Galileo
1564-1642 Italian astronomer who perfected the telescope and was persecuted for adhering to the theory of Copernicus.
In June or July of 1609, word reached Galileo the telescope, which had been invented in Holland. Without knowing the technical details of the construction of the device, he managed to create one for himself. With it, he was able to witness a supernova, observe our moon, and document the phases of Venus. He also located sunspots. These discoveries helped support the Copernican system.
This is what the Catholic Church had to say in its decision against Galileo: "The doctrine that the earth is neither the center of the universe nor immovable, but moves even with a daily rotation, is absurd, and both philosophically and theologically false, and at the least an error of faith."[Citation Needed]
However, by 1741 the Church under Pope Benedict XIV bid the Holy Office grant an imprimatur to the first edition of the Complete Works of Galileo.[1]
Stillman Drake of the University of Toronto [1] was for the last decades of his life the most original and important scholar to study this seventeenth-century physicist.[2]
