Background Information
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564. He was the oldest of seven children. His father was a musician and wool trader, who wanted his son to study medicine as there was more money in medicine. At age eleven, Galileo was sent off to study in a Jesuit monastery.
After four years of the study, Galileo had announced to his father that he wanted to be a monk. This was not exactly what father had in mind, so Galileo was pulled away from the monastery. In 1581, at the age of 17, he entered the University of Pisa to study medicine, as his father wanted him to do before.
When Galileo was twenty years old his curiousness for the art of motion grew more intensely than before. The main part of his curiosity would be how fast and how long it took for a lamp to swing overhead. He realized something that no one else could see; He noticed that each time it swung that it took the same time for each.
Galileo Galilei was a religious man, and he agreed that the Bible could never be wrong. However, he said, the interpreters of the Bible could make mistakes, and it was a mistake to assume that the Bible had to be taken literally. Only priests were ever allowed to defy the "facts: in which the Bible produced, not just a mere civilian.
In 1600, a man named was convicted of being a heretic for believing that the earth moved about the Sun. He was later burned to death. Galileo was charged with heresy, but his charges were dropped for the time being until 16 years later.
Galileo had written a book "Dialogue on the Two Great Systems of the World". It was really big hit with people well besides the Church of course. The Pope of course banned the book and thought of Galileo as a model for Simplicio. He also ordered Galileo to be held at trial for teaching Copernicus’s theory.
Galileo Galilei was 68 years old and very sick. Threatened with torture, he publicly confessed that he had been wrong to have said that the Earth moves around the Sun. Legend then has it that after his confession, Galileo quietly whispered "And yet, it moves."
Unlike many less famous prisoners, he was allowed to live under house arrest in his house outside of Florence. He was living near one of his daughters, a nun. He continued to study other areas of science. Amazingly to this day it seems, he was able to publish a book about force and motion even though he had been blinded by a serious eye infection. He died in 1642.
Unlike many less famous prisoners, he was allowed to live under house arrest in his house outside of Florence. He was living near one of his daughters, a nun. He continued to study other areas of science. Amazingly to this day it seems, he was able to publish a book about force and motion even though he had been blinded by a serious eye infection. He died in 1642.