Galileo in Context: The Origins of Modern Science

Instructor: Don Salisbury

Moody Science 107

X2480

dsalisbury@austincollege.edu

This course will explore the historical roots and content of Galileo's scientific discoveries. Both themes will be explored in readings and discussions during nine regularly scheduled meetings in the Fall of 2004. This will be followed in January with visits to museums, churches, galleries, universities, and sites where Galileo lived, worked and worshiped. These visits will help to establish the intellectual, religious and social climate of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in Italy. The travel itinerary will include all the major stations in Galileo's life, from his origins to triumphs and ultimate house arrest in Florence, with shorter term appointments in Pisa and Siena, and a professorship in Padua with frequent contact with artisans in Venice. The final four days in Rome will be devoted to his conflict with the church.

Course Objectives

• Become familiar with some aspects of medieval and Renaissance northern Italian history
• Begin to develop an understanding of the nature of the Renaissance, a recognition of some of the key players and an appreciation of Florence's central role
• Study the emergence of perspective drawing and new ways of seeing developed by Italian Renaissance artists and architects, and appreciate the extent to which Galileo's science was influenced by and itself influenced some of these developments
• Learn what distinguished Galileo's science from that of his predecessors
• Try to discern other Renaissance roots in Galileo's thought and action
• Learn Galileo's contribution to modern science, in particular the role of experimentation, his contribution to Newtonian mechanics, and the relation of his cosmos to Einstein's universe
• Gain a deeper understanding of the conflict between Galileo and the Catholic church.
• Recognize contemporary parallels of the Galileo affair in the interaction of science and religion
• Savor the Italian culture that bore Galileo

Course Requirements

Required reading

Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel, Penguin Books

Galileo on the World Systems, Galilleo Galilee, (Stillman Drake, editor and translator), Modern Library

Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, Galilleo Galilee, (Stillman Drake, editor and translator), Anchor Books

Paper

You are asked to research and write a paper on a topic related to the course theme. You must obtain my approval of the topic. The paper must have a length of five to ten pages double-spaced, with additional pages for the title and bibliography. Sources must include at least two web sites, a journal, and a book (other than the required readings). The paper may be submitted prior to the end of the Fall semester, or by February 3, 2005

Journal and Portfolio

You required to keep a journal reflecting on experiences and insights gained relating to the course objectives. The portfolio will contain relevant documentation, and may include pertinent diary entries, sketches, photographs, music, art, etc. Please note: neither the journal nor the portfolio will contain personal reflections or observations not pertaining to the course objectives.

Participation

Let us each try to enrich each other's experiences in our Fall meetings and on our journey. I envision unexpected revelations which will follow from an openness in observation and a readiness to reflect upon and discuss what we have seen and experienced.

Grading

The course grade will be based in part on three one half hour quizzes which will be taken in the Fall, a course journal and portfolio, and a final examination administered on the return flight from Rome.

Fall quizzes will address readings and class discussions, with the following themes

• Quiz 1: Italian renaissance cultural and political history, medieval and renaissance science, Galileo's life
• Quiz 2: Galileo's science, including his principle of inertia, free fall and parabolic motion experiments and analysis, observational and theoretical support for the Copernican world system
• Quiz 3: Galileo's place in the Newtonian and modern Einsteinian universes

In addition a grade will be assigned for participation in Fall discussions and active engagement in activities in Italy. If either effort is judged to be inadequate during the course, students will be notified in a timely manner.

Grades will be calculated as follows

Three fall quizzes	30
Fall course participation	10
Journal/ Portfolio	20
Paper	20
January course engagement	10
Final examination	10

Fall Class Meetings

Meeting 1. Course Introduction, Galileo's early life and times

Readings from Sobel, Galileo's Daughter

Meeting 2. Galileo's life and work in Padua

Readings from Sobel, Galileo's Daughter; Galileo, The Assayer

Meeting 3. Aristotelian mechanics and Ptolemy's cosmos

Readings from Sobel, Galileo's Daughter; Galileo, Two World Systems

Meeting 4. Galileo's instruments and experiments

Readings from Sobel, Galileo's Daughter; Galileo, Two World Systems

Meeting 5. Galileo's experimental and theoretical support of the Copernican world system

Readings from Sobel, Galileo's Daughter; Galileo, Two World Systems; Galileo, The Starry Messenger; Galileo, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo

Meeting 6. Galileo in Florence

Readings from Sobel, Galileo's Daughter; Galileo, Two World Systems; Galileo, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo; Galileo, Two New Sciences

Meeting 7. The Galileo Affair: conflict with Rome

Readings from Sobel, Galileo's Daughter; Galileo, Two World Systems; Galileo, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo; Galileo, Letter to Grand Duchess Christina

Meeting 8. Renaissance art and perspective

Readings from Renn, Galileo in Context; Alberti, On Painting

Meeting 9. Preparations for trip

Travel and Hotel Information

January 2

Departure from Dallas at 1:05 PM on Delta flight #1066, arrival in Atlanta at 4:22 PM

Departure from Atlanta at 5:30 PM on Delta flight #0070, arrival in Rome at 8:55 AM on

January 3

Travel by bus from Rome Fiumicino Airport to Florence

January 3,4,5,6,7,8

Hotel CORONA D'ITALIA

http://www.florence-hotel.hotelcoronaditalia.com/

Via Nazionale 14

Florence 50123, Italy

+39 055 261 501

January 9,10,11

Free travel days. (Must decide by Friday, December 3, if you do not want to stay in the Corona d'Italia Hotel in Florence)

January 12

Travel by bus from Florence to Padua

January 12,13

Hotel MONACO

http://www.monacohotel.it/inglese/inghilterra.html

Piazzale Stazione 3

Padova 35131, Italy

+39 049 66 43 44

January 14

Travel by bus from Padua to Venice

- 35131 PADOVA (Italy)

January 14,15

Hotel CARLTON & GRAND CANAL

http://www.venice-hotel.carltongrandcanal.com/

Santa Croce 578

Venice 30125, Italy

39+ 041 275 22 00

January 16

Travel by bus from Venice to Florence

January 16,17,18,19,20

Hotel CORONA D’ ITALIA

http://www.florence-hotel.hotelcoronaditalia.com/

Via Nationale 14

Florence 50123, Italy

 +39  055 261 501

January 21

Travel by bus from Florence to Rome

January 21,22,23,24

Hotel PORTAMAGGIORE

http://www.hotelportamaggiore.it/pagine/hotel.asp

Piazza Portamaggiore 25

Rome 00185, Italy

 +39  06 702 7927

January 25

Departure from Rome Fiumicino Airport at 10:15 AM on Delta flight #0071, arrival in Atlanta at 3:40 PM

Departure from Atlanta at 7:05 PM on Delta flight #1499, arrival in Dallas at 8:26 PM