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| GALILEO GALILEI |
Many years ago when we were quite poor and my son had a surplus of air-miles, he was able to send us to Florence and made us millionaires. Those were the days of the lira before the Euro became the currency in Italy.
We flew into Pisa and took the train to Florence where we were booked in rooms fairly close to the centre of Florence – so we could walk to the Uffizi Gallery which, happily for us, was free to enter if you were willing to wait in line. What a feast of art that was and we consider ourselves very fortunate.The question was, after the Uffizi, what other wonder could we see that would appeal to us both – and we felt that the only choice was the Galileo Museum which lies just behind the Uffizi.
For those unfamiliar with Galileo himself, he was born in 1564, and died in 1642 and was silly enough to challenge The Inquisition concerning whether we had a Ptolemaic/ geocentric system or, as he preferred, a heliocentric system which we now call ‘The Solar System’. The Inquisition saw this as a heresy and, in 1633, he was sentenced to prison – which was commuted to lifelong house arrest by the Pope the next day. He died in 1642.
It took the Roman Catholic Church 359 years to forgive Galileo for having been right all along when in 1992, Pope John Paul II acknowledged that Galileo had been unfairly persecuted.
The highlight of our visit – for me, at least – was the discovery that the museum holds the bones of Galileo’s middle finger preserved. I couldn’t help but wonder whether this was his parting gift to the world?
GALILEO’S MESSAGE
It took the Roman Catholic Church 359 years to forgive Galileo for having been right all along when in 1992, Pope John Paul II acknowledged that Galileo had been unfairly persecuted.
The highlight of our visit – for me, at least – was the discovery that the museum holds the bones of Galileo’s middle finger preserved. I couldn’t help but wonder whether this was his parting gift to the world?
GALILEO’S MESSAGE
A good one!
ReplyDeleteJust to note that my favourite scientist and innovator Leonardo da Vinci of Lisa’s fame, was among the first (before Copernicus and Galilei) to note that “Il sole non si muove” (the sun does not move). There are some excellent Da Vinci museums, including in Vinci, his place of birth, which is not far from Florence.
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