Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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Brief History of Galileo Galilei
Galileo was born in Pisa, 18th of February, 1564; died the 8th of January, 1642. His parents were Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati. His father, Vicenzo, belonged to a noble family of strained fortune, and had gained some distinction as a musician and mathematician. He died leaving his oldest son, Galileo, with heavy financial responsibilities but no assests.
As a boy, Galileo was tutored in Pisa. When his family moved to Florence in 1575, Galileo went to the school of the monastery at Vallombrosa. He entered the order as a novice in about 1578, but did not pursue the clerical life. He enrolled in Pisa in 1581 as a medical student, but, much to his parents dismay, left without a degree. Galileo was attracted to mathematics and studied under Ostillio Ricci in 1583. After he left Pisa, he studied mathematics privately.
Galileo combined experiment with calculation. He opposed the prevailing system according to which, instead of going directly to nature for investigation of her laws and processes, it was held that these were best learned by authority. He not only discredited many beliefs which had hitherto been accepted as indisputable, but aroused a storm of opposition and indignation amongst those whose opinions he discredited.
Although Galileo is chiefly remembered as an astronomer, it was not as such that he really made substantial contributions to human knowledge, but rather in the field of mechanics and especially dynamics. Before he was twenty, observations of oscillations of a swinging lamp in the cathedral of Pisa led him to the discovery of the isochronism of the pendulum, which theory he utilized fifty years later in the construction of an astronomical clock.
In 1588, a treatise on the centre of gravity in solids obtained for him the title of the Archimedes of his time, and secured him a lecture-ship in the University of Pisa. Galileo later found it prudent to quit Pisa and betake himself to Florence.
By the influence of friends with the Venetian Senate he was nominated in 1592 to the chair of mathematics in the University of Padua, which he occupied for eighteen years. He afterwords betook himself to Florence, being appointed philosopher and mathematician extraordinary to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. During the whole of this period, and to the close of his life, his investigation of Nature, in all her fields, was unwearied. Following up his experiments at Pisa, Galileo established the laws of falling bodies as they are still formulated. He likewise demonstrated the laws of projectiles, and largely anticipated the laws of motion as finally established by Newton.
Four years after coming to Rome in 1611, where he was received in triumph, trouble arose. The ecclesiastical authorities took alarm at the persistence with which Galileo proclaimed the truth of the Copernican doctrine. They were firmly convinced that the new teaching was radically false. But what, more than all, raised alarm was the anxiety for the credit of Holy Scripture. When it spoke of the sun staying his course at the prayer of Joshua, or the earth as being ever immovable, it was assumed that the doctrine of Copernicus and Galileo was anti-Scriptural; and therefore heretical.
In these circumstances, Galileo, hearing that some had denounced his doctrine as anti-Scriptural, presented himself to Rome in December, 1615, and was courteously received. He was presently interrogated before the Inquisition, which after consultation declared the system he upheld to scientifically false, and anti-Scriptural or heretical, and that he must renounce it. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that, while there was yet no sufficient proof of the Copernican system, no objection was made to its being taught as an hypothesis which explained all phenomenal in a simpler manner than the Ptolemaic, and might for all practical purposes be adapted by astronomers.
After his return to Florence, Galileo set himself to compose the work which revived and aggravated all former animosities. This was published in 1632, and was taken by the Roman authorities as a direct challenge. He was therefore again cited before the Inquisition and condemned as "vehemently suspected of heresy: to incarceration at the pleasure of the tribunal and to recite Seven Penitential Psalms once a week for three years. Under the sentence of imprisonment Galileo remained till his death in 1642 at the age of 78.
Galileo and the Church
Galileo's belief about the universe differed from the Catholic Church and in 1632 he was called before the Inquisition. Galileo believed that the sun was the center of the universe and the church believed that the earth was the center of the universe. Galileo's belief went against every thing the church believed so they charged him with heresy and sentenced him to life in prison.
The following is the churches declaration.
"The text of the condemnation reads: 'We say, pronounce, sentence and declare that you, Galileo, by reason of these things which have been detailed in the trial and which you have confessed already, have rendered yourself according to this Holy Office vehemently suspect of heresy, namely of having held and believed a doctrine that is false and contrary to the divine and Holy Scripture: namely that Sun is the centre of the world and does not move from east to west, and that one may hold and defend as probable an opinion after it has been declared and defined contrary to Holy Scripture. Consequently, you have incurred all the censures and penalties enjoined and promulgated by the sacred Canons and all particular and general laws against such delinquents. We are willing to absolve you from them provided that first, with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, in our presence you abjure, curse and detest the said errors and heresies, and every other error and heresy contrary to the Catholic and Apostolic Church in the manner and form we will prescribe to you. Furthermore, so that this grievous and pernicious error and transgression of yours may not go altogether unpunished, and so that you will be more cautious in future, and an example for others to abstain from delinquencies of this sort, we order that the book Dialogue of Galileo Galilei be prohibited by public edict. We condemn you to formal imprisonment in this Holy Office at our pleasure. As a salutary penance we impose on you to recite the seven penitential psalms once a week for the next three years. And we reserve to ourselves the power of moderating, commuting, or taking off, the whole or part of the said penalties and penances. This we say, pronounce, sentence, declare, order and reserve by this or any other better manner or form that we reasonably can or shall think of. So we the undersigned Cardinals pronounce:
F. Cardinal of Ascoli
B. Cardinal Gessi
G. Cardinal Bentivoglio
F. Cardinal Verospi
Fr. D. Cardinal of Cremona
M. Cardinal Ginetti
Fr. Ant. s Cardinal of. S. Onofrio'".
