The Day Galileo Revealed His First-Ever Telescope
Today, astronomy is a revered field of study, but it wasn’t always like that. When the Italian physicist and astronomer shared his findings with the world, he was deeply condemned. While his legacy lives on, things were a little different during his lifetime.Galileo was born in Pisa on February 15, 1564. By the time he died on January 8, 1642 (but for problems with the date, see Machamer 1998b, 24–25), he was as famous as any person in Europe. Moreover, when he was born there was no such thing as ‘science’; yet by the time he died, science was well on its way to becoming a discipline, and its concepts and method a complete philosophical system.
Galileo’s father Vincenzo, though of noble heritage, was a semi-itinerant court musician and composer of modest means, who also authored treatises on music theory; his mother, Giulia Ammannati, descended from Pisan cloth merchants. In 1572, they resettled the family in Florence. As a boy, Galileo was tutored privately and, for a time, by the monks at Vallombrosa, where he considered a religious vocation and may have started a novitiate. He returned home, however, and then enrolled for a medical degree at the University of Pisa in 1580. He never completed this degree, but instead studied mathematics, notably with Ostilio Ricci, a mathematics teacher attached to the Tuscan court and the Florentine Accademia del Disegno.
It was on this day that Galileo Galilei presented and demonstrated his first-ever telescope to Venetian lawmakers, Leonardo Donato, and the Doge (ruler) of Venice, among others. During this time, Galileo was a geometry, mechanics, and astronomy teacher at the University of Padua. One year following his demonstration, he published Starry Messenger, an astronomical treatise about the phases of Venus and the moons of Jupiter, all findings from his telescope.Realizing that his findings were supported by Nicolaus Copernicus’s theory of the planets revolving around the Sun, Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in 1632. Unfortunately, this infamous book got him convicted of heresy by the Romans and he was sentenced to house arrest until his death in 1642.
Galileo’s father Vincenzo, though of noble heritage, was a semi-itinerant court musician and composer of modest means, who also authored treatises on music theory; his mother, Giulia Ammannati, descended from Pisan cloth merchants. In 1572, they resettled the family in Florence. As a boy, Galileo was tutored privately and, for a time, by the monks at Vallombrosa, where he considered a religious vocation and may have started a novitiate. He returned home, however, and then enrolled for a medical degree at the University of Pisa in 1580. He never completed this degree, but instead studied mathematics, notably with Ostilio Ricci, a mathematics teacher attached to the Tuscan court and the Florentine Accademia del Disegno.
It was on this day that Galileo Galilei presented and demonstrated his first-ever telescope to Venetian lawmakers, Leonardo Donato, and the Doge (ruler) of Venice, among others. During this time, Galileo was a geometry, mechanics, and astronomy teacher at the University of Padua. One year following his demonstration, he published Starry Messenger, an astronomical treatise about the phases of Venus and the moons of Jupiter, all findings from his telescope.Realizing that his findings were supported by Nicolaus Copernicus’s theory of the planets revolving around the Sun, Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in 1632. Unfortunately, this infamous book got him convicted of heresy by the Romans and he was sentenced to house arrest until his death in 1642.
Sources
Brown, James Robert, and Yiftach Fehige, 2019, “Thought Experiments,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), E. N. Zalta (ed.)
Feldhay, Rivka, 1995, Galileo and the Church: Political Inquisition or Critical Dialogue?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archive
Winter 2019 Edition
