anmerkungen von F. W. Carové. Siegen und Wiesbaden, 1842.
Marini (Mgr. Marino): “Galileo e l’inquisizione.” Memorie storico-critiche. Roma, 1850.
Martin (Henri Th.): “Galilée, les droits de la science et la méthode des sciences physiques.” Paris, 1868.
Nelli (Gio. Batista Clemente de): “Vita e commercio letterario di Galileo Galilei.” Losanna (Firenze), 1793.
Olivieri (P. Maurizio-Benedetto Ex. generale dei domenicani e Commissario della S. Rom. ed Univer. Inquisizione): “Di Copernico e di Galileo scritto postumo ora per la prima volta messo in luce sull’ autografo per cura d’un religioso dello stesso istituto.” Bologna, 1872.
Parchappe (Dr. Max): “Galilée, sa vie, ses découvertes et ses travaux.” Paris, 1866.
*Pieralisi (Sante, Sacerdote e Bibliotecario della Barberiniana): “Urbano VIII. e Galileo Galilei: Memorie Storiche.” Roma, 1875. Tipografia poliglotta della L. P. di Propaganda Fide.
*“Correzioni al libro Urbano VIII. Galileo Galilei proposte dall’ autore Sante Pieralisi con osservazione sopra il processo originale di Galileo Galilei pubblicato da Domenico Berti.” Settembre, 1876.
Reitlinger (Prof. Edmund): “Galileo Galilei.” Freie Blicke. Populärwissenschaftliche Aufsätze. Berlin, 1875.
Reumont (Alfred von): “Galilei und Rom.” Beiträge zur italienischen Geschichte. 1 Bd. Berlin, 1853.
Reusch (Professor Dr. F. H.): “Der Galilei’sche Procesz.” Ein Vortrag. Historische Zeitschrift; herausgegeben von Prof. Heinrich von Sybel. 17. Jahrgang. 1875. 3. Heft.
Rezzi (M. Domenica): “Sulla invenzione del microscopio, giuntavi una notizia delle Considerazioni al Tasso attribuite a Galileo Galilei.” Roma, 1852.
*Riccardi (Prof. Cav. Pietro): “Di alcune recenti memorie sul processo e sulla condanna del Galilei. Nota e Documenti aggiunti alla bibliografia Galileiana.” Modena, 1873.
Riccioli (P. Jo. Bapt.): “Almagestum novum.” Bonioniae, 1651.
Rosini (M. Giovanni): “Per l’inaugurazione solenne della statua di Galileo.” Orazione. Pisa, 1839 (2 Oct).
Rossi (Prof. Giuseppe): “Del Metodo Galileiano.” Bologna, 1877.
*Scartazzini (Dr. T. A.): “Der Process des Galileo Galilei.” Unsere Zeit. Jahrgang 13. Heft 7 and 18.
*“Il processo di Galileo Galilei e la moderna critica tedesca.” Revista Europea, Vol. IV. Part V., Vol. V. Parts I and II., 1 and 16 Jan. 1878.
*Schneemann (P. S. J.): “Galileo Galilei und der Römische Stuhl.” Stimmen aus Maria Laach. Kath. Blättern. Nos. 2, 3, 4, Feb. Mar. April, 1878.
Snell (Dr. Carl): “Ueber Galilei als Begründer der mechanischen Physik und über die Methode derselben.” Jena, 1864.
Targioni Tozzetti: “Notizie degli aggrandimenti delle scienze fisiche in Toscana.” Firenze, 1780. (Contains in Vol. ii.: “Vita di Galileo scritta da Nic. Gherardini.”)
Venturi (Cav. Giambattista): “Memorie e lettere inedite finora o disperse di Galileo Galilei.” Modena, 1818-1821.
Viviani: “Raconto istorico della vita di Galileo Galilei.” (Enthalten im XV. Bande der Opere di Galileo Galilei. Prima edizione completa. Firenze, 1856.)
Vosen (Dr. Christian Hermann): “Galileo Galilei und die Römische Berurtheilung des Copernicanischen Systems.” Broschürenverein Nr. 5. Frankfurt am M. 1865.
Wohlwill (Dr. Emil): “Der Inquisitionsprocess des Galileo Galilei. Eine Prüfung seiner rechtlichen Grundlage nach den Acten der Römischen Inquisition.” Berlin, 1870.
*“Ist Galilei gefoltert worden? Eine kritische Studie.” Leipzig, 1877.
“Zum Inquisitionsprocesz des Galileo Galilei.” Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik. 17. Jahrgang. 2. Heft. 1872.
*Wolynski (Dott. Arturio): “Lettere inedite a Galileo Galilei.” Firenze, 1872.
*“Relazione di Galileo Galilei colla Polonia esposte secondo i documenti per la maggior parte non pubblicati.” Firenze, 1873.
“La Diplomazia Toscana e Galileo Galilei.” Firenze, 1874.
PART I.GALILEO’S EARLY YEARS, HIS IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES, AND FIRST CONFLICT WITH THE ROMAN CURIA.
CHAPTER I.EARLY YEARS AND FIRST DISCOVERIES.
Birth at Pisa.—Parentage.—His Father’s Writings on Music.—Galileo destined to be a Cloth Merchant.—Goes to the Convent of Vallombrosa.—Begins to study Medicine.—Goes to the University of Pisa.—Discovery of the Isochronism of the Pendulum.—Stolen Lessons in Mathematics.—His Hydrostatic Scales.—Professorship at Pisa.—Poor Pay.—The Laws of Motion.—John de’ Medici.—Leaves Pisa.—Professorship at Padua.—Writes various Treatises.—The Thermoscope.—Letter to Kepler.—The Copernican System.—“De Revolutionibus Orbium Cœlestium.”
