Conversations and mathematical proofs of two new sciences. Biography of Galileo Galilei. His middle finger is in the museum

Galileo Galileo (02/15/1564 - 01/08/1642) was an Italian physicist, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher who made a great contribution to the development of science. He discovered experimental physics, laid the foundation for the development of classical mechanics, made major discoveries in astronomy.

Young years

Galileo - a native of the city of Pisa, had a noble origin, but his family was not rich. Galileo was the eldest child of four (a total of six children were born in the family, but two died). From childhood, the boy was drawn to creativity: like his father, a musician, he was seriously fond of music, he drew well and understood the fine arts. He also had a literary gift, which later allowed him to express his scientific research in his writings.

He was an outstanding student at the school at the monastery. He wanted to become a clergyman, but changed his mind due to the rejection of this idea by his father, who insisted that his son receive a medical education. So at the age of 17, Galileo went to the University of Pisa, where, in addition to medicine, he studied geometry, which greatly fascinated him.

Already at that time, the young man was characterized by the desire to defend his own position, not being afraid of established authoritative opinions. Constantly argued with teachers on science issues. I studied at the university for three years. It is assumed that at that time Galileo learned the teachings of Copernicus. He was forced to drop out of school when his father could no longer pay for it.

Due to the fact that the young man managed to make several inventions, he was noticed. He was especially admired by the Marquis del Monte, who was very fond of science and had good capital. So Galileo found a patron who also introduced him to the Duke of Medici and placed him as a professor at the same university. This time Galileo focused on mathematics and mechanics. In 1590 he published his work - the treatise "On the Movement".

Professor in Venice

From 1592 to 1610, Galileo taught at the University of Padua, became the head of the mathematical department, and was famous in scientific circles. The most active activity of Galileo fell on this time. He was very popular with students who dreamed of getting into his classes. Eminent scientists corresponded with him, and the authorities constantly set new technical tasks for Galileo. At the same time, the treatise "Mechanics" was published.

When in 1604 they discovered new star, his scientific research fell on astronomy. In 1609, he assembles the first telescope, with the help of which he seriously advanced the development of astronomical science. Galileo described the surface of the Moon, the Milky Way, discovered the satellites of Jupiter. His book The Starry Messenger, published in 1610, was a huge success and made the telescope a popular acquisition in Europe. But along with recognition and reverence, the scientist is also accused of the illusory nature of his discoveries, as well as in an effort to harm the medical and astrological sciences.

Soon, Professor Galileo enters into an unofficial marriage with Marina Gamba, who bore him three children. Responding to an offer of a high position in Florence from the Duke of Medici, he moves and becomes an adviser at court. This decision allowed Galileo to pay off large debts, but partly played a disastrous role in his fate.

Life in Florence

At the new location, the scientist continued his astronomical research. It was characteristic of him to present his discoveries in a bullying style, which greatly annoyed other figures, as well as the Jesuits. This led to the formation of an anti-Galilean society. The main claim on the part of the church was the heliocentric system, which contradicted religious texts.

In 1611, the scientist went to Rome to meet with the head of the Catholic Church, where he was received rather warmly. There he introduced the cardinals to the telescope and tried, with care, to give some explanations. Later, encouraged by a successful visit, he published his letter to the abbot that Scripture could not have authority in matters of science, which attracted the attention of the Inquisition.

Galileo demonstrates the laws of gravity (fresco by D. Bezzoli, 1841)

His 1613 book "Letters on Sunspots" contained open support for the teachings of N. Copernicus. In 1615, the first case was opened against Galileo by the Inquisition. And after he called on the Pope to express his final point of view on Copernicanism, the situation only worsened. In 1616, the Church declares heliocentrism a heresy and bans the book of Galileo. Galileo's attempts to remedy the situation did not lead to anything, but he was promised not to be persecuted if he stopped supporting the teachings of Copernicus. But for a scientist convinced of his rightness, this was impossible.

Nevertheless, for a while, he decided to turn his energy in a different direction, engaging in criticism of the teachings of Aristotle. The result was his book The Assay Master, written in 1623. At the same time, a longtime friend Galileo Barberini was elected Pope. In the hope of lifting the ban on the church, the scientist went to Rome, where he was well received, but did not get what he wanted. Further, Galileo decided in his writings to continue to defend the truth, considering several scientific points of view from a position of neutrality. His Dialogue on Two Systems of the World lays the groundwork for the new mechanics.

Galileo's conflict with the church

In 1630, having handed over his "Dialogue" to the court of the Catholic censor, Galileo waits a year, after which he resorts to a trick: he writes a preface about the rejection of Copernicanism as a doctrine. As a result, permission was obtained. Published in 1632, the book did not contain specific conclusions of the author, although it clearly made sense in the argumentation of the Copernican system. The work was written in an accessible Italian, the author also independently sent copies to the highest ministers of the church.

