Galileo Galilei - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

First years

Childhood

Galileo, from his true name Galileo Galilei , is born in Pisa on February 15th, 1564, wire of Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati di Pescia, the elder one of their 7 children. The family belongs to the minor nobility and earns her living in the trade. Vincenzo Galilei, his/her father, is Luthier, musician, singer, and author in 1581 of a Dialog of the modern music . It takes part in controversies on the musical theory.

Galileo very early shows of a great manual skill and a good sense of the observation. Child, it has fun to produce the models of Machine S which it saw.

He is educated in his parents until the 10 years age. Those move then with Florence and entrust it to a priest vicinity. Thereafter, Galileo enters to the Couvent of Santa Maria de Vallombrosa and receives an religious education there. Pushed with the noviciate by its Masters, it does not continue its ecclesiastical career very a long time: his/her father, benefitting from a disease of the eyes of his son, brings back it to Florence in 1579.

Two years later, Vincenzo Galilei registers it with the Université of Pisa where it follows courses of Médecine (on the traces of one of its glorious ancestors, the magister Galilaeus de Galilaeis, 1370 - ~1450), but without carrying interest there. It returns to Florence in 1585 without to have finished its studies nor obtained its diploma.

The discovery of its vocation

As of 1583, Galileo is initiated with the Mathématiques by Ostilio Ricci, a family friend, raises Tartaglia. Although Ricci is a not very famous scientist, it with the practice, rare at the time, to bind the theory to the practice by the experiment.

At the nineteen years age, observing in the cathedral of Pisa a lamp which was balanced with the vault, and noticing that the oscillations were isochronous, it had the idea to apply to it clock to the measurement of time. However, it was only at the end of its life, in a work published in 1638, qu ' it exposed this discovery.

Dazzled by the work of Euclide, not having any taste for the Medicine and even less for the arguments Scholastic S and philosophy aristotelician, Galileo reorientates his studies towards the Mathématiques. Consequently, he claims Pythagore, of Plato and Archimedes and against the aristotelism. Still student, it discovers the law of the isochronism pendulum S, first stage of what will be the discovery of a new science: the Mechanical . In the Humanistic current , it writes also a wild Pamphlet on the professorship of its time. All its life, Galileo refuses to be compared with the Professor S of his time, which will be worth to him to have many enemies.

Two years later, it is of return to Florence without diploma, but with great knowledge and a great scientific curiosity.

Of Florence to Pisa (1585-1592)

Galileo starts with to show several Théorème S on the Center of gravity of certain solids in his Theoremata circa centrum gravitatis solidum and undertakes in 1586 to reconstitute the balances hydrostatic Archimedes or Bilancetta. At the same time, it continues its studies on the Oscillation S of the heavy Pendule and invents the Pulsomètre. This apparatus made it possible to help with the measurement of the Pouls and provided a standard Temps, which did not exist at the time. It begins also its studies on the falls of the bodies.

In 1588, it is invited by the Academia Fiorentina to present two lessons on the form, the place and the dimension of the Enfer of Dante .

Parallel to its activities, he seeks an use of Professor in a Université, he then meets, inter alia large characters, the father Jesuit Christophorus Clavius, celebrity of the Mathématiques to the pontifical Collège. He meets also the Mathématicien Guidobaldo del Monte. This last recommends Galileo to the duke Ferdinand I {{er}} of Tuscany, which names it with the Chaire mathematical of the Université of Pisa for 60 ecus of gold per annum, a misery. Its inaugural lesson takes place the November 12th 1589.

In 1590 and 1591, it discovers the Cycloïde and makes use of it to draw Arche S of Pont S. It also tests on the falls of the bodies and writes its first work of Mécanique, the Of motu . The reality even of these “experiments” today is largely questioned and would be an invention of its first biographer, Vincenzo Viviani. This volume contains novel ideas for the time, but it still exposes, obviously the principles of the school aristotelician and the system of Ptolémée. Galileo the sign besides a long time after being convinced of the accuracy of the system copernician, for lack of tangible proofs.

The university of Padoue (1592-1610)

In 1592, Galileo leaves to teach with the Université of Padoue where there remain 18 years. The departure of Pisa, after only 3 years, is explained by a disagreement the opponent with a son of the large-duke Ferdinand I {{er}} of Tuscany.

Padoue belonged to powerful the République of Venice, which guaranteed to Galileo a great intellectual freedom, the Inquisition being far from powerful there. Even if Giordano Bruno had been delivered to the Enquiry by the Patricien S of the Republic, Galileo could carry out his research without too many concern. Venice is then very famous for its Arsenal, which offers to Galileo great possibilities. Detail which has its importance, the city is also famous for the quality of sound glass industry.

