Galileo Galilei, The Tuscan Artist

373 Pages·2018·3.87 MB·English

by  Pietro Greco

Pietro Greco
Galileo
Galilei
The Tuscan
A r tist
Galileo Galilei, The Tuscan Artist
Pietro Greco
Galileo Galilei,
The Tuscan Artist
123
Pietro Greco
CentroStudi
Fondazione IDIS-CittàdellaScienza
Naples
Italy
Translated byGiuliana Giobbi,Rome, Italy
ISBN978-3-319-72031-9 ISBN978-3-319-72032-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72032-6
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Contents
1 Galileo’s Birth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Galileo as a Boy in Pisa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Vincenzio in Florence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 Vincenzio Galilei, the Father. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Harmony in Music, According to Pythagoras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Zarlino’s Kind Revolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Vincenzio Galilei as a Disciple of Gioseffo Zarlino. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3 Vincenzio in Florence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4 Galileo in Pisa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5 Novice in a Monastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6 Challenging Zarlino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7 Going Back to Pisa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
8 Meeting Ostilio Ricci. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Meeting Ludovico Cardi, Called “Il Cigoli” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Scientific Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Return to Florence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
9 A Young Unemployed Mathematician. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
10 Galileo a Literary Critic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
11 Music and a New Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
12 Professor in Pisa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
13 Galileo a Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
An Irreverent Poet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Bye Bye Dad. Farewell to Pisa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
v
vi Contents
14 The Best Years of His Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Giordano Bruno, Extradited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
The Serenissima Republic of Venice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
The Maths Professor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
The Scientist Professor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Astronomer and Professor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
15 A Tuscan Artist in Padua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
The Pinellis and the Padua Cultural Ambience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
The “Ridotto Morosini” and the Cultural Ambience of Venice . . . . . . 115
16 The Nova Star. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
The Book on Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
17 A Stellar Announcement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
18 The Message of an Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Galileo, Poet of Knowledge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Galileo Drawing the Sky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
19 New Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
20 Galileo Superstar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
The Reactions of His Friends in Venice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
The Reactions of Astronomers and Mathematicians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
The Letter of Johannes Kepler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
The Reactions of the Powerful. The Politicians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
The Reactions of Religious Authorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
The Reactions of Philosophers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
The Reactions of Astrologers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
The Public Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
21 Vicisti Galilaee!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
The Painters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
The Architects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
The Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Poets and Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
22 Come Back in Florence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
23 The Roman Triumph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
The Lincei and the “Philosophical Painting”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
24 Convert the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
25 The Theory of Sculpture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
26 The Copernican Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
The Letter to Castelli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Contents vii
Tommaso Caccini and the “Colombacci” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Two Letters to Cardinal Dini. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
The Letter to Cristina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
27 They Shut Him Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
The Speech About the Ebb and Flow of the Sea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
The “Healthy Edict” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
28 Three Comets and an Essayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Truth, like a Poem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Debate on Painting, with Gianfrancesco Sagredo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Three Comets and a Dispute with the Jesuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
A Friendly Pope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
The Assayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
The Art of The Assayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
The Reactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
29 The Censored Masterpiece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
The Fourth Journey to Rome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Warning Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
The Letter to Ingoli. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
An Attempt at Dialogue on the Sea Ebb and Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Shilly-Shally on the Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
A Literary Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
The Art of the Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
The Censorship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
30 Will to Live. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
31 Discourses and Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Return to Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
32 The Last Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Galileo in Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Finally, Sister Death Comes Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
33 The Enigma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Bibliography .. .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 377
Index .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 383
Chapter 1
Galileo’s Birth
Galileo was born in Pisa on February 16, 1564 from the noblewoman Giulia
Ammannati from Pescia and the musician Vincenzio Galilei from Santa Maria a
Monte.
The year 1564 is full of meaningful events.
Indeed, on February 18 of the same year, Michelangelo Buonarroti dies in
Rome: he was a Tuscan artist, and is considered one of the greatest sculptors,
painters, architects and poets of all times. He had an eclectic spirit, and can be
considered a perfect Renaissance man.
