Galileo

Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-965598-4
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 528 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 811 g

Just over four hundred years ago, in 1610, Galileo published the Siderius nuncius, or Starry Messenger, a 'hurried little masterpiece' in John Heilbron's words. Presenting to the world his remarkable observations using the recently invented telescope - of the craters of the moon, and the satellites of Jupiter, observations that forced changes to perceptions of the perfection of the heavens and the centrality of the Earth - the appearance of the little book
is regarded as one of the greatest moments in the history of science. It was also a point of change in the life of Galileo himself, propelling him from professor to prophet.

But this is not the biography of a mathematician. Certainly he spent the first half of his career as a professor of mathematics and has been called 'the divine mathematician'. Yet he was no more (or less) a mathematician than he was a musician, artist, writer, philosopher, or gadgeteer. This fresh lively new biography of the 'father of science' paints a rounded picture of Galileo, and places him firmly within the rich texture of late Renaissance Florence, Pisa, and Padua, amid debates on the
merits of Ariosto and Tasso, and the geometry of Dante's Inferno - debates in which the young Galileo played an active role.

Galileo's character and career followed complex paths, moving from the creative but cautious humanist professor to a 'knight errant, quixotic and fearless', with increasing enemies, and leading ultimately and inevitably to a clash with a pope who was a former friend.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Heilbron, John L

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Geschichte der Mathematik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Populärwissenschaftliche Werke
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Naturwissenschaften, Technik, Medizin
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein Geschichte der Physik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1: A Florentine Education
2: A Tuscan Archimedes
3: Life in the Serenissima
4: Galilean Science
5: Calculated Risks
6: Miscalculated Risks
7: Vainglory
8: End Games
Afterword

Über Autor(innen)

Heilbron, John L
John L. Heilbron, Department of History, University of California Berkeley

Professor John Heilbron of the University of California at Berkeley is one of the most distinguished scholars on the Scientific Revolution. He is the author of Geometry Civilized (OUP, 1998) and The Sun in the Church (Harvard, 1999), on science and religion during the 17th century.

Professor John Heilbron of the University of California at Berkeley is one of the most distinguished scholars on the Scientific Revolution. He is the author of Geometry Civilized (OUP, 1998) and The Sun in the Church (Harvard, 1999), on science and religion during the 17th century.