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00:00:08Galileo, Galilei, we pronounce sentence in the name of this.
00:00:20It was a time of discord in the Christian world.
00:00:25Threatened by the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church demanded strict adherence
00:00:31to its dogma, enforced by the violent threat of Inquisition.
00:00:38Fear of heresy was in the air.
00:00:45In this turbulent era, Galileo Galilei would become Europe's most celebrated scientist.
00:00:53He was so confident.
00:00:56He was such a brilliant writer.
00:00:57He was a tremendous wit.
00:00:59If there's any one single person who can be said to have created modern science, it's
00:01:03got to be Galileo.
00:01:07His early experiments laid the foundation for modern physics.
00:01:11And his observations revealed new truths about the universe.
00:01:16What we have in Galileo is a package then of somebody who is mechanically and practically
00:01:23very good.
00:01:23Somebody who is a great philosopher about nature.
00:01:29somebody who is ambitious.
00:01:35But ambition drove Galileo to question the Church's view of the world and revolutionize our understanding
00:01:42of astronomy.
00:01:50Ironically, Galileo himself was a faithful Catholic and gave his daughter Virginia to the Church.
00:02:00joining the Sisters of St. Clair, she wrote letters to him, many of which survive today.
00:02:07They reveal a daughter's concern for the anguish of her father, whom the Church had silenced
00:02:13as a heretic and imprisoned in his own home.
00:02:19But Galileo would never lose his passion for explaining the natural world.
00:02:25I wanted people to understand that nature gave them eyes to see her works, but also brains, to
00:02:39make them capable of understanding them.
00:02:41falsehood.
00:02:43Who was this man who saw further than others into the far reaches of the universe?
00:02:49What does his suffering tell us about the recurring clash between religion and science?
00:02:56Galileo was honest when he said that the Bible was the true Word of God.
00:03:02He just didn't think it was a good astronomy textbook.
00:03:07Galileo's works were banned by the church for centuries and not until our own time would his
00:03:13rift with the church be healed Galileo would pay a terrible price but his discoveries would change
00:03:50Galileo was born into a world where each morning reaffirmed the common view that the Sun moved
00:03:56around the earth this belief was confirmed as the Sun appeared to pass overhead each day
00:04:07it was a view of the universe originally set out by the ancient philosopher Aristotle in the center
00:04:14sat the static earth the home of man the Sun was just one of many heavenly bodies which circled
00:04:22endlessly around it dissenting from this accepted worldview could prove hazardous a statue of father
00:04:34Giordano Bruno marks the site in Rome where he was burned alive for a host of unorthodox beliefs
00:04:44the Vatican considered astronomy to be an investigation of God's work the churches
00:04:51universities had seven basic subjects that you had to pass before you could go on to philosophy and
00:04:57theology one of those subjects was astronomy studying the stars as a way of getting themselves out of the
00:05:04mundane world into a world that was more transcendent a world that was beautiful a world that was eternal
00:05:19for the church there was also a practical reason to study the heavens the sky was both a clock and
00:05:25a calendar
00:05:30behind the walls of convents sunrise and sunset defined the cycle of morning and evening prayer each spring the
00:05:39planting of the gardens would commence with the coming of the equinox the winter solstice foreshadowed
00:05:47Christmas and the phases of the moon fixed the exact dates of Lent and Easter the church used the calendar
00:06:00to give
00:06:01spiritual significance to Aristotle's earth-centered astronomy the images were very useful for teaching theology
00:06:13the earth is not the center of the universe in that it's a been a privileged place it's at the
00:06:18bottom
00:06:18of the universe only hell is lower and there's a chain of creation reaching up to heaven
00:06:34as a young man Galileo toyed briefly with the idea of becoming a priest
00:06:42instead he entered the University of Pisa as a medical student in 1581 the curriculum at Pisa was
00:06:50prescribed by the Jesuit authorities in Rome even the anatomy diagrams in Galileo's textbooks had to be
00:06:58approved by the Jesuits Galileo left medicine behind after only a few months and began instead to study
00:07:08mathematics among the many writings he left behind is an eloquent tribute to the power of mathematics to
00:07:17illuminate the world this grand book the universe could only be understood if one learned to comprehend
00:07:27the language in the alphabet in which it is composed that is the language of mathematics triangles circles
00:07:36geometric figures without which it was impossible humanly impossible to understand a word of it
00:07:46without it one wandered as in a dark labyrinth
00:07:58it's so confusing the world where do we find truth where is the real truth and there was a sort
00:08:03of
00:08:03consensus which Galileo felt very deeply that in mathematics you had real truth if there was
00:08:09anywhere where human beings could think like god it was when they were thinking about mathematics so
00:08:14let's combine precise observation of nature and let's apply that one technique of thought which we know
00:08:22god will share with us which is mathematics and let's put the two together and then we will have a
00:08:27really secure foundation on which we can study things Galileo brought his mathematical studies to the
00:08:36University of Padua 40 miles from Venice far enough from Rome to be beyond the influence of the Jesuits
00:08:42and their officially approved curriculum in Padua itself was a university it was founded in 1222 by
00:08:51breakaway students it wasn't chartered by a king or by a pope it was absolutely free
00:08:57and had the free republic in Venice as its supervisor so getting a job in Padua was as close to
00:09:06getting academic
00:09:07freedom as you could want certainly in Italy and probably rather uniquely in Europe
00:09:17the city of Venice was just a ferry ride from Padua and it was here that the young professor spent
00:09:23many holidays
00:09:29Galileo began a liaison with a Venetian woman named Marina Gamba little is known about her but she was far
00:09:36from
00:09:36Galileo's social equal the affair made his life complicated but was not unusual even among faithful Catholics
00:09:45yes he loved to have a good time he enjoyed his wine he he enjoyed many forms of pleasure
00:09:54but that didn't make him a bad Catholic especially at a time when even the popes had illegitimate children
00:10:08Galileo himself had three illegitimate children the eldest Virginia was born in 1600
00:10:16the birth records in Padua say that she was born of fornication because Galileo was not married to her mother
00:10:28they didn't live together I suppose he might have lived with her if he'd wanted to but his house was
00:10:37full of students
