Galileo's Cosmological View from the Sidereus Nuncius
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Spectrumspectrum the Calendar 2 Membership Corner 3 the Newsletter for the Buffalo Astronomical a Letter from Mike 4
Inside this issue: TheThe SpectrumSpectrum The Calendar 2 Membership Corner 3 The Newsletter for the Buffalo Astronomical A Letter from Mike 4 Obs Report 5 The Banquet 6 Stay Warm and 9 Cozy Astro Day Poster 11 March/April The Galileo Affair 12 Volume 17, Issue 2 Gallery 18 May Star Chart 19 March Star Chart 19 April Star Chart 20 Our Newly Redesigned Website is Live! If you haven’t checked out BuffaloAstronomy.com recently, it’s time for a visit. Our new site, designed by webmaster and club member Gene Timothy is up and running. The interface is clean and organized and much easier to update with club news and astronomy content. You can now register for the April Banquet, join the club and pay dues using a PayPal account or a major credit card. Coming soon is a new log-in area which will allow members to communicate with each other, share a profile and access special features, including BAA historical information and an archive of Spectrum issues dating back many decades. Come visit and share your comments, thoughts and ideas on how we can make the site better and more useful to the club. A BIG thank you to Gene and the BAA Board for their hard work and creativity! 1 BAA Schedule of Astronomy Fun for 2015 BAA Schedule of Astronomy Fun for 2015 Mar 13: BAA Meeting at 7:30pm at Buffalo State College Mar 20: New Moon Mar 20: Total Solar Eclipse (Arctic) Mar 21-22: Maple Syrup Festival at BMO 9am-3pm Need help for Solar viewing Mar 21: Messier Marathon Dusk till Dawn at Beaver Meadow Observatory Apr 4: First Public Night at Beaver Meadow Observatory April 4: Total Lunar Eclipse Apr 11: BAA Annual Dinner Meeting at Risottos April 18; New Moon Apr 18/19: NEAF who wants to car pool?? April 21-22: Lyrids Meteor Shower Apr 25: Astronomy Day at Buffalo Museum of Science details TBA May 2: Public Night BMO May 8: BAA Meeting at 7:30pm at Buffalo State College May 18: New Moon Jun 6: Public Night BMO Jun 12: BAA Meeting/Elections at 7:30pm at Buffalo State College Jun 17 New Moon July 4: Public Night BMO – I will need help as I have family obligations that day. -
The Jesuits and the Galileo Affair Author(S): Nicholas Overgaard Source: Prandium - the Journal of Historical Studies, Vol
Early Modern Catholic Defense of Copernicanism: The Jesuits and the Galileo Affair Author(s): Nicholas Overgaard Source: Prandium - The Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring, 2013), pp. 29-36 Published by: The Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga Stable URL: http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/prandium/article/view/19654 Prandium: The Journal of Historical Studies Vol. 2, No. 1, (2013) Early Modern Catholic Defense of Copernicanism: The Jesuits and the Galileo Affair Nicholas Overgaard “Obedience should be blind and prompt,” Ignatius of Loyola reminded his Jesuit brothers a decade after their founding in 1540.1 By the turn of the seventeenth century, the incumbent Superior General Claudio Aquaviva had reiterated Loyola’s expectation of “blind obedience,” with specific regard to Jesuit support for the Catholic Church during the Galileo Affair.2 Interpreting the relationship between the Jesuits and Copernicans like Galileo Galilei through the frame of “blind obedience” reaffirms the conservative image of the Catholic Church – to which the Jesuits owed such obedience – as committed to its medieval traditions. In opposition to this perspective, I will argue that the Jesuits involved in the Galileo Affair3 represent the progressive ideas of the Church in the early seventeenth century. To prove this, I will argue that although the Jesuits rejected the epistemological claims of Copernicanism, they found it beneficial in its practical applications. The desire to solidify their status as the intellectual elites of the Church caused the Jesuits to reject Copernicanism in public. However, they promoted an intellectual environment in which Copernican studies – particularly those of Galileo – could develop with minimal opposition, theological or otherwise. -
Galileo and Bellarmine
The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena VI ASP Conference Series, Vol. 441 Enrico Maria Corsini, ed. c 2011 Astronomical Society of the Pacific Galileo and Bellarmine George V. Coyne, S.J. Vatican Observatory, Vatican City State Abstract. This paper aims to delineate two of the many tensions which bring to light the contrasting views of Galileo Galilei and of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine with respect to the Copernican-Ptolemaic controversies of the 16th and 17th centuries: their respective positions on Aristotle’s natural philosophy and on the interpretation of Sa- cred Scripture. Galileo’s telescopic observations, reported in his Sidereus Nuncius, were bringing about the collapse of Aristotle’s natural philosophy and he taught that there was no science in Scripture. 1. Introduction This paper investigates the tensions between two of the principal protagonists in the controversies involved in the birth of modern science, Galileo Galilei and Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, and how they were resolved or not in a spirit of accommodation. Bellarmine’s fellow Jesuits at the Roman College confirmed Galileo’s Earth-shaking observations, reported in his Sidereus Nuncius. Aristotle’s physics was crumbling. Would Aristotelian philosophy, which was at the service of theology, also collapse? Controversies over the nature of sunspots and of comets seemed to hold implications for the very foundations of Christian belief. Some Churchmen saw the threat and faced it with an astute view into the future; others, though pioneers as scientists, could not face the larger implications of the scientific revolution to which they with Galileo con- tributed. Much of what occurred can be attributed to the strong personalities of the individual antagonists and Bellarmine will prove to be one of the most important of those personages. -
