15 February: Boreham on Galilei Galileo

Assessing a Universe
Today marks the birthday of Galileo, who did so much to bring into being that wealthy civilisation. By a pair of those dramatic coincidences in which history is so wonderfully rich, Galileo was born on the very day on which Michelangelo passed away and died in the year that witnessed the birth of his illustrious successor, Sir Isaac Newton. A quiet, thoughtful boy of dark, deeply‑set eyes, Galileo had the good fortune to be born in Pisa, a city possessing two features that, from infancy, captivated his alert mind and fired his eager fancy. The first is. the great bronze lamp that still swings with monotonous regularity from the roof of the great cathedral. The second is the famous leaning tower.

Sitting with his parents in the stately cathedral, ostensibly listening to the sermon but really watching the oscillations of the restless lamp, the boy involuntarily commenced the formulation of those doctrines of the law of motion that led him, first, to the discovery of the isochronism of the pendulum and later to a long series of revelations concerning the measurement of the pulse, the gyrations of the heavenly bodies, the fluctuations of the tides and the librations of latitude. It was inevitable, too, that spending his boyhood in Pisa, the noble campanile which, 13 feet out of the perpendicular, seems to be bowing to the populace below, should hold an irresistible fascination for him. Leaning over its balustrade and peering down into space, the boy made all sorts of experiments dealing with the varying velocities at which different objects fell from his hand to the pavement below and with the violence with which they struck that pavement upon reaching it.

A Youthful Master Skilled in all the Arts
In early manhood Galileo took the professors and students of the University of Pisa to the top of this tower and, by ocular demonstrations, exploded theories that had been taught in the academies for centuries and established principles that, startlingly novel and revolutionary, have held the field ever since. In his earliest years he presented a harassing problem to his parents, not through indolence, waywardness or obduracy, but because of the embarrassing plenitude of his gifts. He was one of the most finest musicians in the country; his wit and natural eloquence secured for him a place among the most silvertongued orators; his mathematical and inventive genius was the admiration of the most profound thinkers of his time; and his excellence as a painter led the most eminent Italian masters to seek his counsel and rely upon his considered judgment.

His father, feeling that his brilliant son was born to adorn the medical profession, laid all his plans accordingly, while Galileo himself felt strongly drawn to the Church and actually joined the novitiate.

F W Boreham
[Unfortunately this article is incomplete. Will try and replace it with the complete copy, GP]