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Galileo Galilei had one of the brightest scientific minds we have ever seen.
Among his many accomplishments are the idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun rather than the other way around – but a newly discovered letter reveals how he has toned down his opinions to avoid angering the Church.
The note was found by the historian of sciences Salvatore Ricciardo, from the University of Bergamo in Italy, while he was browsing a catalog stored in the library of the Royal Society in London in the United Kingdom .
Originally written more than 400 years ago in 1613, the letter puts an end to a long-standing mystery among historians: did church-goers betray Galileo's writings for the to make more extreme? Church and the inquisition.
"I thought," I can not believe that I discovered the letter that practically every scholar in Galilee thought was desperately lost, "Ricciardo said. Nature. "It seemed even more incredible because the letter was not in an obscure library, but in the library of the Royal Society."
The letter represents the first recorded record that we have heliocentric views of Galileo, written in pen and ink for his friend Benedetto Castelli, a mathematician at the University of Pisa in Italy.
But two versions of this famous text exist today – one with a pretty inflammatory language and the other that takes a more diplomatic approach to reconnect with centuries of scientific thinking. The question is: which version came first?
At the time, the church was very clear about how the Earth was sitting in the center of the Universe, as God had intended. no, as suggested by the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543, around the Sun.
In his writing, Galileo was in agreement with Copernicus, on the basis of his own observations. He also suggested that parts of the Bible should not be taken literally about our physical place in the cosmos.
Galileo has always insisted that the copy of his letter that had been used to provoke a conflict with the Vatican – copied and transmitted by a Dominican friar named Niccolò Lorini – had been tampered with to make his views more extreme than they were. were.
This newly-found letter seems to contradict this: it shows both the original formulation (sent to Castelli for the first time) and Galileo's modifications at the top, diluting his vocabulary. Galileo apparently copied this revised version and passed it on to the Vatican for his defense.
In other words, Galileo has reduced its wording, but not before the original copy was out of its control. The original was actually the one transmitted by Lorini, according to this latest discovery.
In one sentence, Galileo describes some ideas in the Bible as "false if we rely on the literal meaning of the words" – in the edition, "false" was replaced by "different from the truth ".
Elsewhere, a description of the Bible "concealing" certain facts was changed to "veiling", another example of how rewriting was to be less inflammatory.
The analysis of the handwriting suggests that the changes are in the hands of Galileo, while the date of the document and the signature "GG" constitute further proof of its authenticity. It is possible that an incorrect date attached to the letter hid it for so long.
Despite his hasty self-publishing, Galileo was ordered to give up his heliocentric views, which he refused to do by publishing Dialogue on the two main global systems in 1632.
This led to a conviction for heresy in 1633 and a prison sentence that was later commuted to house arrest for the last nine years of his life. Galileo was not officially pardoned by the Vatican until 1992.
Now researchers are trying to figure out how the letter was sent to the Royal Society Library – a rather unusual home for this type of document.
"As strange as it may seem, it has gone unnoticed for centuries, as if it were transparent," says Franco Giudice of the University of Bergamo in Italy, who is Ricciardo's postdoctoral supervisor and has helped to check the discovery.
"Galileo's letter to Castelli is one of the first secular manifestos on the freedom of science.It is the first time in my life that I am involved in such a thrilling discovery."
An analysis of the letter should be published at Notes and records.
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