Galileo Galilei

Előszó

On trial
The court room in the Vatican City in Romé is full. Crammed into the tiers forming a semicircle around the walls are cardinals, bishops, theologians and philosophers. Presiding över the whole affair is the Popé, Úrban VIII, leader of the Román Catholic Church. It is April 1633 and on trial is a sixty-nine-year-old man. He stands in the dock, upright and dignified despite the humiliations he has been put through. His clothes are well-cut but a little unkempt, his hair silver, his face worn and tired.
Despite a severe illness, he has been summoned to Rome. He has had to travel from Florence, through plague-ridden Italy and encroaching winter, because he has angered the Church leaders by claiming that the Earth is not the central point of the Universe. This man is Galileo Galilei, the greatest scientist and mathematician of his age.
In the middle of the massive courtroom sits Popé Úrban, the leader of the Román Catholic Church. Popé Úrban has förmed powerful political alliances with other countries to halt the progress of Prot-estantism. He feels that Galileo's work is damaging to the Catholic Church. It could be used against the Catholic religion and, as a result, he has no mercy at all for the man in the dock. For most of the trial his head is bowed in concentration as he listens to the case against Galileo. But, every once in a while, the old man raises his head and frowns at the mathematician. Úrban is furious and wants Galileo punished. As far as he is concerned, Galileo has committed one of the worst heresies possible and his teachings have even threatened the Church's authority. For this he should die.
Opposite: Galileo was put on trial in April 1633 when he was sixty-nine years old. In this picture, you can see him standing in the dock in the corner of the court (top left of picture). Eventually he was forced to retract his views. But, legend has it that, even as he did this, he muttered (of the Earth) "nevertheless it does indeed move!"
Below: Modern astronomy owes a great debt to the work of Galileo. He was one of the great astronomers who laid the foundation for our modern view of the solar system. Today, scientists can probe deep into space and detect radiation from stars millions oflight years away from the Earth. Vissza

Fülszöveg

Scientists who have changed the world
Galileo Galilei was one of the world's greatest scientific pioneers. His work ranged through mechanics and motion, to sound, speech and light, and the system of the uni verse. His discovery of the pendulum, and his development of the telescope, made him famous throughout Europe.
Galileo cared passionately about truth, and delighted in proving the errors and absurdities of the beliefs of his time. He attacked the followers of Aristotle for declaring that the Earth was fixed in its position in the heavens, with the Sun revolving around it. Galileo proved, instead, that the Earth revolved around the Sun.
For daring to oppose and keep opposing Church leaders on this issue, Galileo was summoned, when he was a frail old man, to appear before the dreaded Inquisition in Romé, where he was found guilty of heresy.
This book telis the story of Galileo's fight for scientific proof instead of blind belief. His scientific methods ultimately sweep the world. Vissza