He teaches the Mécanique applied, the Mathématiques, the Astronomie and the military architecture. He then professed publicly the system of Ptolémée, not daring yet to rise against the allowed ideas, although having already adopted personally the system of Copernic. Its lessons of mechanics had a considerable success, and the Mersenne Father published in France in 1674 Méchaniques of Galileo .

Since the death of his/her father in 1591, Galileo must provide for the needs for the family. It is monopolized by its tasks of teaching: it gives many private lessons to student rich person whom it lodges at his place. But he is poor manager and only the financial aid of its guards and friends enables him to balance its accounts.

In 1593, it writes the Trattato di Forticazioni and the Trattato di Meccaniche for its students of private lessons. Work of Galileo allows a better effectiveness of the heavy artillery (they establish that a gun was to be pointed with 45° to have his maximum range) and are not the subject of any dispute.

In 1597, it improves and manufactures a Proportional compasses, the geometrical compass and soldier , ancestor of the Rule slide, which is a great business success. It writes the directions for use of it only nine years later.

In 1599, Galileo takes part in the foundation of the Accademia dei Ricovrati with the Abbé Federico Cornaro.

The same year, Galileo meets Marina Gamba, a young person Vénitienne resulting from modest family which has already children with which it maintains a connection until in 1610 (they are not married and do not live under the same roof). In 1600, his/her first Virginia daughter is born, followed by his/her Livia sister in 1601, then a son, Vincenzo, in 1606. After the separation (nonconflict) of the couple, Galileo undertakes the children; he places later his daughters at the convent.

The year 1604

1604 is one year mirabilis for Galileo:

In July, it tests its water pump in a garden of Padoue.
In October, it discovers the law of the movement uniformly accelerated, which it associates with a law erroneous Speed S.
In December, it at least begins its observation from a known Nova since the October 10th. It devotes 5 lessons on the subject the next month, and in February 1605 it copublie Dialogo de Cecco di Ronchitti in Perpuosito of Stella Nova with Girolamo Spinelli. Although appearance of a news star, and its sudden disappearance, enters in total contradiction with the established theory of the inalterability of the skies, Galileo remains still aristotelician in public, but it is already firmly Copernicien into private. It awaits the irrefutable proof on which to rest to denounce the aristotelism.

Resuming his studies on the movement, Galileo “shows” that the Projectile S follow, in the Vide, of the parabolic Trajectoire S . One will need the theory of the universal gravitation of Newton, to be able to generalize it with the Missile S Balistique S, whose trajectories are in fact elliptic S.

Of 1606 with 1609

In 1606, Galileo builds his first Thermoscope, first apparatus of the history making it possible to compare in an objective way the level of Chaud and Froid. This same year, Galileo and two of his friends fall sick the same day from same a Infectious illness. Seul Galileo survives, but there will remain anchylosed of Rhumatisme S for the remainder of its days.

In the two years which follow, the scientist studies the reinforcements of Aimant S. One can still see his work with the museum of History of Science ( Musée of Storia della Scienza ) of Florence.

Glasses and its consequences

Improvement of the telescope

In May 1609, Galileo (or rather Paolo Sarpi?) receives Paris a letter of the French Jacques Badovere, one of its former students, who assure him an insistent rumor: the existence of a glasses allowing to see the distant objects. Manufactured in Holland, these glasses would have already made it possible to see star S invisible with the naked eye. On this only description, Galileo, who does not give any more a course to Cosme II of Médicis, built his first glasses. Contrary to the Dutch glasses, this one does not deform the objects and 6 times make look fatter them, that is to say twice as much as its competitor. It is also the only one at the time succeeding in obtaining a right image thanks to the use of a divergent lens in Oculaire. This invention marks a turning in the life of Galileo.

The August 21st, hardly has just finished its second glasses (it enlarges eight or nine times), it presents it to the Sénat Venice. The demonstration takes place at the top of the Campanile of the Place Saint-Marc. The spectators are filled with enthusiasm: under their eyes, Murano, located at 2,5 km seems to be to 300 m only!

Galileo offers his instrument and bequeaths of them the rights to the République of Venice, very interested by the military applications of the object. In reward, Galileo is confirmed with life at his station of Padoue and its Gage S is doubled. It is finally released from the financial problems.

It should however be announced that, contrary to its allegations, Galileo the Théorie Optique did not control and that the instruments manufactured are of very variable quality. Certain glasses are practically unusable (in any case in astronomical observation ). In April 1610, with Bologna, for example, the demonstration of the glasses is disastrous, as Martin Horky in a letter brings it back to Kepler.

Galileo himself recognized, in March 1610, that, on more than 60 glasses which it had built, some only were adequate. Many testimonys, including that of Kepler, confirm the mediocrity of the first instruments.

Observation of the Moon

During the autumn, Galileo continues to develop his glasses. In November, it manufactures an instrument which grows a score of time. It takes time to turn its glasses towards the sky. Very quickly, by observing the phases of the the Moon, he discovers that this Astre is not perfect like wanted it the theory aristotelician.

