The Earth Moves: Galileo and the Roman Inquisition

Celebrated, controversial, condemned, Galileo Galilei is a seminal figure in the history of science. Both Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein credit him as the first modern scientist. His 1633 trial before the Holy Office of the Inquisition is the prime drama in the history of the conflict between science and religion.

Galileo was then sixty-nine years old and the most venerated scientist in Italy. Although subscribing to an anti-literalist view of the Bible, as per Saint Augustine, Galileo considered himself a believing Catholic.

Playing to his own strengths--a deep knowledge of Italy, a longstanding interest in Renaissance and Baroque lore--Dan Hofstadter explains this apparent paradox and limns this historic moment in the widest cultural context, portraying Galileo as both humanist and scientist, deeply versed in philosophy and poetry, on easy terms with musicians, writers, and painters.

Author: Dan Hofstadter
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 05/10/2010
Pages: 242
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9780393338201
ISBN10: 0393338207
BISAC Categories:
- Science | History
- Religion | Religion & Science
- Religion | Christianity | History