The same memorable day is marked by the setting of one of the most brilliant stars in the firmament of art and the rising of another in the sphere of science, which was to enlighten the world with beams of equal splendour. On the 18th February, 1564, Michael Angelo Buonarotti closed his eyes at Rome, and Galileo Galilei first saw the light at Pisa.
He was the son of the Florentine nobleman, Vincenzo Galilei, and of Julia, one of the ancient family of the Ammanati of Pescia, and was born in wedlock, as the documents of the church clearly attest.[7] His earliest years were spent at Pisa, but his parents soon returned to Florence, which was their settled home. Here he received his early education. His father had distinguished himself by his writings on the theory of music, particularly the mathematical part of it.[8] They were not merely above mediocrity, but aimed at innovation, and if they did not achieve reform, it was to be attributed to the conservative spirit then reigning in Italy, which asserted itself in every department of life, and especially in the spheres of art and science.
Galileo’s father had no property. His income was but scanty, and the fates had endowed him with a numerous family instead of with fortune.[9] Under these untoward circumstances he at first destined the little Galileo, as is related by Gherardini, his earliest biographer, to a career by no means distinguished, though advantageous in a material point of view, and one that conferred much of their wealth on the Florentines, so that it was held in high esteem—he was to be a cloth dealer. But the young noble first received the education befitting his station, that is, a very mediocre teacher instructed him in the Humanities.[10] Fortunately for the clever young scholar, he was handed over to the pious brethren of the convent of Vallombrosa for further education. Here he at once made rapid progress. He acquired great facility in the classics. His thorough study of the masterpieces of antiquity was of the greatest advantage to him. He doubtless thereby laid the foundation of the admirable style to which he afterwards, in some measure, owed his brilliant successes.
Galileo had a great variety of talent. Besides ardent pursuit of the solid branches of learning, he had considerable skill in drawing and music, in which he afterwards attained so much perfection that his judgment was highly esteemed, even by great artists.[11] He played the lute himself with the skill of a master. He also highly appreciated poetry. His later essays on Dante, Orlando Furioso, and Gerusalemme Liberata, as well as the fragment of a play, bear witness to his lively interest in belles lettres. But from his earliest youth he showed the greatest preference for mechanics. He made little machines with an ingenuity and skill which evinced a really unusual talent for such things.[12]
With these abilities his father must soon have arrived at the conclusion that his son was born for something better than for distributing wool among the people, and resolved to devote him to science; only it was necessary that the branch of it to which he turned his attention should offer a prospect of profit. Medicine was decided on as the most likely to be lucrative, although it may not seem the one most suited to his abilities.
On 5th November, 1581, Galileo, then just seventeen, entered the University of Pisa.[13] Even here the young medical student’s independent ideas and aims made way for themselves. At that time any original ideas and philosophical views not derived from the dogmas of Aristotle were unheard of. All the theories of natural science and philosophy had hitherto been referred to theology. It had been held to be the Alpha and Omega of all human knowledge. But now the period was far advanced in which it was felt to be necessary to cast off the narrow garments fashioned by religion, though at first the will to do so exceeded the power. A stir and ferment agitated men’s minds. A period of storm and stress had begun for the study of nature and the philosophical speculation so closely connected with it. Men did not as yet possess energy and ability for direct advance, so they turned with real fanaticism to ancient learning, which, being independent, and not based on religious notions, afforded them satisfaction. Under these circumstances recurrence to the past was real progress.
Unconditional surrender to the ideas of others, entire adoption of opinions, some of which were not too well verified, might suit mediocrity, but it could not suffice for the powerful mind of Galileo, who was striving to find out the truth for himself. The genius of the young student rebelled fiercely against rigid adherence to an antiquated standpoint. To the horror of the followers of Aristotle, who were quite taken aback at such unheard-of audacity, he resolutely attacked in public disputations many oracular dicta of their great master hitherto unquestioned, and this even then made him many enemies, and acquired for him the epithet of “the Wrangler.”[14]
Two circumstances occur during Galileo’s student years, which, in their main features, are not without historical foundation, although in detail they bear an anecdotal impress. One, which is characteristic of Galileo’s observant eye, shows us the student of nineteen devoutly praying in the Cathedral at Pisa; but he seems to have soon wearied of this occupation, for he dreamily fixed his eye on the Maestro Possenti’s beautiful lamp, hanging from an arch, which, in order to light it more readily, had been moved out of its vertical position and then left to itself. The oscillations were at first considerable, became gradually less and less, but notwithstanding the varying distances, they were all performed in the same time, as the young medical student discovered to a nicety by feeling his pulse. The isochronism of the vibrations of the pendulum was discovered![15]
The other story refers to Galileo’s first mathematical studies. Gherardini relates that he was scarcely acquainted with the elements of mathematics up to his twentieth year, which, by the by, seems almost incredible. But while he was diligently studying medicine at Pisa, the court of Tuscany came there for some months. Among the suite was Ostilio Ricci, governor of the pages, a distinguished mathematician and an old friend of the Galilei family; Galileo, therefore, often visited him. One morning when he was there, Ricci was teaching the pages. Galileo stood shyly at the door of the schoolroom, listening attentively to the lesson; his interest grew greater and greater; he followed the demonstration of the mathematical propositions with bated breath. Strongly attracted by the science almost unknown to him before, as well as by Ricci’s method of instruction, he often returned, but always unobserved, and, Euclid in hand, drank deeply, from his uncomfortable concealment, of the streams of fresh knowledge. Mathematics also occupied the greater part of his time in the solitude of his study. But all this did not satisfy his thirst for knowledge. He longed to be himself taught by Ricci. At last he took courage, and, hesitatingly confessing his sins of curiosity to the astonished tutor, he besought him to unveil to him the further mysteries of mathematics, to which Ricci at once consented.
