Galileo in Rome Book Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Galileo in Rome Book Report - Essay Example It deals with a series of events climaxing into Galileo’s trial by the Tribunal of the Inquisition charging him of heresy. The charge against him was brought regarding his publication, Dialogue of the Two Chief World Systems in 1632. Through this publication Galileo expressed his views on certain fundamental scientific truth. The authors are, William R Shea, who held the chair of History of Science at the University of Padua at the time of writing this book, and Mariano Artigas, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Navarra. They came by Galileo’s correspondence in the archive, which was the entire source on which this book is based. They actually speak of two Inquisitions, one in 1616 and the other in 1633. The trial is to be seen in the light of that age when science was just in an emerging state and people were not ready to part with the age-old traditional concepts and embrace challenges of scientific hypotheses. Galileo made his first trip to Rome as an unemployed youth in search of a university job. At this time he found favor with the leading Jesuit Mathematician Christopher Clavius, and perhaps met the future Cardinal Robert Bellarmine also who would play a significant role in Galileo’s future. His second trip to Rome was a glorious experience in his lifetime. He was already a famous professor. The celestial bodies observed through the telescope and their subsequent publication made him famous throughout the world of the intelligentsia. The Jesuit astronomers supported his discoveries, and Cardinal Bellarmine felicitated Galileo on his wonderful achievement. Galileo was granted a membership in the prestigious Accademia dei Lincei. Galileo’s third trip to Rome was clouded with antagonism against his active support for Copernicus and his heliocentric theory in his Letters to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. The work on sunspots aggravated the suspicion. The authors narrate a series of events that sealed Galileo’s fate.