Galileo Galilei

1564–1642 · Italian astronomer, physicist and natural philosopher

Galileo Galilei turned an improved spyglass on the night sky in 1609 and found moons around Jupiter, mountains on the Moon and phases on Venus — observations that made the Earth-centred cosmos untenable. The Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina is his attempt to argue, in 1615, that scripture and physical demonstration answer different questions and cannot properly contradict each other. The argument did not save him: an Inquisition investigation opened that same year, he was later forced to recant, and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

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