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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.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday September 28 2018, @01:50AM
One thing that would cause suspicion is being smart or lucky enough to avoid various afflictions. People would wonder what you knew that they didn't know. Did you have supernatural allies, perhaps?
This kind of thinking still exists today, but it's much less crude. Today, instead of witches, it's hackers. Lot of people fear hackers. Consequently, punishments for hacking tend to be excessive. More than once I've been under suspicion whenever someone's computer acted funny or their account was hacked. They knew I might be able to do it, and that was enough to make me a suspect regardless of any other factors.
In any case, it's always been a little unsafe to be smarter than the average bear. Tends to provoke fear and jealousy in others. Some will want to bring you down to their level, and won't be bothered about staying ethical or moral to do it.