When Galileo’s father learnt that his son was devoting himself to Euclid at the expense of Hippocrates and Galen, he did his utmost to divert him from this new, and as it seemed to him, unprofitable study. The science of mathematics was not then held in much esteem, as it led to nothing practical. Its use, as applied to the laws of nature, had scarcely begun to be recognised. But the world-wide mission for which Galileo’s genius destined him had been too imperiously marked out by fate for him to be held back by the mere will of any man. Old Vincenzo had to learn the unconquerable power of genius in young Galileo, and to submit to it. The son pursued the studies marked out for him by nature more zealously than ever, and at length obtained leave from his father to bid adieu to medicine and to devote himself exclusively to mathematics and physics.[16]
The unexpected successes won by the young philosopher in a very short time in the realm of science, soon showed that his course had now been turned into the proper channel. Galileo’s father, who, almost crushed with the burden of his family, could with difficulty bear the expense of his son’s residence at the University, turned in his perplexity to the beneficence of the reigning Grand Duke, Ferdinand de’ Medici, with the request that, in consideration of the distinguished talents and scientific attainments of Galileo, he would grant him one of the forty free places founded for poor students at the University. But even then there were many who were envious of Galileo in consequence of his unusual abilities and his rejection of the traditional authority of Aristotle. They succeeded in inducing the Grand Duke to refuse poor Vincenzo’s petition, in consequence of which the young student had to leave the University, after four years’ residence, without taking the doctor’s degree.[17]
In spite of these disappointments, Galileo was not deterred, on his return home, from continuing his independent researches into natural phenomena. The most important invention of those times, to which he was led by the works of Archimedes, too little regarded during the Middle Ages, was his hydrostatic scales, about the construction and use of which he wrote a treatise, called “La Bilancetta.” This, though afterwards circulated in manuscript copies among his followers and pupils, was not printed until after his death, in 1655.
Galileo now began to be everywhere spoken of in Italy. The discovery of the movement of the pendulum as a measurement of time, the importance of which was increasingly recognised, combined with his novel and intellectual treatment of physics, by which the phenomena of nature were submitted, as far as possible, to direct proof instead of to the a priori reasoning of the Aristotelians, excited much attention in all scientific circles. Distinguished men of learning, like Clavius at Rome, with whom he had become acquainted on his first visit there in 1587,[18] Michael Coignet at Antwerp, Riccoboni, the Marquis Guidubaldo del Monte, etc., entered into correspondence with him.[19] Intercourse with the latter, a distinguished mathematician, who took the warmest interest in Galileo’s fate, became of the utmost importance to him. It was not merely that to his encouragement he owed the origin of his excellent treatise on the doctrine of centres of gravity, which materially contributed to establish his fame, and even gained for him from Del Monte the name of an “Archimedes of his time,” but he first helped him to secure a settled and honourable position in life. By his opportune recommendation in 1589, the professorship of mathematics at the University of Pisa, just become vacant, was conferred on Galileo, with an income of sixty scudi.[20] It is indicative of the standing of the sciences in those days that, while the professor of medicine had a salary of two thousand scudi, the professor of mathematics had not quite thirty kreuzers[21] a day. Even for the sixteenth century it was very poor pay. Moreover, in accordance with the usage at the Italian Universities, he was only installed for three years; but in Galileo’s needy circumstances, even this little help was very desirable, and his office enabled him to earn a considerable additional income by giving private lessons.
During the time of his professorship at Pisa he made his grand researches into the laws of gravitation, now known under the name of “Galileo’s Laws,” and wrote as the result of them his great treatise “De Motu Gravium.” It then had but a limited circulation in copies, and did not appear in print until two hundred years after his death, in Albèri’s “Opere complete di Galileo Galilei.” Aristotle, nearly two thousand years before, had raised the statement to the rank of a proposition, that the rate at which a body falls depends on its weight. Up to Galileo’s time this doctrine had been generally accepted as true, on the mere word of the old hero of science, although individual physicists, like Varchi in 1544, and Benedetti in 1563, had disputed it, maintaining that bodies of similar density and different weight fall from the same height in an equal space of time. They sought to prove the correctness of this statement by the most acute reasoning, but the idea of experiment did not occur to any one. Galileo, well aware that the touchstone of experiment would discover the vulnerable spot in Aristotelian infallibility, climbed the leaning tower of Pisa, in order thence to prove by experiment, to the discomfiture of the Peripatetic school, the truth of the axiom that the velocity with which a body falls does not depend on its weight but on its density.[22]
It might have been thought that his opponents would strike sail after this decisive argument. Aristotle, the master, would certainly have yielded to it—but his disciples had attained no such humility. They followed the bold experiments of the young professor with eyes askance and miserable sophistries, and, being unable to meet him with his own weapons of scientific research, they eagerly sought an opportunity of showing the impious and dangerous innovator the door of the aula.
An unforeseen circumstance came all at once to their aid in these designs. An illegitimate son of the half-brother of the reigning Grand Duke,—the relationship was somewhat farfetched, but none the less ominous for Galileo—John de’ Medici, took an innocent pleasure in inventing machines, and considered himself a very skilful artificer. This ingenious semi-prince had constructed a monster machine for cleaning the harbour of Leghorn, and proposed that it should be brought into use. But Galileo, who had been commissioned to examine the marvel, declared it to be useless, and, unfortunately, experiment fully confirmed the verdict. Ominous head-shakings were seen among the suite of the deeply mortified inventor. They entered into alliance with the Peripatetic philosophers against their common enemy. There were cabals at court. Galileo, perceiving that his position at Pisa was untenable, voluntarily resigned his professorship before the three years had expired, and migrated for the second time home to Florence.[23]
His situation was now worse than before, for about this time, 2nd July, 1591, his father died after a short illness, leaving his family in very narrow circumstances. In this distress the Marquis del Monte again appeared as a friend in need. Thanks to his warm recommendation to the Senate of the Republic of Venice, in the autumn of 1592 the professorship of mathematics at the University of Padua, which had become vacant, was bestowed on Galileo for six years.[24] On 7th December, 1592, he entered on his office with a brilliant opening address, which won the greatest admiration, not only for its profound scientific knowledge, but for its entrancing eloquence.[25] His lectures soon acquired further fame, and the number of his admirers and the audience who eagerly listened to his, in many respects, novel demonstrations, daily increased.