Article De Fond, Réalisation
ARTICLE DE FOND, RÉA LISATION QUATOR PLANETIS CIRCUM IOVIS : MEDICEA SIDERA Pierre Le Fur (MPSI, Institut Supérieur d'Électronique et du Numérique Toulon, formateur académique en astronomie –Nice) Résumé : Suivons les traces de Galilée en étudiant ses observations sur les quatre satellites médicéens de Jupiter telles qu’elles furent décrites dans le "sidereus nuncius". Nous montrerons qu’à partir de ces relevés on peut retrouver certaines lois ignorées du savant Toscan. Enfin nous proposerons la construction d’un "Jovilab" qualitatif, sorte de tables d’éphémérides de positions de ces quatre satellites. Si, en l’an de grâce 2009, nous souhaitons fêter quasi impossible à déterminer, aurait été dignement l’Année Mondiale de l’Astronomie, immédiate par simple différence entre l’heure la lecture de " sidereus nuncius ", œuvre solaire locale et cette "heure universelle jo- étincelante de Galileo Galilei, s’impose à nous. vienne"; cela aurait constitué une deuxième Elle constitue l’allumette déclenchant l’incendie révolution, moins intellectuelle mais économi- qui embrasa la physique aristotélicienne et ses quement et militairement exceptionnelle. partisans religieux. Les observations récoltées par Galilée pendant Cette œuvre peut être facilement consultée sur les années qui suivirent la publication de le site de l’Université de Strasbourg à "sidereus nuncius " lui permettront d’obtenir un l’adresse [10]. La force et la simplicité de cet outil de prévisions de la position de ces ouvrage apparaît d’emblée, même si l’on ignore satellites : le Jovilab. tout du latin… Les gravures intégrées au texte Je vous propose de suivre les traces de Galilée ; nous suggèrent autant le contenu des d’examiner ses observations médicéennes ; de découvertes décrites par Galilée que le génie de montrer comment on peut retrouver certaines son interprétation. -
C:\Data\WP\F\200\Catalogue Sections\Aaapreliminary Pages.Wpd
Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc. 325 West End Avenue, Apt. 10B New York City, New York, 10023-8145 Tel: 646 827-0724 Fax: 212 496-9182 E-mail: [email protected] Catalogue 200 Proofs Science, Medicine, Natural History, Bibliography, & Much More Introduction & Selective Subject Index on Following Pages Introduction TWO HUNDRED CATALOGUES in thirty-three years: more than 35,000 books and manuscripts have been described in these catalogues. Thousands of other books, including many of the most important and unusual, never found their way into my catalogues, having been quickly sold before their descriptions could appear in print. In the last fifteen years, since my Catalogue 100 appeared, many truly exceptional books passed through my hands. Of these, I would like to mention three. The first, sold in 2003 was a copy of the first edition in Latin of the Columbus Letter of 1493. This is now in a private collection. In 2004, I was offered a book which I scarcely dreamed of owning: the Narratio Prima of Rheticus, printed in 1540. Presenting the first announcement of the heliocentric system of Copernicus, this copy in now in the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri. Both of the books were sold before they could appear in my catalogues. Finally, the third book is an absolutely miraculous uncut copy in the original limp board wallet binding of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius of 1610. Appearing in my Catalogue 178, this copy was acquired by the Library of Congress. This is the first and, probably the last, “personal” catalogue I will prepare. -
Recieved Notice Today That It Did Not Go Through
Scientists are People, Too: Biographies of Astronomical Scientists as a Literary Introduction to the Heliocentric Theory Autry McMorris Welch Middle School INTRODUCTION The Setting and Objectives One of the teaching tools that teachers often use is to take advantage of their students’ prior knowledge. This allows students to connect with the author or subject. Many students have had astronomical awareness or experiences as simple as Aristotle’s in 320 BC – that the Earth must be round because it casts a crescent shape on the moon. For me, it was an incidental thing that I sometimes noticed the moon out in the mornings and evenings when I walked my dogs. Almost as a type of entertainment, I started to anticipate where the moon would be positioned on my next walk. I found myself exhilarated as I could correctly anticipate its position. The key for me was that the moon was moving west, but because of the Earth’s rotation, it appeared to be moving east. At that moment, I shared an icon of truth with the great masters. Astronomy is very complex, to say the least. Some students, aware of their limitations, would not begin to broach the subject except from a non-threatening position. What if an introductory course were to be available that introduced the periphery of the subject? What if selected writings, biographies, autobiographies, theories and the like were a part of a curriculum to superimpose our literary devices of today on great works that were written hundreds of years ago? Copernicus described himself somewhat as candid and clear enough that both the unlearned as well as the learned might see that he was not seeking to flee from the judgment of any man, even if someone provided a guard against the bites of slanderers, the proverb holds that there is no medicine for the bite of a sycophant. -