On April 26 of the same year William Shakespeare was born in Startford upon
Avon,England.Heisprobablythegreatestplaywrightofalltimes,a“naturalist”—
namely, a man of letters who can speak to the people while at the same time
offering a deep, refined philosophic theory both in his tragedies and comedies
(McGinn 2008).
Jehan Cauvin diesinthesameyear inGeneve,Switzerland. Hedefinedhimself
as “a poor and shy scholar”, and wrote the Institutio christianae religionis, a book
on Religion as an institution, where he defines the terms of Christian freedom.
CauvinisoneofthemajorplayersoftheReformationwhich,after500 yearsfrom
thebreakawayoftheEasternchurch,splitsonceagaintheChristianworld.Cauvin
diesonMay27.Amonthearlier,onApril28,Cauvinhadjustfinishedwritinghis
Discours d’adieux aux ministres, his valedictory speech to his pastors, where he
recalls threats and insults he had received, although he had spent his whole life
studying the Bible, and had never written anything out of hatred. He had only
“faithfully suggested what he believed might help praise God” (Campi 2000).
Pope Pius IV releases Benedictus Deus on June 30, 1564 and virtually puts an
end to the 19th Ecumenic Council, also known as the Council of Trento, in which
the Catholic Church re-launches its hegemony upon Christianity after the
ReformationofMartinLuther andCauvin.Twentyyearsearlier,PopePaulIIIhad
establishedtheCongregationoftheSacred,RomanandUniversalInquisitionofthe
Holy Office (1542), better known as Holy Inquisition. Six years earlier, with the
approval of Pope Paul IV, the Holy Inquisition had established the Index librorum
©SpringerInternationalPublishingAG,partofSpringerNature2018 1
P.Greco,GalileoGalilei,TheTuscanArtist,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72032-6_1
2 1 Galileo’sBirth
prohibitorum[Indexofprohibitedbooks](1558).Withhisnewbull,PopePaulIV
approves all the decrees of the Council and actually opens the season of
Counter-Reformation.
Galileo,asayoungboy,livesinCatholicTuscany;Pisahasarichtradition,even
thoughithaslivedalongperiodofdeclineandisnowreducedtoabigvillage,with
little more than ten thousand inhabitants (10,069 according to the census of 1558–
1562).
However, Pisa has been recovering for about a decade. Indeed, within an
ambitiouscivilandmilitaryplan,whichaimsatunifyingthewholeofTuscanyand
prevent its being pushed by powerful neighbouring cities, the autocratic, enter-
prising duke of Florence, Cosimo de’ Medici, son of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere,
orders to dredge gutters and drain swamps all around the city.
This directive is not timely enough. In 1562, two years before Galileo’s birth,
thoseveryswampshadcausedthedeathofCosimo’swife,theduchessEleonoraof
Toledo, due to malaria. Two out of eleven of their children also died for the same
reason—Giovanni and Grazia.
These tragic events leave their deep mark upon the duke, who, in 1564, leaves
part of his power to his son Francesco, who becomes a sort of regent. Cosimo I,
though weary, does not give up his plan, namely, he wants to give a full political
authority back to his family, the Medicis. In order to fulfill this goal, he spares no
expenses. The duke from Mugello aspires to achieve control over the whole of
Tuscany, Florenceincluded. Hewantsprogressandwell-being everywhere—these
areprerequisitesfortheMedicis’government.Thereforehepromotesindustriesand
reinforces the defense.
However, Cosimo knows that the extraordinary authority enjoyed by his
well-knownancestor,Lorenzode’Medici,(knownas“ilMagnifico”),wasduetoa
crucial intuition, namely the promotion of culture.
Cosimo must follow the same policy. Tuscany should become once again the
pioneer of culture. That is why Cosimo wants to invite all artists to his court in
Florence.InthecityofGiotto,Dante,andLorenzoilMagnifico,Cosimopromotes
one idea after the other. In 1563 he establishes the Accademia e Compagnia
dell’Arte del Disegno [Drawing Academy], which will quickly gain prestige.