A few months later, the book was banned and Galileo was called to trial. He was arrested and spent 18 days in captivity. Thanks to the troubles of his pupil, the duke, the scientist was shown leniency, although he was presumably still tortured. The investigation went on for two months, after which Galileo was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment as a punishment, he also had to renounce his own "delusions". Became catchphrase“And yet it turns,” which is attributed to Galileo, he actually did not say. This legend was invented by the Italian literary figure D. Baretti.

Galileo before the Judgment (K. Bunty, 1857)

Old age

The scientist did not stay in prison for a long time, he was allowed to live on the Medici estate, and five months later he returned home, where they continued to follow him. Galileo settled in Arcetri near the monastery where his daughters served, and spent his last years under house arrest. toppled a large number prohibitions that hindered his treatment and communication with friends. Later, they were allowed to visit the scientist one at a time.

Despite the difficulties, Galileo continued to work in non-prohibited scientific directions. He published a book on mechanics, planned to anonymously publish a book in defense of his views, but did not have time. After the death of his beloved daughter, he went blind, but continued to work, wrote a work on kinematics, published in Holland and which became the basis for the research of Huygens and Newton.

Galileo died and was buried in Arcetri, the church forbade burial in the family crypt and the erection of monuments to the scientist. His grandson, the last representative of the family, having become a monk, destroyed valuable manuscripts. In 1737, the remains of the scientist were transferred to the family tomb. The Catholic Church only rehabilitated Galileo in the late 70s of the last century, in 1992 the mistake of the Inquisition was officially recognized.

Galileo Galilei - the greatest thinker of the Renaissance, the founder of modern mechanics, physics and astronomy, a follower of ideas, a predecessor.

The future scientist was born in Italy, the city of Pisa on February 15, 1564. Father Vincenzo Galilei, who belonged to an impoverished family of aristocrats, played the lute and wrote treatises on music theory. Vincenzo was a member of the Florentine Camerata society, whose members sought to revive the ancient Greek tragedy. The result of the activities of musicians, poets and singers was the creation of a new genre of opera at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries.

Mother Giulia Ammannati led household and raised four children: the eldest Galileo, Virginia, Livia and Michelangelo. The youngest son followed in the footsteps of his father and subsequently became famous for his composing art. When Galileo was 8 years old, the family moved to the capital of Tuscany, the city of Florence, where the Medici dynasty flourished, known for its patronage of artists, musicians, poets and scientists.

At an early age, Galileo was sent to school at the Benedictine monastery of Vallombrosa. The boy showed the ability to draw, study languages ​​and the exact sciences. From his father, Galileo inherited an ear for music and the ability to compose, but only science really attracted the young man.

Studies

At 17, Galileo travels to Pisa to study medicine at the university. The young man, in addition to the basic subjects and medical practice, became interested in attending mathematical classes. The young man discovered the world of geometry and algebraic formulas, which influenced Galileo's worldview. During the three years that the young man studied at the university, he thoroughly studied the works of ancient Greek thinkers and scientists, and also got acquainted with the heliocentric theory of Copernicus.

After a three-year stay in an educational institution, Galileo was forced to return to Florence due to the lack of funds for further education from his parents. The management of the university did not make any concessions to the talented young man, did not give him the opportunity to complete the course and receive a degree. But Galileo already had an influential patron, the Marquis Guidobaldo del Monte, who admired Galileo's talents in the field of invention. The aristocrat took care of the ward before the Tuscan Duke Ferdinand I of Medici and provided the young man with a salary at the court of the ruler.

Work at the university

The Marquis del Monte helped the talented scientist get a teaching position at the University of Bologna. In addition to lectures, Galileo leads a fruitful scientific activity. The scientist deals with issues of mechanics and mathematics. In 1689, the thinker returned to the University of Pisa for three years, but now as a teacher of mathematics. In 1692, for 18 years, he moved to the Venetian Republic, the city of Padua.

Combining teaching work at a local university with scientific experiments, Galileo publishes the books "On Motion", "Mechanics", where he refutes ideas. In the same years, one of the important events takes place - the scientist invents a telescope, which made it possible to observe the life of celestial bodies. The discoveries made by Galileo with the help of a new device, the astronomer described in the treatise "Star Messenger".

Returning to Florence in 1610, under the care of the Duke of Tuscany Cosimo de' Medici II, Galileo published the essay "Letters on Sunspots", which was critically received by the Catholic Church. At the beginning of the XVII century, the Inquisition acted on a large scale. And the followers of Copernicus were among the zealots of the Christian faith in a special account.