During his residence at Padua, Galileo displayed an extraordinary and versatile activity. He constructed various machines for the service of the republic, and wrote a number of excellent treatises, intended chiefly for his pupils.[26] Among the larger works may be mentioned his writings on the laws of motion, on fortification, gnomonics (the making of sun-dials), mechanics, and on the celestial globe, which attained a wide circulation even in copies, and were some of them printed long afterwards—the one on fortification not until the present century;[27] others, including the one on gnomonics, are unfortunately lost. On the wide field of inventions two may be specially mentioned, one of which was not fully developed until much later. The first was his proportional circle, which, though it had no special importance as illustrative of any principle, had a wide circulation from its various practical uses. Ten years later, in 1606, Galileo published an excellent didactic work on this subject, dedicated to Cosmo de’ Medici, and in 1607 a polemical one against Balthasar Capra, of Milan, who, in a treatise published in 1607, which was nothing but a plagiarism of Galileo’s work disfigured by blunders, gave himself out as the inventor of the instrument. Galileo’s reply, in which he first exhibited the polemical dexterity afterwards so much dreaded, excited great attention even in lay circles from its masterly satire.[28] The other invention was a contrivance by which heat could be more exactly indicated. Over zealous biographers have therefore hastened to claim for their hero the invention of the thermometer, which, however, is not correct, as the instrument, which was not intended to measure the temperature, could not be logically called a thermometer, but a thermoscope, heat indicator. Undoubtedly it prepared the way by which improvers of the thermoscope arrived at the thermometer.[29]
Before proceeding further with Galileo’s researches and discoveries, so far as they fall within our province, it seems important to acquaint ourselves with his views about the Copernican system. From a letter of his to Mazzoni, of 30th May, 1597,[30] it is clear that he considered the opinions of Pythagoras and Copernicus on the position and motion of the earth to be far more correct than those of Aristotle and Ptolemy. In another letter of 4th August of the same year to Kepler, he thanks him for his work, which he had sent him, on the Mysteries of the Universe,[31] and writes as follows about the Copernican system:—
“I count myself happy, in the search after truth, to have so great an ally as yourself, and one who is so great a friend of the truth itself. It is really pitiful that there are so few who seek truth, and who do not pursue a perverse method of philosophising. But this is not the place to mourn over the miseries of our times, but to congratulate you on your splendid discoveries in confirmation of truth. I shall read your book to the end, sure of finding much that is excellent in it. I shall do so with the more pleasure, because I have been for many years an adherent of the Copernican system, and it explains to me the causes of many of the appearances of nature which are quite unintelligible on the commonly accepted hypothesis. I have collected many arguments for the purpose of refuting the latter; but I do not venture to bring them to the light of publicity, for fear of sharing the fate of our master, Copernicus, who, although he has earned immortal fame with some, yet with very many (so great is the number of fools) has become an object of ridicule and scorn. I should certainly venture to publish my speculations if there were more people like you. But this not being the case, I refrain from such an undertaking.”[32]
In an answer from Grätz, of 13th October of the same year, Kepler urgently begs him to publish his researches into the Copernican system, advising him to bring them out in Germany if he does not receive permission to do so in Italy.[33] In spite of this pressing request of his eminent friend, however, Galileo was not to be induced to bring his convictions to the light yet, a hesitation which may not appear very commendable. But if we consider the existing state of science, which condemned the Copernican system as an unheard of and fantastic hypothesis, and the religious incubus which weighed down all knowledge of nature irrespective of religious belief, and if, besides all this, we remember the entire revolution in the sphere both of religion and science involved in the reception of the Copernican system, we shall be more ready to admit that Galileo had good reason to be cautious. The Copernican cause could not be served by mere partisanship, but only by independent fresh researches to prove its correctness, indeed its irrefragability. Nothing but the fulfilment of these conditions formed a justification, either in a scientific or moral point of view, for taking part in overturning the previous views of the universe.
Before the powerful mind of Copernicus ventured to question it, our earth was held to be the centre of the universe, and about it all the rest of the heavenly bodies revolved. There was but one “world,” and that was our earth; the whole firmament, infinity, was the fitting frame to the picture, upon which man, as the most perfect being, held a position which was truly sublime. It was an elevating thought that you were on the centre, the only fixed point amidst countless revolving orbs! The narrations in the Bible, and the character of the Christian religion as a whole, fitted this conception exceedingly well; or, more properly speaking, were made to fit it. The creation of man, his fall, the flood, and our second venerable ancestor, Noah, with his ark in which the continuation of races was provided for, the foundation of the Christian religion, the work of redemption;—all this could only lay claim to universal importance so long as the earth was the centre of the universe, the only world. Then all at once a learned man makes the annihilating assertion that our world was not the centre of the universe, but revolved itself, was but an insignificant part of the vast, immeasurable system of worlds. What had become of the favoured status of the earth? And this indefinite number of bodies, equally favoured by nature, were they also the abodes of men? The bare possibility of a number of inhabited worlds could but imperil the first principles of Christian philosophy.
