The Pisan scientist Galileo Galilei has been remembered as the “father of modern science.” The discoveries he made with his telescope led to a completely new understanding of Earth’s place in the cosmos. The theory first put forward by the Polish mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus, that the Earth revolved around the Sun, was affirmed by Galileo. The works published by Galileo expounding on these findings eventually led to him accused of heresy by the Roman Catholic Church. Galileo has gone down as a “martyr of science”, but is that really accurate? Has the father of modern science become a modern myth? Tune-in and find out how togas at the brothel, swinging lamps, and someone called “the wrangler” all play a role in the story.

Works Cited

Fantoli, Annibale. The Case of Galileo a Closed Question? University of Notre Dame, 2012.

McMullin, Ernan, and Ernan McMullin. The Church and Galileo. University of Notre Dame Press, 2007.

Reston, James. Galileo: a Life. Beard Books, 2000.

Rowland, Wade. Galileo’s Mistake: the Archaeology of a Myth. The Author, 2001.

Shea, William R., and Mariano Artigas. Galileo in Rome: the Rise and Fall of a Troublesome Genius. Oxford University Press, 2005.