00:10:39and he worked at odd hours so he didn't really keep his mistress or his children in the house where
00:10:49he lived
00:10:51despite these complications Galileo thrived in the free air of Padua becoming an ambitious scholar
00:11:01always fascinated by new devices Galileo heard that a craftsman from the Netherlands had found a new use for common
00:11:08eyeglass lenses
00:11:11the first telescope to reach Venice was a toy a novelty built to amuse party goers
00:11:21spectacles compared to telescopes are very low-tech but they had been around for several hundred years
00:11:27it was only when lenses became available in certain range of strengths that one could take the weakest convex lens
00:11:36and combine it with the strongest concave lens and get an appreciable magnifying effect
00:11:45Galileo set out to turn the Dutchman's toy into a useful device
00:11:49hearing reports of a new invention from a lens maker in Holland
00:11:53I determined to fashion a device for myself and was able to make considerable improvements in it
00:11:59Galileo realized that spectacle makers could not give him the lenses that he needed
00:12:06in order to make this device more powerful they just weren't good enough and they weren't the right strength
00:12:12and so in order to improve the instrument he had to teach himself to grind lenses
00:12:19and that is extremely difficult and it certainly wasn't 1610
00:12:27at first Galileo was only interested in the optics of the telescope
00:12:32with his improved lenses he increased its power tenfold
00:12:36but his lenses did more than magnify
00:12:40by reshaping these pieces of glass
00:12:43Galileo would eventually reshape our view of the world
00:12:52with his telescope Galileo first set out to make some money
00:13:02the naval arsenal of Venice was the greatest in all of Europe
00:13:07what if the arsenal had a way to spot enemy ships
00:13:10hours before they appeared in the harbor
00:13:13wouldn't this give the Navy a distinct advantage
00:13:18installing his new device at the top of St. Mark's Tower
00:13:22Galileo arranged persuasive real-life demonstrations
00:13:28numerous gentlemen and senators more than once
00:13:31climbed the stairs of the highest bell towers of Venice
00:13:34to observe vessels so far away at sea
00:13:36that two hours and more were required
00:13:38before they could be seen by naked eye without my spyglass
00:13:47from within the Venetian Senate
00:13:49came a handsome order for Galileo
00:13:51to supply the arsenal with spy glasses
00:13:55Galileo was given a generous lifetime salary
00:13:58for his service to the Republic
00:14:00part scientist and part self promoter
00:14:03for now his future seemed bright
00:14:07but soon his telescope would launch a dispute
00:14:11which would threaten to destroy its creator
00:14:23Galileo's daughter was just nine years old
00:14:26on a November night in 1609
00:14:28that was the evening when Galileo first pointed his new spyglass
00:14:32at the moon setting behind the hills of Padua
00:14:35and began to sketch what he observed
00:14:38it was the start of eight weeks of sleepless nights
00:14:41spent in his tiny courtyard
00:14:44suddenly transformed into the world's premier astronomical observatory
00:14:51from my observations
00:14:53I've been led to the opinion that the surface of the moon is not smooth
00:14:58uniform
00:14:59as a great number of philosophers believe it and the other heavenly bodies to be
00:15:04but is uneven
00:15:07rough
00:15:08and full of cavities and prominences
00:15:10being not unlike the face of the earth
00:15:13relieved by chains of mountains and deep valleys
00:15:18the moon Galileo saw was earth-like
00:15:22and he sketched its features with earth-like detail
00:15:26if the surface of a heavenly body resembled the earth
00:15:29perhaps the heavens and earth were not as different as everyone thought
00:15:35Galileo had observed the moon through a series of phases
00:15:39and he apparently made some adaptations to his instrument
00:15:45and began exploring the planets
00:15:51now Jupiter was the one that was in the most favorable position for observation
00:15:56it was closest to the earth at that particular point
00:16:00and when Galileo looked at Jupiter
00:16:03he saw three very bright little stars invisible with the naked eye
00:16:09on a line with Jupiter
00:16:10and he remarked on that
00:16:12he had no idea what they were
00:16:14I mean he thought that of course they were what they used to call fixed stars
00:16:17in other words the things that we call stars
00:16:20but then since it's such a remarkable configuration
00:16:23he came back to it the next night
00:16:27and well yes there were still three stars
00:16:31but their relative position to Jupiter had changed
00:16:34and so within a week
00:16:36he realized that
00:16:39what we have here are moons of Jupiter
00:16:43like the moon goes around the earth
00:16:45these moons go around Jupiter
00:16:48and there are four of them
00:16:51four planets
00:16:52never seen from the beginning of the world
00:16:55right up to our present day
00:16:58these wandering little stars
00:17:00make their journeys around the planet Jupiter
00:17:03with a marvelous speed
00:17:04and with mutually different motions
00:17:07like children of the same family
00:17:12in a little more than a week
00:17:13Galileo had found the first new astronomical bodies
00:17:17to be discovered since ancient times
00:17:19this discovery clashed with the common belief
00:17:22that the heavens revolved around the earth alone
00:17:26eventually
00:17:26it would bring him head to head with church dogma
00:17:29but for now
00:17:31Galileo was exuberant
00:17:33he rushed into print
00:17:35because he knew he could get scooped
00:17:37if we date the discovery
00:17:39from the first observation of Jupiter's satellites
00:17:42until he realized they were moons
00:17:46January the 7th to January the 15th
00:17:49he was in print by March the 12th
00:17:51the book was out
00:17:54Sidereus Nuncius
00:17:56the starry messenger
00:17:57was an enthusiastic announcement
00:17:59of telescopic astronomy
00:18:01the first printing sold out within days
00:18:04and news spread across Europe
00:18:06of Galileo and his amazing telescope
00:18:11Galileo became an advocate for his new astronomy
00:18:14and for scientific observation
00:18:16but as his fame spread
00:18:19so did his reputation for arrogance
00:18:23Sir
00:18:25your ignorance of astronomy confounds me
00:18:30I think if you spat on the ground
00:18:32you'd see a new star in the shine of your own saliva
00:18:41well as for you
00:18:43my lord
00:18:46I'm astonished that you persist in trying to prove something to me
00:18:49with the testimony of expert witnesses
00:18:51and I can perfectly well find out for myself
00:18:54with a simple experiment
00:18:57witnesses
00:18:58witnesses
00:18:59witnesses
00:19:00useful of course
00:19:01in difficult matters in the past
00:19:03I mean a judge might for example
00:19:05call a witness to establish whether Luigi stabbed Giovanni
00:19:10but he's not going to call a witness
00:19:12to establish that Giovanni was stabbed at all
00:19:15because he's got the wound in front of him
00:19:17do you see?