The system of the great Copernicus, however, thanks to the anonymous preface to his famous work, “De Revolutionibus Orbium Cœlestium,” had not, up to this time, assumed to be a correct theory, but only a hypothesis, which need not be considered even probable, as it was only intended to facilitate astronomical calculations. We know now that this was a gigantic mistake, that the immortal astronomer had aimed at rectifying the Ptolemaic confusion, and was fully convinced of the correctness of his system; we know that this unprincipled Introduction is by no means to be attributed to Copernicus, but to Andreas Osiander, who took part in publishing this book, which formed so great an epoch in science, and whose anxious soul thereby desired to appease the anticipated wrath of the theologians and philosophers. And we know further that the founder of our present system of the universe, although he handled the first finished copy of his imperishable work when he was dying, was unable to look into it, being already struck by paralysis, and thus never knew of Osiander’s weak-minded Introduction, which had prudently not been submitted to him.[34]
A few days after receiving a copy of the great work of his genius, Copernicus died, on 24th May, 1543; and his system, for which he had been labouring and striving all his life, was, in consequence of Osiander’s sacrilegious act, reduced to a simple hypothesis intended to simplify astronomical calculations! As such it did not in the least endanger the faith of the Church. Even Pope Paul III., to whom Copernicus had dedicated his work, received it “with pleasure.” In 1566 a second edition appeared at Basle, and still it did not excite any opposition from the Church. It was not till 1616, when it had met with wide acceptance among the learned, when its correctness had been confirmed by fresh facts, and it had begun to be looked upon as true, that the Roman curia felt moved to condemn the work of Copernicus until it had been corrected (donec corrigantur).
Having thus rapidly glanced at the opposition between the Copernican system and the Ptolemaic, which forms the prelude to Galileo’s subsequent relations with Rome, we are at liberty to fulfil the task we have set ourselves, namely, to portray “Galileo and the Roman Curia.”
CHAPTER II.THE TELESCOPE AND ITS REVELATIONS.
Term of Professorship at Padua renewed.—Astronomy.—A New Star.—The Telescope.—Galileo not the Inventor.—Visit to Venice to exhibit it.—Telescopic Discoveries.—Jupiter’s Moons.—Request of Henry IV.—“Sidereus Nuncius.”—The Storm it raised.—Magini’s attack on Galileo.—The Ring of Saturn.—An Anagram.—Opposition of the Aristotelian School.—Letter to Kepler.
The first six years of Galileo’s professorship at Padua had passed away, but the senate were eager to retain so bright a light for their University, and prolonged the appointment of the professor, whose renown was now great, for another six years, with a considerable increase of salary.[35]
As we have seen, he had for a long time renounced the prevailing views about the universe; but up to this time he had discussed only physical mathematical questions with the Peripatetic school, the subject of astronomy had not been mooted. But the sudden appearance of a new star in the constellation of Serpentarius, in October, 1604, which, after exhibiting various colours for a year and a half, as suddenly disappeared, induced him openly to attack one of the Aristotelian doctrines hitherto held most sacred, that of the unchangeableness of the heavens. Galileo demonstrated, in three lectures to a numerous audience, that this star was neither a mere meteor, nor yet a heavenly body which had before existed but had only now been observed, but a body which had recently appeared and had again vanished.[36] The subject, though not immediately connected with the Copernican question, was an important step taken on the dangerous and rarely trodden path of knowledge of nature, uninfluenced by dogmatism or petrified professorial wisdom. This inviolability of the vault of heaven was also conditioned by the prevailing views of the universe. What wonder then that most of the professors who had grown grey in the Aristotelian doctrine (Cremonio for instance, Coressio, Lodovico delle Colombo, and Balthasar Capra) were incensed at these opinions of Galileo, so opposed to all their scientific prepossessions, and vehemently controverted them.
The spark, however, which was to set fire to the abundant inflammable material, and to turn the scientific and religious world, in which doubt had before been glimmering, into a veritable volcano, the spark which kindled Galileo’s genius and made him for a long time the centre of that period of storm and stress, was the discovery of the telescope.
We will not claim for Galileo, as many of his biographers have erroneously done, priority in the construction of the telescope. We rely far more on Galileo’s own statements than on those of his eulogists, who aim at effect. Galileo relates with perfect simplicity at the beginning of the “Sidereus Nuncius,” published at Venice in 1610, that he had heard about ten months ago that an instrument had been made by a Dutchman, by means of which distant objects were brought nearer and could be seen very plainly. The confirmation of the report by one of his former pupils, a French nobleman, Jean Badovere of Paris, had induced him to reflect upon the means by which such an effect could be produced. By the laws of refraction he soon attained his end. With two glasses fixed at the ends of a leaden tube, both having one side flat and the other side of the one being concave and of the other convex, his primitive telescope, which made objects appear three times nearer and nine times larger, was constructed. But now, having “spared neither expense nor labour,” he had got so far as to construct an instrument which magnified an object nearly a thousand times, and brought it more than thirty times nearer.[37] Although, therefore, it is clear from this that the first idea of the telescope does not belong to Galileo, it is equally clear that he found out how to construct it from his own reflection and experiments. Undoubtedly also the merit of having made great improvements in it belongs to him, which is shown by the fact that at that time, and long afterwards, his telescopes were the most sought after, and that he received numerous orders for them from learned men, princes and governments in distant lands, Holland, the birthplace of the telescope, not excepted.[38] But the idea which first gave to the instrument its scientific importance, the application of it to astronomical observations, belongs not to the original inventor but to the genius of Galileo. This alone would have made his name immortal.[39]
A few days after he had constructed his instrument, imperfect as it doubtless was, he hastened with it to Venice, having received an invitation, to exhibit it to the doge and senate, for he at once recognised its importance, if not to the full extent. We will now let Galileo speak for himself in a letter which he wrote from Venice to his brother-in-law, Benedetto Landucci:—
“You must know then that about two months ago a report was spread here that in Flanders a spy-glass had been presented to Prince Maurice, so ingeniously constructed that it made the most distant objects appear quite near, so that a man could be seen quite plainly at a distance of two miglia. This result seemed to me so extraordinary that it set me thinking; and as it appeared to me that it depended upon the theory of perspective, I reflected on the manner of constructing it, in which I was at length so entirely successful that I made a spy-glass which far surpasses the report of the Flanders one. As the news had reached Venice that I had made such an instrument, six days ago I was summoned before their highnesses the signoria, and exhibited it to them, to the astonishment of the whole senate. Many noblemen and senators, although of a great age, mounted the steps of the highest church towers at Venice, in order to see sails and shipping that were so far off that it was two hours before they were seen steering full sail into the harbour without my spy-glass, for the effect of my instrument is such that it makes an object fifty miglia off appear as large and near as if it were only five.”[40]
Galileo further relates in the same letter that he had presented one of his instruments to the senate, in return for which his professorship at Padua had been conferred on him for life, with an increase of salary to one thousand florins.[41]
On his return to Padua he became eagerly engrossed in telescopic observation of the heavens. The astonishing and sublime discoveries which were disclosed to him must in any case have possessed the deepest interest for the philosopher who was continually seeking to solve nature’s problems, and were all the more so, since they contributed materially to confirm the Copernican theory.
