Galileo

Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa, Italy. His father, Vincenzo Galilei, was a cloth merchant and respected musician who came from a once prominent family in Florence. He was forty four when Galileo was born. Giulia Ammannati was Galileo’s mother and she was twenty eight when Galileo was born. Three major forces shaped Galileo’s life, his love for mathematics and astronomy, the change in the cultural climate, and his great confrontation against the Catholic Church.
Galileo’s father originally wanted his son to become a doctor so he could support the family. However, Galileo’s great interest in mathematics and astronomy eventually won his fathers grudging support and he continued to study math at he University of Pisa until 1585 when he skipped the finals and left the University without a degree. During this time Galileo completed some research and experiments that led to his first theorem. The theorem said that an object balances on its center of gravity. The calculation to find this center of gravity is a robust mathematical problem. This theory was used to help improve the calculations used to find the center of gravity of solids. Galileo sent his theorem to Guidobaldo Del Monte. Monte recognized his talents and sought positions for him to teach math full time at the University of Pisa. Galileo’s teaching duties weren’t very heavy and in his spare time he used the resources at the University to begin applying the methods of Archimedes to the study of moving bodies. The conclusion he came up with was that acceleration takes place continuously from the moment of release and that all bodies fall at the same rate. Galileo wasn’t a big fan of Aristotle. He refused to accept his ideas merely on the say-so of his fellow professors, and he argued against the ancient Aristotelian traditions that they lived by. Because he contradicted Aristotle, he was not in good favor with his professors, and when his three year contract at the University came up for renewal, it was not renewed. Although he occasionally found brief jobs as a private tutor, Galileo continued to study and experiment with math and extend the ideas he had learned. He was introduced to the writings of Archimedes and was able to apply it to concrete objects like levers and floating bodies. Galileo was the first person to study the heavens with a telescope, and what he found “rocked the very foundations of Aristotle’s universe and the theological philosophical worldview that it supported.” Galileo’s initial adoption of the telescope was for financial reasons. He saw it as an instrument he could profitably manufacture and would use the money to help support his family. With this telescope he became the first person to observe the surface of the sun in detail and saw that there were dark patches on it, or sunspots. He confirmed the movement of these sunspots which led to the conclusion that the sun rotates on an axis. The proof that the sun rotated on an axis made it less strange that the earth too, might rotate on an axis, as required in the Copernican model that Galileo supported. He also discovered one of the most important observations in human history; that Venus went through phases like the moon. It was so important because it provided the first conclusive observational proof that was consistent with the Copernican system and not the Ptolemaic system. Galileo was fascinated with the number of stars that he saw with his telescope. With this fascination he founded the Milky Way Galaxy. Not only that but he observed four points of light orbiting Jupiter. He concluded that these were the four brightest moons on Jupiter, now more commonly known as the Galilean moons. Another observation he made concerning moons was that there were mountains and craters on Earths moon and that it wasn’t smooth, as had originally been assumed. Galileo noticed a slight bulge on either side of Saturn, growing smaller and then larger, over time. He thought the planet had ears since his telescope was not strong enough to distinguish that they were actually the rings of Saturn. These discoveries led him to consider an infinitely more complex universe than scripture presented. All these findings were published in his book Siderius Nuncius.
Siderius Nuncius was just one of the many books Galileo wrote, and with the new change in printing culture, books were accessible to every class, not only those with enough money to spare. Previously, people had only been able to gather most of their information from lectures and sermons, but now, books like Galileo’s Starry Messenger, were found everywhere. Starry Messenger recounted some of the early discoveries of the premier Italian Renaissance scientists, highlighting in particular Galileo’s use of the telescope in tracking the movement of the stars and planets. With these new opportunities he built an audience for his work. He sparked an interest in the people in the vision of science and the world that went beyond limited intellectual circles. People were ready to receive and act upon the thoughts of scientists and mathematicians like Galileo. Society was more empowered by newfound commerce and money, although one thing didn’t change. People continued to be very religious, and that had an effect on what Galileo was trying to get across. The findings in his Starry Messenger proved very controversial and it was one of the many things that brought him into conflict with the Catholic Church. The Church officials believed that his scientific findings undermined biblical teachings and accepted Catholic doctrine at the time. Galileo’s most controversial work was his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican. The book deals with an imaginary discussion between three men, Salviati, Sagredo, and Simplicio. Salviati is an intellectual who seems to speak for Galileo. Sagredo is a wealthy nobleman who seeks the truth. Simplicio is an Aristotelian philosopher who puts up ineffectual arguments for Salviati to knock down. Throughout the book they discuss the evidence for and against the Copernican and Ptolemaic views of the world over a period of four days. Galileo originally received the Catholic Church’s approval for the publication of the book, but it ended up on the banned book list shortly after its publication. This book was the cause of the confrontation between Galileo and the Church.
Galileo’s epic confrontation with the Roman Catholic Church was brought along by his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican, which talked about the place of the earth in the universe. Galileo embraced the theories of Nicholas Copernicus, which rejected Ptolemy’s views that the earth was at the center of the universe, and stated instead that the sun was at the center. On October 1, 1632 the Office of Inquisition summoned him to present himself to the Holy Office in Rome. On February 13, 1633, Galileo made his journey to Rome and took up lodging in Villa Medici. He was deeply sorrowed and the only consolation he had, to finally be able to defend his science and theology, was crushed when he found out that the merits of his case had already been decided; all he could do was submit. Galileo officially surrendered to the Holy Office on April 12. Weeks passed as debates raged on what they should do with the old, weak and sickly Galileo. Finally it was decided that the Commissary would meet with Galileo and convince him to admit his errors in return for a more lenient sentence. After many arguments between Galileo and the Commissary, the Commissary was finally able to persuade Galileo that he had erred and gone too far in his book. Even though many people in the Church shared Galileo’s view that his idea was likely true, he was convicted and sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life.
In 1637 Galileo went blind. Despite his declining health and the churches attempts to diminish his stature, his fame grew. He was visited by prestigious intellectual figures towards the end of his life and then lived the last few years in relative isolation. He died on January 8, 1642 in Arcetri, Italy. Three major forces, Galileo’s love for mathematics, the change in the cultural climate, and his great confrontation against the church, made Galileo the legendary man he is today.