In 1600, he was already executed at the stake, who never renounced his own views. Therefore, the works of Galileo Galilei were considered provocative by Catholics. The scientist himself considered himself an exemplary Catholic and did not see a contradiction between his work and the Christocentric picture of the world. The astronomer and mathematician considered the Bible to be a book that contributes to the salvation of the soul, and not at all a scientific cognitive treatise.

In 1611, Galileo went to Rome to demonstrate the telescope to Pope Paul V. The presentation of the device was carried out by the scientist as correctly as possible and even received the approval of the metropolitan astronomers. But the request of the scientist to make a final decision on the issue of the heliocentric system of the world decided his fate in the eyes of the Catholic Church. The papists declared Galileo a heretic, and the indictment process was launched in 1615. The concept of heliocentrism was officially recognized as false by the Roman Commission in 1616.

Philosophy

The main postulate of Galileo's worldview is the recognition of the objectivity of the world, regardless of subjective perception by a person. The universe is eternal and infinite, initiated by the divine first impulse. Nothing in space disappears without a trace, only a change in the form of matter occurs. The basis of the material world is the mechanical movement of particles, by studying which you can learn the laws of the universe. Therefore, scientific activity should be based on experience and sensory knowledge of the world. According to Galileo, nature is the true subject of philosophy, comprehending which you can get closer to the truth and the fundamental principle of all things.

Galileo was an adherent of two methods of natural science - experimental and deductive. With the help of the first method, the scientist sought to prove the hypotheses, the second assumed a consistent movement from one experience to another, in order to achieve the completeness of knowledge. In his work, the thinker relied primarily on teaching. Criticizing the views, Galileo did not reject the analytical method used by the philosopher of antiquity.

Astronomy

Thanks to the telescope invented in 1609, which was created using a convex lens and a concave eyepiece, Galileo began observing the heavenly bodies. But a three-fold increase in the first device was not enough for a scientist for full-fledged experiments, and soon the astronomer creates a telescope with a 32-fold increase in objects.

Inventions of Galileo Galilei: telescope and first compass

The first luminary, which Galileo studied in detail with the help of a new device, was the Moon. The scientist discovered many mountains and craters on the surface of the Earth's satellite. The first discovery confirmed that the Earth physical properties does not differ from other celestial bodies. This was the first refutation of Aristotle's statement about the difference between earthly and heavenly nature.

The second major discovery in the field of astronomy concerned the discovery of the four satellites of Jupiter, which in the 20th century was already confirmed by numerous space photos. Thus, he refuted the arguments of the opponents of Copernicus that if the Moon revolves around the Earth, then the Earth cannot revolve around the Sun. Galileo, due to the imperfection of the first telescopes, could not establish the period of rotation of these satellites. The final proof of the rotation of the moons of Jupiter was put forward 70 years later by the astronomer Cassini.

Galileo discovered the presence of sunspots, which he observed for a long time. Having studied the luminary, Galileo concluded that the Sun rotates around its own axis. Observing Venus and Mercury, the astronomer determined that the orbits of the planets are closer to the Sun than the earth. Galileo discovered the rings of Saturn and even described the planet Neptune, but he was not able to advance in these discoveries to the end, due to the imperfection of technology. Watching the stars of the Milky Way through a telescope, the scientist was convinced of their immense number.

By experience and empirical way, Galileo proves that the Earth revolves not only around the Sun, but also around its axis, which further strengthened the astronomer in the correctness of the Copernican hypothesis. In Rome, after a hospitable reception in the Vatican, Galileo becomes a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, which was founded by Prince Cesi.

Mechanics

According to Galileo, the basis of the physical process in nature is mechanical movement. The scientist considered the universe as a complex mechanism consisting of the simplest causes. Therefore, mechanics became the cornerstone in the scientific activity of Galileo. Galileo made many discoveries in the field of mechanics itself, and also determined the direction of future discoveries in physics.

The scientist was the first to establish the law of falling and confirmed it empirically. Galileo discovered the physical formula for the flight of a body moving at an angle to a horizontal surface. The parabolic motion of a thrown object was essential to the calculation of artillery tables.

Galileo formulated the law of inertia, which became the fundamental axiom of mechanics. Another discovery was the substantiation of the principle of relativity for classical mechanics, as well as the calculation of the formula for the oscillation of pendulums. Based latest study The first pendulum clock was invented in 1657 by the physicist Huygens.

Galileo was the first to pay attention to the resistance of the material, which gave impetus to the development of an independent science. The reasoning of the scientist later formed the basis of the laws of physics on the conservation of energy in the field of gravity, the moment of force.

