Read Online The Forbidden Universe by Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince
Tags: History, Retail, Non-Fiction, Gnostic Dementia, Fringe Science, Amazon.com, Science History, Occult History
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same distance at the same speed, but they will perceive the other’s stone as moving further – not only downwards but sideways – and therefore faster, since it covers a greater distance in the same time. 17 Descriptions of events therefore depend on the frame of reference.
Having never publicly referred to the Hermetic interest in heliocentricity, why should Galileo base his masterwork on a book by someone anathematized by the Church for championing precisely that theory? Perhaps this was a covert acknowledgement of his debt to Bruno, or even a coded hint that he was aware of his own significance to the Hermetic vision.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei’s career began in 1592 at the age of twenty-eight, when thanks to Bruno’s incarceration he became Professor of Mathematics at the University of Padua. This is where hemet Campanella and began an important and lifelong association. Another major influence at that time was Pinelli – often described as Galileo’s mentor – who introduced him to the emergent science of optics, which was to make Galileo’s reputation. Another of his dubious associates was Traiano Boccalini, author of the Bruno-inspired News from Parnassus , and a controversial friar and professor of canon law named Paolo Sarpi, who was at the forefront of the legal challenges to the Pope’s authority and the attempts to forge an alliance with James I’s England in the first decade of the seventeenth century. With friends like these, the Inquisition must surely have kept a very close eye on Galileo from the beginning.
Galileo became convinced of the truth of the Copernican theory ‘many years’ before 1597, although precisely why he had this epiphany remains uncertain. We have also seen that he incorrectly considered the movement of the tides as the best evidence for, even the proof of, the theory. He persisted in this view even when he produced much better evidence through his pioneering use of the new cutting edge technology of the telescope, begun around 1610. His astronomical observations – that the Moon’s rugged surface is reminiscent of our own world, the existence of the moons of Jupiter and particularly Venus’ lunar-like phases – strongly supported Copernicus’ theory. Galileo realized how sensational these discoveries would appear, and cannily sought to use them as leverage to build a career. So he rushed into print before anyone could steal his thunder, premiering his first wave of discoveries in Starry Messenger ( Sidereus nuncius ) in 1610.
As he had guessed, the intelligentsia became greatly excited and he landed the position he craved as court mathematician and philosopher to Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Perhaps this wasn’t too surprising given that Galileo had been careful to dedicate the book to him and proposed calling the new moons of Jupiter the ‘Medicean stars’. Even the world’s loftiest thinkers obviously recognized the most basic principle: flattery will get you anywhere.
It seems odd that Galileo failed to use his discoveries to bolster the Copernican theory, even though he was an ardent supporter. In both Starry Messenger and a follow-up book on his discovery of the phases of Venus, he merely presented the observations. Perhaps, as he was hoping to build a glittering new career on them, he decided that it was best to play down the Copernican implications of his discoveries.
But the row refused to go away. Most readers with anastronomical background got the point: Galileo’s discoveries seriously undermined the traditional Ptolemaic system. But even this failed to shift the consensus to Copernicus. Hybrid systems, such as Tycho Brahe’s, where some celestial bodies orbited the sun and some the Earth, were preferred.
From the Church’s point of view Galileo’s discoveries were already unwelcome news, and threatened worse to come. Not only was his work propelling scholars towards
Having never publicly referred to the Hermetic interest in heliocentricity, why should Galileo base his masterwork on a book by someone anathematized by the Church for championing precisely that theory? Perhaps this was a covert acknowledgement of his debt to Bruno, or even a coded hint that he was aware of his own significance to the Hermetic vision.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei’s career began in 1592 at the age of twenty-eight, when thanks to Bruno’s incarceration he became Professor of Mathematics at the University of Padua. This is where hemet Campanella and began an important and lifelong association. Another major influence at that time was Pinelli – often described as Galileo’s mentor – who introduced him to the emergent science of optics, which was to make Galileo’s reputation. Another of his dubious associates was Traiano Boccalini, author of the Bruno-inspired News from Parnassus , and a controversial friar and professor of canon law named Paolo Sarpi, who was at the forefront of the legal challenges to the Pope’s authority and the attempts to forge an alliance with James I’s England in the first decade of the seventeenth century. With friends like these, the Inquisition must surely have kept a very close eye on Galileo from the beginning.
Galileo became convinced of the truth of the Copernican theory ‘many years’ before 1597, although precisely why he had this epiphany remains uncertain. We have also seen that he incorrectly considered the movement of the tides as the best evidence for, even the proof of, the theory. He persisted in this view even when he produced much better evidence through his pioneering use of the new cutting edge technology of the telescope, begun around 1610. His astronomical observations – that the Moon’s rugged surface is reminiscent of our own world, the existence of the moons of Jupiter and particularly Venus’ lunar-like phases – strongly supported Copernicus’ theory. Galileo realized how sensational these discoveries would appear, and cannily sought to use them as leverage to build a career. So he rushed into print before anyone could steal his thunder, premiering his first wave of discoveries in Starry Messenger ( Sidereus nuncius ) in 1610.
As he had guessed, the intelligentsia became greatly excited and he landed the position he craved as court mathematician and philosopher to Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Perhaps this wasn’t too surprising given that Galileo had been careful to dedicate the book to him and proposed calling the new moons of Jupiter the ‘Medicean stars’. Even the world’s loftiest thinkers obviously recognized the most basic principle: flattery will get you anywhere.
It seems odd that Galileo failed to use his discoveries to bolster the Copernican theory, even though he was an ardent supporter. In both Starry Messenger and a follow-up book on his discovery of the phases of Venus, he merely presented the observations. Perhaps, as he was hoping to build a glittering new career on them, he decided that it was best to play down the Copernican implications of his discoveries.
But the row refused to go away. Most readers with anastronomical background got the point: Galileo’s discoveries seriously undermined the traditional Ptolemaic system. But even this failed to shift the consensus to Copernicus. Hybrid systems, such as Tycho Brahe’s, where some celestial bodies orbited the sun and some the Earth, were preferred.
From the Church’s point of view Galileo’s discoveries were already unwelcome news, and threatened worse to come. Not only was his work propelling scholars towards
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