Draft
7.5TheRenaissance 143
Figure7.9:Galileo
was born.Hiscontractwas notrenewed in 1592,probablybecausehe contradictedAristotelian
professors.Thesameyear,hewas appointedto thechairof mathematicsat theUniversity of
Padua,whereheremaineduntil 1610.
50 In Paduahe achieved greatfame,andlecturehallscapableof containing2,000students from
all over Europe wereused.In 1592he wroteDella ScienzaMeccanicain which variousproblems
of staticsweretreatedusingtheprincipleof virtualdisplacement. Hesubsequentlybecame
interestedin astronomy andbuiltoneof the rsttelescope throughwhich hesaw Jupiterand
becameanardent proponent of theCopernicantheory(which statedthattheplanetscirclethe
sunas opposedto theAristotelianandPtolemaicassumptionsthatit was thesunwhich was
circlingEarth).Thistheorybeingcondemnedby thechurch, he received a semiocialwarning
to avoidtheologyandlimithimselfto physicalreasoning.Whenhe publishedhisbooksdealing
withthetwo ways of regardingtheuniverse(which clearlyfavoredtheCopernicantheory)he
was calledto Romeby theInquisition,condemnedandhadto readhisrecantation(At theend
of hisprocesshemurmuredthefamouse purse muove).
51 Whenhewas almostseventy yearsold,hislifeshatteredby theInquisition,heretiredto
hisvillanearFlorence andwrotehis nalbook,DiscoursesConcerningTwoNewSciences,
(Galilei1974),Fig.7.10. His rstsciencewas thestudyof theforcesthatholdobjectstogether
Figure7.10:DiscoursesConcerningTwoNewSciences, Cover Page