GALILEO GALILEI

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa in 1564, he was one of the most important personalities in the field of science.
Son of Vincenzo, known musician, Galileo inherited from him the love for music and his indipendent character. His family included by him, other seven brothers, the father and the mother, G. Ammannati, a "terrible" woman as he called her.

When he was 17 years old he was sent for his father's will to the university of Pisa to study medicine. Here Galileo noticed the separation existing between the world of that time and the reality. For this motive he abandoned university, to devote himself completely to his studies and to his scientific experiments.

For many years Galileo could study and do his experiments without meeting problems, but in 1616 he was admonished by the cardinal Bellarmino,who forbided him to diffuse and to write about the "Copernican theory".

According to the Copernican  theory the sun didn't turn around the world (as it was written in the Bible), but the world turned around the sun. Surely this affirmation wouldn't have been a help to the church, that saw it's power in the trust of people.

Galileo silented for 16 years, until he convinced Pope Urbano VIII to publish the book "Dialogue on the two maximuns systems" (Ptolemaic system and Copernican system), with his Copernican theory.

When the church realized it, it reacted immediately: it forbided the diffusion of "Dialogue...", and put Galileo in prison charged with heresy. Under torture Galileo had to yield, and he was forced to renounce to his theories (abyuration); he was condamned to isolation and he spent this period first in Siena, later at Arcetri (Firenze).

During his imprisonment, Galileo could write a book entitled "Speech about two new sciences", this book marked the start of the "mechanics".

On 31st of October 1992 with a very symbolic gesture, the Vatican deleted the sentence inflicted by   St. Uffizio on 22nd June 1633.

Since Galileo often observed the sun with the telescope, his eyes, suffered so such that he became blind.

He died on 8th January 1642 A.D.

Galileo was a great scientist. He was fond of art and music. Albert Einstein in person stated that Galileo's use of the scientific reasoning  was the greatest event of the history of human thought.

He was the first scientist to impede the thougts of the "scholasticism".
In fact he stated it wasn't God to reveale the truth to the people in order that they could apply it, but they were people themselves to discover the phenomenos and to invent the machines thanks to their intelligence.

He inserted the experimental method, that consisted in trying one's own theories before returning them to the public.
In practice, you had to confirm your theories by an experiment; if the experiment was negative it meant that the theory was wrong.

 In his long career Galileo invented many instruments still useful in ours days:

translation of Claudia Dall'Ora, Sara Guardini, Sara Sartori, Giulia Zantedeschi. - 3a.99/00
teachers: Chiara Mendini, Franco Erbesato