The physics aristotelician, which made authority at the time, distinguished two worlds:

the world sublunary : including/understanding the Ground and all that is between the Earth and the Moon; in this world all is imperfect and changing;
the world supralunaire : who leaves the Moon and extends beyond. In this zone, there existed nothing any more but perfect geometrical forms (of the Sphère S) and immutable regular movements (circular).

Galileo as for him, observed a transitory zone between the shade and the Lumière, the Terminateur , which was of nothing regular, which consequently invalidated the theory aristotelician. There are mountains on the Moon! Galileo estimates even their height at 7.000 meters, more than more the high mountain known at the time. It should be said that average the techniques of the time did not make it possible to know the altitude of the terrestrial mountains without imagination. When Galileo publishes his Sidereus Nuncius (Celestial Messenger), he thinks that the lunar mountains are higher than those of the Earth, although actually they are equivalent.

The head in stars

In a few weeks, he discovers the nature of the Milky Way, counts stars of the constellation of Orion and notes that some star S visible with the naked eye are, in fact, of the cluster of stars. He also studies the solar tasks.

The January 7th 1610, Galileo makes a capital discovery: he notices 3 small star S beside Jupiter. After a few nights of observation, he discovers that they are four and accompany the Planet. They are the satellite of Jupiter, that it names the Médicées stars. They will be named Callisto, Europe, Ganymède and Io (baptized today the moons galiléennes ) by Simon Marius, which will also assert the discovery of it several years afterwards. The March 4th 1610, it publishes in Florence its discoveries in the Messenger of the stars ( Sidereus Nuncius ), result of its first stellar observations.

For him, Jupiter and its satellites is a model of the Solar system. Thanks to them, he thinks of being able to show that the sphere S of Cristal of Aristote do not exist and that all the celestial bodies do not turn around the Ground. It is a very hard blow carried to the aristotelicians. It corrects also certain copernicians who claim that all the celestial bodies turn around the Sun (except the the Moon).

In order to protect itself from the need and undoubtedly eager to turn over to Florence, Galileo renames the satellites of Jupiter which are for some time the “Astre S médicéens”, in the honor of Cosme II of Médicis, his former student and large-duke of Tuscany. Galileo hesitated between Cosmica struck and Medicea struck . The word game “Cosmica = Cosme” is obviously voluntary and it is only after the first impression that it retains the second denomination.

The April 10th, it remarks these stars at the court of Toscane. It is the triumph. The same month, it gives three courses on the subject to Padoue. Always in April, Johannes Kepler offers its support for Galileo. The German Astronome does not confirm really this discovery since it did not have access to the glasses yet, it offers only one essay-discussion (enthusiastic for its aspect copernician) on the relevance of the small work of Galileo. It is Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo where even the question of the impact about the bases of astrology is approached (do these new planets invalidate the astrology of the tradition? Question given to the last style since 2006 with the topicality of the Plutonian planetoids and the downgrading of Pluto). In September 1610, Kepler publishes its Narratio, a short and precise report of the observation of the companions of Jupiter: it is there that it creates the neologism " satellite " (Latin bodyguard). Indeed, if " were added; planètes" with the solar system, its system of the 5 solids (1596, Mysterium Cosmographicum) would be invalidated… It should be noted that Galileo never forwarded to him only one glasses, and this in spite of his official support as Imperial Astronome. The observation of the satellites of Jupiter could take place only by the loan of glasses (which it had at disposal one or two nights only). Galileo indeed, was always wary of the Keplerian writings making a good share with astrology, the Scriptures (Kepler is Protestant and theologist of formation) or, as from 1609, with ellipses and forces in the solar system. Galileo will qualify even puerile idea of a mutual attraction between water of the seas and the Moon… too pointing out the astrological symbolic system.

Observations with Florence, presentation in Rome

The July 10th 1610, Galileo leaves Venice for Florence.

In spite of opinion of its friends FRA Paolo Sarpi and Nicolò Sagredo, which fears that its freedom is not attached, it, indeed, accepted the station of First Mathematician of the Université of Pisa (without load of course, nor obligation of residence) and that of First Mathematician and First Philosopher of the large-duke of Tuscany.

The July 25th 1610, Galileo turns his Telescope towards Saturn and discovers its strange appearance: oOo ( the ears of Saturn , says one then). But they is only 50 years later and with instruments more powerful than Christiaan Huygens will include/understand the nature of the Saturn's rings.
Galileo will protect paternity from his discovery by including in his writings a coded sentence, a riddle to be used to him as witness: SMAISMRMILMEPOETALEVNIPVENGTTAVIRAS which contains the Latin sentence: Altissimusm Planetam tergeminum observavi (I discovered that the planet higher placed was triple), enigma whom it will reveal later.

