Erik Visits an (Non) American Grave, Part 1,340

This is the grave of Galileo.

I don’t know if we really need a full biography of the arguably the most famous scientist in history. I doubt I can add anything really to what many commenters can say. So let me just make a few points. I’m trying to imagine doing any kind of science in the Italian Counter-Reformation, where everything that questions Catholic dogma is automatically an evil sin, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with Christianity. I mean, what about Galileo was really anti-Catholic? Nothing. He grew up in a semi-elite poverty, a well known respectable family but one without much money. He considered the priesthood, but the need to make money for his family was also important. Now yes, our scientist friend did like sex and he fathered a bunch of kids outside of marriage, but you could say that about a lot of priests too and that certainly wasn’t why he was persecuted.

The advances Galileo made in astronomy were astounding and seeing some of his telescopes at the Galileo Museum in Florence was fantastic. Seeing his bony fingers displayed was a little less fantastic and certainly weird, but it’s Catholics so you have to just go with the bones I guess. I think I saw enough bones in reliquaries to fill about 18 saints while I was in Florence, not to mention some totally legitimate true blood of Christ. Anyway, to be the first person to truly study the Moon, to discover the first of Jupiter’s moons, I mean, wow. And then to realize that the Sun did not revolve around the Earth. Again, why this would be so challenging to Catholic orthodoxy remains beyond me and I am no expert in the Counter-Reformation or Church history. But as a good Protestant boy, this is just nonsense. By 1632, even Pope Urban VIII, once a supporter, thought he had gone to far. Thus the Inquisition, threats of torture, and finally he gave up and said that the Earth did not in fact revolve around the Sun, even though he just lied about it. He spent the rest of his life in house arrest, though he could receive visitors and he continued his studies and writings. He managed to stay fairly healthy and active until very close to the end, in 1642, when his heart gave out, He was 77 years old.

Anyway, this can be a general thread on Galileo and surrounding issues.

Galileo is buried in the Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence, Italy. To say the least, this is not where he was initially buried, although some did want to bury him in the main church. But Urban VIII, a very weak pope by this time, would not allow it and he was buried in a small corner of the church. He was moved to his current resplendent tomb in 1737. The Catholic Church remains uncomfortable with him to the present. Pope John Paul II did suggest that Galileo was actually right about the Earth revolving around the Sun (wow, who knew!) in 1992, but the future Pope Benedict XVI, or as I like to call him, Pope Himmler, was more on the side of the Church was right. Even today, a planned statue of the scientist as the Vatican has been scrapped.

If you would like this series to visit other scientists, perhaps those buried in the United States, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Linus Pauling is in Lake Oswego, Oregon and Richard Feynman is in Altadena, California. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.