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posted by chromas on Thursday September 27 2018, @12:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the somebody-expected-it dept.

Discovery of Galileo's long-lost letter highlights the value of physical repositories

Modern scholars don't always have to physically visit museums and archives around the world to seek secrets of the past. Many collections have been digitized, and much can be done with these online resources. But can anything beat the thrill of being there and finding an item assumed lost to history? That's what happened last month at the London archives of the Royal Society, with the discovery of a letter of great historical importance.

Written by Galileo Galilei in 1613, the letter sets down for the first time the scientist's gripes with the Vatican's doctrine on astronomy. His forthright objections launched one of science history's most famous battles, which culminated in the Inquisition's condemnation of Galileo for heresy 20 years later. Different copies of the letter had circulated, and their content has been tirelessly analysed and discussed by historians. But seeing the original for the first time, with its scorings-out and word substitutions, solves a long-standing mystery about whether a version sent to the Inquisition in Rome had been doctored — and, if so, by whom.

Galileo, it now seems clear, doctored his original letter himself, to make the language less aggressive, as soon as he realized the trouble heading his way. This suggests that the editing was not the malign work of theologians trying to make a stronger case against him, as had been assumed by the nineteenth-century scholar Antonio Favaro, whose 20-volume The Works of Galileo Galilei is a main reference work.

Also at Smithsonian Magazine and Live Science.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Thursday September 27 2018, @09:13AM (1 child)

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Thursday September 27 2018, @09:13AM (#740712)

    religious nutjobs get power the same way the monarchy. corporations, and governments do.

    1) Divide and conquer. Make a group of "us" and fight "them". I mean, you see it at sports every day, it seems primates are predisposed to this.

    2) Make up a legend - so much easier than real work. This allows you to apply sanctions to those who "don't believe".

    If you are a functional, contributing, member of society , how much time do you have to pursue "power with out merit" (politics)?

    That's why we have nutjobs in politics. Most of us have to *work* for a living....

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  • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday September 27 2018, @10:00AM

    by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 27 2018, @10:00AM (#740721)

    Make a group of "us" and fight "them". I mean, you see it at sports every day, it seems primates are predisposed to this.

    Are you referring to monkeys or bishops?