Galilei

Galileo, commonly called Galileo, a distinguished Italian physicist; born in Pisa, Italy, Feb. 18, 1564. Later Cosmo III. invited him to Pisa, and soon after called him to Florence, with the title of principal mathematician and philosopher to the grand-duke. Galileo had heard of the invention of the telescope by Jansen; and making one for himself, a series of most important astronomical discoveries followed. He found that the moon, like the earth, has an uneven surface, and he taught his scholars to measure the height of its mountains by their shadow. A particular nebula he resolved into individual stars; but ~ his most remarkable discoveries were Jupiter’s satellites, Saturn’s ring, the sun’s spots, and the starry nature of the Milky Way. The result of his discoveries was his decided conviction of the truth of the Copernican system; though the blind and furious bigotry of the monks charged him with heresy for it, and he was twice persecuted by the Inquisition, first in 1615, and again in 1633. On both oceasions he was compelled to abjure the system of Copernicus; but it is said that, in the last instance, when he had repeated the abjuration, he stamped his foot on the earth, indignantly muttering, “ Yet it moves!” In the following year, when he was 70 years old, and his health was declining, a very heavy blow fell on him by the death of his beloved daughter, Maria, who would have sweetly soothed him in his enforced retirement. Two years later he became blind. He bore this affliction, to him of unusual severity, with great patience. His latter years were spent near Florence, devoting himself to the perfecting of his telescope. His greatest work is. the “ Dialogue on the em and Ptolemaic Systems.” e died in Arcetri, near Florence, Italy, Jan. 8, 1642 (the year Newton was born). His remains were ultimately deposited in the Church of Santa Croce at Florence.