galileo :: essays research papers

Galileo GalileiGalileo was a mathematician transformed into an astronomer. He created the modern telescope based on a primitive model that originated in Amsterdam. Galileo disproved Aristotles fundamental principles of the universe, which had been excepted passim the centuries as common friendship. According to this theory, no change could ever take place in the heavens, because everything in them was made of a perfect and unalterable internality called the quintessence. However, in October 1604, Galileo spotted a supernova and a new star was discovered and proved to be among the fixed stars, disproving Aristotles theories. Galileos telescopes were approved by the Venetian senators to be copied and openly sold. However, Galileo was threatened when Venice disapproved of telescopes being cheaply hawked on every street corner. He fled to Florence seeking protection under Cosimo de Medici. In Florence Galileo gained many allies on his sun-centered theory of the solar system of the un iverse. Between 1616 and 1624, Galileo remained content to study without publishing his findings. Galileo grew bolder due to his failing eyesight and by 1632 Galileos ideas had become common knowledge in Italian streets. Many authorities considered Galileos findings as dangerously heretical and seditious notions. Under pressure from the church, Cosimo de Medici withdrew his protection, as did Pope Urban VIII, the reason Cardinal Barberini, who allowed his Cardinal Inquisitor to threaten Galileo with torture in order to exact a confession of heresy and recantation.To the dismay of his close followers, Galileo recanted on June 22, 1633. The news program was announced to his family and friends by the church bells of the Saint Marcus, followed by the town criers reading of the text of the recantation. Feeling betrayed, his disciples turned away from him. Thereafter until his closing in 1642, Galileo remained a prisoner of the Inquisition, under house arrest, and under the watchful ey e of his daughter, Virginia. Secretly, he worked at night on his scientific opus, the Discorsi. He hid his papers inside a globe and was able to get his work to the outside world after Andrea visited him, asking of his health. After admitting that he had recanted from a fear of torture, Galileo gave the manuscript to Andrea, who in 1637 conveyed it across the Italian frontier on his way to Amsterdam, where it could be published and circulated without reprisal from the church.Galileos ideals came as a shock to the citizens of Italy and other nations.