Galileo Galilei The Tuscan Artist

This book is a distinctively original biography of Galileo Galilei, probably the last eclectic genius of the Italian Renaissance, who was not only one of the greatest scientists ever, but also a philosopher, a theologian, and a man of great literary, musical, and artistic talent – “The Tuscan Artist”, as the poet John Milton referred to him. Galileo was exceptional in simultaneously excelling in the Arts, Science, Philosophy, and Theology. These diverse aspects of his life were closely intertwined; indeed, it may be said that he personally demonstrated that human culture is not divisible, but rather one, with a thousand shades. Galileo also represented the bridge between two historical epochs. As the philosopher Tommaso Campanella, a contemporary of Galileo, recognized at the time, Galileo was responsible for ushering in a new age, the Modern Age. This book, which is exceptional in the completeness of its coverage, explores all aspects of the life of Galileo, as a Tuscan artist and giant of the Renaissance, in a stimulating and reader-friendly way.

This book aims to make Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) accessible to the modern reader by refashioning the great scientist's masterpiece "Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences" in today's language. Galileo Galilei stands as one of the most important figures in history, not simply for his achievements in astronomy, physics, and engineering and for revolutionizing science and the scientific method in general, but also for the role that he played in the (still ongoing) drama concerning entrenched power and its desire to stifle any knowledge that may threaten it. Therefore, it is important that today's readers come to understand and appreciate what Galilei accomplished and wrote. But the mindset that shapes how we see the world today is quite different from the mindset -- and language -- of Galilei and his contemporaries. Another obstacle to a full understanding of Galilei's writings is posed by the countless historical, philosophical, geometrical, and linguistic references he made, along with his often florid prose, with its blend of Italian and Latin. De Angelis' new rendition of the work includes translations of the original geometrical figures into algebraic formulae in modern notation and allows the non-specialist reader to follow the thread of Galileo's thought and in a way that was barely possible until now.

Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in Florence in 1632, was the most proximate cause of his being brought to trial before the Inquisition. Using the dialogue form, a genre common in classical philosophical works, Galileo masterfully demonstrates the truth of the Copernican system over the Ptolemaic one, proving, for the first time, that the earth revolves around the sun. Its influence is incalculable. The Dialogue is not only one of the most important scientific treatises ever written, but a work of supreme clarity and accessibility, remaining as readable now as when it was first published. This edition uses the definitive text established by the University of California Press, in Stillman Drake’s translation, and includes a Foreword by Albert Einstein and a new Introduction by J. L. Heilbron.

His biography of Galileo won the Brage Award for best Norwegian non-fiction book in 2001 The Norwegian edition has sold nearly 6000 copies Biographies as a genre are very popular

In 1633 the Roman Inquisition concluded the trial of Galileo Galilei with a condemnation for heresy. The trial was itself the climax of a series of events which began two decades earlier (in 1613) and included another series of Inquisition proceedings in 1615-1616. Besides marking the end of the controversy that defines the original episode, the condemnation of 1633 also marks the beginning of another classic controversy-about the Galileo affair, its causes, its implications, and its lessons; about whether, for example, John Milton was right when in the Areopagitica he commented on his visit to Galileo in Florence by saying: "There it was that I found and visited the famous Galileo, grown old a prisoner to the Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought." I happen to be extremely interested in this second story and second controversy, and a critical interpretation of the affair remains one of my ultimate goals. But that is not the subject of the present work, which is rather concerned with something more fundamental, namely with the documentation of the original episode. To be more exact, the aim of this book is to provide a documentary history of the series of developments which began in 1613 and culminated in 1633 with the trial and condemnation of Galileo. That is, it aims to provide a collection of the essential texts and documents containing information about both the key events and the key issues. The documents have been translated into English from the original languages, primarily Italian and partly Latin; they have been selected, are arranged, annotated, introduced, and otherwise edited with the following guiding principles in mind: to make the book as self-contained as possible and to minimize contentious interpretation and evaluation. The Galileo affair is such a controversial and important topic that one needs a sourcebook from which to learn firsthand about the events and the issues; since no adequate volume of the kind exists, this work attempts to fill the lacuna. The originals of the documents translated and collected here can all be found in printed sources. In fact, with one exception they are all contained in the twenty volumes of the National Edition of Galileo's works, edited by Antonio Favaro and first published in 1890-1909. The exception is the recently discovered "Anonymous Complaint About The Assayer," whose original was discovered and first published in 1983 by Pietro Redondi; this document is also contained in the critical edition of the Inquisition proceedings edited by Sergio M. Pagano and published in 1984 by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. My selection was affected partly by the criterion of importance insofar as I chose documents that I felt to be (more or less) essential. Since I was also influenced by the double focus of this documentary history on events and issues, I therefore included two types of documents: the first consists of relatively short documents which are mostly either Inquisition proceedings (Chapters V and IX) or letters (Chapters I, VII, and VIII) and which primarily (though not exclusively) record various occurrences; the second type consists of longer essays by Galileo (Chapters II, Ill, IV, and VI) which discuss many of the central scientific and philosophical issues and have intrinsic importance independent of the affair. Finally, my goal of maximizing the autonomy of this volume suggested another reason for including some of these longer informative essays on the scientific issues (Chapters IV and VI).