The next month, Galileo finds an easy way to observe the Sun with the glasses and discovers the sunspots. He gives a satisfactory explanation of it.

In September 1610, continuing its observations, it discovers the phases of Venus. For him, it is a new proof of the truth of the system copernician, because if it is easy to interpret this phenomenon thanks to the heliocentric assumption , it is much more difficult to do it using the geocentric assumption .

It is invited the March 29th 1611 by the cardinal Maffeo Barberini (future Urbain VIII) to present its discoveries to the pontifical Collège of Rome and to the young person Académie of the Lynxes. Galileo remains in the pontifical capital one month complete, during which it receives all the honors. The Academy of the Lynxes in particular, reserves an enthusiastic reception to him and admits it as a 6th member. Henceforth, the lynx of the Academy will decorate the Frontispice of all the publications of Galileo.

The April 24th 1611, the Roman College, composed of Jésuite S and whose Christophorus Clavius is the most eminent member, confirms with the cardinal Bellarmin that the observations of Galileo are exact. However, the scientists take care well to confirm or not to cancel the conclusions which the Florentin drew.

Galileo turns over to Florence the June 4th.

Galileo attacked and condemned by the authorities

The opposition is organized

Galileo seems to fly of success in success and to convince everyone. However, the partisans of the geocentric theory according to Aristote became its keen enemies and the attacks against him started as of the publication of the Sidereus Nuncius . They cannot be allowed to lose the face and do not want to see their science called in question.

Moreover, the methods of Galileo, based on the Observation and the Experiment rather than on the Authority of the partisans of the geocentric theories (which were based on the prestige of Aristote), are in complete opposition with their, so much so that Galileo refuses to be compared with them.

Initially, they are only skirmishes. But Nicolò Sagredo writes all the same in Galileo, coldly made at Florence: the power and the generosity of your prince (the large-duke of Tuscany) make it possible to hope that it will be able to recognize your devotion and your merit; but in the agitated seas of the courses, which can avoid being, I will not say cast, but not shaken at least hard by the furious gusts of the jealousy?

The first arrow comes from Martin Horky, disciple of the professor Giovanni Antonio Magini and enemy of Galileo. This assistant publishes in June 1610, without consulting his Master, a Pamphlet against the Sidereus Nuncius . Except the personal attacks, its principal argument is the following: the Astrologue S made their Horoscope S by taking account of all that moved in the skies. Thus the stars médicéens are not used for nothing and, God creating useless things, these stars cannot exist.

He is ridiculed by the partisans of Galileo, who answer that these stars are used for a thing: to make enrager Horky. Become rized of all the university, Horky is finally driven out by its Master: Giovanni Antonio Magini does not tolerate a failure also cooking. In August, certain Sizzi tries the same kind of attack with the same kind of arguments, without more success.

Once the observations of Galileo confirmed by the Roman College, the attacks change nature. Ludovico Delle Combe attacks on the religious level by asking whether Galileo intends to interpret the Bible to make it agree to his theories. At that time indeed, and before exegetic work of the 19th century, the Psaume 93 (92) implied a geocentric cosmology (in the line: “ You fixed the dry land and motionless. ”)

The attacks are done more violent

Galileo, of return to Florence, is unattackable on the astronomical level. Its adversaries thus will criticize its theory of the floating bodies. Galileo claims that the Glace fleet because it is lighter than the Eau, whereas the aristotelicians think that is in its nature to float. (Quantitative and mathematical Physics of Galileo against qualitative physics of Aristote). The attack will take place during a meal with the table of Cosme II in September 1611.

Galileo is opposed to the professors of Pisa and in particular in Delle Combe itself, lasting what is called the “ battles of the floating bodies ”. Galileo carries out the experiment and leaves victorious the exchange. A few months later, it will draw an opuscule from it where it presents its theory.

Apart from these contentions, Galileo continues his research. Its system of determination of the Longitude S by the observation of the position of the Jupiter satellites is proposed with the Spain by the ambassador of Toscane.

In 1612, it undertakes a discussion with “Call latens post tabulam” (pseudonym of the Jésuite Christophe Scheiner), a German Astronome , about the sunspots. Call defends the incorruptibility of the Sun while asserting that the spots are actually cluster of stars between the Sun and the Ground. Galileo shows that the spots are either on the surface even Sun, or so close relations that one cannot measure to them Altitude. The Académie of the Lynxes will publish this correspondence the March 22nd 1613 under the title of Istoria E dimostrazioni intorno ale marchie solari E loro accidenti . Scheiner will end up adhering to the thesis galiléenne.

The November 2nd 1612, the quarrel begins again. The Dominican Niccolo Lorini, professor of history ecclesiastical to Florence, pronounces a Sermon resolutely opposed to the theory of the rotation of the Earth. Sermon without particular consequence, but which marks the beginnings of the religious attacks. The opponents use the biblical passage ( Josué 10,12-14) in which Josué stops the race of the Sun and the the Moon, as theological against Galileo arms.

