Galileo was born in Pisa (then part of the Duchy of Florence), Italy, on 15 February 1564, the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei, a lutenist, composer, and music theorist, … See more

Galileo continued to receive visitors until his death on 8 January 1642, aged 77, following a fever and heart palpitations. The Grand Duke of … See more

Later Church reassessments
The Galileo affair was largely forgotten after Galileo's death, and the controversy subsided. The Inquisition's ban on reprinting Galileo's … See more

• Catholic Church and science
• Seconds pendulum
• Tribune of Galileo
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Although Galileo seriously considered the priesthood as a young man, at his father's urging he instead enrolled in 1580 at the University of Pisa for a medical degree. He was influenced by … See more

This and other facts, not few in number or less worth knowing, I have succeeded in proving; and what I consider more important, there have been opened up to this vast and most … See more

Galileo's early works describing scientific instruments include the 1586 tract entitled The Little Balance (La Billancetta) describing an … See more