9 results
The Starry Messenger Showing Forth Great and Truly Wonderful Sights, as Well as Suggesting to Everyone, but Especially to Philosophers, Things to be Pondered
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) was an Italian astronomer, mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and inventor. He revolutionized the sciences in the Western world by using mathematics and experimental evidence in the study of natural phenomena. Born in Pisa, Galileo studied in Pisa and Florence and in 1589 was appointed to the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa. In 1591 he moved to the University of Padua, where he completed much of his most important scientific work. In late 1609, Galileo perfected a telescope of 30x magnification, with which he quickly ...
Contributed by
University Library of Padua
Works of Galileo Galilei, Part 1, Volume 16, Records
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), in addition to being an important scientist and mathematician, was an accomplished instrument maker, who in 1597 invented a military compass to assist in artillery bombardments and other military activities. While occupying the chair in mathematics at the University of Padua, Galileo established a workshop where, assisted by the mechanic Marcantonio Mazzoleni, he built precision instruments, above all compasses, which he then sold to supplement his university stipend. This document contains the list of accounts for the workshop. Recorded are the debits and credits of the ...
Contributed by
National Central Library of Florence
Works of Galileo Galilei, Part 2, Volume 13, Floats: Fragments and First Drafts Related to the Treatise "Of Things that Float on Water"
This fragmentary work elaborates on earlier studies undertaken by the Italian scientist, philosopher, and mathematician Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) on the Greek mathematician and physicist Archimedes of Syracuse (circa 287 BCE–circa 212 BCE). This study contains notes about the theories of buoyancy and floatation, which Galileo later gathered in a more coherent form in his treatise Discorso… intorno alle cose che stanno in sù l’acqua (Discourse on floating bodies), published in Florence in 1612. As with his more prominent work of astronomy, Sidereus Nuncius (Starry messenger), Galileo’s ...
Contributed by
National Central Library of Florence
Works of Galileo Galilei, Part 3, Volume 5, Astronomy: Observations and Related Calculations about the Medicean Planets
This manuscript contains observations and calculations made by the Italian scientist and mathematician Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) on the so-called Medicean Planets—the satellites rotating around the planet Jupiter that Galileo discovered using the powerful telescope he invented and built in late 1609. Galileo made these notes in the course of his intense astronomical studies of early 1610, when he was in the last months of his tenure of the chair of mathematics at the University of Padua. These observations were then synthesized in his Sidereus Nuncius (Starry messenger), published ...
Contributed by
National Central Library of Florence
Works of Galileo Galilei, Part 3, Volume 15, Astronomy: The Assayer
Il saggiatore (The assayer) by Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) is the final and most significant work in the polemic regarding the characteristics of comets involving the Italian scientist and mathematician in the years 1618–23. Three comets appeared in the skies over Europe in 1618, giving rise to a debate about the nature of these celestial bodies. In 1619 Jesuit priest Orazio Grassi published a pseudonymous treatise on the comets. Grassi’s interpretation was then criticized in Discorso delle comete (Discourse on comets), a work published by Mario Guiducci but ...
Contributed by
National Central Library of Florence
Works of Galileo Galilei, Part 3, Volume 12, Astronomy: Discourse on the Comets Produced by him at the Florentine Academy During his Very Consulship
Three comets appeared in the skies over Europe in 1618, a phenomenal series of events that ignited a debate about the nature of these celestial bodies and the implications of their appearance for the Aristotelian theory that celestial bodies were unchanging and “incorruptible.” In 1619, the Jesuit astronomer and mathematician Orazio Grassi published under a pseudonym his treatise on the comets, in which he upheld the established view of celestial bodies as unchangeable and orbiting the Earth. Already under attack for his defense of the theories of Copernicus, Galileo Galilei ...
Contributed by
National Central Library of Florence
Works of Galileo Galilei, Part 4: Astronomical Works, that is, all that Appertains to the Copernican System, and to the Project on Longitudes, Volume 1, Astronomy
This codex contains important manuscripts in which Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) defended the Copernican theory that the Earth moves around the sun, which he had confirmed by observation with the telescope he had designed, which offered greatly enhanced magnification compared to older telescopes. The principal documents in the volume are letters, dating from 1614-15, to his friend and student Benedetto Castelli, to the Jesuit priest Piero Dini, and to the grand duchess of Tuscany, Christina of Lorraine. In each of these letters, Galileo discussed the relationship between scientific theory and ...
Contributed by
National Central Library of Florence
Works of Galileo Galilei, Part 4, Volume 2, Astronomy: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
This manuscript of 1632 contains an incomplete, autographical editing of Dialogo sopra i massimi sistemi del mondo (Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems) by the Italian scientist and mathematician Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). The text of this version, at the National Central Library in Florence, is very close to the definitive manuscript prepared for print (the complete autographical version of the text is in the Seminary Library in Padua). Published in 1632, the Dialogo had occupied Galileo for six years and is one of his most important works. It ...
Contributed by
National Central Library of Florence
Philosophical Exercises by Antonio Rocco
In Esercitazioni filosofiche (Philosophical exercises), published in 1633 and dedicated to Pope Urban VIII, the Italian priest and philosophy teacher Antonio Rocco (1586–1653), presented various Aristotelian theories intended to challenge the new scientific method of Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). A self-declared adherent of the Peripatetic school of philosophy, Rocco denounced the evidence-based science pioneered by Galileo and argued for adherence to the Aristotelian approach of deriving scientific truths from general principles. Rocco’s book was a direct assault on Galileo’s Dialogo sopra i massimi sistemi del mondo (Dialogue ...
Contributed by
National Central Library of Florence