00:19:18he could see it with his own eyes
00:19:23modesty
00:19:23never came easily to the young professor
00:19:27I render grace to God
00:19:28that it has pleased him to make me alone
00:19:31the first observer of an admirable thing
00:19:34kept hidden all these ages
00:19:40by making the invisible now visible
00:19:43the telescope was starting to revolutionize astronomy
00:19:48from ancient times
00:19:50astronomers had tried to account for the observed motions of heavenly bodies
00:19:53by assuming that they were attached to transparent crystal spheres
00:19:57rotating sphere within sphere
00:20:01the Greek astronomer Ptolemy
00:20:03worked out the system in great detail
00:20:05to explain the motions of the sun
00:20:07the moon
00:20:08the stars
00:20:10and the planets
00:20:11all that could be seen with the naked eye
00:20:14at the center of Ptolemy's intricate system
00:20:17sat the earth
00:20:19solid
00:20:20and unmoving
00:20:21the Ptolemaic system
00:20:23was filled with ingenious geometrical devices
00:20:27it made it possible for people to compute where the planets were to be
00:20:32and this was useful
00:20:34let us say
00:20:35for astrology
00:20:36it was useful if you just wanted to keep track of where things were in the sky
00:20:41but it wasn't perfect
00:20:45sixty years before the telescope
00:20:48a Polish clergyman
00:20:49Nicholas Copernicus
00:20:51noticed that the calculations needed to predict the positions of the planets in the sky
00:20:55would be simplified if he assumed that the sun rather than the earth were at the center of the universe
00:21:03Copernicus described the sun as though on a royal throne ruling the planets that circled around it
00:21:12it was a wonderful system aesthetically
00:21:16for decades after his book most astronomers simply suspended judgment
00:21:22the reason was
00:21:24that there was no observational evidence that the earth moved
00:21:27in fact it seemed almost silly that the earth moved
00:21:32in the Copernican system
00:21:34the earth was never still
00:21:36it had two separate motions
00:21:38revolving around the sun each year
00:21:40and spinning on its axis once each day
00:21:48Copernicus was a little bit reluctant even to publish his system
00:21:53because he figured there would be a lot of criticism of it
00:21:56the thing that Copernicus suggested just made him really the laughing stock of Europe
00:22:01because he was saying here is the earth is actually whizzing round at a huge speed
00:22:07about seven or eight hundred miles an hour
00:22:08that's just going round on its axis
00:22:10and in addition it's going round the sun at about 30 miles a second
00:22:13I mean they were saying this is just absolutely ridiculous
00:22:16I mean look at the ground
00:22:17it's as solid as you can see
00:22:19clearly the earth is not moving
00:22:21nothing could be more obvious than the fact that the earth isn't moving
00:22:23if it was moving
00:22:24everything would be flying off it
00:22:27I mean church steeples would fall down
00:22:29birds couldn't keep up with it
00:22:31clouds would go disappearing over the western horizon and things like this
00:22:35Galileo had read Copernicus
00:22:37and already suspected that the Copernican system was correct
00:22:40but even with his telescope
00:22:42he did not see a way of proving that the earth moved around the sun
00:22:48first he would make a move himself
00:22:50back to Tuscany
00:22:52the land of his birth
00:22:57Florence
00:22:58the Tuscan capital
00:23:00held a great attraction for the rising young star
00:23:03the exalted home of Dante and Michelangelo
00:23:06Florence had been ruled for centuries by the Medici family
00:23:14a source of great wealth and power
00:23:16the family dominated banking and commerce
00:23:19and was influential in church matters
00:23:24the spheres of the Medici coat of arms adorned palaces throughout the city
00:23:29for Galileo
00:23:31there could be no greater honor than to have as a patron
00:23:34Duke Cosimo de Medici
00:23:38Galileo is looking for social improvement
00:23:41and he has tried several times to get patronage from de Medici
00:23:47and here he sees his ticket
00:23:49the grand duke of Tuscany is one of four brothers
00:23:52Galileo has discovered four moons around Jupiter
00:23:56Shrewdly wants to name him after his prospective Medici patrons
00:24:01a copy of the starry messenger
00:24:03Galileo's finest telescope
00:24:05and a personal plea
00:24:07are dispatched to Florence
00:24:09it is up to our sovereign
00:24:11whether I spend the rest of my days here in Venice
00:24:14or return to Florence
00:24:16if I am to return
00:24:17I desire that your highness shall give me leave and leisure
00:24:20without my being occupied in teaching
00:24:24finally I desire of his highness
00:24:26that in addition to the title of mathematician
00:24:29he will annex the title of philosopher
00:24:34Galileo points out how bad his position is at Padua
00:24:36how he doesn't have any time for research
00:24:38how he is overrun by students
00:24:39and what he would like would be to serve a great ruler
00:24:45and to do research
00:24:49a few weeks later a letter was issued from the Medici offices at the Uffizi
00:24:54inviting Galileo to join the Medici court
00:24:56as mathematician and philosopher
00:25:00here he would be at the center of Florentine intellectual and social life
00:25:07Florentines were known for arguing about everything
00:25:11having lively discussions
00:25:13and that's what Galileo was about
00:25:15and there was tremendous appeal for him
00:25:18and even more status in being attached to the court of the Grand Duke
00:25:23and there were friends of Galileo's who warned him
00:25:26that he wouldn't be as safe in his radical beliefs
00:25:33in Tuscany
00:25:35that Venice had more of a sense of independence from the Pope
00:25:42than Tuscany had
00:25:45the Medici's were rich and cultured