A New Vision of the Senses in the Work of Galileo Galilei
Perception, 2008, volume 37, pages 1312 ^ 1340 doi:10.1068/p6011 Galileo's eye: A new vision of the senses in the work of Galileo Galilei Marco Piccolino Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita© di Ferrara, I 44100 Ferrara, Italy; e-mail: [email protected] Nicholas J Wade University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, Scotland, UK Received 4 December 2007 Abstract. Reflections on the senses, and particularly on vision, permeate the writings of Galileo Galilei, one of the main protagonists of the scientific revolution. This aspect of his work has received scant attention by historians, in spite of its importance for his achievements in astron- omy, and also for the significance in the innovative scientific methodology he fostered. Galileo's vision pursued a different path from the main stream of the then contemporary studies in the field; these were concerned with the dioptrics and anatomy of the eye, as elaborated mainly by Johannes Kepler and Christoph Scheiner. Galileo was more concerned with the phenomenology rather than with the mechanisms of the visual process. His general interest in the senses was psychological and philosophical; it reflected the fallacies and limits of the senses and the ways in which scientific knowledge of the world could be gathered from potentially deceptive appearances. Galileo's innovative conception of the relation between the senses and external reality contrasted with the classical tradition dominated by Aristotle; it paved the way for the modern understanding of sensory processing, culminating two centuries later in Johannes Mu« ller's elaboration of the doctrine of specific nerve energies and in Helmholtz's general theory of perception. -
Sources: Galileo's Correspondence
Sources: Galileo’s Correspondence Notes on the Translations The following collection of letters is the result of a selection made by the author from the correspondence of Galileo published by Antonio Favaro in his Le opere di Galileo Galilei,theEdizione Nazionale (EN), the second edition of which was published in 1968. These letters have been selected for their relevance to the inves- tigation of Galileo’s practical activities.1 The information they contain, moreover, often refers to subjects that are completely absent in Galileo’s publications. All of the letters selected are quoted in the work. The passages of the letters, which are quoted in the work, are set in italics here. Given the particular relevance of these letters, they have been translated into English for the first time by the author. This will provide the international reader with the opportunity to achieve a deeper comprehension of the work on the basis of the sources. The translation in itself, however, does not aim to produce a text that is easily read by a modern reader. The aim is to present an understandable English text that remains as close as possible to the original. The hope is that the evident disadvantage of having, for example, long and involute sentences using obsolete words is compensated by the fact that this sort of translation reduces to a minimum the integration of the interpretation of the translator into the English text. 1Another series of letters selected from Galileo’s correspondence and relevant to Galileo’s practical activities and, in particular, as a bell caster is published appended to Valleriani (2008). -
THE STUDY of SATURN's RINGS 1 Thesis Presented for the Degree Of
1 THE STUDY OF SATURN'S RINGS 1610-1675, Thesis presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Field of History of Science by Albert Van Haden Department of History of Science and Technology Imperial College of Science and Teohnology University of London May, 1970 2 ABSTRACT Shortly after the publication of his Starry Messenger, Galileo observed the planet Saturn for the first time through a telescope. To his surprise he discovered that the planet does.not exhibit a single disc, as all other planets do, but rather a central disc flanked by two smaller ones. In the following years, Galileo found that Sa- turn sometimes also appears without these lateral discs, and at other times with handle-like appendages istead of round discs. These ap- pearances posed a great problem to scientists, and this problem was not solved until 1656, while the solution was not fully accepted until about 1670. This thesis traces the problem of Saturn, from its initial form- ulation, through the period of gathering information, to the final stage in which theories were proposed, ending with the acceptance of one of these theories: the ring-theory of Christiaan Huygens. Although the improvement of the telescope had great bearing on the problem of Saturn, and is dealt with to some extent, many other factors were in- volved in the solution of the problem. It was as much a perceptual problem as a technical problem of telescopes, and the mental processes that led Huygens to its solution were symptomatic of the state of science in the 1650's and would have been out of place and perhaps impossible before Descartes. -