In December 1613, the professor Benedetto Castelli, former student of Galileo and one of his colleagues with Pisa, is summoned by the large-duchess dowager Christine of Lorraine to prove the Orthodoxie Doctrine copernician. Galileo will come to assistance of his disciple by writing a letter to him the December 21st 1613 (translated in " Galileo, dialogs and selected letters " , 1966, Hermann) on the relationship between Science and Religion, affirming that in the field of the physical phenomena, the Scriptures do not have jurisdiction. The large-duchess is reassured, but the controversy does not weaken.

Galileo however, continues his work. 12 with the November 15th, it receives Jean Tarde, to which it presents its Microscope and its work of astronomy. In 1614, it becomes acquainted with Jean-Baptiste Baliani, Physicien génois, which will be his/her friend and corresponding during long years.

Censure of the thesis copernician (1616)

The December 20th, the Caccini father attacks very violently Galileo with the church Santa Maria Novella. The January 6th 1615, a copernician, the Carmelite nun Paolo Foscarini, publishes a letter positively treating opinion of the pythagoricians and Copernic on the mobility of the Earth. It considers the system copernician as a physical reality. The controversy becomes such extensive that the cardinal Bellarmin, favorable to Galileo, is obliged to intervene the April 12th. He writes a letter with Foscarini where he condemns unambiguous the heliocentric thesis in the absence of conclusive refutation of the geocentric system. While recognizing the practical interest, for astronomical calculation, of the system of Copernic, he formally stated imprudent to set it up in physical truth.

In reaction, about April 1615, Galileo written with Christine of Lorraine a long letter in which it admirably develops his arguments in favor of the orthodoxy of the system copernician. Galileo explains there that “ the intention of the Holy Spirit is to teach us how one must go to the sky, and not how the sky is”. One in addition sees there the passages of the Writings which posed problem from a cosmological point of view. This letter, it also, is widely diffused. For Galileo, it was to accept the displacement of the debate on the ground of the faith.

In spite of that, Galileo is obliged to go to Rome to defend themselves against calumnies and especially to try to avoid a prohibition of the Doctrine copernician. But it misses the irrefutable proof of the rotation of the Earth to support its pleadings. Its intervention arrives too late: Lorini, by letter of denunciation, had already warned Rome of the arrival of Galileo and the the Holy Office had already begun the instruction of the business.

Always seeking a proof of the earthmoving to answer the objections of the cardinal Bellarmin, Galileo thinks of finding it in the phenomenon of the tides. The February 8th 1616, it sends its theory of the Marée S ( Discorso del Flusso E Reflusso ) to the Orsini cardinal. This theory points out the relation between the tides and the apparent position of the Moon, which turns less quickly around the Earth (28 days) that the Earth is not supposed to rotate (1 day). Unfortunately, Galileo cannot explain thus that a tide per day whereas it is usually observed by it two, sometimes with a little shift immediately astronomical which will be explained only later by the dynamics of the fluids. It remains on the other hand compatible with the principle of inertia allowed by Galileo. The influence of the Moon on the tides had already been underlined by Kepler, but Galileo had not then held account of it. It been necessary to await the year 1728 and observations of Bradley on the Aberration of the light to have a first direct proof of the earthmoving compared to stars.

The intransigence of Galileo, who refuses the equivalence of the assumptions copernician and Ptolemaic, probably under the terms of the Rasoir of Occam, undoubtedly precipitated the events. In fact, on the question of the translation of the ground and of its rotation on itself, the decisive arguments were acquired only at the beginning of the 19th century. The equivalence of the assumptions was the rational conclusion justified for the time; and not the assertion of a physical reality as supported by Galileo. While presenting its theory as an absolute truth (what transforms its Cosmologie into a Cosmogonie), Galileo is placed in the field of the Foi, which justifies the intervention of the Censure. A study of the lawsuit by the philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend (see for example in Adieu the Reason ) watch that the attitude of the Inquisiteur Robert Bellarmin was at least as scientist as that of Galileo, even according to modern criteria: a cosmology (that it is besides copernician or Ptolemaic) can only be one theory, without being able to claim with the Vérité. However, this distinction between theory and Vérité, that our modern time perceives better, were too new for the time; the bill of indictment of Galileo does itself confusion while reproaching Galileo for holding for truth the heliocentrism, not because it is only one theory, but because this thesis is “ naive and absurdity in philosophy, and formally heretic as explicitly contradicting the direction of many passage of the Holy Scriptures ”.

In spite of two months spent to leave no stone unturned to prevent the inevitable one, he is convened the February 16th 1616 by the the Holy Office for the examination of the proposals for a censure. It is a catastrophe for him. The February 25th and February 26th 1616, the censure is ratified by the Inquisition and the Pape Paul V. The theory copernician is condemned. Galileo is not worried personally but is requested to teach his thesis by presenting it like a Hypothèse. This decree extends to all the countries Catholique S.