00:25:47but they were also beholden to Rome
00:25:50with strong ties to the Vatican
00:25:53the family had produced many popes and cardinals
00:25:56they could not have known the difficulties
00:25:58their new philosopher would bring upon himself
00:26:04leaving behind his mistress and his young son
00:26:07Galileo placed his daughter Virginia
00:26:10and her younger sister Livia
00:26:11in the convent of San Mateo
00:26:14at Arcetri outside Florence
00:26:17it was not unusual in Italy at that time
00:26:20to put young girls in a convent
00:26:24for safe keeping
00:26:26to make sure they remained virgins
00:26:29although it was no guarantee
00:26:31but because Virginia was illegitimate
00:26:35her chances for marriage were more complicated
00:26:40than they might have been
00:26:41she would have needed a large dowry
00:26:45and the proper husband
00:26:48and Galileo was not a wealthy man
00:26:58young nuns like Virginia
00:27:00were expected to loosen their ties to the outside world
00:27:04even their families would be kept at a distance
00:27:07to look at what happened to the father-daughter relationship
00:27:13once Virginia had taken her vows
00:27:16gives one a sense of terrible loss
00:27:20almost a living death
00:27:23there's a physical barrier between them in this grill
00:27:28and yet that again overlooks the tremendous pride
00:27:34of the typical Italian Catholic family then
00:27:38of having a priest in the family
00:27:41a nun
00:27:42you were putting that child in the service of God
00:27:46and what could be more important?
00:27:49I would not say that his placing his daughters in the convent
00:27:54was in any sense an act of faith on his part
00:27:57in fact it was an avenue of something to do with them
00:28:03because after all their mother had only been his mistress
00:28:08they were illegitimate
00:28:10hence presumably not marriageable
00:28:13so what to do?
00:28:16he supported them but not very lavishly
00:28:23over the course of 20 years
00:28:25daughter Virginia would write dozens of private letters to her father
00:28:29from behind the convent walls
00:28:34Galileo's servants carried the letters in baskets of food or clothing
00:28:38many of Virginia's letters survived
00:28:41although all of her father's responses have been lost
00:28:46her letters suggest an enduring bond between the two
00:28:49despite the harsh conditions of convent life
00:28:56most illustrious lord father
00:28:59my room is terribly cold now
00:29:02and I cannot see how I will be able to stand it sire
00:29:05unless you help me by lending me one of your bed hangings
00:29:09ones that you will not need to use
00:29:13I am returning the rest of your collars
00:29:16which I have sewn
00:29:18I pray that the Lord grant you
00:29:20the greatest possible well-being
00:29:24from San Mateo in our Chetri
00:29:27your affectionate daughter
00:29:34in contrast to his daughter's life
00:29:37Galileo's was becoming more comfortable
00:29:39and secure enough to take a risk
00:29:41even in the doctrinaire atmosphere of Florence
00:29:45Galileo adopted the view
00:29:47that Copernicus was right
00:29:49the Sun not the Earth
00:29:51was the center of our planetary system
00:29:55months passed as he struggled for a way to prove it
00:29:59for him demonstration was the mark of science
00:30:02for something to count as a scientific claim
00:30:05it had to be demonstrated
00:30:07it had to be conclusively shown to be the case
00:30:10anything short of that was called conjecture or opinion
00:30:16while he searched for a demonstration
00:30:18a letter arrived from one of his followers
00:30:20Benedetto Castelli
00:30:22suggesting that the planet Venus could hold the key
00:30:26my dear Galileo
00:30:29if Copernicus is correct
00:30:30and Venus revolves around the Sun rather than the Earth
00:30:34it is clear that she would be seen
00:30:37not unlike the phases of the moon
00:30:39sometimes as crescent and sometimes not
00:30:43pray tell me
00:30:45if with your wonderful telescopes
00:30:47you have noticed such an appearance
00:30:52to the naked eye
00:30:54Venus was just a point of light
00:30:56but through his telescope
00:30:57Galileo saw the planet as a disk
00:31:01over a period of months
00:31:03Venus changed from a small disk
00:31:05to a larger crescent
00:31:08Galileo immediately grasped
00:31:10that in a Sun centered system
00:31:12this crescent would appear as Venus
00:31:14circled in an orbit between the Sun and the Earth
00:31:19Venus must be revolving around the Sun rather than the Earth
00:31:27with absolute necessity
00:31:29I had to accept the theory of Copernicus
00:31:32that Venus revolves around the Sun
00:31:34as do all the planets
00:31:36including the Earth
00:31:38no longer did we have to endure any argument
00:31:43however feeble
00:31:44from persons whose philosophy had been badly upset
00:31:49by this new arrangement of the universe
00:31:55but the argument was just beginning
00:31:57and Galileo utterly misjudged the opposition
00:32:03opportunistic priests in Florence announced from their pulpits
00:32:06that Galileo was spouting dangerous new ideas
00:32:09a chorus of jealous academics
00:32:12bruised by Galileo's arrogance
00:32:14joined the clamor
00:32:18Galileo counted on his Medici patrons to protect him
00:32:21but that protection started to erode
00:32:24when the Grand Duke Cosimo's mother began to have doubts
00:32:29One of Galileo's young protégés
00:32:32was teaching mathematics and astronomy
00:32:35Benedetto Castelli
00:32:37and he got invited to one of the intellectual brunches
00:32:40that Cosimo's mother
00:32:42the Grand Duchess Christina
00:32:44was wont to put on
00:32:46and so the conversation got around to
00:32:50these satellites of Jupiter
00:32:54Galileo had named the moons of Jupiter for the Medici family
00:32:57but the Grand Duchess questioned their authenticity
00:33:01Are they real?