Mathematics

Galileo in mathematical judgments approached the idea of ​​the theory of probability. The scientist outlined his own research on this subject in the treatise “Discourses on the game of dice”, which was published 76 years after the death of the author. Galileo became the author of the famous mathematical paradox about natural numbers and their squares. Galileo recorded the calculations in the work "Conversations about two new sciences". Developments formed the basis of the theory of sets and their classification.

Conflict with the Church

After 1616, a turning point in Galileo's scientific biography, he was forced to go into the shadows. The scientist was afraid to express his own ideas explicitly, so the only book published by Galileo after Copernicus was declared a heretic was the 1623 essay The Assayer. After the change of power in the Vatican, Galileo perked up, he believed that the new Pope Urban VIII would react more favorably to Copernican ideas than his predecessor.

But after the appearance in print in 1632 of the polemical treatise "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World," the Inquisition again brought proceedings against the scientist. The story of the accusation repeated itself, but this time for Galileo everything ended much worse.

Personal life

While living in Padua, young Gallileo met Marina Gamba, a citizen of the Venetian Republic, who became the civil wife of the scientist. Three children were born in the family of Galileo - the son of Vincenzo and the daughters of Virginia and Livia. Since the children appeared outside of a married marriage, the girls subsequently had to become nuns. At the age of 55, Galileo managed to legitimize only his son, so the young man was able to marry and give his father a grandson, who later, like his aunts, became a monk.

Galileo Galilei was outlawed

After the Inquisition outlawed Galileo, he moved to a villa in Arcetri, which was not far from the daughters' monastery. Therefore, quite often, Galileo could see his favorite, the eldest daughter Virginia, until her death in 1634. The younger Livia did not visit her father due to illness.

Death

As a result of a short-term imprisonment in 1633, Galileo renounced the idea of ​​heliocentrism and was placed under indefinite arrest. The scientist was placed under home guard in the city of Arcetri with limited communication. Galileo stayed at the Tuscan villa without a break until the last days of his life. The heart of a genius stopped on January 8, 1642. At the time of death, two students, Viviani and Torricelli, were next to the scientist. During the 30s, the last works of the thinker, Dialogues and Conversations and Mathematical Proofs Concerning Two New Branches of Science, were published in Protestant Holland.

Tomb of Galileo Galilei

After his death, the Catholics forbade the burial of the ashes of Galileo in the crypt of the Basilica of Santa Croce, where the scientist wanted to rest. Justice prevailed in 1737. From now on, the grave of Galileo is located next to. After another 20 years, the church rehabilitated the idea of ​​heliocentrism. Galileo's acquittal had to wait much longer. The error of the Inquisition was only recognized in 1992 by Pope John Paul II.

(1564 —1642)

The name of this man caused both admiration and hatred of his contemporaries. Nevertheless, he entered the history of world science not only as a follower of Giordano Bruno, but also as one of the greatest scientists of the Italian Renaissance.

He was born on February 15, 1564 in the city of Pisa into a noble but impoverished family. His father Vincenzo Galilei was a talented musician and composer, but art did not provide a livelihood, and the father of the future scientist earned money by trading in cloth.

Until the age of eleven, Galileo lived in Pisa and studied at a regular school, and then moved with his family to Florence. Here he continued his education in a Benedictine monastery, where he studied grammar, arithmetic, rhetoric and other subjects.

At the age of seventeen, Galileo entered the University of Pisa and began to prepare for the profession of a doctor. At the same time, out of curiosity, he read works on mathematics and mechanics, in particular, Euclid and Archimedes.The latter later Galileo always called his teacher.

Due to a cramped financial situation, the young man had to leave the University of Pisa and return to Florence. At home, Galileo independently engaged in an in-depth study of mathematics and physics, which interested him very much. In 1586, he wrote his first scientific work, "Small Hydrostatic Balance", which brought him some fame and allowed him to get acquainted with several
scientists. Under the patronage of one of them, the author of the Textbook of Mechanics, Guido Ubaldo del Monte, in 1589 Galilei received the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa. At twenty-five, he became a professor at the place where he studied, but did not complete his education.

Galileo taught students mathematics and astronomy, which he expounded, of course, according to Ptolemy. It was to this time that the experiments that he set, throwing various bodies from the inclined Leaning Tower of Pisa, to check whether they fall in accordance with the teachings of Aristotle - heavy faster than light ones. The answer turned out to be negative.

In On Motion (1590), Galileo criticized the Aristotelian doctrine of the fall of bodies. In it, among other things, he wrote: "If reason and experience coincide in something, it does not matter to me that this contradicts the opinion of the majority."

The establishment by Galileo of the isochronism of small oscillations of the pendulum belongs to the same period - the independence of the period of its oscillations from the amplitude. He came to this conclusion while watching the swinging of the chandeliers in the Pisa Cathedral and noting the time by the beating pulse on his hand... Guido del Monte highly valued Galileo as a mechanic and called him "Archimedes of modern times".