Progress of the theses of Galileo

This business tested Galileo much. Its diseases return to torment it during the two following years and its scientific activity is reduced. It resumes only its study of the determination of the Longitude S in Mer. His/her two daughters enter the orders.

In 1618, one observes the passage of three Comet S, phenomenon which starts again the polemic on the incorruptibility of the skies.

In 1619, the father Jésuite Horatio Grassi publishes tribes cometis anni 1618 disputatio astronomica . It defends there the point of view of Tycho Brahé on the elliptic trajectories of the Comet S. Galileo counteracts initially via his pupil Mario Guidicci who publishes delle in June 1619 Discorso comet where it develops an eccentric theory on comets, going until making phenomena of them weather S.

In October, Horatio Grassi attacks Galileo in a more underhand lampoon: with the scientific considerations mix with the malevolent and very dangerous religious insinuations with the time of the Counter-Reformation.

However, Galileo, encouraged by his friend the cardinal Barberini (future pope Urbain VIII) and supported by the Academy of the Lynxes, will answer it with irony in It Saggiatore (or the Tester ). Grassi, one of the largest scientists Jesuit S, will be ridiculed.

When Peiresc, friend and former student of Galileo, learns that it is worried, it sends a letter to the Barberini cardinal. .

Meanwhile, Galileo resumed his study of the Jupiter satellites. Unfortunately technical difficulties oblige it to give up the calculation of their éphémérides. Galileo sees himself covered of honors in 1620 and 1622.

The August 28th 1620, the cardinal Maffeo Barberini addresses to his/her friend the poem Adulatio Perniciosa which it composed with his honor. The January 20th 1621, Galileo becomes consul of Accademia fiorentina. The February 28th, Cosme II, the guard of Galileo, dies suddenly.

In 1622, with Frankfurt, appears a Apologie for Galileo written by Tommaso Campanella in 1616. A quite cumbersome defender, because Campanella is already convinced of Hérésie.

The August 6th 1622, the cardinal Maffeo Barberini is elected Pape under the name of Urbain VIII. The February 3rd 1623 Galileo receives the authorization to publish its Saggiatore which it dedicates to the new Pope. The work appears the October 20th 1623. In fact initially polemical qualities (and arts persons) of the work will ensure its success at the time. It does not remain about it less than in a few months and in an atmosphere of great cultural effervescence, Galileo becomes to some extent the carry-flag of the Roman intellectual circles in rebellion against intellectual and scientific conformism imposed by the Jésuite S.

The following years are calm enough for Galileo in spite of the attacks of the aristotelicians. He benefits from it to improve his made up Microscope (September 1624).

In 1626, Galileo continues his research on the reinforcement of the Aimant. It receives also the visit of Élie Dodati, which will bring the copies of its manuscripts to Paris. In 1628, Galileo falls seriously sick and misses dying in March.

The following year, its adversaries try to deprive it of the allowance which it receives from the Université of Pisa, but the operation fails.

The " Dialog" and the judgment of 1633

In the years 1620, after the censure of its theses, Galileo one month passes to Rome where it is received several times by the pope Urbain VIII. This last subjects to him the idea of its next book Dialog on the two great systems of the world, work which would present in an impartial way at the same time the system aristotelician and the system copernician. It charges Galileo writing it with.

Until 1631 Galileo devotes his time to the writing of the Dialogo and to try to make it admit by the censure. The work is completed to print in February 1632. The eyes of Galileo start to betray it in March and April.

The February 21st 1632, Galileo, protected by the Pope Urbain VIII and the large-duke from Tuscany Ferdinand II from Médicis, small son of Christine of Lorraine, makes appear with Florence its dialog of the Massimi sistemi ( Dialog on the two great systems of the world ) ( Dialogo will sopra I due massimi sistemi LED mondo ), where he implicitly scoffs the Géocentrisme at Ptolémée.

This Dialog is at the same time a revolution and a scandal. The Dialog is held with Venice over four days between three interlocutors: Filippo Salviati, a Florentin in favor of Copernic, Giovan Francesco Sagredo, Venetian enlightened but without a priori , and Simplicio, a poor defender of physics aristotelician, a character in whom Urbain VIII (perhaps) would have been recognized. But, when one reproached him the openly pejorative character of the name, Galileo answered that it was about Simplicius de Cilicie.

The Pape itself thus lines up quickly in the opinion of the adversaries of Galileo: he had asked him an objective presentation of the two theories, not a plea in favor of Copernic.

