Siderius Nuncius

The Starry
Messenger
What was it?
•A 56 PAGE SCIENTIFIC
TREATISE released in 1610,
in Latin.
•A report on new exciting
discoveries of the
‘spyglass’
•DEDICATED TO THE FOURTH
DUKE OF TUSCANY, COSIMO
MEDICI I, HIS PATRON.
•Written rather quickly
to assure his fame
•
•
•
 What does it contain?
• 1 : His claim to the
creation and
understanding of the
telescope and a
description of it
• 2 : the surface features
of the moon revealed
by his new discovery,
such as craters and
mountains “higher than
mountains on earth”.
• 3 : The resolution of new
fixed stars.
• 4 : the resolution of the
milky way and some
nebulae, such as Orion,
into individual stars.
• 5 : the detailed
observation and
charting of the most
visible 4 moons of
Jupiter. [1]
 Why was it important?
• First ever scientific treatise addressing the
telescope; the future of observational
astronomy.
• The use of scientific method –his work was
testable.
• The first documented observation of
another planet’s moons.
• The idea that nebulae could consist of stars.
• An example of the scientific application of
telescope.
• The definite moment in the undermining of
the Ptolemaic system, eg. Jovian moons,
Gegenschein; “One look through the
 OTHER WRITINGS
* The Little Balance (1586) – his own theories
based on Archimedes law of leverage and the law
of buoyancy
* Letters on Sunspots (1613)
* Letter to Grand Duchess Christina (1615) –
an essay on the relation of the new discoveries
in science to revelations and biblical
quotation in the bible
* discourse upon Comets (1619) DISCORSO
DELLE COMETE – a critique of orazio grassi’s“on
the 3 comets of 1618” delivered in a lecture
at the florentine academy by June Mario
Guiducci, a pupil of Galileo's.
• The Assayer (1623) Il Saggiatore – a second
critique on a jesuit astronomer, orazio gracci,
who correctly believed that comets where ‘real’
and moved beyond the orbit of the moon.
• * Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World
Systems/ (1632) Dialogo dei due massimi sistemi
del mondo – the scientific comparison which
touted the copernican as a legitimate
alternative to the ptolemaic system, and
attacked members of the papacy in metaphor.
• * Two New Sciences (1638) Discorsi e
Dimostrazioni Matematiche, intorno a due nuove
scienz – Published in Leiden,
•

Holland, as galileos' works were

•

banned in italy. It contained no

cosmology and dealt instead with
the engineering science of
resistance and material strength,
and the mathematical science of
motion and acceleration. It was
considered by many to be his
‘magnum opus’. [3]
• “In my Starry Messenger  there were
revealed many new and marvelous
discoveries in the heavens that
should have gratified all lovers of
true science” – 1623; letter written
• [1],[2] http://isc.temple.edu/pericles/forster.htm
[accessed 21/1/08]
• http://www.physics.emich.edu/jwooley/chapter9/
[accessed 21/1/08]
• http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/galileo/se
[accessed 21/1/08]
• [3] http://physics.ship.edu/~mrc/pfs/110/inside_
[accessed 21/1/08]
• [4] http://www.chlt.org/sandbox/lhl/dsb/page.245
[accessed 21/1/08]
• TRANSCRIPT:
http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/g/galilei/sider
[accessed 21/1/08]
•
•