that has just been quoted is profoundly significant: events in themselves are small affairs; it is their effect on the public consciousness that remains and is permanent. Galileo's private life was essentially peaceful, as a whole even ‘enviable.’ To the world in general he is, on the other hand, the protomartyr. His trials have opened new roads for human thought, given liberty to science and philosophy, and were the occasion of a final delimitation of the provinces of the church and of philosophy. The modern attitude of mind may be said to take its date from him. It is in this that his greatest service to mankind consists. The astonishing discoveries that we owe to his genius are small matters in comparison.
In what follows the events of his life will be recited. Where there is doubt it will be pointed out. There is no space to discuss controverted points at length. Volumes have already been written on the history of his trial by the Inquisition; on the documents, genuine or fabricated, of this process; on the question whether or no he was put to the torture.[1] To these volumes reference must be made, once for all, for the original documents and for a discussion of their authenticity. The object of the present chapter is, first, to tell the story of his life, second, and most important, to exhibit its effect upon his own and succeeding centuries. It will conduce to clearness if his private and personal life be separated in thought from his services to mankind in general; if the story of his experience be discriminated from the legend.
The popular legend in its crudest form declared that Galileo, a martyr of science, languished in the dungeons of the Inquisition; defended his doctrines boldly; was tortured; and under bodily torture recanted and abjured; saying, however, at the last, E pur si muove before he was again removed to his prison, where his eyes were blinded. If the legend had not taken on this crude shape it would, perhaps, have been less efficacious in the century immediately following his death. As it stands it is almost entirely devoid of truth. The real history is hardly less distressing, but the facts are utterly different.
Galileo was born at Pisa on February 18, 1564, of the noble family of the Bonajuti which since 1343 had been known as the Galilei. In 1445 a representative of the family was Gonfalonier of Florence, and no less than fifteen of its members had served in the Signoria. The father of Galileo, Vincenzio, was skilled in mathematics and especially in music, on which he wrote several treatises. He was poor and
- ↑ Among these the reader may wish to consult Martin, ‘Galilée, etc.,’ 1868; Wohlwill, ‘Der Inquisitions Process des Galileo Galilei, etc.,’ 1870; L'Epinois, ‘Galilée, son procès, etc.,’ 1867; Gebler, ‘Galileo Galilei, etc.’ (English edition), 1879; Galileo, ‘Opere, edizione nazionale,’ 1890-8.
