人生歷程
Galileo Galilei was born to Vincenzo Galilei, a musician and music theorist, and Giulia Ammannati. His father's experimental approach to music theory, challenging ancient authorities through observation, would profoundly influence Galileo's scientific methodology.
Galileo enrolled to study medicine at his father's urging but became fascinated by mathematics and physics instead. According to legend, he observed a swinging cathedral lamp and timed its oscillations, discovering the isochronism of pendulum motion.
Financial difficulties forced Galileo to leave university before completing his degree. He returned to Florence to study mathematics privately, developing the hydrostatic balance and beginning research into the physics of motion that would transform science.
Galileo was appointed to the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa. His experiments on falling bodies, reportedly including drops from the Leaning Tower, challenged Aristotelian physics that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones.
Galileo moved to the University of Padua, where he would spend eighteen productive years. The Venetian Republic's relative intellectual freedom allowed him to develop his ideas on mechanics, astronomy, and the nature of scientific inquiry.
Galileo invented an improved sector compass for military and surveying calculations. He sold the instruments and wrote an instruction manual, demonstrating his practical ingenuity alongside theoretical brilliance and providing supplementary income.
Galileo's daughter Virginia was born to Marina Gamba, beginning a family outside marriage. Virginia would later become Sister Maria Celeste in a convent and remain Galileo's closest confidante, their correspondence revealing his tender humanity.
Learning of Dutch telescopes, Galileo rapidly built improved versions magnifying up to 30 times. He presented his telescope to the Venetian Senate, who doubled his salary in recognition of its military potential, but astronomy would be his true use.
Galileo published 'Starry Messenger,' announcing telescopic discoveries that revolutionized astronomy: the Moon's rough surface, countless new stars, and four moons orbiting Jupiter. The Jupiter discovery directly challenged Earth-centered cosmology.
Galileo returned to Florence as Philosopher and Chief Mathematician to Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici. The position freed him from teaching duties but placed him under the authority of the Catholic Church's Inquisition, unlike in Venice.
Galileo published his observations of sunspots, demonstrating that the sun rotated and had blemishes contradicting the Aristotelian doctrine of celestial perfection. The publication sparked a priority dispute with Jesuit astronomers.
The Catholic Church declared heliocentrism 'foolish and absurd' and formally banned Copernicus's book. Cardinal Bellarmine privately warned Galileo to abandon his support for heliocentrism, though the exact nature of this admonition would later be disputed.
Galileo published 'The Assayer,' a brilliant polemic arguing that nature is written in the language of mathematics. The book attacked scholastic philosophy and championed experimental science, becoming a manifesto for the scientific method.
Galileo's masterpiece presented Copernican and Ptolemaic astronomy through fictional dialogue, with the heliocentric case clearly superior. Though he claimed neutrality, the book obviously supported Copernicus and provoked the Church to action.
Galileo was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition. Under threat of torture, he recanted his Copernican views and was sentenced to house arrest for life. Legend claims he muttered 'And yet it moves' after his recantation.
While under house arrest and going blind, Galileo completed his final masterpiece, smuggled to Protestant Leiden for publication. The work founded modern physics by establishing the mathematical laws of motion and the strength of materials.
Galileo died under house arrest, blind but still working. His contributions had transformed astronomy and physics, establishing experiment and mathematics as the foundations of science. The Church would not formally rehabilitate him until 1992.
