<story><title>Discovery of Galileo’s lost letter shows he edited his ideas to fool Inquisition</title><url>https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06769-4</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ilove_banh_mi</author><text>Giordano Bruno should also be remembered as a hero of science. He was &lt;i&gt;burnt at the stake&lt;/i&gt; by the Inquisition in Rome because he upheld the heliocentric model and cosmic pluralism, a mere 13 years before Galileo wrote this re-discovered letter.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;[added in response to multiple skeptic comments about Bruno&amp;#x27;s heroic role for science]&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Inquisition jailed and tried him for 7 years before burning him; of course they had time to question him about religious, doctrinal issues so they could damn him without referring to any of the philosophical and scientific principles he held. Promoting the Inquisition&amp;#x27;s recorded accusations against him, and pretending that he was no friend of science, is not very... inspiring (to be polite). And if you are going to denounce him because of his interests in the magical, what is your opinion of Isaac Newton and his lasting interest in alchemy? scientific genius and admirable hero, or somehow a buffoon not worth a footnote in the epochal battle between science and religion?&lt;p&gt;Bruno was a proud defender of free-thought, freedom of inquiry, and freedom of expression -- all central keys to the development of modern science. He wrote scientific works arguing for the Copernican model, published in 1584, years before Tycho Brahe for instance. He anticipated some of the arguments of Galilei on the relativity principle, as well as using the example now known as Galileo&amp;#x27;s ship. He was the first person to grasp that stars are other suns with their own planets.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>virissimo</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s terrible what happened to Bruno, but he was a mystic that engaged in rank speculation and did approximately zero science. It seems much more likely that he was killed for claiming that the devil won&amp;#x27;t be condemned and that Jesus was just a magician than for affirming a kind of heliocentrism. Sad story, yes. Hero of science, no.</text></comment>
<story><title>Discovery of Galileo’s lost letter shows he edited his ideas to fool Inquisition</title><url>https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06769-4</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ilove_banh_mi</author><text>Giordano Bruno should also be remembered as a hero of science. He was &lt;i&gt;burnt at the stake&lt;/i&gt; by the Inquisition in Rome because he upheld the heliocentric model and cosmic pluralism, a mere 13 years before Galileo wrote this re-discovered letter.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;[added in response to multiple skeptic comments about Bruno&amp;#x27;s heroic role for science]&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Inquisition jailed and tried him for 7 years before burning him; of course they had time to question him about religious, doctrinal issues so they could damn him without referring to any of the philosophical and scientific principles he held. Promoting the Inquisition&amp;#x27;s recorded accusations against him, and pretending that he was no friend of science, is not very... inspiring (to be polite). And if you are going to denounce him because of his interests in the magical, what is your opinion of Isaac Newton and his lasting interest in alchemy? scientific genius and admirable hero, or somehow a buffoon not worth a footnote in the epochal battle between science and religion?&lt;p&gt;Bruno was a proud defender of free-thought, freedom of inquiry, and freedom of expression -- all central keys to the development of modern science. He wrote scientific works arguing for the Copernican model, published in 1584, years before Tycho Brahe for instance. He anticipated some of the arguments of Galilei on the relativity principle, as well as using the example now known as Galileo&amp;#x27;s ship. He was the first person to grasp that stars are other suns with their own planets.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bambax</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake by the Inquisition in Rome because he upheld the heliocentric model and cosmic pluralism&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yates argued in &lt;i&gt;Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition&lt;/i&gt; (1964) that Bruno was burnt for espousing the Hermetic tradition rather than his affirmation of heliocentricity.&lt;p&gt;Also, a &amp;quot;hero of science&amp;quot; is a stretch.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Giordano_Bruno_and_the_Hermetic_Tradition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Giordano_Bruno_and_the_Hermeti...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>