Galileo is thus again convened by the the Holy Office, on October 1st 1632. What is reproached to him is not its thesis itself, but not to respect a legal decision - what justifies penal sanctions (still nowadays). Its book is indeed openly pro-copernicien, ridiculing the interdict of 1616 (the setting with the index of these theses will be raised only in 1757). Patient, it can go to Rome only in February 1633. The interrogations continue until the June 21st where the threat of Torture is evoked on order of the pope; Galileo yields.

The June 22nd 1633, to the Dominican Convent of Santa-Maria, the sentence is returned: Galileo is condemned to the life imprisonment (sorrow immediately commuted to residence with life by Urbain VIII) and it work is prohibited. He also pronounces the formula of Abjuration that the Holy Office had prepared: Me, Galiléo, wire of fire Vincenzio Galilei of Florence, sixty ten years old, translated here to be judged, knelt there in front of the very eminent and révérés cardinal general inquisiteurs against any heresy in Christendom, having in front of the eyes and concerning my hand the Saints Gospels, swears that I always held for truth, and still hold for truth, and with the assistance of God will hold for truth in the future, all that the Holy Catholic church and Apostolic affirms, present and teaches. However, whereas I had been condemned by injunction of Holy Office to give up the false belief completely that the Sun is in the center of the world and does not move, and that the Earth is not in the center of the world and moves, and not to defend nor to teach these doctrines erroneous in some manner that it either, by oral examination or written; and after being informed that these doctrines are not in conformity so that the Holy Scriptures say, I wrote and published a book in which I treat EC condemned doctrines and present it by very pressing arguments, without refuting it in any manner; it for what I was held for highly suspect of heresy, to have professed and have believed that the Sun is the center of the world, and is without movement, and that the ground is not the center, and is driven. Let us note while passing that forever marked Galileo the famous one And yet it turns ( Eppur if muove ).

The text of the sentence is diffused widely: in Rome the July 2nd, the August 12th with Florence. The news arrives in Germany at the end of August, in Belgium in September. The decrees of the Holy Office will never be published in France, but, prudently, Rene Descartes gives up making appear its Monde .

Much (including Descartes), at the time, thought that Galileo was the victim of a Cabale of the Jésuite S which were avenged thus for the affront undergone by Horatio Grassi in the Saggiatore . The positions of the Théologie N inhabitant of Li2ege Libert Froidmont (of the the University of Louvain) clarify well all the ambiguity of the judgment of Galileo.

End

Initially assigned with residence in the Piccolomini archbishop with His, it finally obtains to be relegated at his place, with Florence in its villa of Arcetri, the Villa Gioiello , not far from his/her daughters with the convent. Prohibition to return visit to the “prisoner of Arcetri” which softens then makes it possible him to receive some visits, which enables him to make pass the border to some works in the course of drafting. These books appear with Strasbourg and Latin Paris in translation E. In 1636, Louis Elzevier receives an outline of the Discours on two new sciences on behalf of the Florentin Master. It is the last book which Galileo will write, work where the scientist consigned the discoveries from where was born modern dynamics; it there establishes the bases of the Mécanique as a Science and thus marks the end of physics aristotelician. It also tries to pose the bases of the Résistance of the materials, with less success. It will finish this book of accuracy, because the July 4th 1637, it loses the use of its right eye.

The January 2nd 1638, Galileo loses the sight definitively. By chance, Dino Peri received the authorization to live in Galileo to assist it with the Ambrogetti father who will take note of the sixth and last left the Discours . This part will appear only in 1718. The complete work appears in July 1638 with Leyde (Netherlands) and with Paris. It is read by the great minds of the time. Descartes for example will send its observations to Mersenne, the Parisian editor.

It will remain in Arcetri until its death, surrounded by its disciples (Viviani, Torricelli, Peri, etc), working with the Astronomie and other sciences. End 1641, Galileo plans to apply the Oscillation pendulum to the mechanisms of Horloge.

A few days later, the January 8th 1642, Galileo dies out in Arcetri, a small hill in the south of Florence, at the 78 years age. Its body is buried religieusement with Florence the January 9th in the family vault of the church of Santa Croce of Florence. A Mausolée will be set up in its honor the March 13rd 1736.

Posterity: incomprehension of the scientists to the homage of the Church

The lawsuit of Galileo, especially for his work Dialog on the two great systems of the world (1633), had considerable repercussions on the scientific method, as well the Experimental method as theoretical, but also indirectly on the Philosophie and other fields of the thought. In philosophy, one thus lives to appear currents of thought Rationaliste S (Descartes), and Empirique S (see Francis Bacon, but also Robert Boyle). These repercussions are detailed in the article Révolution copernician. We restrict ourselves here to describe the broad outlines of them.

