When you purchase through links on our site , we may make an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
Did Galileo Galilei really say all those terrible things that the Vatican said he did in his famous 1613 alphabetic character about a sun - centeredsolar system — and in saying so , violate Christian church doctrine ? Or did the Catholic Church falsify his word to make him look spoilt , so they could more easy announce him a misbeliever ? A long - lose letter that recently egress from a subroutine library archive in the United Kingdom may finally put this question to rest .
The find throw light on claimsthat Galileo madewhen he came under ardour for propose that the church stick to religion and persist out of science , the journalNaturerecently reported .
The long-lost letter from Galileo Galilei, dated Dec. 21, 1613, addressed to Padre Benedetto Castelli. The letter was found in the Royal Society archives.
accord to Galileo , when Inquisition official stage a copy of his letter as evidence of heresy , the words had been change to make them seem more instigative . Galileo even produced another copy of the letter with much less incendiary language , to rise that he was being railroaded . [ Science and the Catholic Church : A Turbulent History ]
But the newly discovered document evidence a different story .
Discovered in the Royal Society depository library by a chaffer historian from Italy in August , the newfound letter had languish for century after being register under the wrong engagement , agree to Nature . It is likely an original order of payment of the letter , which Galileo originally mail to his friend Benedetto Castelli in 1613 , and it ’s signed with " G.G. " — Galileo ’s initials .
The second page of the 1613 Galileo letter.
In the letter , Galileo decry the Catholic Church’sinterpretations of astronomy ; those controversy were used against him when the Inquisition convey him to test — and convicted him — in 1633 .
The fresh document moderate legion corrections in an attempt to take the edge off spoken communication that might be consideredheretical , Nature reported . Words that Galileo first put to newspaper that were raspingly critical of the church were later cross out and corrected , suggesting that he self - edit out to make his pronouncements less offensive to the church ’s eyes , according to Nature .
For model , one passage referred to certain scriptural claims as " mistaken " ; the verbal description was later crossed out and amended to read " look unlike from the Sojourner Truth . "
If the document is what it seems to be , Galileo ’s original Son choices were far more objectionable than the rendering that was sent to the Vatican . Nevertheless , Galileo asserted that the letter used by the Inquisition only sounded as decisive as it did because church building officials changed his words ; he claim that their document was a " fraud " circulate " under the cloak of forwardness and Polemonium van-bruntiae , " in a 1615 letter to a booster and cleric name Piero Dini .
A description and interpretation of the letter will be published in the Royal Society journal Notes and Records , Nature reported .
Original article onLive skill .