00:33:03Oh yes, said Castelli
00:33:05even the Jesuits down in Rome
00:33:07have confirmed this
00:33:09and then she switched the subject
00:33:10she said
00:33:11what about Copernicus
00:33:13and what about Joshua
00:33:14at the battle of Gibeon
00:33:16when he commanded the sun
00:33:18and not the earth to stand still
00:33:22In the book of Joshua
00:33:24the Lord halts the movement of the sun
00:33:26allowing the Israelites a bit more daylight
00:33:29to defeat their enemies
00:33:30this and a half dozen other biblical passages
00:33:34seem to suggest that it was the sun which moved
00:33:37not the earth
00:33:38the Grand Duchess Christina
00:33:40worried that her new court philosopher
00:33:43was contradicting the Bible
00:33:47Galileo answered Madama Christina
00:33:49with a letter that went far beyond astronomy
00:33:53I agreed with Madama Christina
00:33:56that the holy scripture never lies
00:34:02that the decrees contained therein
00:34:06are absolutely true and inviolable
00:34:11now I should have added
00:34:13that though the scripture never errs
00:34:16its interpreters and expounders
00:34:20are liable to err in many things
00:34:22when they base themselves always
00:34:25on the literal meaning of the words
00:34:27Galileo was honest when he said
00:34:29that if the Bible
00:34:31seemed to say something different
00:34:35from what science said
00:34:38then you would just misinterpreted the Bible
00:34:40well I believe that the Holy Writ
00:34:45exists in order to persuade men
00:34:51of the truths necessary for salvation
00:34:57but it is not necessary that the same God
00:35:01that gave us our speech and our senses
00:35:05our intellects
00:35:06would have us put aside those things
00:35:11particularly in the case of science
00:35:14which is not the smallest mention
00:35:18in the Holy Bible
00:35:21if the sacred scribes meant to teach men
00:35:24astronomy then why did they leave it out?
00:35:30Galileo's outspoken letter to Madama Christina
00:35:32intended to resolve the discrepancies
00:35:35between science and the Bible
00:35:36came to be seen as an assault on the Bible itself
00:35:42and that letter gets circulated
00:35:44and local priests read it
00:35:47and they're outraged
00:35:48and they're sending copies to Rome
00:35:50and they're saying to people at the Inquisition
00:35:52you should investigate Galileo
00:35:54you should do something about this
00:35:55this guy is a heretic
00:36:00Galileo surely knew what could happen to heretics
00:36:03when the Cardinals of the Inquisition
00:36:05organized to purify society
00:36:07by combating heresy
00:36:09much of their work was the banning of books
00:36:12but the Inquisition also had the powers of both torture and execution
00:36:19Rome's dungeons had seen the end of many heretics
00:36:23including the infamous Giordano Bruno
00:36:25fallen priest and occult dabbler in science
00:36:36for the Inquisition
00:36:37extreme measures were justified
00:36:40whatever pain was inflicted to save the soul of a heretic
00:36:43was nothing compared to the pain of eternal damnation
00:36:54one of the things that the papacy wants to show to a united Europe
00:37:00Catholics above all
00:37:01is that there's no tolerance for dissent
00:37:04that dissent will be rooted out and punished
00:37:08a Scottish heretic is burned at the stake with a pitch shirt
00:37:13so that he'll burn all the more brightly
00:37:15and Bruno who's burned alive
00:37:18which is quite unusual
00:37:20most people are burned when corpses
00:37:22is one of a whole series of people
00:37:25who are put to death
00:37:26as a way of showing that orthodoxy will be enforced
00:37:31Giordano Bruno was a priest
00:37:33and a new age charlatan who denied the divinity of Christ
00:37:37but like Galileo
00:37:38he had described a vision of the universe
00:37:41which had the earth spinning around the sun
00:37:52which she produced
00:38:04there's been a lot of different views as to how much the Bruno parallel weighed on Galileo
00:38:10undoubtedly it must have had some influence.
00:38:12He realized, of course, what had happened to Bruno.
00:38:15I think, I doubt if he thought himself to be in danger of that.
00:38:20But at the same time, there was that looming thing in the background
00:38:24that if he defied the Inquisition here,
00:38:26he could suffer very severe penalties.
00:38:30Behind Bruno's execution was Rome's greatest inquisitor,
00:38:34the hammer of heretics, Roberto Cardinal Bellarmine.
00:38:39Now, years later, this same Cardinal Bellarmine
00:38:43was receiving reports about Galileo.
00:38:47Church theologians have been alert
00:38:52to the possible implications of what Galileo is doing.
00:38:57And there is slowly someone of a Galileophile building
00:39:02in Rome, in the Inquisition.
00:39:06And as these noises coming from the lower tier of the clergy
00:39:10in Florence become louder and louder and louder in Rome,
00:39:15Galileo goes to Rome to try to argue his case.
00:39:22I decided to stand openly alone
00:39:29on the theatre of the world
00:39:32to bear witness to the sober truth.
00:39:38I believe that good philosophers, like eagles,
00:39:47fly alone, not in flocks, like starlings.
