Galileo is often credited with inventing the telescope, but he never made that claim. He simply whipped up his own take on the device and sold it to the Republic of Venice before his Dutch competitors could beat him to the punch. Galileo also gets credit for being the first person to point the telescope at the night sky. This is also untrue, but when he did start observing the moon, stars, and planets, his observations would turn astronomy on its head. In 1610 Galileo published Sidereus Nuncius, a short book outlining what had appeared to him through the lens of his telescope. The myth of Galileo would have us believe that these groundbreaking discoveries immediately put him in the crosshairs of Inquisition, but that wasn’t really the case. Galileo’s discoveries were celebrated by many clergymen, including the Pope, when they were first published. It would be more than two decades later when he found himself on trial for heresy. What changed? Tune-in and find out how angry Dutchmen, crystal spheres, and the Sages of the Order, all play a role in the story.

Works Cited

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

Galilei, Galileo, and Albert Van Helden. Sidereus Nuncius. Octavo, 2000.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46036/46036-h/46036-h.htm

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.