In response to their accusation Galileo wrote the following abjuration to the Inquisition:
"I, Galileo, son of the late Vinceno Galilei of Florence, being 70 years old [...], swear that I have always believed, believe now and, with God's help, will in the future believe all that the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church doth hold, preach and teach. But since, after having been admonished by this Holy Office entirely to abandon the false opinion that the sun is the centre of the Universe and immovable, and that the Earth is not the centre of the same and that it moves, and that I was neither to hold, defend, nor teach in any manner whatsoever, either orally or in writing, the said false doctrine; and after having received a notification that the said doctrine is contrary to Holy Writ, I wrote and published a book in which I treat this condemned doctrine and bring forward very persuasive arguments in its favour without answering them: I have been judged vehemently suspected of heresy, that is of having held and believed that the Sun is at the centre of the Universe and immovable, and that the Earth is not at the centre and that it moves. Therefore, wishing to remove from the minds of your Eminences and all faithful Christians this vehement suspicion reasonably conceived against me, I abjure with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith these errors and heresies, and I curse and detest them as well as any other error, heresy or sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church. And I swear that for the future I shall neither say nor assert orally or in writing such things as may bring upon me similar suspicions; and if I know any heretic, or one suspected of heresy, I will denounce him to this Holy Office, or to the Inquisitor or Ordinary of the place in which I may be."
Even though Galileo abjured he was imprisoned. He was held under imprisonment from 1632 until his death in 1642. During his imprisonment he was not held in a jail; he was allowed to stay in friends houses and places such as that. So, you could say that he was not really imprisoned after all but he was still unable to publish the book about his theories. It was not until last year that the church acknowledged that Galileo's ideas about the universe had been true.
Timeline of Galileo's Discoveries and Inventions
1581- Galileo formulated the isochronism of the pendulum.
Galileo was very interested in the motion of the pendulum bob because it posed many interesting problems. Does the weight of the bob have any effect on the period? Does the length have an effect? Throughout many experiments and a lot of thought, he came to the conclusion that the pendulum could be used for timing purposes. Music students could use the pendulum for a metronome to keep their music in correct time. Also, it could possibly be used to keep time by means of hours, minutes, and seconds.
1586- Galileo prooved Aristotle's theory of falling bodies wrong.
Galileo tested this theory in a strange but practicle way. He is said to have climbed to the top of the leaning tower of pisa and dropped two cannon balls off at the exact same time, one of the balls ten times heavier that the other. The two balls hit the ground at the exact same split second prooving that aristotle's theory was wrong. This was the experiment that killed Aristotelian physics.
1593- Galileo invented the water pump.
In 1593, Galileo was asked about ores in galleys. After some thought, he came up with the idea to put the ore as a level and make the water the fulcrum. A year later he was granted a patent for this device of raising water by means of one horse.
1597- Galileo started to invent the compass.
This instrument is considered a sophisticated calculating device. It performs several geometric and arithmetic operations by comparing the sides of similar triangles. It consists of two arms hinged by a round disc to open and close the arms.
1611- Galileo improves the telescope.
Galileo improved an instrument called the telescope out of a combination two lenses (one concave and one convex) and a long tube. The concave and convex lenses were both placed inside the long tube. This gave the telescope twenty times greater the magnification that the old telescope had. Now the telescope could look at the stars. This allowed Galileo to discover the four largest moons of Jupiter, find out that the milky way was made out of all stars, and through this telescope he could tell that there were craters and mountains on the moon.
1612- Galileo prooved that there are really sunspots on the sun.
When Galileo first tried to explain to the world that there were spots on the sun, he was shunned by the church. The church believed that the sun was a part of the heavens so it had to be perfect. It could not have these hideuos spots on it. In an attempt to make all things right with the church again, Christoph Scheiner claimed that these spots were merely undiscovered planets floating in front of the sun. Galileo prooved Scheiner wrong by arguing that the spots change their shape and sometimes these spots even originate on the sun. Therefore, they can not be undiscovered planets and the sun is not perfect.
1632- Galileo's first book entitled "Dialogue Concearning the Two Chief Systems of the World-Ptolemiac and Copernican" was published.
Galileo worked on this book for about six years. He wanted to call this book "Dialogue on the Tides," but he was warned against naming the book that because that title implied that he really thought that the world was moving. Galileo ripped everyone apart in this book. He called his nemesis Christoph Scheiner vain, and he mocked the pope. About six months after the book was published, Galileo was ordered to stand trial because he was forbidden to describe the Copernican system. At the trial, Galileo said that he had no memory of being forbidden to teach and no document could be found that forbade him to teach so he was let off.
Sources;
http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/museo/b/egalig.html
http://www.csn.net.advent/cathen.06342b.htm
http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog?Files?galileo_gal.html
http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/persons/pers_galilei.html