00:40:02I wanted people to understand that nature
00:40:09not only gave them eyes to see her works,
00:40:15but brains to make them capable of understanding them.
00:40:26Galileo journeyed to Rome in the winter of 1616.
00:40:31As a member of the Medici court,
00:40:33he became a guest of the Tuscan ambassador
00:40:35at the palatial Villa Medici.
00:40:38Perched on a hill overlooking the city,
00:40:40from his balcony, Galileo could see the domes of the Vatican
00:40:44as he eagerly awaited his meeting with the Inquisitor, Cardinal Bellarmine.
00:40:50Galileo tended to overestimate his own powers of persuasion.
00:40:55He thought that if he could go down to Rome
00:40:59and talk to some of the hierarchy,
00:41:01he could easily persuade them to remain open on the question of,
00:41:07was the earth moving or was the earth fixed?
00:41:12Theologians listened as Galileo confidently made the case for Copernicus.
00:41:17Galileo was fully committed to the Copernican theory,
00:41:19and we mustn't see the church there as a monolith.
00:41:24I mean, he goes to see bishops and cardinals and theologians,
00:41:28and he argues his case, of course, very passionately.
00:41:33However, the Medici ambassador to the Vatican is writing home,
00:41:40listen, Galileo needs to be calm, to shut up,
00:41:44and not go around, you know, arguing his case so much.
00:41:48In his letter, the ambassador worried that the Medici family
00:41:52might be drawn into an ugly controversy.
00:41:55Galileo is passionately involved in this fight of his,
00:41:59and he may well get himself in serious trouble,
00:42:01along with anyone who supports his views.
00:42:05This business is not a joke,
00:42:07and the man is staying here under our protection.
00:42:13He thought he could convince the more open-minded theologians in Rome
00:42:18of the merits of the Copernican doctrine.
00:42:20He thought also that he could convince them
00:42:23that the matter of astronomy
00:42:25was not a matter for theologians in the first place.
00:42:29And so, even though he must have acutely known
00:42:31the powers and the dangers of opposing the Inquisition,
00:42:35he evidently thought his own powers of persuasion were such
00:42:39that he could bring them around to his view.
00:42:42But as he began talking up the Copernican system,
00:42:45he also raised alarm signals,
00:42:48and the conservatives in the Catholic Church decided that something had to be done.
00:42:57Galileo actually welcomed the chance to make his case to Cardinal Bellarmine.
00:43:01He had heard that Bellarmine had an interest in astronomy
00:43:03and was fascinated by the telescope.
00:43:07Bellarmine himself, who began interested in science,
00:43:11as he progressed in science,
00:43:13realized that there were a number of aspects to scientific discovery
00:43:18that threatened orthodoxy as he saw it,
00:43:21and realized that science might interfere with his theology,
00:43:25and decided at that point to shut down his scientific investigations.
00:43:30And he made a personal choice to opt for piety
00:43:34rather than scientific curiosity,
00:43:36which never, I think, is a completely satisfactory solution.
00:43:41And it may explain some of his virulence
00:43:45in going after what he perceives as scientific heresy.
00:43:54The pious Cardinal Bellarmine
00:43:56had countenanced Burning Man alive,
00:43:58but he was ethereal and unworldly.
00:44:02Even the ruling families of Italy
00:44:04considered the Cardinal a bit too saintly.
00:44:08For Galileo, counting on the influence of his Medici patrons,
00:44:12the Cardinal's incorruptible piety was not good news.
00:44:17But Galileo never even had a chance to persuade Bellarmine.
00:44:22Three days before his planned meeting with the Cardinal,
00:44:24the Holy Office of the Inquisition met at the Collegio Romano
00:44:29to vote on the theories of Copernicus.
00:44:34The theologians get involved,
00:44:36and they're giving their professional opinion about this matter.
00:44:41And that professional opinion is
00:44:43that the proposition that the sun is the center of the world,
00:44:47and that the earth is going around the sun,
00:44:51are propositions that are, in view of the scriptures, heretical.
00:44:57The vote was 11 to nothing.
00:44:59The hypothesis that the earth moved was foolish and absurd.
00:45:04The belief that the sun was the center of the world
00:45:07was a matter of formal heresy.
00:45:11Cardinal Bellarmine would use his meeting with Galileo
00:45:14to deliver the edict.
00:45:17Galileo will be told formally
00:45:21not to hold and defend the Copernicum position.
00:45:28And, what's more, in the decision it is stated
00:45:31that should Galileo refuse this order,
00:45:35he will be silenced.
00:45:38Galileo is forced to turn his back on Copernicus,
00:45:41whose work is added to the index of prohibited books.
00:45:51When the theologians were merely thinking
00:45:54of prohibiting Copernicus's book,
00:45:59I held it to be true.
00:46:02Then, those learned gentlemen
00:46:05actually did prohibit the work,
00:46:11declaring its opinions to be false
00:46:13and contrary to scripture.
00:46:17Knowing, as I do,
00:46:21that it always behooves us
00:46:23to accept the decisions of the authorities
00:46:26guided as they are by a higher insight
00:46:28than my humble brain could ever attain to.
00:46:32I declared my form of defence
00:46:38to be
00:46:41merely
00:46:43a poetical conceit,
00:46:46a dream,
00:46:49a fancy of my own,
00:46:54a mere kamir.
00:47:01Galileo had been certain
00:47:03that he could turn the church
00:47:04to his new astronomy.
00:47:05But instead,
00:47:07matters had become much worse.
00:47:09With the stroke of a quill,
00:47:11the church had banned Copernicus
00:47:13and, for now,
00:47:15muzzled Italy's greatest scientist.
00:47:20If there were to be a struggle
00:47:22between religion and science,
00:47:25religion had won the first round.
00:47:37Only months after Galileo's collision
00:47:39with the church,
00:47:40his oldest daughter embraced
00:47:42one of its most ancient rituals.
