David Stevens

Galileo › Timeline

Galileo, 1564–1992

From a baptism at Pisa to a papal address in Rome. One line per event, from the documents.

  1. 1564Baptised at Pisa on 19 February. Three of four surviving horoscopes put his birth on the 15th.
  2. 1592Appointed professor of mathematics at Padua, in the Venetian Republic.
  3. 160921 August: demonstrates a telescope to Venetian officials from the bell tower of San Marco.
  4. 16107 January: sees three “small stars” beside Jupiter. March: The Starry Messenger is printed at Venice. He names the four moons the Medicean Stars and becomes mathematician and philosopher to the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
  5. 1610October–December: watches Venus pass through phases like the moon, which rules out Ptolemy’s system.
  6. 1611Spends nine weeks in Rome. 24 April: the Jesuit astronomers of the Collegio Romano confirm his discoveries for Cardinal Bellarmine.
  7. 161512 April: Bellarmine’s letter to Foscarini: a real demonstration would require Scripture to be reread, until it is shown me. Galileo writes his Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.
  8. 161624 February: theologians condemn the sun-centred system. 26 February: Galileo is warned, and a note records a formal order. 5 March: Copernicus’s book is suspended. 26 May: Bellarmine’s certificate.
  9. 1623The Assayer. 6 August: Maffeo Barberini, a Florentine admirer, is elected Pope Urban VIII.
  10. 1624Six audiences with the new pope.
  11. 163221 February: the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is printed at Florence. The pope’s argument is on the last page, in Simplicio’s mouth. September: a commission examines the book.
  12. 1633February: arrives in Rome. 12 April: first examination. 30 April: confesses to “vain ambition.” 21 June: threatened with torture. 22 June: sentenced and abjures. December: allowed home to Arcetri.
  13. 16342 April: his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, dies at thirty-three.
  14. 1638Two New Sciences, the foundation of modern physics, is printed at Leiden in the Dutch Republic, beyond the Inquisition’s reach.
  15. 16428 January: dies at Arcetri, aged seventy-seven. Rome discourages a monument.
  16. 1654Viviani writes the first life, with the Leaning Tower and the cathedral lamp.
  17. 1729James Bradley publishes the first proof that the earth moves.
  18. 173712 March: Galileo’s body is moved to a tomb in Santa Croce, Florence.
  19. 1757“And yet it moves” appears in print for the first time, in London.
  20. 1758The general ban on books teaching the earth’s motion is dropped from the Index.
  21. 1835The Dialogue leaves the Index of forbidden books.
  22. 1874Draper’s History of the Conflict between Religion and Science fixes the popular version of the trial.
  23. 199231 October: Pope John Paul II addresses the case, after a commission set up in 1981.

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