Galileo was one of the most influential astronomers and mathematicians in history and new evidence surfaced and it reveals how he tried to make his work accepted in the midst of the religious climate which existed at the time. Galileo is one of the biggest champions of Copernicus’ theory which stated that our planet revolves around the Sun, as do the other planets in our Solar System.
Because of his innovative thinking which was definitely rare among its peers, Galileo had to face a lot of pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. His remarkable theory was published in 1543 as a book with the title of ‘On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres’.
Just recently, a letter consisting of 7 pages provides new information. Signed with the initials ‘G. G.’ for Galileo Galilei it dates all the way back to the 21st of December, 1613. It reveals how Galileo was impacted himself by the surrounding pressure of changing his mind about his theories and how he was pressed to adopt the ideas of the religious groups which were in power at the time.
There are several version of this letter in existence, however Galileo’s original was just recently uncovered. When read, it shows how he tried to meaningfully edit his ideas so that they might appear less threatening to the Catholic Church. Such as many other important discoveries, this one was as well an accident.
A researcher from the University of Bergamo, Salvatore Ricciardo found this letter while he was looking for something else which regarded an unrelated topic. Last month was the time that this curious discovery was made and according to Ricciardo “I thought, ‘I can’t believe that I have discovered the letter that virtually all Galileo scholars thought to be hopelessly lost’”.
Juana loves to cover the tech and gaming industry, she always stays on the first row of CES conference and reports live from there.