00:47:51renouncing her worldly possessions,
00:47:53she surrendered her given name Virginia
00:47:55and chose for herself
00:47:57the name
00:47:58Sister Maria Celeste.
00:48:01By tradition,
00:48:03a name whispered to her by God.
00:48:20I think she chose her name
00:48:22for him,
00:48:23Maria Celeste,
00:48:25because he was so interested
00:48:26in the stars.
00:48:28Of course,
00:48:28it's not an out-of-the-realm
00:48:30name for a nun.
00:48:32It could be chosen
00:48:33completely in a religious context
00:48:36and would still make sense.
00:48:37But she was so clever
00:48:39that I feel certain
00:48:41that that was her intent.
00:48:43This is your servant,
00:48:45your sister,
00:48:46our sister.
00:48:48I,
00:48:50Suor Maria Celeste,
00:48:52in the praise and glory of God,
00:48:54I trust with all the heart
00:48:56to this religious family.
00:48:58In the name of the Father,
00:48:59and of the children,
00:48:59and of the Holy Spirit,
00:49:00and of the Holy Spirit.
00:49:01Amen.
00:49:11Although their lives were difficult,
00:49:14many of the intelligent young women
00:49:17actually chose the convent
00:49:19because they knew
00:49:20that would be the place
00:49:22they could think and write,
00:49:24and they had more status
00:49:27in society
00:49:28than they might have had
00:49:30even as married women
00:49:31with children.
00:49:41Galileo was a good Catholic,
00:49:43so he had no interest
00:49:45in fighting the church.
00:49:47What he was about
00:49:49from the very beginning
00:49:51of his public support
00:49:54of Copernicus
00:49:55was to bring the church
00:49:57to an understanding
00:50:01of the theory
00:50:03and of the theory's
00:50:05complete lack of threat
00:50:07to the church.
00:50:09If the church struck
00:50:10a defensive posture
00:50:12about something
00:50:13that looked like
00:50:14it had a very good chance
00:50:16of being true in fact,
00:50:18the church would face embarrassment.
00:50:21Galileo vented his frustration
00:50:23in outspoken letters
00:50:24to close friends
00:50:25and supporters.
00:50:27To ban Copernicus
00:50:30when his doctrine
00:50:31is daily reinforced
00:50:33with many new observations
00:50:35seems in my judgment
00:50:36to be a contravention
00:50:37of the truth,
00:50:38hiding and suppressing her
00:50:39when she was most clearly
00:50:41and plainly revealed.
00:50:44Despite the
00:50:46advances
00:50:46of Copernicus,
00:50:50within his theory
00:50:52a couched mystery
00:50:54so sublime
00:50:55and concept
00:50:55so profound
00:50:56that hundreds and hundreds
00:50:58of the most acute minds
00:50:59have still not pierced them.
00:51:03Cardinal Bellarmine
00:51:04may have slammed
00:51:05the door on Copernicus,
00:51:06but his philosophy
00:51:07left one small opening
00:51:09for Galileo
00:51:10to seize upon.
00:51:12Cardinal Bellarmine
00:51:13had argued
00:51:14that the church
00:51:16can change its opinion
00:51:17but only
00:51:18if there is real proof
00:51:20that the earth
00:51:21goes around the sun.
00:51:24The church did not accept
00:51:26Galileo's claim
00:51:27that the phases of Venus
00:51:28proved a sun-centered universe,
00:51:31so he set out
00:51:32to find physical proof
00:51:33that the earth
00:51:34was moving.
00:51:36from his younger days
00:51:37in Venice
00:51:38where the water level
00:51:39could rise or fall
00:51:40many feet in a day,
00:51:42Galileo had developed
00:51:43an interest in the tides.
00:51:48Just as water
00:51:49sloshes back and forth
00:51:50in a swinging container,
00:51:52Galileo reasoned
00:51:53that the earth
00:51:54as a giant vessel
00:51:56spinning on its axis
00:51:57might cause the seas
00:51:59to rise and fall
00:52:00twice a day.
00:52:02He believed
00:52:03that the tidal motions
00:52:04of a body of water
00:52:05like the Mediterranean
00:52:06might offer proof
00:52:07that the earth moved.
00:52:11To make the water
00:52:12contained in the basin
00:52:14of the Mediterranean
00:52:15behave as it does
00:52:17surpasses my imagination,
00:52:20perhaps that of anyone else
00:52:21who enters more than superficially
00:52:23into these reflections.
00:52:25Some say Aristotle,
00:52:27after observing the tides
00:52:29for a long time
00:52:30from some cliffs,
00:52:32plunged into the sea
00:52:34in a fit of despair
00:52:35and willfully destroyed himself
00:52:37for the mystery of them.
00:52:41Up to this point,
00:52:42he's been very bold.
00:52:44In 1616,
00:52:45he had in fact
00:52:46circulated,
00:52:47given to some cardinals,
00:52:50a tract on the tides
00:52:52in which he argued
00:52:54that this is
00:52:55actual physical proof
00:52:57that the earth moves.
00:52:59He does think,
00:53:00enthusiastically think,
00:53:01passionately think,
00:53:02that he has the key here
00:53:04to prove,
00:53:05to demonstrate
00:53:05the earth's motions
00:53:06by turning to
00:53:07the motions
00:53:09of the tides.
00:53:10Now,
00:53:10we know that
00:53:11that is in fact incorrect,
00:53:12but he thought
00:53:14he had it.
00:53:16For once,
00:53:17Galileo's intuition
00:53:18failed him.
00:53:20Although a link
00:53:21between the tides
00:53:22and the phases of the moon
00:53:23had been observed
00:53:23for centuries,
00:53:25Galileo rejected the idea.
00:53:27For him,
00:53:28the suggestion
00:53:29that the moon
00:53:30could influence events
00:53:31on earth
00:53:32smacked of astrology
00:53:33or the occult.