The Role and Place of Galileo in the First Scientific Revolution
The role and place of Galileo in the first Scientific Revolution Galileo’s birthday: February, 15, 1564 Gheorghe Stratan NTAA-Dubna, 2014 Two Books: Copernicus and Newton YEAR DESCARTES KEPLER GALILEO | | | 1564…………...……….………………………………………….BORN | 1571………………..…………..…BORN……………………………… | | | | | | 1596…….BORN…...........….Mysterium.Cosm……………… 1600----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | 1609…………..| ……….........Astronomia Nova | 1610…………..|………………..……..|.......Sidereus Nuncius 1613…………..|..…………………………Letters on Sunspots 1618-------------WAR------------------WAR--------------WAR YEAR DESCARTES KEPLER GALILEI 1619……..…I……...................Harmonices..Mundi……………..I 1621..………I..………….....Epitome..Astronomiae……………..I 1623………..I…..…………………I…………………..Saggiatore I 1630…..……I……………………Dies………………................... 1632……......I…..……..…………………………………Dialogue 1633..………I.….……………………………………….........Trial 1637……Method………………………………………………….. 1638……......I.....................................................Two.New.Sciences 1642………..I…………………………………………………Dies 1650……..Dies…………………………………………………… Descartes, philosopher and mathematician (31.03.1596 – 11.02.1650) Kepler, the discoverer of planetary laws of motion (27.12.1571 — 15. 11.1630) Galileo, father of Modern Science (15. 02.1564 — 08. 01.1642) Galileo’s astronomical discoveries Galileo sees the Moon like a new Earth Galileo sees new stars Galileo sees four satellites of Jupiter Further observations: Saturn Further observations: Venus Christian Huygens Explains Galileo (1659) Galileo writes -
Gallieo and the Catholic Church
Galileo and the Catholic Church PROF BOB DAVIS, DEPT OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Galileo and the Catholic Church • Narrating the Galileo Affair • Understanding the nature of the conflict between Galileo and the Church authorities • Understanding its sequel and its legacy for the interaction of science and religion • Beyond simple dichotomies and stereotypes GALILEO: A Life in Context • 1564-92: Early years • 1616: Condemnation in Padua & Florence of Copernicanism (law of pendulum & • 1616-23: Controversy falling bodies) with Grassi • 1592-1610: Padua/ • 1623-32: Wrote Venice years (a Dialogue Copernican by 1597); • 1633: 2nd Trial use of telescope 1609 • 1633-42: Last years • 1616: 1st Trial under house arrest 3 The Church and Heliocentrism: Pope Paul V and the condemnation of 1616 • initial ecclesiastical sponsorship of Copernicus and the New Science––tacit approval through the reigns of nine popes • Heliocentrism first denounced by Protestant reformers Luther and Melanchton on biblical grounds: the attack on Kepler • Galileo in Rome (1611)––the ‘ridicule of the mathematicians’ v ‘the curiosity of the teachers’ (Clavius) • After receiving counsel from several theologians on the orthodoxy of heliocentrism, the Congregation of the Index officially condemned Copernicanism in 1616 as “false and as completely contradictory to Divine Scriptures.” Endorsed by Paul V, but only ‘for the prevention of the circulation of writings’ and refusing to term it ‘heresy’. • Donec corrigatur––permission for those ‘learned and skilful in the science’ to go on -
The Galileo Affair in Context: an Investigation of Influences on the Church During Galileo’S 1633 Trial
Xavier University Exhibit Honors Bachelor of Arts Undergraduate 2020-5 The Galileo Affair In Context: An Investigation of Influences on The Church During Galileo’s 1633 Trial Evan W. Lamping Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH Follow this and additional works at: https://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/hab Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, and the Other Classics Commons Recommended Citation Lamping, Evan W., "The Galileo Affair In Context: An Investigation of Influences on The Church During Galileo’s 1633 Trial" (2020). Honors Bachelor of Arts. 45. https://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/hab/45 This Capstone/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate at Exhibit. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Bachelor of Arts by an authorized administrator of Exhibit. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Evan Lamping Dr. Byrne CPHAB Thesis The Galileo Affair In Context: An Investigation of Influences on The Church During Galileo’s 1633 Trial 1 I. Introduction When most people learn about the Galileo controversy of 1633, their knowledge of the affair is most commonly comprised of the facts of his condemnation on counts of heresy and possibly some other details about how and why his inquisition was conducted. These details are often simply concerned with the Church’s indefensible view of the earth as the center of the universe, combined with some scripture passages describing the sun as standing still or the earth being fixed in place and unmovable.