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The divine revelation in August that a ms impute to Galileo Galilei was a counterfeit has led to the breakthrough of a dissimilar book that the celebrate Italian astronomer in reality did indite , but under a pseudonym , a new investigation finds .
Previously unpublished notes by Galileo that were checked in the aftermath of the forgery ’s discovery bespeak that he was the rightful author of a treatise titled the " Considerazioni Astronomiche di Alimberto Mauri " — Italian for the " Astronomical Considerations of Alimberto Mauri " — which was published in 1604 .
A previously unpublished note by Galileo refers to criticism by the Italian scholar Ludovico delle Colombe, who had suggested that the “new star” seen in 1604 was always there, but had only recently been seen.
Some other scholars at the sentence suspect Galileo was the source of the oeuvre when it was published , although it was attributed to the pseudonym Alimberto Mauri . At the metre , writing under a pseudonym was a common drill to invalidate controversy . Galileo is have sex to have published under other aliases , but his writing of " Considerazioni Astronomiche " had not been confirmed until now .
refer : Galileo toned down his heretical words , long - lost varsity letter prove ( but the Christian church persecuted him anyway )
" It ’s a full treatise , and it ’s written by one of the most brilliant minds of Western science , " saidMatteo Cosci , a researcher in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at the Ca ' Foscari University of Venice who made the latest discovery .
The title page of the pseudonymous treatise by “Alimberto Mauri” published in 1604, which is now been revealed to be an early work written by the astronomer Galileo Galilei.
The treatise was published just a few years before Galileo ’s illustrious work " Sidereus Nuncius " ( Italian for " Starry Messenger " ) , which in 1610 described his breakthrough observations ofEarth ’s moon and four ofJupiter ’s synodic month through the first astronomic telescope on record book .
" You may look at it as a prequel to ' Sidereus Nuncius , ' which was the no - sour - back employment that changed the history of astronomy and skill in universal , " Cosci told Live Science . " For historian of school of thought like me , this is a treasure trove . "
Pseudonymous writing
The breakthrough that Galileo authored " Considerazioni Astronomiche " is tied to the finding earlier this year that a manuscript attribute to Galileo in the program library of the University of Michigan was actually a counterfeit .
As Live Science account , water line in the paper of the handwritten manuscript show it must have been write more than 100 years after Galileo ’s death in 1642 , making thedocument a fake . It was credibly create by the fertile Italian forger Tobia Nicotra sometime in the 1920s or 1930s , an investigation by the university found ; the ms was get at an auction in 1934 and was donated to the university in 1938 .
The investigating also establish that two letters used to authenticate the ms were also forgeries , again probably by Nicotra ; and because one of the letters also swear Galileo had written " Considerazioni Astronomiche , " that ascription , too , was suspect .
A portrait of Galileo Galilei, by Justus Sustermans (1597-1681), painted in 1636. On display at the Galleria Degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy.
Galileo never admitted to write the " Considerazioni Astronomiche di Alimberto Mauri , " and until now , the only grounds was the forge varsity letter . But earlier this class , Cosci discovered an unpublished note genuinely written by Galileo in a program library in Florence , in which the astronomer listed several places where the Italian learner Ludovico delle Colombe had attacked his approximation . Among these , Galileo observe that delle Colombe had pick apart " Considerazioni Astronomiche di Alimberto Mauri " — show that Galileo felt personally attacked whenever " Alimberto Mauri " was criticized in mark , Cosci said .
" When Galileo wrote in his private note that ' [ Lodovico delle Colombe ] speak of me with scorn , ' he was recognizing himself as Mauri , " Cosci say .
Galileo’s controversial theories
Cosci said delle Colombe had print a treatise argue that the " new virtuoso " seen in 1604 ( actually a supernova ) was not new at all but rather lasting and only once in a while visible . Those ideas matched the dominate Aristotelian theories embodied in Ptolemy ’s geocentric model of thesolar system , which express ( wrongly ) that thesun , planet and superstar were fixed and unchanging , and that they orbited the Earth .
Related : Why do the planets in the solar organisation orbit on the same plane ?
But Galileo , write pseudonymously as " Alimberto Mauri , " proposed that the " new star " was in reality novel and suggested mechanisms that could have created it — a challenge to the Aristotelean position . He also introduced several other basal ideas for the fourth dimension , such as that themoonmight have mountains .
Galileo’s note lists places where delle Colombe “speaks of me with contempt,” among them several passages that refer to the writings of “Alimberto Mauri."
" It ’s safe to apply a nom de guerre , because if things do n’t vaporize right , then you do n’t get blamed , " saidPeter Barker , a professor of the chronicle of science at the University of Oklahoma . " But if it does fly , you’re able to then say , ' It was me all along . ' "
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Barker was not affect in the new discovery but said he ’s convinced by Cosci ’s research . The ascription of " Considerazioni Astronomiche " to Galileo has also been accepted byNick Wilding , a historian at Georgia State University who find the forgery of the University of Michigan manuscript .
" This is an excellent example of how patient and levelheaded archival research can doctor some of the hurt inflict by forgers , " Wildingsaid in a statement . " Dr. Cosci has shew us that a combination of scepticism and skill will take us to historical accuracy . "
Cosci articulate Galileo wrote " Considerazioni Astronomiche " when he was teaching at the University of Padua , a northerly Italian metropolis that was then govern by the Republic of Venice . The treatise may have been an attempt by Galileo to find patronage in Rome , as it was consecrate to the Pope ’s treasurer , Cosci evoke .
But Rome and Venice were occupy in a diplomatical quarrel at that time , " so it would have been unwise of Galileo to place his name on a treatise that was dedicated to the public foeman , " Cosci said .
