 J.W. Blaeu, Geographia. Amsterdam, 1667. Drawing of del Ticonic System. |
This room illustrates some basic aspects of the extraordinary intellectual adventure of Galileo (1564-1642). Exceptional documents are exhibited here, such as the ebony trophy in which is mounted the lens (broken in ancient times) of the telescope with which the Pisan scientist observed for the first time, in late 1609 and early 1610, four of the satellites of Jupiter (the "Medicean" planets), the roughness of the moon's surface, the phases of Venus and many other celestial phenomena which confirmed the theories of Copernicus. The room also contains a drawing by Galileo's son Vincenzo, and V. Viviani (1628-1703), showing the application of the pendulum to regulate the motion of clockworks, a concept first developed by Galileo. Ingenious eighteenth-century experimental apparatus allows us to trace Galileo's fundamental research on mechanics, culminating in the publication of Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze (1638). |