Italian culture: Galileo

Galileo Galilei, the world-famous scientist, inventor of the telescope, was born in Pisa in 1564. After having attended school in a monastery till the age of ten, he then went on to study medicine according to his father›s wishes. He did not like it, but discovered his true interest (mathematics) instead. One of his first achievements was demonstrating that, contrary to what Aristotle had affirmed, objects of different shapes and weight fall at the same speed if thrown from a remarkable height. He proved this by dropping some balls from the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa. Although he never got an official university degree, after his stay in Florence he went to teach in Pisa. Here, because his salary was meager, he had disagreements with the University administration and decided to move again. He went to Padua, where the Aristotelian principles were followed, and there he taught mathematic and geometry. He did not have a particular affinity with his colleagues, due to his original and independent ideas, so he got the habit of getting together with other intellectuals and scientists.
Meanwhile, he had carried out, and started to perfect, the invention that made him universally known: the telescope. Through this device he made important discoveries such as the phases of Venus, the sunspots and the four moons circling Jupiter. In 1610 Galileo returned to Florence, where the Grand Duke appointed him mathematician and philosopher, allowing him to pursue his studies without the task of teaching.
He continued to study the sky through his telescope and his results put him in contrast with the Aristotelians of his time. He could prove that the hypothesis presented by Polish astronomer Copernicus about the Earth orbiting the sun was correct. In so doing, he alienated the sympathy of the Church because such theory contradicted the Bible. The Church, in fact, supported the heliocentric theory, according to which the whole Universe rotated around the Earth. Most of the religious-Aristotelian professors (especially the followers of Thomas Aquinas) opposed Galileo›s findings, while a few, among which the Jesuits, showed great interest for his research. When Galileo published his observations on the matter, the Vatican summoned him to answer the charges against him by the Inquisition — the merciless religious legal body that handled all charges of heresy. Galileo was cleared of such charges and continued his studies. But when he published a book about his additional proves reconfirming Copernicus› theory, he was once again called to Rome. This time he was found guilty of heresy, compelled to recant and sentenced to life imprisonment. Due to his age and faltering health, he did not spend his last years in jail but lived in his villa in Arcetri, a hill above Florence. One of his two daughters, a nun, took care of him until his death in 1642.
Galileo is certainly one of the best known scientists of all times. His invention, the telescope, opened the way to greater achievements so that now it is possible to see not only Jupiter or Uranus but galaxies distant millions of light-years. We can therefore say that Galileo paved the way to modern astronomy and astrophysics.