![]() But why are such stories even necessary? Galileo was a brilliant human whose discoveries laid the foundation of modern science. The fact is that Galileo did recant, and “E pur si muove” is an unsubstantiated story that emerged long after his death. However, that myth is likely just that: a myth. ![]() The crest at top featuring three bees is the crest of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, to whom the book was dedicated and who would later become Pope Urban VIII. Title page of The Assayer (Italian: Il Saggiatore), 1623. There’s even the myth that, after being forced to recant he muttered, “E pur si muove,” (And yet it moves)-a snarky aside that exalted him to iconic status as a man of science who refused to surrender to religious authority. Stories that emerged in the centuries after his death created a legend of Galileo as a renegade against religious authority, one forced to reluctantly recant his support for the Copernican assertion that Earth revolves around the sun. The fact that Galileo was a devout Catholic his entire life and had a close relationship with the Church may come as a surprise. ![]() ![]() The book is a milestone in the separation of science from philosophy and religion and notable for its famous passage that the natural world is “written in the language of mathematics.” The Assayer was dedicated to Galileo’s patron, Pope Urban VIII-the same pope who would charge him with heresy a decade later-and who, by all accounts, loved the book. Incidentally, 2023 marks the 400-year publication anniversary of Galileo’s The Assayer, a revolutionary work that laid the foundations of the scientific method. Next week, on February 15 th we celebrate the birthday of Galileo Galilei, the 17th-century Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, and polymath widely regarded as the father of modern science. ![]()
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