Galileo's criticism of the physical ideas of Aristotle set against him numerous supporters of the ancient Greek scientist. The young professor became very uncomfortable in Pisa, and he accepted an invitation to take the chair of mathematics at the famous University of Padua.

The Padua period is the most fruitful and happy in the life of Galileo. Here he found a family, linking his fate with Marina Gamba, who bore him two daughters: Virginia (1600) and Livia (1601); later a son, Vincenzo, was born (1606).

Since 1606, Galileo has been engaged in astronomy. In March 1610, his work entitled "The Starry Herald" was published. It is unlikely that so much sensational astronomical information was reported in one work, moreover, literally during several night observations in January - February of the same 1610.

Having learned about the invention of the telescope and having a good workshop of his own, Galileo makes several samples of telescopes, constantly improving their quality. As a result, the scientist managed to make a telescope with a magnification of 32 times. On the night of January 7, 1610, he points the telescope to the sky. What he saw there was a lunar landscape, mountains. Chains and peaks that cast shadows, valleys and seas - already led to the idea that the Moon is similar to the Earth - a fact that did not testify in favor of religious dogmas and Aristotle's teachings about the special position of the Earth among celestial bodies.

A huge white band in the sky - the Milky Way - when viewed through a telescope, was clearly divided into individual stars. Near Jupiter, the scientist noticed small stars (first three, then one more), which changed their position relative to the planet the very next night. Galileo, with his kinematic perception of natural phenomena, did not need to think long - before him were the satellites of Jupiter! - another argument against the exclusive position of the Earth. Galileo discovered the existence of four moons of Jupiter. Later, Galilei discovered the phenomenon of Saturn (although he did not understand what was the matter) and discovered the phases of Venus.

By observing how sunspots move across the solar surface, he found that the Sun also rotates around its axis. Based on observations, Galileo concluded that rotation around an axis is characteristic of all celestial bodies.

Observing the starry sky, he became convinced that the number of stars is much greater than can be seen with the naked eye. So Galileo confirmed Giordano Bruno's idea that the expanses of the Universe are endless and inexhaustible. After that, Galileo concluded that the heliocentric system of the world proposed by Copernicus is the only true one.

The telescopic discoveries of Galileo were met by many with distrust, even with hostility, but the supporters of the Copernican doctrine, and above all Kepler, who immediately published the Conversation with the Starry Messenger, reacted to them with delight, seeing in this confirmation of the correctness of their convictions.

The Star Messenger brought the scientist European fame. Tuscan
Duke Cosimo II de' Medici invited Galileo to take the position of court mathematician. She promised a comfortable existence, free time for doing science, and the scientist accepted the offer. In addition, this allowed Galileo to return to his homeland, to Florence.

Now, having a powerful patron in the person of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Galileo more and more boldly begins to propagate the teachings of Copernicus. Clerical circles are alarmed. The authority of Galileo as a scientist is high, his opinion is listened to. So, many will decide, the doctrine of the motion of the Earth is not just one of the hypotheses of the structure of the world, which simplifies astronomical calculations.

The anxiety of the ministers of the church about the triumphant spread of the teachings of Copernicus is well explained by the letter of Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino to one of his correspondents: this is well said and contains no danger; and this is sufficient for mathematics; but when they start
to say that the sun actually stands at the center of the world and that it
only rotates around itself, but does not move from east to west, and that
The earth is in the third heaven and rotates around the sun with great speed, then this is a very dangerous thing, and not only because it irritates all philosophers and learned theologians, but also because it harms St. faith, since the falsity of Holy Scripture follows from it.

In Rome, denunciations against Galileo rained down. In 1616, at the request of the Congregation of the Holy Index (an ecclesiastical institution in charge of permits and prohibitions), eleven prominent theologians examined the teachings of Copernicus and came to the conclusion that it was false. On the basis of this conclusion, the heliocentric doctrine was declared heretical, and Copernicus' book On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres was included in the index of forbidden books. At the same time, all books that supported this theory were banned - those that existed and those that would be written in the future.

Galileo was summoned from Florence to Rome, and in a mild but categorical
form demanded to stop the propaganda of heretical ideas about
arrangement of the world. The exhortation was carried out by the same Cardinal Bellarmino.
Galileo was forced to comply. He did not forget how persistence in "heresy" ended for Giordano Bruno. Moreover, as a philosopher, he knew that "heresy" today becomes truth tomorrow.

AT 1623 Galileo's friend becomes pope under the name of Urban VIII
Cardinal Maffeo Barberini. The scientist hurries to Rome. He hopes to achieve the abolition of the prohibition of the "hypothesis" of Copernicus, but in vain. The pope explains to Galileo that now, when the Catholic world is torn apart by heresy, it is unacceptable to question the truth of the holy faith.

