It is also interesting to note that while the revolution in mathematical astronomy -- which is a technical, theoretical science -- had its origins in Northern Europe, in Poland with Copernicus and Prague with Kepler, the experimental side of the Scientific Revolution had its origins in Italy. This is equally true for the life sciences, where the great advances of anatomy and physiology are associated with the likes of Andreaus Vesalius, Fabricius of Acquapendente, Realus Columbus -- and even William Harvey -- all of whom worked in Italy, and even more specifically, at Padua in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Galileo: Leader of a Revolution
Galileo was a scientific genius who fought a courageous battle to free man's mind from religious authority. His discoveries in astronomy and physics spearheaded the 7th-century scientific revolution, and his battle with the Church cleared the way for the Age of Reason.
In these two lectures, Mr. Harriman discusses Galileo's career from his early acceptance of the heliocentric theory of the solar system, to the discoveries that proved the theory, to his conflict with Jesuit academies and the Holy Office, and finally to his trial and conviction on charges of heresy. The events that led to Galileo's trial span about twenty years and provide a dramatic illustration of the irreconcilable nature of reason and faith. These lectures identify Galileo's antagonists and their motives as well as the meaning of the trial's outcome and aftermath.
The significance of this music for Galileo's important studies of motion, his celebrated connection with the leaning tower of Pisa, and especially his experiments with inclined planes and his analysis of accelerated motion associated with the leaning tower of Pisa, will become clear a bit later in this program, devoted to the genius of Galileo and the relation between his role in the Scientific Revolution and the equally remarkable achievements of Renaissance artists reflected, in part, in the discovery and application of mathematical perpective.
Nicolaus Copernicus
He came from a middle class background and received a good standard humanist ducation, studying first at the university of Krakow (then the capital of Poland) and then travelling to Italy where he studied at the universities of Bologna and Padua. He eventually took a dgree in Canon Law at the university of Ferrara. At Krakow, Bologna and Padua he studied the mathematical sciences, which at the time were considered relevant to medicine (since physicians made use of astrology). Padua was famous for its medical school and while he was there Copernicus studied both medicine and Greek. When he returned to his native land, Copernicus practised medicine, though his official employment was as a canon in the cathedral chapter, working under a maternal uncle who was Bishop of Olsztyn (Allenstein) and then of Frombork (Frauenburg).
While he was in Italy, Copernicus visited Rome, and it seems to have been for friends there that in about 1513 he wrote a short account of what has since become known as the Copernican theory, namely that the Sun (not the Earth) is at rest in the centre of the Universe. A full account of the theory was apparently slow to take a satisfactory shape, and was not published until the very end of Copernicus's life, under the title On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, Nuremberg, 1543). Copernicus is said to have received a copy of the printed book for the first time on his deathbed. (He died of a cerebral haemorrhage.)
Copernicus's heliostatic cosmology involved giving several distinct motions to the Earth. It was consequently considered implausible by the vast majority of his contemporaries, and by most astronomers and natural philosophers of succeeding generations before the middle of the seventeenth century. Its notable defenders included Johannes Kepler (1571 -1630) and Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642). Strong theoretical underpinning for the Copernican theory was provided by Newton's theory of universal gravitation (1687).