His observations were first directed to the moon, and he discovered that its surface was mountainous, which showed at all events that the earth’s satellite was something like the earth itself, and therefore by no means restored it to the aristocratic position in the universe from which it had been displaced by Copernicus. The milky way, as seen through the telescope, revealed an immense number of small stars. In Orion, instead of the seven heavenly bodies already known, five hundred new stars were seen; the number of the Pleiades, which had been fixed at seven, rose to thirty-six; the planets showed themselves as disks, while the fixed stars appeared as before, as mere bright specks in the firmament.
But the indefatigable observer’s far most important discovery, in its bearing on the Copernican theory, was that of the moons of Jupiter, in January 1610. As they exhibited motions precisely similar to those which Copernicus had assumed for the whole solar system, they strongly fortified his theory. It was placed beyond all doubt that our planet was not the centre of all the heavenly bodies, since Jupiter’s moons revolved round him. The latter was brought, so to speak, by the discovery of his attendants, into relations with the earth which, considering the prevailing views, were humiliating enough, and the more so since Jupiter had four satellites while the earth had only one. There remained, however, the consoling assurance that he and they revolved round our abode!
In honour of the reigning house of his native country, and as an acknowledgment of favours received from it (for since the accession of Cosmo II.[42] Galileo had been in high favour), he called Jupiter’s moons “Medicean stars.” The urgent solicitude of the French court to gain, by Galileo’s aid, a permanent place on the chart of the heavens, is very amusing. Thus, on 20th April, 1610, he received a pressing request, “in case he discovered any other fine star, to call it after the great star of France, Henry IV., then reigning, the most brilliant in the whole universe, and to give it his proper name of Henry rather than that of the family name of Bourbon.” Galileo communicated this flattering request, as he seems to have considered it, with much satisfaction to the secretary of the Tuscan court, Vincenzo Giugni, in a letter from Padua, on 25th June, 1610,[43] as an evidence of the great importance attached to his telescopic discoveries. He added that he did not expect to find any more planets, as he had already made many very close observations.
Galileo published by degrees all the discoveries he had made at Padua, of which we have only noticed the most important, in the work before mentioned, the “Sidereus Nuncius”; it was dedicated to the Grand Duke, Cosmo II., and the first edition appeared at Venice, in March, 1610.
Although the unexpected discoveries which Galileo had made with his telescope had confirmed his opinion that the system of Copernicus was the only one consistent with the facts of nature, had indeed made it his absolute conviction, he had not yet ventured to defend it in his works. He contented himself with stating bare facts, without showing their relation to the ideas of Copernicus, leaving this to the learning and insight of the reader. Moreover, the logical inferences from Jupiter’s moons must surely stare every thoughtful man in the face, and so indeed they did in a way very unwelcome to the scientific conservatives.
The storm raised by Galileo’s latest announcements was tremendous. People heard with amazement the extraordinary things which the new invention had brought to light, and paid a just tribute of admiration to the man to whose labours it was due. But these discoveries were so directly opposed to the traditional natural philosophy, still regarded as the highest wisdom, that the “Sidereus Nuncius” had met with many opponents. It must however be borne in mind that at the time of its first publication very few of the learned were in a position to convince themselves with their own eyes of the correctness of the appearances seen with the telescope, simply because they had not the instrument at hand. From this cause, even Kepler did not see the satellites of Jupiter till 30th August, 1610. But men so free from jealousy and prejudice as Kepler (who, on reading the “Sidereus Nuncius,” at once recognised the truth of the discoveries, and said with enthusiasm that “Galileo had in this book given evidence of the divinity of his genius”[44]), have at all times been rare.
