Galileo - When novel ideas challenge the status quo… — The Ki ® POWER DYNAMICS by Leonora Anne Weston

Artwork portrait of Galileo Galilei. Image: *starwalk.space.en*

Galileo Galilei was a polymath - an astronomer, physicist, mathematician, engineer, designer and inventor. He was born in 1564, in Pisa, Italy. Amongst his creations were the thermoscope - a forerunner of the thermometer.

Galielo on hearing of the first practical telescope of Hans Lippershey (who had tried to patent it in 1608), attempted to make his own telescope based on uncertain descriptions. He began with 3 x magnification, and through later iterations - was able to achieve approximately 30x magnification.

Using his telescopes, he observed the moon, and “stars” which he noticed were gravitationally encircling Jupiter. (These were Jupiter’s larger moons - we now know as Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.)

The controversy

Galileo's observations of a planet with smaller planets orbiting it relationally - was deeply controversial. It contradicted the principles of Aristotelian cosmology; and that all heavenly bodies should revolve around the earth. This was the view that the majority of educated people subscribed to at the time.

In 1610, he further observed the planet of Venus, in her crescent, gibbous and full phases.

This was impossible under the Ptolemy’s geocentric model in which the Sun, moon, stars and planets were all supposed to orbit around the Earth. Ptolemy’s model had been developed in the 2nd century CE, and served as the basis for preparing astrological and astronomical charts for over 1,500 years.

There were two major reasons that people believed in the geocentric model.

1) From Earth, the sun appeared to revolve around the Earth once each day. And the moon and planets appeared to have their own motions but also appeared to revolve around Earth about once per day; while the stars appeared to be fixed on a celestial sphere which rotated once each day about an axis through the geographical poles of Earth.

2) From Earth, a person standing on the ground feels as if it is solid, stable and stationary.

The stakes at play

Not only were Galileo’s arguments a threat to the status quo which had been the basis of astrology and astronomy for 1,500 years. There was also potential implications for religious beliefs, with biblical passages implying the fixed nature of the Earth.

In in December 1613, Grand Duchess Christina of Florence confronted one of Galileo’s friends and followers, Benedetto Castelli, with biblical objections to the motion of the Earth.

Galileo’s response was to write Castelli an 8 page letter, explaining that the Bible was an authority on faith and morals, but not on science.

Two years later, in 1615, he wrote a more extensive 40 page letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.

The (long) letter to Christina

It begins:

“To the Most Serene, Grand Duchess Mother

Some years ago, as Your Serene Highness well knows, I discovered in the heavens many things that had not been seen before our own age. The novelty of these things, as well as some consequences which followed from them in contradiction to the physical notions commonly held among academic philosophers, stirred up against me no small number of professors—as if I had placed these things in the sky with my own hands in order to upset nature and overturn the sciences. They seemed to forget that the increase of known truths stimulates the investigation, establishment, and growth of the arts; not their diminution or destruction. Showing a greater fondness for their own opinions than for truth, they sought to deny and disprove the new things which, if they had cared to look for themselves, their own senses would have demonstrated to them. To this end they hurled various charges and published numerous writings filled with vain arguments…”

Those readers of my blog who wish to read the full text of the 40 page letter, translated into English - can find it here.

The inquisition & banned view

*Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition* painting by Christiano Banti (1857) Wikicommons

The Christina letter was submitted to the Roman Inquisition (by Father Niccolò Lorini). It was alleged that Galileo and his followers were attempting to reinterpret the Bible. This was to the Catholics - a violation of the Council of Trent, and looked like Protestantism.

Galileo went to Rome to defend himself and his ideas. An essay was written by Francesco Ingoli - who may have been commissioned by the Inquisition to write an expert opinion. It focused on 18 arguments against heliocentrism; and included 4 theological arguments.

In February 1616, the Inquisition declared heliocentric to be heretical, contradicting the Holy Scripture. Galileo was called to the residence of Cardinal Bellarmine, tasked with delivering the finding by Pope Paul V, and Galileo was ordered to abandon heliocentricism - the idea that the sun is at the centre and the Earth moves. He was not to hold, teach or defend it in any way, either orally or in writing. Works such as Copernicus De Revolutionibus were also banned, alongside other heliocentric works until correction.

The new pope & a new book

In 1623, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini was elected as Pope Urban VII, who was a friend and admirer of Galileo, and he had opposed the admonition of Galileo in 1616.

Pope Urban VII asked Galileo to write a book with arguments for and against heliocentricism, but to be careful not to advocate for heliocentricism. This became the new book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in 1632.

Frontispiece of *Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems* (1632) Wikicommons

However, Galileo featured a character who was defender philosopher of the Aristotelian geocentric view - whose name Simplicius in Latin, Simplicio in Italian - meant or had connotation of “simpleton”; and also at times came across in the book as a fool.

It was received negatively as an attack on geocentricism (the sun revolving around the earth) and those who believed in it, and an advocacy of the Copernican heliocentric theory (that the earth revolves around the sun).

Galileo was called to Rome in September 1632, arriving in 1633 and brought before the Inquisition.

Another inquisition 1633 & prison

Galileo before the Holy Office, by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury (19th Century depiction) Image: Wikicommons

Galileo tried the plausible deniability strategy - that he had even held Copernican ideas after 1616 (the time of the last inquisition). He was threatened with torture, but maintained his denial. He did however admit that his Dialogue could have given the reader the impression that it was intended to be a defence of Copernicanism, even if he never intended that.

On 22 June 1633, Galileo was found “vehemently suspect of heresy”.

Galileo was required to “abjure, curse and detest those opinions (of the Sun lying at the centre of the universe and the Earth moving).

He was sentenced to formal imprisonment at the pleasure of the Inquisition; which was commuted the next day to house arrest.

Galileo’s offending book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was banned. Later the publication of all and any of his works was forbidden, including any he might write in the future.

And yet it moves

After being forced to recant and deny his theory that the Earth moved around the Sun, he is said to have muttered the rebellious phrase…

“E pur si muove.” (In English: “And yet it moves.” A reference to the earth’s movement.)

Whether Galileo really did say those words “and yet it moves” - or whether that' is a historically-overlaid myth, one could certainly imagine the sentiment and frustration he felt over the situation.

Detail of Portrait of Galileo in prison, close up of words depicted on prison cell E pur si muove" (*And yet it moves*)

Galileo was eventually allowed to return to his villa in Arcetri near Florence in 1634, under house arrest, and ordered to read Seven Penitential Psalms once a week. He summarised work he had done 40 years earlier, in his work titled Two New Sciences, published in Holland to avoid censorship, a work that was later praised by Albert Einstein.

By 1638 he was blind, and suffered medical ailments, and died on 8 January 1642, aged 77.

Galileo - When novel ideas challenge the status quo…