Cosimo also relaunches Pisa by establishing the Ufficio dei Fossi, a sort of
MinistryofWorks,restorescrenellatedwalls,aswellasnewquays,inordertohost
shipsandboats,andresumesthecity’soldvocationasthequeenofthesea.Cosim
alsorealizescanals,soastoconnectPisatoLivorno,andtheriverSarchiotoArno,
which is made navigable up to Florence, in order to improve trade. He also
establishes the Ordine dei Cavalieri di Santo Stefano [Order of S. Stephen’s
Knights], which is given the task to protect the Thyrrenian sea from the pirates.
However,inordertorestorethecitytoitsoldrank,thedukedoesnotonlyrely
upon works and economy. He wants that Pisa, once forgotten its wish to obtain
independence from Florence, may also become a centre of cultural excellence, if
possible even the major one in Tuscany. That is why he improves its University,
earlier known as Studio Pisano. The new faculties are opened in 1543. In collab-
oration with his personal doctor Luca Ghini, an expert in medical herbs, Cosimo
1 Galileo’sBirth 3
creates a Botanical Garden, the first of its kind both in Europe and in the whole
world.
In trying to promote the leading role of Tuscany, Cosimo stops at nothing.
Indeed, he reaches an agreement with the Pope, so that he can subtract Tuscany
from the formal subjection to the German Emperor. In order to obtain the Pope’s
recognition of the total political independence of Tuscany, the duke of Florence is
willing to vigilate in terms of freedom of thought, so that the Pope of
Counter-Reformation and the Inquisition may not be too nervous for the activities
of a large group of intellectuals at his court and elsewhere in Tuscany.
Galileo as a Boy in Pisa
At this particular stage of Christian history and of European culture, in the revival
ofanoblecity,oncequeenoftheseas,thisboywasbornandwasimposedsucha
peculiarname,Galileo.Infact,well-to-dofamiliesinTuscanyusedtogivetotheir
first-born a first name which repeated the family name. His father Vincenzio was
not wealthy, but had the intention to renew the glory of his family, which, in the
past, had been a most influential family in Florence. Indeed, in 1210, one of his
ancestor had been elected Consul, and there had been 18 priors. Another ancestor,
Tommaso di Buonajuto, had been in the democratic government which had suc-
ceeded the disastrous tyranny of the duke of Athens in 1343. A century later,
another family member, magister Galilaeus de Galilaeis, whose real name was
Galileo Bonaiuti, had been a well-known doctor, a member of the Balia, which in
1434 had called Cosimo “il Vecchio” [senior] back from his exile, and had later
(1466) been appointed Gonfaloniere of Justice in Florence. What a peculiar char-
acter, this magister Galilaeus! So much so, that he convinced his relations to take
the name Familia Galilei and had “Galileo Galilei” written on his tombstone.
Therefore, when Vincenzio chooses the name of Galileo for his son, he certainly
hopes that he would renew the glory of his ancestor. The family surname finally
becomes a name.
Vincenzio himself was born in 1520 in Santa Maria del Monte, a village in
Valdarno, at about thirty kilometers from Pisa, still in the district of Florence. His
grandfatherGiovanniGalilei,themagister’sbrother,hadmovedtherearound1470
for economic reasons. His father Michelangelo was also born there, and had
married his mother Maddalena di Carlo di Bergo.
However, even though the Galilei family had lived unpretentiously for about a
century in the village of Santa Maria a Monte, Vincenzio defines himself as a
“florentinenobleman”.Afterall,mostofhisfriendsandhisintellectualinterestsare
in Florence. In fact, he is still a citizen of Santa Maria a Monte, and has a sister
there,Lucrezia,whostillownsasmallestate.However,therelationshipsbothwith
Lucrezia and his native village are by now fleeting, or even non-existent. In
Vincenzio’s works, as well in Galileo’s ones, we can find no references either to
Lucrezia,ortotheirnativevillage.ProbablyVincenzio’sfather,Michelangelogave