Galileo, courtier
"Galileo, Courtier is Mario Biagioli's radical reinterpretation of Galileo's career. In the early baroque court of the Medicis and the Vatican, Galileo fashioned both his career and his science to the demands of patronage and its complex systems of power and prestige. Where other writers make distinctions between Galileo the scientist and Galileo the courtier, Biagioli demonstrates that the two cannot be separated. He argues that Galileo's courtly role was integral to his science - the questions he chose to examine, his methods, even his conclusions." "Biagioli focuses on the period between 1610, when Galileo became philosopher and mathematician to the Medici, and 1633, when he was tried and his theories were condemned. He evokes the vibrant cultural and intellectual life of the Italian courts where, as a courtier, Galileo had to produce novel and noteworthy scientific work as well as entertain the court. The prestige of his patrons gave Galileo the freedom to address the larger issues about the nature of the cosmos that interested him, while at the same time requiring him to confront problems he was not prepared to consider." "It was a precarious life: Galileo engaged in constant struggles over the legitimacy of his own science and his advocacy of the new Copernican astronomy that challenged both existing worldviews and the authority of the Church.
Stats for nerds
1recommend
3mentions
2people
2015–2020years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- You're both right. No one who studies Galileo disputes that he ran afoul of the Inquisition. The question is whether the specifics of his case justify framing it as part of an epic battle between science and religion (or reason and ignorance, or any other binary opposition really), and I think the parent comment is correct in suggesting that most historians today would answer "no" to that. Mario Biagioli's book Galileo Courtier is a really excellent work of history that I recommend to anyone interested in the details - it's more about the role of patronage in supporting Galileo's work, but gives a lot of insight into the systems of authority at the time, and Galileo's unique personality.
- I actually got into history through visual sources and maps, like Colin McEvedy's "Penguin Atlas of Medieval History." But the history books that I remember really changing my life include Simon Schama's "The Embarrassment of Riches" (a fantastic history of the rise and fall of the Dutch empire), Alfred Crosby's "Ecological Imperialism" (similar to 1491, but more wide-ranging), and Fernand Braudel's Civilization and Capitalism series (the best history books of the 20th century, in my view).
I also remember loving John Brewer's "The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the 18th Century" and Mario Biagioli's "Galileo Courtier." Also "Mad Blood Stirring" by Edward Muir, which tackles the question of why 16th century Italian street life was so incredibly violent.
Edit: seems apropos to mention that a couple friends of mine are about to launch a site for historians to curate lists of their favorite books on key topics, called Backlist: http://backlist.cc
- In my experience for many professors teaching is pretty much a side activity, more like a chore. Fun fact: Galileo was envied by his colleagues because despite being paid full time by University of Pisa he was exempted from teaching and could devote all of his time to research. (source should be Biagioli, Galileo Courtier, 159)
