SOME ASPECTS OF THE INTELLECTUAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GALILEO AND THE JESUITS by BETH McCLUMPHA Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds Department of Philosophy Division of History and Philosophy and Science November 1984 ARSTRAU During the years from 1616 (when the Decree prohibiting two Copernican propositions was issued by the Congregation of the Index) to 1623 (when Galileo published The Assayer) Jesuits of the Roman College made several attempts to draw Galileo into further discussion of his work. This was not with the intention of checking his obedience to the Decree, but in order to test the strength of any continuing work. The evidence suggests that there were certain Jesuits, who were willing, even determined, to re-open debate with him. They made a genuine attempt to build a new synthesis, aligning the established world picture with some of the new astronomical observations. The initiatory moves in these attempts, always made through a third party, ranged from the oblique to the overtly demanding. As early as 1614 a group of Jesuits at Ingoldstadt saw problems in the way the new astronomical discoveries could be used by those interested in magic and astrology, and asked Aquaviva the General of the Society of Jesus to prohibit one of their members from writing in praise of Galileo's work. From this initial move against the Galilean findings, there stemmed a reaction- ary group which led to a reaffirmation of the primacy of the Aristotelian cosmology, in the Roman College in 1624. With the Ludovisi Papacy, initiated by the election of Cardinal Ludovisi as Pope Gregory XV there emerged a lighter, more buoyant intellectual atmosphere, one in which Pope and Cardinal Nephew played a leading role. This change in Papal outlook caused Galileo to think there was the possibility that the severity of the 1616 Decree might be lessened, and as a consequence his long-promised book The Assayer was completed and appeared in manuscript early in 1623. During the time of its printing Gregory XV died and Maffeo Barberini became Urban VIII, and though this seemed to offer even better possibilities for Galileo, in the event there were to be greater problems ahead. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In all my efforts I have been spurred on by Dr Jerry Ravetz of the History and Philosophy of Science Division, Department of Philosophy, Leeds University. Without his continuing interest I do not think I would have completed the work. I would like to thank him for all his help, his scrutiny and his friendship. Father Michael Williams, Head of Divinity, Trinity and All Saints Colleges, Horsforth, Leeds, willingly made all Latin translations for me, in spite of the call on his very limited time, and I am very thankful for this work. The Royal Society gave me a grant towards expenses at an early stage of research for which I thank them and hope that this work will be regarded by them as a worthwhile result of their help. The final preparation of this work was done for me by Mrs Leisel Carter and I would like to thank her too, for all her help. CONTENTS Page No. PROLOGUE i References xxvii CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1 References 16 CHAPTER 2 Adam Tanner 19 References 42 CHAPTER 3 Reasons for suspicions of Galileo: personal links with the realms of magic, astrology and anti- Papal thought 47 References 67 CHAPTER4 Cardinal Bellarmine 73 References 105 CHAPTER 5 Dialogue by surveillance 109 References 127 CHAPTER 6 Guiducci's Discourse on Comets 129 References 149 CHAPTER 7 Guiducci and the letter to Father Tarquinio 152 References 178 Page No. CHAPTER 8 The appearance of The Assayer and its effect at the Roman College 180 References 197 CHAPTER 9 Jesuit overtures 199 References 213 CHAPTER 10 The Spinola lectures 216 References 236 CHAPTER 11 Conclusion 238 References 257 BIBLIOGRAPHY 260 ty COMMENTON TRANSLATIONS Where an English translation of Galilean writings and correspondence had already been published I have used it and cited its source. The translations from the Latin are the work of Father Michael Williams, Scholar and Head of Divinity, Trinity and All Saints Colleges, Horsforth, Nr. Leeds. Other trans- lations are my own and in the case of those from the Italian are very literal. I chose not to adjust them in order to keep the spontaneity and in many cases the deliberate ambiguity of the writers. ABBREVIATIONS OF REFERENCES For easier reading several references will be abbreviated as follows: 1. Drake and O'Malley. The Controversy on the Comets of 1618. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 1960. This is a collection of papers by Horatio Grassi, S. J., Mario Guiducci, Galileo Galilei, and Johann Kepler, concerning the nature of comets. The papers have been translated into English by Stillman Drake and C. D. O'Malley, with an introduction and additional notes by Stillman Drake. The papers are: (a) Horatio Grassi An Astronomical Disputation on the Three Comets of the Year 1618 (b) Mario Guiducci Discourse on the Comets (c) Horatio Grassi The Astronomical and Philosophical Ra1anrP (d) Mario Guiducci Letter to Tarquinio Galluzzi (e) Galileo Galilei The Assayer (f) Johann Kepler Appendix to the Hyperaspistes The first five of these will be referred to continually through- out the thesis with full title. In the references the titles of the book and the papers will be abbreviated and page numbers given, as follows: (a) Comet Controversy, Astronomical Disputation, page no. (b) Comet Controversy, Discourse, page no. (c) Comet Controversy, Astronomical Balance, page no. (d) Comet Controversy, Tarquinio letter, page no. (e) Comet Controversy, Assayer, page no. Where the text referred to is from the introduction or Notes the information given will be: Comet Controversy, page no. 2. Antonio Favaro, Le Opere di Galileo Galilei, Ristampa della Edizione Nazionale, 20 volumes. G. Barbera: Firenza, 1929-1939. This is a collection of the papers and correspondence by and concerning Galileo Galilei, collected and edited by Antonio Favaro. Since the comparing of dates and events is of the utmost importance in this thesis each reference will give the writer, the recipient, the date and volume number. Item numbers will not be included, and page numbers will only be used where I refer to passages which are not letters. The reference will be thus: Ed. Naz. Vol. -- Galileo to Guiducci, date. 3. Antonio Favaro. Amici e Corrispondenti di Galileo Galilei. XXXVII. Mario Guiducci. (Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed arti, 1915-16, Tomo LXXV - Parte Seconda) Premiate Officine Grafiche di Carlo Ferrari; Venezia, 1916. Antonio Favaro wrote many long articles concerning the working relationships between Galileo and particular friends, correspondents and opponents. The one concerning Guiducci and Galileo is used in several chapters. The reference will be: Favaro on Guiducci, page no. 4. Anton Durrwachter, 'Adam Tanner und die Steganographie des Trithemius', in Hermann Grauert, Festgabe zur Vollendung des 60 Lebenjahres, zum 7th Sept 1910. Edited by Maz Jansen. Herdersche Verlagshandlung: Freiburg im Breisgau, 1910. This will be referred to as follows: H. Grauert, Durrwachter on Tanner, page no. I. PROLOGUE The this purpose of thesis is to examine some aspects of the history the Galileo of affair, particularly with regard to the changing relationships between Galileo (the man, his lifestyle and his work) and members of the Society of Jesus. Since the argument of the thesis both builds on and continues the work of other scholars, I must first outline the received account in order to understand and to identify unresolved problems. In compiling this account I have drawn largely on the work of Giorgio de Santillana, Stillman Drake, Arthur Koestler and James Brodrick. From his correspondence with Johannes Kepler in 1597,1 we learn that Galileo Galilei was willing to admit to the renowned astronomer that he accepted the heliocentric system propounded by Nicholas Copernicus (in his work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs of 1543) as a physical description of the universe. Nevertheless, as a rider to this admission to Kepler, Galileo intimated that owing to dangerous opposition it was not politic to broadcast his views. At this time Galileo, a man of 32, was teaching mathematics at the University of Padua, with a few papers and inventions to his credit and with some notable names in the world of mathematics and astronomy among his correspondents. However, it was not until 1610 that he was to achieve fame and notoriety for his telescopic discoveries. In 1608 a device had been invented in Holland, which purported to make far away objects appear nearer, thus enhancing observations made from a considerable 11. distance. Galileo heard this of when visiting Venice in the summer of 1609 through his and own knowledge of optics was able to produce a instrument, similar which he offered to the Venetian Doge, as for an aid viewing the arrival of ships much earlier than had been the possible with normal naked-eye lookout system of the maritime republic. More importantly, Galileo continued to experiment with different lenses, grinding them himself until he achieved much higher powers of magnification and then he began making regular observations of the moon and the heavens. What he observed supported him in his conviction that the bodies in the universe moved 'heliocentrically. In 1610 he detailed his discoveries in The Starry Messenger, a book which quickly achieved wide acclaim. However, Galileo's work, which was to continue over the next three decades, never contained a proof ofheliocentrism. In the event his account elicited response from vociferous groups of scholars who, while discussing the new discoveries with approbation or scorn, clouded what one might have expected to be the central issue - the question of proving heliocentricity.