Galileo returns to Florence and continues to work on a new book, without losing hope of someday publishing his work. In 1628, he visits Rome again to reconnoiter the situation and find out the attitude of the highest hierarchs of the church towards the teachings of Copernicus. In Rome, he meets the same intolerance, but it does not stop him. Galileo finishes the book and in 1630 presents it to the Congregation.

Consideration of the work of Galileo in censorship lasted two years, then a ban followed. Then Galileo decided to publish his work in his native Florence. He managed to skillfully deceive the local censors, and in 1632 the book was published.

It was called "Dialogue on the two main systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican" and was written as a dramatic work. For censorship reasons, Galileo is forced to exercise caution: the book is written in the form of a dialogue between two supporters of Copernicus and one adherent of Aristotle and Ptolemy, and each of the interlocutors tries to understand the point of view of the other, assuming its justice. In the preface, Galileo is forced to declare that since the teachings of Copernicus are contrary to the holy faith and forbidden, he is not his supporter at all, and in the book the theory of Copernicus is only discussed, not affirmed. But neither the preface nor the form of presentation could hide the truth: the dogmas of Aristotelian physics and Ptolemaic astronomy suffer such an obvious collapse here, and the theory of Copernicus triumphs so convincingly that, contrary to what was said in the preface, Galileo's personal attitude to the teachings of Copernicus and his conviction in the justice of this teaching did not raise doubts.

True, it follows from the presentation that Galileo still believed in the uniform and circular motion of the planets around the Sun, that is, he was unable to evaluate and did not accept the Keplerian laws of planetary motion. He also disagreed with Kepler's assumptions about the causes of the tides (the attraction of the moon!), instead developing his own theory of this phenomenon, which turned out to be incorrect.

The church authorities were furious. Sanctions followed immediately. The sale of Dialogue was banned, and Galileo was summoned to Rome for trial. In vain did the seventy-year-old elder present the testimony of three doctors that he was ill. It was reported from Rome that if he did not come voluntarily, he would be brought by force, in shackles. And the aged scientist went on his way,

“I arrived in Rome,” writes Galileo in one of his letters, “on February 10
1633 and relied on the mercy of the Inquisition and the holy father .. First
I was locked up in the Trinity castle on the mountain, and the next day I was visited by
Commissioner of the Inquisition and took me away in his carriage.

On the way, he asked me various questions and expressed the wish that I stop the scandal caused in Italy by my discovery regarding the movement of the earth ... To all the mathematical evidence that I could oppose to him, he answered me with words from the Holy Scripture: “The earth was and shall be immovable forever and ever."

The investigation dragged on from April to June 1633, and on June 22, in the same church, almost at the same place where Giordano Bruno heard the death sentence, Galileo, on his knees, pronounced the text of the renunciation offered to him. Under the threat of torture, Galileo, refuting the accusation that he had violated the ban on propagating the teachings of Copernicus, was forced to admit that he “unconsciously” contributed to the confirmation of the correctness of this teaching, and publicly renounce it. In doing so, the humiliated Galileo understood that the process started by the Inquisition stop the triumphant march of the new teaching, he himself needed time and opportunity for the further development of the ideas laid down in the Dialogue, so that they would become the beginning of the classical system of the world, in which there would be no place for church dogmas. This process caused irreparable damage to the Church.

Galileo did not give up, although in the last years of his life he had to work in the most difficult conditions. At his villa in Arcetri, he was under house arrest (under the constant supervision of the Inquisition). Here is what he writes, for example, to his friend in Paris: “In Arcetri, I live under the strictest ban not to travel to the city and not to receive many friends at the same time, nor to communicate with those whom I receive except as extremely
with restraint ... And it seems to me that ... my current prison will be replaced
only for the long and narrow one that awaits us all.”

For two years in prison, Galileo wrote "Conversations and Mathematical Proofs ...", where, in particular, he sets out the foundations of dynamics. When the book was finished, the entire Catholic world (Italy, France, Germany, Austria) refused to print it.

In May 1636, the scientist negotiates the publication of his work in Holland, and then secretly forwards the manuscript there. "Conversations" is published in Leiden in July 1638, and the book reaches Arcetri almost a year later - in June 1639. By that time, the blinded Galileo (years of hard work, age and the fact that the scientist often looked at the Sun without good light filters affected) could only feel his offspring with his hands.

Only in November 1979, Pope John Paul II officially admitted that the Inquisition in 1633 made a mistake, forcing the scientist to renounce the theory of Copernicus by force.

This was the first and only case in the history of the Catholic Church of a public recognition of the injustice of condemning a heretic, committed 337 years after his death.

The Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei is known as one of the greatest scientific minds. During his lifetime, however, he was persecuted by the Catholic Church for his belief that the Sun, not the Earth, was at the center of the universe. Find out more about the iconic scientist, including whether he invented the telescope, what punishment he received after being tried by the Roman Inquisition, and how his middle finger ended up in a museum.

He was a college dropout

Galileo, whose father was a lute player and musical theorist, was born in Pisa, Italy. Despite the fact that his father was from a noble family, he was not rich. At the age of ten, Galileo began his studies at a monastery near Florence and intended to become a monk. However, his father was against his son leading a religious life, so he took Galileo away from the monastery. At 16, Galileo entered the University of Pisa to study medicine at his father's insistence. Instead, however, he became interested in mathematics and focused on it. Galileo left the university in 1585 without a degree. He continued his mathematical studies on his own and earned money by giving private lessons, then returned in 1589 to the University of Pisa to teach mathematics there.

He didn't invent the telescope

Galileo did not invent the telescope - this discovery is attributed to the Dutch lens maker Hans Lippershey. However, he was the first person to systematically use optical instruments to study the sky. The Lippershey telescope patent application from 1608 is the earliest, but the Dutch government decided that the telescope was too easy to copy, especially since another scientist had already demonstrated a similar device a year earlier, so the patent was denied. In 1609, Galileo learned about the device and developed his own version, greatly improving the design. In the fall of that year, he pointed a telescope at the moon and found that it was covered with craters and mountains - thereby debunking the common belief that the surface of the moon is smooth.

His daughters were nuns

Galileo had three children with a woman named Marina Gamba, whom he never married. In 1613, he sent his two daughters, Virginia, born in 1600, and Livia, born a year later, to a monastery near Florence, where they remained for the rest of their lives, despite their father's troubles with the Catholic Church. Galileo maintained a close relationship with his eldest daughter, known as Sister Mary Celeste. In the convent she sewed and baked for him when she was relieved of her tasks. He, in turn, organized the supply of food and other necessary things to the impoverished monastery. Galileo's son Vincenzo, born in 1606, studied medicine at the University of Pisa, married and lived in Florence.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment

The heliocentric theory of how the universe functions has seriously challenged the widely held belief that the Earth is the center of the solar system. In 1616, the Catholic Church declared the theory heretical because it was seen as contradicting certain lines from the Bible. Galileo received permission from the Catholic Church to study the ideas of Copernicus, as long as he did not promote or defend them. In 1632 he published his famous book, which presented a discussion between Ptolemy and Copernicus. The book was seen as supporting the ideas of Copernicus, resulting in Galileo being tried by the Roman Inquisition a year later. He was found guilty of heresy, forced to publicly repent, and sentenced to life in prison.

He spent his final years under house arrest

Although Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment, his sentence was soon changed to house arrest. He lived his last years in a villa in his hometown of Arcetri, near Florence. He couldn't meet friends or publish books, but he was visited nonetheless. famous people from all over Europe, such as the philosopher Thomas Hobbes and the poet John Milton. In addition, he managed to transfer the manuscript of a new work, which was published in 1638 - at the same time Galileo was completely blind. He died on January 8, 1642 at the age of 77.

His middle finger is in the museum

After his death, Galileo was buried in the aisle of the church of Santa Croce in Florence. Almost a century later, in 1737, when the remains of the scientist were transported to the burial place of honor in the Basilica of Santa Croce, three fingers, a vertebra and a tooth were removed from the body. Two fingers and a tooth of Galileo were kept by one of his admirers - the body parts of the scientist were passed down from generation to generation, at the beginning of the 19th century it seemed that they were lost forever, until they showed up at an auction in 2009, where they were bought by one of the collectors. Meanwhile the third finger, which is the middle finger right hand, was part of the exposition of many Italian museums. The stolen vertebra ended up at the University of Padua, where Galileo taught from 1592 to 1610.

NASA named spaceship after him

In 1989, NASA and a team from Germany launched a spacecraft named Galileo. Arriving at Jupiter in 1995, the spacecraft became the first to study the planet and its moons for an extended period of time.

The Vatican didn't admit that Galileo was right until 1992.

In 1979, Pope John Paul II initiated an investigation into the condemnation of Galileo by the Catholic Church. Thirteen years later and 359 years after the trial of the Inquisition, the Pope closed the investigation and issued an official apology, in which he acknowledged the mistakes made by the judges during the trial.

Galilei, Galileo. Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche, intorno due nuove scienze attenenti alla mecanica & i movementi locali. Leiden: Elzevier Press, 1638. PMM 130.

Care: £25,000. Sotheby's auction. Music, Continental and Russian Books and Manuscripts. November 28, 2012. London. Lot 151.

