Galileo : watcher of the skies / David Wootton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wootton, David, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Galilei, Galileo, 1564-1642.

Galilei, Galileo.

Astronomers--Italy--Biography.

Astronomers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (357 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Galileo (1564-1642) is one of the most important and controversial figures in the history of science. A hero of modern science and key to its birth, he was also a deeply divided man: a scholar committed to the establishment of scientific truth yet forced to concede the importance of faith, and a brilliant analyst of the elegantly mathematical workings of nature yet bungling and insensitive with his own family.Tackling Galileo as astronomer, engineer, and author, David Wootton places him at the center of Renaissance culture. He traces Galileo through his early rebellious years; the beginnings of his scientific career constructing a "new physics"; his move to Florence seeking money, status, and greater freedom to attack intellectual orthodoxies; his trial for heresy and narrow escape from torture; and his house arrest and physical (though not intellectual) decline. Wootton reveals much that is new-from Galileo's premature Copernicanism to a previously unrecognized illegitimate daughter-and, controversially, rejects the long-established orthodoxy which holds that Galileo was a good Catholic. Absolutely central to Galileo's significance-and to science more broadly-is the telescope, the potential of which Galileo was the first to grasp. Wootton makes clear that it totally revolutionized and galvanized scientific endeavor to discover new and previously unimagined facts. Drawing extensively on Galileo's voluminous letters, many of which were self-censored and sly, this is an original, arresting, and highly readable biography of a difficult, remarkable Renaissance genius.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Conjectural history

1. His father's son

2. Florence

3. Galileo's lamp

4. Eureka!

5. Seeing is believing

6. A friend in need

7. Juvenilia

8. The Leaning Tower

9. Inertia

10. Nudism

11. Copernicanism

12. Money

13. Fields of fire

14. The experimental method

15. The telescope

16. Mother

17. The Starry Messenger

18. Florence and buoyancy

19. Jesuits and the new astronomy

20. Sunspots

21. The Catholic scientist

22. Copernicus condemned

23. Comets

24. The death of Gianfrancesco Sagredo

25. Urban VIII

26. Family ties

27. Permission to publish

28. Alessandra Buonamici

29. A river floods

30. Publication

31. The Dialogue

32. Maria Celeste and Arcetri

33. Trial

34. The Two New Sciences

35. Vincenzo, son of Galileo

36. Galileo's (un)belief

37. The cosmography of the self

Coda: Galileo, history and the historians

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780300170061

0300170068

OCLC:

1024006718