Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
They raised an outcry against the impudent fictions of
Galileo, and one, a professor of Padua, refused repeatedly to look
through the telescope, lest he should be compelled to admit that which
he had pre-determined to deny.
It was not long before Galileo had new and equally important matter to
announce. He observed a remarkable appearance in Saturn, as if it were
composed of three stars touching each other; his telescope was not
sufficiently powerful to resolve them into Saturn and his ring. Within a
month he ascertained that Venus exhibits phases like those of the
moon--a discovery of great importance in confirming the Copernican
system. The same phenomenon he afterward detected in Mars. We close the
list with the discovery of the revolution of the sun round his axis, in
the space of about a lunar month, derived from careful observation of
the spots on his surface.
About this time (1610-1611) Galileo took up his abode in Tuscany, upon
the invitation of the grand duke, who offered to him his original
situation at Pisa, with a liberal salary, exemption from the necessity
of residence, and complete leisure to pursue his studies. In 1612 he
published a discourse on "Floating Bodies," in which he investigates the
theory of buoyancy, and refutes, by a series of beautiful and conclusive
experiments, the opinion that the floating or sinking of bodies depends
on their shape.
Neither Copernicus nor his immediate followers suffered inconvenience or
restraint on account of their astronomical doctrines; nor had Galileo,
until this period of his life, incurred ecclesiastical censure for
anything which he had said or written. But the Inquisition now took up
the matter as heretical and contrary to the express words of Scripture;
and in 1616, Copernicus's work, "De Revolutionibus," Kepler's "Epitome,"
and some of Galileo's own letters, were placed on the list of prohibited
books; and he himself, being then in Rome, received formal notice not to
teach that the earth revolves round the sun. He returned to Florence
full of indignation; and considering his hasty temper, love of truth,
and full belief of the condemned theory, it is rather wonderful that he
kept silence so long, than that he incurred at last the censures of the
hierarchy. He did, however, restrain himself from any open advocacy of
the heretical doctrines, even in composing his great work, the "Dialogue
on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems." This was completed in 1630,
but not printed till 1632, under license from officers of the church,
both at Rome and Florence. It is a dialogue between Simplicio, an
Aristotelian, Salviati, who represents the author, and Sagredo, a half
convert to Salviati's opinions. It professes "indeterminately to propose
the philosophical arguments, as well on one side as on the other;" but
the neutrality is but ill kept up, and was probably assumed, not with
any hope that the court of Rome would be blinded as to the real tendency
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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