Nick Wilding, Georgia State University, "Fact and Faction; or, How Galileo Moved the Earth" (Harvard Astrophysics)

The notion that scientific facts are socially constructed is generally accepted amongst historians of science. The case of Galileo's discoveries of lunar mountains, innumerable stars and some of Jupiter’s satellites in 1610 has been particularly well analyzed. Galileo's observations are now viewed as cosmic gifts, offered in a system of courtly patronage, in exchange for prestige and protection. By looking closely at clues and traces in previously ignored and newly discovered sources, as well as ridding the record of forged documents, I will show that the first group to whom Galileo communicated his scientific discoveries was not the Medici court in Florence but the Jesuit College in Rome. Given the subsequent violence of his trials, and later assumptions that a clash between science and religion was inevitable, this may seem surprising. By looking at mundane details such as handwriting and watermarks, a new account of cosmological revolution emerges.

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