translated as The Starry Messenger, 1880), a work which,
though it led him into controversy, won him an interna-
tional reputation.
Sidereus nuncius also won him the patronage of Grand
Duke Cosimo II (1590–1620), who persuaded him to re-
turn to Florence. Further controversies followed. In 1613
he clashed with Christoph SCHEINERon the nature of
sunspots (see illustration overleaf); during the same pe-
riod he disputed with Ludovico Colombe on the issue of
why thin bodies float on water. A further controversy, on
the nature of comets, began in 1618 and continued for
several years.
Galileo’s debating skills and savage wit may well have
gained him the upper hand in various disputes, but only
at the expense of creating a number of powerful enemies.
Consequently when they heard that Galileo was openly
defending the COPERNICAN SYSTEMthey protested that this
belief was contrary to Scripture. Though warned by Car-
dinal ROBERT BELLARMINEin 1616 to be less forthright,
Galileo chose to publish his thinly camouflaged views in
dialogue form. When it appeared as Dialogo dei due mas-
simi sistemi del mondo (1632; translated as Dialogue on the
Great World Systems, 1953), Galileo found himself sum-
moned to Rome. Abandoned by his patrons and friendless
in Rome, Galileo had little choice, under threat of torture,
other than to declare as erroneous the Copernican claim
that the earth moved around the sun. He was, however,
said (perhaps apocryphally) to have murmured “Eppur si
muove” (“Still it moves”), referring to the earth, which the
Church insisted was stationary at the center of the Uni-
verse. The Vatican cleared Galileo of heresy in 1992.
Having recanted, Galileo expected a token sentence;
instead he was condemned to indefinite detention. How-
ever, his friend, the humane Archbishop Piccolomini of
Siena managed to have this commuted to house arrest
under his own custody, and eventually (1633) Galileo was
able, though still under the supervision of the Inquisition,
to move to his villa at Arcetri, close to the Franciscan con-
vent in which his elder daughter Virginia (Sister Maria
Celeste; 1600–34) was a nun. Her surviving letters show
that she always had an informed interest in her father’s
work and a loving concern for his welfare. Her death the
following year was a severe blow to him.
The enforced inaction did, however, allow him to
complete a long-contemplated treatise on the nature of
motion, Due nuove scienze (1638; translated as Two New
Sciences, 1914). The work shows Galileo struggling to de-
velop a new science of motion and formulating in the
process an early version of the law of inertia. Further work
was cut short by the blindness that had become total by
the time Due nuove scienze was published. In his last years
Galileo was attended by a pupil, Vincenzo Viviani, who
acted as his ammanuensis, enabling him to keep in touch
with his friends and correspondents. Viviani later wrote a
biography of his master.
One further feature of Galileo’s work lies in the fact
that he was one of the first to appreciate the true nature of
the newly emerging science. The book of nature, he de-
clared, is written in the language of mathematics. Further,
he went on, physics must concern itself with such “pri-
mary qualities” of matter as shape, size, weight, and posi-
tion, which can be treated quantitatively. In this matter,
while his account of motion and other such topics may
have long been superseded, his vision of science and its
method has been preserved largely intact.
The Dialogo dei due massimi sistemi del mondo,
Galileo’s defense of the Copernican system against a sup-
porter of Ptolemaic cosmology, was translated into Latin
in 1635, although the work was placed on the INDEX LI-
BRORUM PROHIBITORUM, where it remained until 1823,
thus curtailing its circulation in Catholic Europe. It was
translated into English in 1661 by T. Salusbury for a com-
pilation of mathematical texts; this version, Dialogue on
the Great World Systems, has been reprinted separately
(London and Chicago, 1953). The translation by Stillman
Drake, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems,
Ptolemaic and Copernican (Berkeley, Calif., 1953) has a
foreword by Albert Einstein. There is also an abridged
translation, with notes, by Maurice A. Finocchiaro (Berke-
ley, Calif., 1997).
Further reading: Stillman Drake, Galileo (Oxford,
U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1980); Maurice A. Finoc-
chiaro, The Galileo Affair—A Documentary History (Berke-
ley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1989); James
Reston, Galileo, a Life (New York: HarperCollins, 1994);
Dava Sobel, Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Sci-
ence, Faith, and Love (London and New York: Penguin,
2000).Gallego, Fernando (c. 1440–c. 1509) Spanish painter
Mainly active in Salamanca, Gallego is noteworthy for his
introduction of Flemish characteristics into Castilian
painting. Dirk BOUTSis an obvious influence in Gallego’s
work. He painted an altarpiece of St. Idelfonso (c. 1467)
for Zamora cathedral, a triptych of the Virgin and Saints
for Salamanca cathedral, the now almost destroyed ceiling
of the old library of Salamanca university (before 1493),
and paintings of scenes from the Passion and a Christ in
Majesty in the Prado.Gallican Confession (Latin Confessio Gallicana) The
confession of faith drawn up at France’s first national
synod of Protestants in 1559. It was based on a first draft
prepared by CALVIN in Geneva and was revised at the
synod by his pupil Antoine de la Roche Chandieu
(1534–91). The confession, written in French and com-
prising 35 articles, restates basic Calvinist positions, in-
cluding absolute PREDESTINATION. An expanded version,
with 40 articles, was confirmed by the synod of La
Rochelle (1571). This became the definitive statement ofGGaalllliiccaann CCoonnffeessssiioonn 2 20011