Galileo's Instruments of Credit: Telescopes, Images, Secrecy

By Mario Biagioli

In six short years, Galileo Galilei went from being a somewhat obscure mathematics professor running a student boarding house in Padua to a star in the court of Florence to the recipient of dangerous attention from the Inquisition for his support of Copernicanism. In that brief period, Galileo made a series of astronomical discoveries that reshaped the debate over the physical nature of the heavens: he deeply modified the practices and status of astronomy with the introduction of the telescope and pictorial evidence, proposed a radical reconfiguration of the relationship between theology and astronomy, and transformed himself from university mathematician into court philosopher.

Galileo's Instruments of Credit proposes radical new interpretations of several key episodes of Galileo's career, including his early telescopic discoveries of 1610, the dispute over sunspots, and the conflict with the Holy Office over the relationship between Copernicanism and Scripture. Galileo's tactics during this time shifted as rapidly as his circumstances, argues Mario Biagioli, and the pace of these changes forced him to respond swiftly to the opportunities and risks posed by unforeseen inventions, further discoveries, and the interventions of his opponents.

Focusing on the aspects of Galileo's scientific life that extend beyond the framework of court culture and patronage, Biagioli offers a revisionist account of the different systems of exchanges, communication, and credibility at work in various phases of Galileo's career. Galileo's Instruments of Credit will find grateful readers among scholars of science studies, historical epistemology, visual studies, Galilean science, and late Renaissance astronomy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Release date: Jun 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9780226045634

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Reviews for Galileo's Instruments of Credit

[steven_vi_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Biagioli further refines his view on Galileo (published earlier in Galileo Courtier) in a social context. Taking his methodology from SSK (Social Science of Knowledge), Biagioli shows that Galileo used distance (physical distance) to his own advantage; it created uncertainty, forcing for example the Grand Duke de Medici to take decisions on less information than he was comfortable with.In SSK, 'Truth' is founded not on objective facts (an idea taken from philosophy of science) but on persuasion. There are many possible forms of persuasion, and Galileo was a master in many of them, as Biagioli shows. Personal credit (founded on priority claims), social standing (founded on networks) and convincing argumentation (founded on oratorial rather than rational principles) were used by Galileo to further his position from mathematics professor to grand-ducal philosopher and to promote the Copernican world view. Seen in this way, the Trial of 1633 and the condamnation of Copernicus' teachings by the Church are the result of an overestimation by Galileo of his own credit against a stronger authority.A very insightful book, but not to be considered as a Galileo biography. Biagioli provides us with new insights, and indeed a new range of instruments to gain insight, that will now have to be considered and researched further.

[jbd1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A dense, scholarly, but quite interesting work on certain aspects of Galileo's career and operations. Requires some commitment to the subject.