17th century: reactions of the scientists

The theory of the Héliocentrisme, raised initially questions of interpretation of the texts Biblique S (fixed Ground in the center of the Univers), and of Métaphysique, which involved reactions of the scientists:

Descartes launched out in a philosophical project (Cogito), and in the Méditations on philosophy first (1641), denounced the philosophy of Aristote and the Scolastique (Thomas Hobbes did not follow it on this point)
Blaise Pascal joined the current Janséniste, and took part with a team of Port-Royal in a translation of the Bible under the direction of Lemaître de Sacy, which was only the Traduction of the French Bible at the 17th century.

18th century: the pope Benoît XIV authorizes the works on the Héliocentrisme

The Pape Benoît XIV authorized the works on the Héliocentrisme in first half of the 18th century, and this in two times:

In 1741, in front of the optical proof of the orbitation of the Earth made by Bradley in 1728, it made give by the Holy Office the imprimatur to the first edition of complete works of Galileo, with however the addition owing to the fact that the earthmoving is supposed . This gesture constituted an implicit revision of the sentences of 1616 and 1633, even if those were not repealed.

In 1757, the works favorable to the Héliocentrisme were again authorized, by a decree of the Congrégation of the Index, which withdrew these works of the catalogs prohibited books.

There was still few Traductions of the French Bible, but one started to do work of Exégèse starting from the old texts.

19th century: work of Exégèse intensifies

The Protesting S worked on the Old Testament, while the Catholique S were harnessed with the New Testament. The pope Leon XIII indicated the rules to be adopted for the biblical studies (Encyclique Providentissimus deus of 1893). 19 Traductions of the French Bible appeared at the 19th century.

20th century: the modern Pape S pay homage to the scientist

All the modern Pape S paid homage to the large scientist who was Galileo, and publicly recognized that certain interventions of the Church in the scientific discipline were undue.

New translations of the Bible appear in second half of the 20th century, taking account of the biblical studies (Exégèse and Herméneutique) launched by the Pape S Leon XIII and Pie XII (which did not offusqué a theory of the Big bang, to see Pie XII and Big Bang).

In 1979 and 1981, the Pape Jean-Paul II charged a commission with studying the controversy ptolemeo-copernician of the XVIe-17th century. Jean-Paul II considered that it was not about a rehabilitation. This one is implicit besides after the authorizations given by Benoît XIV in 1741 and 1757.

The October 31st 1992, Jean-Paul II pays once again homage to the scientist at the time of his Speech to the participants in the plenary session of the pontifical Académie of sciences. He clearly recognized the errors of certain theologists of the 17th century in the business:

Thus new science, with its methods and the freedom of research which it supposes, obliged the Théologie NS to wonder about their own criteria of interpretation of the Writing. The majority did not know to do it.

Paradoxically, Galileo, sincere believer, showed themselves more perspicacious on this point than its adversaries theologists. “If the writing cannot wander, writes it with Benedetto Castelli, some of its interpreters and commentators can it, and in several ways”. One knows also his letter with Christine of Lorraine (1615) which is like a small treaty of biblical Herméneutique .

In October 2005, the book of the cardinal Paul Poupard on the Galileo business is published. The same year, Francesco Beretta, one of the specialists in the question, a course gives on the Galileo business to the Center Alexandre Koyré.

The misinterpretations in the general public concerning the work of Galileo do not remain about it less, and this time in another manner: in 2007, several sites or journalists still wrongly allot to him the discovery not of the heliocentrism, but of the rotundity of the Earth, highlighted by the forwarding of Magellan well before the birth of Galileo.

Names given in the honor of Galileo

the Astéroïde (697) Galilea was named in its honor, at the time of the 300e birthday of its discovery of the the moons galiléennes;
Galileo is the name of a probe of NASA sent towards Jupiter and its satellites;
the Galileo institute is a scientific pole made up of eight research laboratories, four trainings of engineers and a doctoral school;
the High Galileo School is an establishment of higher education of Brussels in the field of the communication (master journalism, publicity,…), of the care male nurses (graduate in care male nurses), of teaching (graduate regent of lower secondary education,…) and of the economic sector (graduate as a secretariat of direction and graduate in tourism);
Galileo is also the future system of European positioning;
the life of Galileo is a play of Bertolt Brecht;
the life of Galileo is the subject also of an album of the group of German Metal Haggard with the opus “Eppur If Muove” which is entirely devoted to him;
in 2005, a French telefilm, Galileo or the love of god is carried out by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe, with Claude Rich in the role of Galileo. This film recalls its lawsuit in Enquiry;
Galileo , opera in 12 scenes of Michael Jarrell (booklet of the type-setter according to Life of Galileo of Bertolt Brecht), is created in Geneva in January 2006.

Quotation

Philosophy direction of science (S) of nature is written in this gigantic book which is continuously opened in our eyes (I speak about the Universe), but one cannot include/understand it so initially one does not learn how to include/understand the Langue of it and to know of them the characters in which he is written. He is written in mathematical language, and the characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is impossible to include/understand there a mot. Dépourvu of these means, one wanders vainly in an obscure labyrinth.

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