Galileo
Subtitle: watcher of the skies
By: David Wootton
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 328
ISBN-13: 0978300125368; 9780300125368
Subjects: Astronomers; Biography
Description: Galileo (1564-1642) is one of the most important and controversial figures in the history of science. Tackling Galileo as astronomer, engineer, and author, this book places him at the centre of Renaissance culture. It draws extensively on Galileo's voluminous letters, many of which were self-censored and sly.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 268-319) and index.
Table of contents: title: Conjectural history; title: The mind's eye. His father's son ; Florence ; Galileo's lamp ; Eureka! ; Seeing is  believing ; A friend in need ; Juvenilia ; The Leaning Tower ; Inertia ; Nudism; title: The watcher of the skies. Copernicanism ; Money ; Fields of fire ; The experimental method ; The telescope ; Mother ; The Starry Messenger ; Florence and buoyancy ; Jesuits and the new astronomy ; Sunspots ; The Catholic scientist; title: The eagle and the arrow. Copernicus condemned ; Comets ; The death of Gianfrancesco Sagredo ; Urban VIII ; Family ties ; Permission to publish ; Alessandra Buonamici ; A river floods ; Publication ; The Dialogue; title: Prisoner to the Inquisition. Maria Celeste and Arcetri ; Trial ; The Two New Sciences ; Vincenzo, son of Galileo ; Galileo's (un)belief ; The cosmography of the self; title: Galileo, history, and the historians.