Four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei produced the telescope that revolutionized man’s knowledge of the universe. In celebration, Tuscany is dedicating 2009 to exploring the facts, artifacts, and implications of the astronomer’s life and work.
Currently on display at the National Library of Florence until February 28 is a recreation of the personal library of the homegrown Tuscan astronomer, who lived from 1564 to 1642. Galileo’s collection included not only scientific treatises but also copies of Dante’s Divine Comedy, the romantic epic poem Orlando Furioso and sonnets by Petrarch. The exhibit also features some of Galileo’s scientific sketches, as well as original ideas and notes he wrote on the books he was reading.
Describing the 70 books that made up Galileo’s home library and shaped his thought, library director Antonia Idea Fontana said, ‘They were the source of his research and bear witness to his successes but also show the polemics, the legal arguments and the trials linked to his work.’
Special guided visits to Galileo’s home in Arcetri, Il Gioiello, which is normally closed to the public, have been organized in conjunction with the show. Galileo worked and studied in Il Gioiello from 1633, the year in which the Catholic church condemned him for heresy and confined him to his house, until his death.
