Galileo's legacy: a critical edition and translation of the manuscript of Vincenzo Viviani's Grati Animi Monumenta.
Having been found 'vehemently suspected of heresy' by the Holy Office in 1633, at the time of his death (1642) Galileo's remains were laid to rest in the tiny vestry of a lateral chapel of the Santa Croce Basilica, Florence. Throughout his life, Vincenzo Viviani, Galileo's last disciple, struggled to have his master's name rehabilitated and his banned works reprinted, as well as a proper funeral monument erected. He did not live to see all this come true, but his efforts triggered a mechanism that eventually led to the fulfilment of his wishes. A key element of his project was the transformation of the facade of his palace into a private (but publicly rendered) tribute to Galileo, with two long inscriptions celebrating Galileo's achievements and calling Florence's attention to the need to pay a proper tribute to him. Shortly afterwards, he revised the text and circulated it in print. This article presents the first critical edition and annotated translation of Viviani's original manuscript, long thought to be lost, and describes its role in Viviani's lifelong struggle for Galileo's intellectual legacy, as well as its impact on future historiography.
"Per desiderio del vero e delle sue cause": Galileo astronomo filosofo
This paper provides the framework for understanding Galileo’s request to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1610, to be appointed in Florence as both Mathematician and Philosopher. By explicitly choosing such a title, he wished to stress the fact that his own work aimed at contributing to the new physical astronomy with which Copernicus inaugurated what is now called the Scientific Revolution. As opposed to Ptolemy, who understood astronomy as a purely mathematical tool in order to “save the phenomena” and allow for accurate predictions, Galileo – very much in line with Copernicus and Kepler, as well as Newton after him – supported the reality of the Copernican system not only against Aristotle and Ptolemy, but also against Tycho Brahe. And, as it turned out after 1616, against the Church itself, which, in full accord with Osiander’s unsigned preface to the De revolutionibus, refused to see in the Copernican theory anything more than a mere working hypothesis to which astronomers were allowed to appeal only for computations.
Was Michelangelo born under Saturn
Dans sa Vita di Michelangiolo, Ascanio Condivi affirme que Michel-Ange est ne sous la conjonction des planetes Mercure et Venus; cette conjonction semblait alors favorable au destin artistique de Michel-Ange. Une analyse du veritable horoscope de l'artiste, utilisant deux systemes d'interpretation astrologique courants au XV e siecle, indique que le jeune artiste aurait pu etre averti de son potentiel creatif, mais seulement comme resultat d'un travail applique et d'une ambition. Il semble que l'astrologie ait aide Michel-Ange a poursuivre sa carriere en etant convaincu de sa bonne etoile