At first, therefore, the majority of the learned world shook their heads incredulously about the phenomena announced by the “Nuncius,” especially in Italy, where envy lent its aid to bring an armed opposition into the field. Little did it at first avail that Kepler, renowned as the first astronomer in Germany, was on the side of the “Sidereus Nuncius”; for in May of the same year he had a reprint of the work issued at Prague, with an introduction in which he expressed his entire conviction of the truth of the telescopic discoveries made known by it, and answered all objections.[45] In vain. These new discoveries were too revolutionary to be believed. Even upright and estimable scientific men, like Welser in Augsburg, and Clavius at Rome, did not give credit to Galileo’s statements until they learnt better by their own observations. The latter, who was the first mathematician in Rome in his day, even said “he laughed at the pretended satellites of Jupiter; you must construct a telescope which would first make them and then show them.” Let Galileo hold his own opinions, and he (Clavius) would hold his.[46]
But the leader of an unworthy agitation in Italy against Galileo was a man who assumed this attitude from very different motives from the sacred service of science. This was the well-known Professor Magini, astronomer at the university of Bologna, who, next to Galileo, enjoyed the highest reputation for learning in Italy. He could not brook that his famous countryman should all at once obtain the highest fame with seven-league boots, leaving a pigmy like himself far behind, by means of the discoveries made known in his “Sidereus Nuncius.” He must not only be refuted, the refutation must be circulated as widely as possible. But the most repulsive feature in Magini’s conduct towards Galileo is his double-facedness. He never openly ventured with any work into the arena himself, but incited others all the more from behind concealment.[47] Even if we do not, with Martin Hasdal and Alexander Sertini, accuse him of being exactly the instigator of the famous libel “Peregrinatio contra Nuncium Sidereum,” published by his assistant, Martin Horky, against Galileo in 1610, which excited the indignation of all the right-minded learned world, we cannot acquit him of complicity with him, and of having had a hand, more or less, in that pamphlet. The suspicion is strongly confirmed by the ostentation with which Magini, when told of the publication of the “Peregrinatio,” drove the author, with disgust and ridicule, out of his house, and took occasion to assert on all hands that he had nothing whatever to do with the shameful act of his famulus, an assertion in strange contradiction with the excuse afterwards made by Horky to Kepler.[48] By Kepler’s advice Galileo did not do him the honour of answering. The task was undertaken by Wedderburn, a Scotchman, formerly a pupil of Galileo’s, and Antonio Roffeni, professor of philosophy at the university of Bologna; the former at Padua during the same year, the latter at Bologna in 1611.[49]
Meanwhile, in July, 1610, Galileo had observed a new appearance in the heavens by means of his telescope, the ring of Saturn. In consequence, however, of the imperfection of the instrument, it did not appear like a ring, but Saturn looked like a triple star. Galileo, who on the one hand did not wish to make the new discovery public until he had sufficiently observed it, yet feared on the other that some one might claim priority, at once communicated it in a letter from Padua, 30th July, 1610,[50] to his influential friend Belisario Vinta, chief secretary of state to Cosmo II., but urgently begged him to keep it a secret. But even this did not seem sufficient to secure his right to the first observation of Saturn, so he announced it to his friends in the following absurd anagram:—
SMAJSMRMJLMEPOETALEVNJPVNENVGTTAVJRAS.
Kepler puzzled for a long time over this enigma, and at last only made out the barbaric line, “Salve umbistineum geminatum Martia proles,” which he incorrectly applied to the planet Mars. At length, after repeated requests, and after Julian de’ Medici, Tuscan ambassador at the Imperial court, had been charged by the Emperor to ask for a solution, he complied with the illustrious wish, and in a letter to Julian of 13th November, 1610,[51] gave the following startling explanation:—
Altissimum Planetam tergeminum observavi.
The learned and semi-learned world of Italy had not yet had time to become reconciled to the surprising discoveries announced in the “Sidereus Nuncius” of March in the same year, when the asserted triple nature of Saturn contravened the prevailing idea that there was nothing new to be discovered in the heavens. The recognition of Galileo’s telescopic discoveries made way very slowly. From the first he spared no pains in popularising them. He did this repeatedly in public lectures, and with so much success that he could write to Vinta: “even the most exalted personages, who have been most vehement in attacking my doctrines, at length gave up the game for lost, and acknowledged, coram populo, that they were not only convinced but ready to defend them against those philosophers and mathematicians who ventured to attack them.”[52]
But it was only at the University of Padua that Galileo could report such rapid progress; and until the Maginis, Clavios, and others were convinced by their own eyes, and confirmed to their own party the truth of Galileo’s disclosures, he had to sustain a hard struggle with incredulity, malice, and peripatetic fanaticism. Some rabid Aristotelians went so far as to say that Galileo’s telescope was so constructed as to show things that did not exist! Nor did it mend the matter much when he offered 10,000 scudi to any one who should construct so cunning an instrument.[53] Others resolutely refused even to look through the telescope, giving it as their firm conviction that they would not be able to see appearances which Aristotle had not said a word about in all his books! The answer that Aristotle was not acquainted with the telescope, and could not have known anything of telescopic appearances, rebounded without effect from the petrified infallibility of Aristotelian wisdom. Nor must it be supposed that these short-sighted conservatives only numbered a few would-be savans of the Peripatetic school; on the contrary, celebrities like Cesare Cremonino da Cento, and Julius Libri, denied Galileo’s discoveries a priori.[54] When Libri died in December, 1610, without having been willing to look through a telescope, and protesting against Galileo’s “absurdities,” Galileo wrote in a letter of 17th December that this rigid opponent of his “absurdities,” as he was never willing to look at them from earth, might perhaps see them on his way to heaven![55]
Some passages from a letter of Galileo’s to Kepler, of 19th August, 1610, will best show how some of these men of science turned away with a righteous awe from the inconvenient recognition of the truth. Galileo writes among other things:—
“You are the first and almost the only person who, even after but a cursory investigation, has, such is your openness of mind and lofty genius, given entire credit to my statements.... We will not trouble ourselves about the abuse of the multitude, for against Jupiter even giants, to say nothing of pigmies, fight in vain. Let Jupiter stand in the heavens, and let the sycophants bark at him as they will.... In Pisa, Florence, Bologna, Venice, and Padua many have seen the planets; but all are silent on the subject and undecided, for the greater number recognise neither Jupiter nor Mars and scarcely the moon as planets. At Venice one man spoke against me, boasting that he knew for certain that my satellites of Jupiter, which he had several times observed, were not planets because they were always to be seen with Jupiter, and either all or some of them, now followed and now preceded him. What is to be done? Shall we side with Democritus or Heraclitus? I think, my Kepler, we will laugh at the extraordinary stupidity of the multitude. What do you say to the leading philosophers of the faculty here, to whom I have offered a thousand times of my own accord to show my studies, but who with the lazy obstinacy of a serpent who has eaten his fill have never consented to look at planets, nor moon, nor telescope? Verily, just as serpents close their ears, so do these men close their eyes to the light of truth. These are great matters; yet they do not occasion me any surprise. People of this sort think that philosophy is a kind of book like the Æneid or the Odyssey, and that the truth is to be sought, not in the universe, not in nature, but (I use their own words) by comparing texts! How you would laugh if you heard what things the first philosopher of the faculty at Pisa brought against me in the presence of the Grand Duke, for he tried, now with logical arguments, now with magical adjurations, to tear down and argue the new planets out of heaven.”[56]
CHAPTER III.REMOVAL TO FLORENCE.
