Claiming Fame for Galileo: Reputation and Scholarly Credibility in Early Modern Italy

Abstract

This book analyzes the construction and the impact of Galileo Galilei’s fame. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) is perhaps best known for his involvement in the trial of 1633, in which the Catholic Church condemned him for heresy. However, both Galileo’s fame and his controversial status originated long before the trial of 1633, and can be traced back until at least 1610. This year saw the publication of his first major work, Sidereus Nuncius (1610), which evoked not only exalted praise but also fervent criticism. To date, however, Galileo’s rise to fame is mostly portrayed as the straightforward result of his merit. Such a view obscures the impact of social and cultural processes on the development of fame. Moreover, while fame was often presented as a positive asset, it was also frequently associated with vanity and pride – which meant that scholars accused of seeking fame could draw suspicion rather than approval. Considering Galileo’s fame as a direct result of his merit thus glosses over this complicated relation between scholarly credibility and fame. This book aims to remedy these lacunae in earlier scholarship. In doing so, it seeks to break ground in two major ways. First, this work shifts away the traditional focus on Galileo’s own self-fashioning and instead concentrates on the efforts of Galileo’s contemporaries. It demonstrates that the construction and development of Galileo’s fame required the active participation and engagement of others, who can be conceptualized as stakeholders in Galileo’s reputation. The book explores the means and motives varied groups of these stakeholders had for creating, shaping and opposing Galileo’s fame. It demonstrates that Galileo’s fame was the result of the active engagement of scholars and non-scholars alike. Moreover, it shows that most stakeholders were driven not only by their appreciation for Galileo’s scholarly merit, but by other motives as well. Second, by focusing on the impact of Galileo’s fame the book integrates the study of fame and the history of science. The question of how scholarly credibility was assigned and assessed has been on the forefront of recent studies into the history of science. Yet, while research has shown that various social norms and practices were of seminal importance to the construction of credibility, the role played by fame in this regard has not yet been examined systematically. This book demonstrates that the way contemporaries assessed Galileo’s fame in relation to his credibility depended to a large extent on their own position, interests and background. In evaluating Galileo’s fame, moreover, scholars and non-scholars alike drew on practices and assumptions pertaining to two other contexts: the juridical and the religious. The chosen scope and focus thus not only provide new insights into Galileo’s life and career; this case study also presents a novel perspective on the way fame is created. Moreover, in this book the case of Galileo – so often presented as the epitome of a clash between science and religion – is instead used to bring into focus where the cultures of scholarship, law and religion intersected.