{"product_id":"galileo","title":"Galileo","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook info:\u003c\/strong\u003e Galileo (Hardcover, 528 pages) – Oxford University Press, 2010. Language: English.\u003c\/p\u003e\n In 1610, Galileo published the Siderius nuncius, or Starry Messenger, a \"hurried little masterpiece\" in John Heilbron's words. Presenting to the world his remarkable observations using the recently invented telescope--the craters of the moon, the satellites of Jupiter--Galileo dramatically challenged our idea of the perfection of the heavens and the centrality of the Earth in the universe. Indeed, the appearance of the little book is regarded as one of the great moments in the history of science.  Planned to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Starry Messenger, this is a major new biography of Galileo, a fresh and much more rounded view of the great scientist than found in earlier works. Unlike previous biographers, Heilbron shows us that Galileo was far more than a mathematician: he was deeply knowledgeable in the arts, an expert on the epic poet Ariosto, a fine lutenist. More important, Heilbron notes that years of reading the poets and experimenting with literary forms were not mere sidebars--they enabled Galileo to write clearly and plausibly about the most implausible things. Indeed, Galileo changed the world not simply because he revolutionized astronomy, but because he conveyed his discoveries so clearly and crisply that they could not be avoided or denied. If ever a discoverer was perfectly prepared to make and exploit his discovery, it was the dexterous humanist Galileo aiming his first telescope at the sky.  In Galileo, John Heilbron captures not only the great scientist, but also the creative, artistic younger man who would ultimately become the champion of Copernicus, the bête-noire of the Jesuits, and the best-known of all martyrs to academic freedom.  \n\n                                         Editorial Reviews                   From    *Starred Review* “Have faith, Galileo, and go forth.” So Kepler urged on his gifted Italian contemporary. But in this insightful biography, Heilbron shows readers that as Galileo heeded Kepler’s urging, he went forth with faith not only in an ingeniously devised telescope but also in poetically inspired words. Readers see the often-forgotten literary side of the great astronomer, the side aflame with a passion for Dante and Ariosto just as ardent as his better-known enthusiasm for Euclid and Archimedes. Heilbron indeed reveals how Galileo’s sometimes-combative advocacy of great literary art prepared him for the rhetorical task of winning converts to Copernican cosmology. For in defending the creative geometry of Dante’s hell against hostile critics, Galileo honed his gift for well-crafted polemics, so priming himself for the task of championing a revolutionary scientific paradigm. For only by developing an imagination as capacious as Dante’s was Galileo able to wrap his mind around a previously undreamed-of universe, governed by radically new heliocentric principles. Of course, many seventeenth-century clerics lacked Galileo’s intellectual daring, and Heilbron teases out the various subplots swirling around the famous confrontation between Galileo and his ecclesiastical antagonists. A complete portrait illuminating how a bold pioneer forged surprising links between science and the humanities. --Bryce Christensen           About the Author   \u003cbr\u003eJohn Heilbron is Professor of History and Vice Chancellor Emeritus of the University of California at Berkeley. One of the most distinguished scholars on the Scientific Revolution, he is the author of The Sun in the Church (a New York Times Notable Book) and The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science.\u003cbr\u003e                                           ","brand":"John Heilbron","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46070083977450,"sku":"9780199583522","price":15.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/5301\/6298\/files\/7119hN31DoL._SL1500.jpg?v=1781242366","url":"https:\/\/textbookme.store\/products\/galileo","provider":"TextbookMe","version":"1.0","type":"link"}