Galileo’s Fame and Pupils.—Wishes to be freed from Academic Duties.—Projected Works.—Call to Court of Tuscany.—This change the source of his Misfortunes.—Letter from Sagredo.—Phases of Venus and Mercury.—The Solar Spots.—Visit to Rome.—Triumphant Reception.—Letter from Cardinal del Monte to Cosmo II.—The Inquisition.—Introduction of Theology into the Scientific Controversy.—“Dianoja Astronomica.”—Intrigues at Florence.
Galileo’s fame, especially through his telescopic discoveries, and partly also through the exertions of his noisy opponents, had long extended beyond the narrow bounds of Italy, and the eyes of all central Europe were directed to the great astronomer. Numbers of pupils flocked to him from all countries, so that no lecture room in Padua was large enough to hold them. There were some distinguished personages among them, such as the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, the princes of Alsace, Mantua, etc., who mostly came to attend the lectures of the versatile master on fortification. It is, however, another fable of over zealous biographers to state that even Gustavus Adolphus, the hero of the thirty years’ war, went to school for some months to Galileo.[57]
This close occupation, with lectures and private lessons of all kinds, took him too much away from his own studies, and after twenty years’ professorship Galileo longed for a post in which he could prosecute his own researches, and devote himself to the completion of his works, free from academic duties. A letter from Padua, even in the spring of 1609,[58] shows his longing for this salaried leisure. But he is aware that the republic can never offer him such a post, “for it would not be suitable to receive a salary from a free state, however generous and magnanimous, without serving the public for it; because if you derive benefit from the public, you have the public to please, and not a mere private person.” He also mentions that he can only hope for such a favour from some absolute sovereign; but it must not be supposed that he wishes for an income without doing anything for it; he was in possession of various inventions, was almost daily making new ones, and should make more if he had the necessary leisure. Galileo adds that it has always been his intention “to offer them to his own sovereign and natural lord before any other, that he may dispose of them and the inventor according to his pleasure; and if it seemed good to his serene highness to accept it, to present him not only with the jewel but with the casket also.”
This first attempt of Galileo’s, however, to gain a footing at the court of Tuscany seems to have been unsuccessful. At any rate in the extant correspondence of this period there is not a word more on the subject; and a few months later, after the construction of the telescope, he thankfully accepted the chair of mathematics at Padua offered to him for life by the republic. But this invention and the consequent discoveries had meanwhile acquired such vast importance, and had, as we have seen, raised such a storm in the whole educated world, that it now appeared very desirable to the court of Tuscany to attach to itself for ever the man on whom the eyes of scientific Europe were fixed.
The first steps towards this end were taken when Galileo went to Florence in the Easter recess of 1610 to show his telescopic discoveries to Cosmo II., especially the stars which bore the name of the reigning house. We afterwards find Galileo entering eagerly into the negotiations which followed. In the letter to Vinta before mentioned, of May 7th, 1610, he presses for a decision, for, he says, observing that day after day goes by, he was determined to set a definite purpose before him in the ordering of the life that may be left to him, and to devote all his powers to perfect the fruits of his previous efforts and studies, from which he might look for some fame. He then mentions the conditions on which he at present serves the republic, perhaps in order that they might be guided by it at Florence; but what he lays most stress on is that it is of the utmost moment to him that leisure should be assured him for the completion of his labours, by his being freed from the obligation to give public lectures; but it will always confer on him the highest honour to give lectures to his sovereign, to whom also he will dedicate all his writings.
The same letter is also of the highest interest as giving us an insight into the scientific projects he was then cherishing. He communicates to the Tuscan secretary of state the works the completion of which lies so near his heart. He says:—
“The works which I have to finish are chiefly two books de systemate, seu constitutione universi, a vast project full of philosophy, astronomy, and geometry; three books de motu locali, an entirely new science, for no other inquirer, ancient or modern, has discovered any of the wonderful phenomena which I show to be present in natural and induced motion; I may therefore with perfect justice call it a new science discovered by me from its first principles; three books on mechanics, two relating to the demonstration of the principles and fundamental propositions, one containing the problems; although others have treated of the same subject, what has been hitherto written upon it is neither as to extent nor in other respects a fourth part of what I am writing. I have also various smaller works in view on matters connected with nature, such as de sono et voce, de visu et coloribus, de maris æstu, de compositione continui, de animalium motibus, and others. I am also thinking of writing some books for the soldier, not only to cultivate his mind, but to teach him by select instruction all those things connected with mathematics which it would be an advantage to him to
