May 25, 2024 - Classic Italy
Florence:  Galileo Museum


Leaving the Santa Croce Church, we headed over to the nearby Galileo Science Museum.

On the way we passed by this restaurant with a colorful overhead of hanging flowers. 
 
   
 Per Rick Steves: "When we think of the Florentine Renaissance, we think of visual arts:  painting, mosaics, archtecture, and sculpture.  But when the visual arts declined in the 1600s, music and science flourished in Florence.  The first opera was written here.  And Florence hosted many scientific breakthroughs, as youo'll see in this fascinating collection of Renaissance and later clocks, telescopes, maps, and ingenious gadgets."
 
So let's check it out at the Galileo Science Museum!
   
Bust of the great man himself, Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642), sculpted by Carlo Mercellini from 1674 - 1677.  He is ranked #13 of the most influencial persons in history.
   

Portrait of Galileo Galilei, by Francesco Porcia, downloaded from Wikipedia.  Galileo was born in 1564 in the city of Pisa.  He did most of his groundbreaking work while a faculty member at the University of Padua from 1592 to 1610.

"Galileo was a great Italian scientist who was probably more responsible for the development of the scientific method than any other individual.   It was he who first insisted upon the necessity of performing experiments.  He rejected the notion that scientific questions could be decided by reliance upon authority, whether it be the pronoucements of the Church or the assertions of Aristotle.

His first important contribution was proving that heavy and light objects fall at the same velocity except to the extent that they are retarded by the friction of the air.   Next  he proved that the distance traversed by a falling object is proportional to the square of the number of seconds it has been falling (implying a uniform rate of acceleration).  He also proved that if retarding forces, such as friction, could be eliminated, a moving object would naturally tend to continue moving indefinitely -- the law of inertia.  This important principle, which Newton restated clearly and imcorporated into his own system as the first law of motion, is one of the vital principles of physics.

But Galileo's most celebrated discoveries were in the field of astronomy.  In 1609, Galileo heard of the invention of the telescope in Holland.  Although he had only the barest description of the device, his genius was such that he was soon able to construct a vastly superior telescope himself.  With this new tool, he turned his observational talents to the heavens, and in a single year made a whole series of major discoveries."   -- Michael H. Hart  (The 100: a Ranking of the Most Influenctial Persons in History)
   
Although the first "spyglasses" were fabricated in Holland in the early 17th-century, Galileo alone realized their astronomical potential.  He perfected the telescope, improving it to a magnifying power of 20 and transforming it into a measuring device.  With his telescopes Galileo managed to tabulate the orbital periods of Jupiter's satellites.
   

The summer of 1609 marks the beginning of the revolutionary telescopic exploration of the skies that led to the sensational discoveries of Galileo.: the surface of the moon appeared grooved  by mountains and valleys like those of earth; the constellations displayed a multiple of stars invisible to the naked eye; Jupiter was surrounded by satellites (called the Medicean sea); Venus showed cyclic phases like those of the moon;  the Sun's surface was marred by dark spots;  Saturn bulged strangely at the sides.  These astronomical discoveries heralded a revolution destined to demolish an image of the universe that had lasted for two thousand years.  The profound shock of that revolution, undermining faith in man's priviledged position in the universe, aroused violent antagonism that was to claim Galileo as a victim.

An exploded replica of Galileo's telescope.
   
Galileo also reached a level of excellence in designing and making innovative instruments, such as the geometric and military compasses (pictured below) and the thermoscope, the first step in the development of the modern thermometer.
   
 Galileo built this device, or one like it, to conduct experiments to prove his hypothesis.
   
Over the years, the Medici family, patrons of the arts and science, formed a superb collection of scientific instruments.  For two centuries the collection resided in the Uffizi Gallery.  Now they are here.
 
This Medici collection exhibit documents the telescopes early evolution, starting  from Galileo's immediate successors, up to the instrument makers specialized in optical apparatus.  Telescopes were built not only for research but mainly for sale to wealthy individuals or astronomers seeking top-quality instruments for their new observatories.
   
I was fascinated by the renaissance hand-made instruments.  Scientists had to make their own instruments; they didn't exist.
   
Since antiquity mankind has been fascinated by time, viewed as an enigma on both the philosophical and the physical level.  Without succeeding in explaining what time is, astronomy has always contributed to defining its units (year, month, day, and hour) on the basis of celestial observation, developing precise time-keeping instruments.
 
Here are a few of the earliest time-keeping instruments, part of the Medici collections.
   
Something from the movie "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider"?  A renaissance clock?
   
Four globes made by the Venetian cosmographer Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650 - 1718) and part of the Medici collections.  Coronelli was famous for the great size of his creations.  He built one over 13 feet in diameter for the Sun King, Louis XIV of France.
   

Bust of Amerigo Vespucci (1454 - 1512), the Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Florence for whom "America" is named.

Vespucci participated in at least two voyages of the Age of Discovery between 1497 and 1504, first on behalf of Spain (1499–1500) and then for Portugal (1501–1502). In 1503 and 1505, two booklets were published under his name containing colourful descriptions of these explorations and other voyages. Both publications were extremely popular and widely read throughout much of Europe. Historians still dispute the authorship and veracity of these accounts, but they were instrumental in raising awareness of the discoveries and enhancing the reputation of Vespucci as an explorer and navigator.

Vespucci claimed to have understood in 1501 that Brazil was part of a fourth continent unknown to Europeans, which he called the "New World". The claim inspired cartographer Martin Waldseemüller to recognize Vespucci's accomplishments in 1507 by applying the Latinized form "America" to a map showing the New World. Other cartographers followed suit, securing the tradition of marking the name "America" on maps of the newly discovered continents.

It is unknown whether Vespucci was ever aware of these honours. In 1505, he was made a subject of Castile by royal decree, and he was appointed to the position of piloto mayor (master navigator) for Spain's Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in Seville in 1508, a post which he held until his death in 1512.
   
 
   
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