The book of Galileo Galilei "Conversations and mathematical proofs concerning two new branches of science related to mechanics and local motion" determined the development of physics for a long time. A blind 74-year-old man lives without getting out in his own house, which, by the will of the Inquisition, has become his prison. Has been living for five years now. Students are not allowed to see him, and he is tormented by the thought that the students have betrayed him: his favorite of them, Cavalieri, wrote a book in which he develops his ideas about indivisibles, and did not refer to the teacher. All his correspondence with the outside world is under the control of censorship. His best book - "Dialogues on the two main systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican" - is removed from everywhere.

Galileo is forbidden to engage in science. Secretly from the Inquisition, he nevertheless managed to write a new large book, a continuation of the Dialogues, and managed to give the result of three years of work to a friend who promised to send it to Holland, where the Inquisition has no power. But that was two years ago... And the tragic story of the Dutch? On behalf of the Dutch government, Admiral Real and the famous astronomer and mathematician Hortensius secretly turned to Galileo with a request to inform them of their results - and suddenly both die. Poisoned by the Inquisition? Is this the end? The Florentine inquisitor writes to Rome that Galileo, "completely blind, is already lying in a coffin rather than engaged in mathematical constructions." And suddenly in July 1638 everything changed. The book that Galileo thought was lost is out of print. It is read by scientists all over Europe. The first reaction is shock. The book is uncensored. Even Copernicus, before his famous work, had to give a preface that his model of the world, in which the Earth revolves around the Sun, is only a hypothesis convenient for calculations, and that he does not try to argue with Holy Scripture and with the teachings of Aristotle. Yes, and Galileo himself in the "Dialogues" was constantly forced to assert this. But now Galileo has nothing to lose. He writes without regard to censorship, to the Inquisition, without malicious allusions and polemical attacks, he writes for Eternity. The book consists of dialogues that are conducted over four days by three fictional characters - Salviati, Sagredo (these characters are named after Galileo's dead friends) and Simplicio (in Italian - "simpleton"). "Day One" contains the doctrine of indivisibles (ideas that later grew into integral calculus) and a project for an experiment to determine the speed of light. (By the way, Galileo was the first to express the very idea of ​​the finiteness of the speed of light.) “Second Day” is devoted to attempts to build a general theory for calculating strength of mechanical structures. "Third Day" - a description of uniformly accelerated motion. "Day Four" - to the movement of abandoned bodies. Here Galileo proposes a new fundamental principle - the "law of addition of displacements" (that is, in modern terms, the rule of vector addition of velocities) and with its help proves that an thrown body falls along a parabola. All these results are presented for the first time.

The book contains more physical results and ideas than all the physics of previous centuries. And nowhere does Galileo bother to refer either to Aristotle or to Holy Scripture, only to an experiment. Unheard of courage! But what about the Inquisition? What will she do with the recalcitrant blind old man who dared openly, under his full name print this? But no, Galileo's act was not suicide. With his book, he made it clear to the authorities that he has knowledge, owns methods that can bring practical benefits. It is necessary that he pass on this knowledge. But how? Galileo agrees to pass on knowledge only to his students. And the stubborn old man wins. After five years of essentially solitary confinement, the doors of the prison were flung open. Students were admitted to Galileo, and science classes were officially allowed. Physicists Viviano and Torricelli settle in his house to work together. The mathematicians Castelli and Cavalieri often visit him. Galileo's son Vincenzo builds pendulum clocks according to his father's design. Active work has been going on for four years. Formally, he is still a prisoner of the Inquisition, but his house is no longer a prison, but a laboratory. He strives to do everything - but, alas, his strength is undermined, and in 1642 Galileo died, without waiting for the embodiment of his ideas into complete theories, he died, not knowing that the great Newton would be born in distant England that same year. "Conversations" will become Newton's reference book. Having developed the Galilean doctrine of indivisibles, Newton will build a majestic edifice of classical physics, one of the laws of which - Newton's first law - will be Galileo's law of inertia. And when in late XIX in. subtle experiments on measuring the speed of light will show the insufficiency of Newtonian mechanics, Einstein will base his new mechanics on the same principle of relativity dating back to Galileo ... It is interesting to compare the fate of two main books of Galileo Galilei - "Dialogues" and "Conversations". During the life of Galileo, undoubtedly, the Dialogues were more popular. The scandalous reputation of the banned work, the controversy it contains with the official point of view, the maximum accessibility of the presentation - all this made the book, in modern terms, a bestseller. But now reading the Dialogues is not interesting: the witticisms are incomprehensible without comments and therefore not funny, multi-page explanations that it is not the Sun that revolves around the Earth, but the Earth around the Sun, weary the modern reader who managed to learn about this in elementary school.