Paula Findlen: After the Trial: Galileo, His Early Biographers and the Catholic Church

in
Date: 
Je., Jan. 6, 2011, 5:00pm

Paula Findlen (History, Stanford): After the Trial: Galileo, His Early Biographers and the Catholic Church.

January 6, 2011, 5:00 pm.

Green College Coach House.

This talk explores the problem of writing the biography of Galileo after his trial, condemnation, and abjuration of Copernicanism in 1633.  Vincenzo Viviani's well-known life of Galileo, written in 1654, is only one of a number of attempts to write about Galileo's life after the trial.  What strategies did Galileo's biographers use in discussing the most controversial aspects of his life?  More importantly, what did they know?