Gallileo's Challenging Life

Galileo Galilei was born in 1564, on the 15th of February. Galileo's father Vincenzo Galilei was a professional musician. He was born in 1520 and died in 1591. Vincenzo often performed experiments with strings to prove musical theories. Galileo, taking after his father, performed many experiments also. He first taught mathematics for a while, first in Florence, and then in Pisa, both located in Italy. In 1592, Galileo was appointed Professor of Mathematics, in the University of Padua, (Venice, Italy). His expectations there were to mainly teach Euclid's theory of geometry and general astronomy to medical students. However, Galileo often discussed his own theories.

He heard of a spyglass that a Dutchman created as a toy during the summer of 1609. It magnified items that were looked at through the toy. Though the magnified image was fuzzy and upside-down, Galileo was determined. He was going to improve it to prove his astronomical theories against Aristotle. This improved toy would later be known as the telescope. When his goal was accomplished, Galileo published a book called: Message From The Stars. The famous scientist Galileo was appointed `Mathematician and (Natural) Philosopher` for the Grand Duke of Tuscany. But then, an Italian man said his theories and his book, opposed Aristotle and the church. Taking this into consideration, this man was right.

I can see clearly now.....

Round and round and round we go.....

The Duke gave Galileo a chance to prove his theory. It seemed reasonable to the Duke, yet the Italian man told the Duke something more convincing: `We can't just wipe out Aristotle's theories from the Bible that have been around for hundreds of years.' Galileo was no longer the Duke's Mathematician. Later, he was tried in court because the Duke gave Galileo permission to publish a book that fairly Compared Galileo's theories with Aristotle's. The Italian man claimed that it showed too many of Galileo's theories and not enough of Aristotle's. He was put in 'House Arrest' for life. While in 'House Arrest', Galileo wrote down everything he ever taught and all his theories. He died soon after. His assistant snuck into Rome and published Galileo's theories as a book. Galileo's theories were then added to the Bible in place of Aristotle's.

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The Galileo Project - Rice University
The Galileo Project is a hypertext source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the science of his time. The project is supported by the Office of the Vice President of Computing of Rice University. The initial stages were made possible by a grant from the Council on Library Resources to Fondren Library.

Galileo Galilei - School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St. Andrews, Scotland
A short, concise biography.

The Art of Renaissance Science: Galileo and Perspective (Prof. Joseph W. Dauben)
Limited resource with some unique information (unfortunately, not a fully functioning site.)

 

 

Last updated by Sean Burke, 10-5-2000, after about six or so hours of research and development for CRMS.

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