00:53:35The search for physical proof
00:53:37of the earth's rotation
00:53:38would take another 200 years.
00:54:24for the thrust of astrology
00:54:27and the stopped
00:54:49Galileo was born into a world where each morning reaffirmed the common view
00:54:54that the sun moved around the earth.
00:54:59This belief was confirmed as the sun appeared to pass overhead each day.
00:55:06It was a view of the universe originally set out by the ancient philosopher Aristotle.
00:55:13In the center sat the static earth, the home of man.
00:55:17The sun was just one of many heavenly bodies which circled endlessly around it.
00:55:32A statue of Father Giordano Bruno marks the site in Rome where he was burned alive for a host of
00:55:40unorthodox beliefs.
00:55:43The Vatican considered astronomy to be an investigation of God's work.
00:55:50The church's universities had seven basic subjects that you had to pass before you could go on to philosophy and
00:55:57theology.
00:55:57One of those subjects was astronomy.
00:56:01Studying the stars was a way of getting themselves out of the mundane world into a world that was more
00:56:06transcendent.
00:56:06A world that was beautiful, a world that was eternal.
00:56:18For the church there was also a practical reason to study the heavens.
00:56:22The sky was both a clock and a calendar.
00:56:29Behind the walls of convents, sunrise and sunset defined the cycle of morning and evening prayer.
00:56:36Each spring, the planting of the gardens would commence with the coming of the equinox.
00:56:44The winter solstice foreshadowed Christmas and the phases of the moon fixed the exact dates of Lent and Easter.
00:56:58The church used the calendar to give spiritual significance to Aristotle's earth-centered astronomy.
00:57:08The images were very useful for teaching theology.
00:57:12The earth is not the center of the universe in that it's in a privileged place, it's at the bottom
00:57:18of the universe.
00:57:20Only hell is lower and there's a chain of creation reaching up to heaven.
00:57:34As a young man, Galileo toyed briefly with the idea of becoming a priest.
00:57:42Instead, he entered the University of Pisa as a medical student in 1581.
00:57:47The curriculum at Pisa was prescribed by the Jesuit authorities in Rome.
00:57:54Even the anatomy diagrams in Galileo's textbooks had to be approved by the Jesuits.
00:58:01Galileo left medicine behind after only a few months and began instead to study mathematics.
00:58:10Among the many writings he left behind is an eloquent tribute to the power of mathematics to illuminate the world.
00:58:20This grand book, the universe, could only be understood if one learned to comprehend the language.
00:58:35Galileo, Galilei, we pronounce sentence.
00:58:48It was a time of discord in the Christian world.
00:58:53Threatened by the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church demanded strict adherence to its dogma.
00:59:00Enforced by the violent threat of inquisition, fear of heresy was in the air.
00:59:12In this turbulent era, Galileo Galilei would become Europe's most celebrated scientist.
00:59:20He was so confident. He was such a brilliant writer. He was a tremendous wit.
00:59:26If there's any one single person who can be said to have created modern science, it's got to be Galileo.
00:59:34His early experiments laid the foundation for modern physics.
00:59:38And his observations revealed new truths about the universe.
00:59:44What we have in Galileo is a package then of somebody who is mechanically and practically very good.
00:59:51Somebody who is a great philosopher about nature.
00:59:57And somebody who is ambitious.
01:00:03But ambition drove Galileo to question the church's view of the world.
01:00:07And revolutionize our understanding of astronomy.
01:00:18Ironically,
01:00:19...language and the alphabet in which it is composed.
01:00:22That is, the language of mathematics.
01:00:26Triangles, circles,
01:00:27...and geometric figures,
01:00:31...without which it was impossible, humanly impossible to understand a word of it.
01:00:38Without it, one wandered as in a dark labyrinth.
01:00:49It's so confusing, the world. Where do we find truth? Where is the real truth? And there was a sort
01:00:54of consensus, which Galileo felt very deeply, that in mathematics you had real truth.
01:00:59If there was anywhere where human beings could think like God, it was when they were thinking about mathematics.
01:01:05So let's combine precise observation of nature and let's apply that one technique of thought, which we know God will
01:01:14share with us, which is mathematics, and let's put the two together.
01:01:17And then we will have a really secure foundation on which we can study things.
01:01:24Galileo brought his mathematical studies to the University of Padua, 40 miles from Venice,
01:01:31...far enough from Rome to be beyond the influence of the Jesuits, and their officially approved curriculum.
01:01:37And Padua itself was a university. It was founded in 1222 by breakaway students. It wasn't chartered by a king
01:01:46or by a pope. It was absolutely free and had the free republic in Venice as its supervisor.
01:01:53So getting a job in Padua was as close to getting academic freedom as you could want, certainly in Italy
01:02:02and probably rather uniquely in Europe.
01:02:09Galileo himself was a faithful Catholic and gave his daughter Virginia to the church.
01:02:18Joining the sisters of St. Clair, she wrote letters to him, many of which survive today.
01:02:25They reveal a daughter's concern for the anguish of her father, whom the church had silenced as a heretic and
01:02:32imprisoned in his own home.
01:02:36But Galileo would never lose his passion for explaining the natural world.
01:02:43I wanted people to understand that nature gave them eyes to see her works,
01:02:52but also brains to make them capable of understanding them.
01:03:01who was this man who saw further than others into the far reaches of the universe?
01:03:06What does his suffering tell us about the recurring clash between religion and science?
01:03:13Galileo was honest when he said that the Bible was the true word of God.
01:03:20He just didn't think it was a good astronomy textbook.
01:03:25Galileo's works were banned by the church for centuries,
01:03:28and not until our own time would his rift with the church be healed.
01:03:36Galileo would pay a terrible price, but his discoveries would change the world.
01:03:48The
01:03:54planet
01:03:56has to hate on his own nation.
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