Galilei Galileo, "Dialogo sopra i due Massimi Sistemi... "
- Artist/Author/Producer: Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
- Confronting Bodies: Pope Paul IV, Pope Urban VIII
- Dates of action: 1633
- Location: Italy
- Description of the Art Work
- "Dialogo sopra i due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo"(Dialogue concerning the
Two Chief World Systems Ptolemaic and Copernican): The book "Dialogue"
concerning the two chief world systems Ptolemaic and Copernican is an
unabashed plea for Copernican system. Copernican theory, movement of the
spots across the face of the sun, Galileo maintained, proved Copernicus
was right and Ptolemy wrong.
- Description of incident
- 1616, Rome, Italy: Galileo was reprimanded by Pope Paul IV, and told not
to "hold, teach or defend" the condemned doctrine of Copernicus, whose
theory he had tried to reconcile with religion.
1633: "Dialogo" banned by Pope Urban VIII for heresy and breach of good
faith.
- Results of incident
- 1633, Rome, Italy: The author was examined by the Inquisition under
threat of torture and sentenced to incarceration at the pleasure of the
Tribunal. Galileo, although a white-haired old man of 70, was compelled
to kneel, clothed in sackcloth, and deny that which he knew to be true.
He promised "that he would never again in words or writing spread this
damnable heresy." He is said to have murmured as he rose from his knees;
"Nevertheless it does move." By way of penance he was enjoined to recite
once a week for three years the seven penitential psalms, although he
felt "that Holy Writ was intended to teach men how to go to Heaven, not
how the heavens go".
1642: On Galileo's death, his common-law wife submitted his manuscripts
on telescopic and pendulum inventions to her confessor who subsequently
destroyed them as heretical.
Source: Banned Books 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D., by Anne Lyon Haight, and Chandler B.
Grannis, R.R. Bowker Co, 1978.