Recently, in a talk to a small group of Catholic women scientists, I suggested we need to see events in the 17th century from the perspective of 17th century history and scientific knowledge.
Indeed, from today’s perspective, it may seem completely antiquated not to know that the Earth is orbiting the Sun, and not vice versa. In the early 17th century, though, there were (at least) 4 models of our planetary system:
the Ptolemaic system (geocentric),
the Copernican system (heliocentric),
the Tychonic system (geo-heliocentric), and
the Keplerian system (heliocentric, elliptic orbits)
The Galileo affair has indeed often been used as an argument that the Catholic Church was hostile to science and that Galileo was a martyr for science, as it were. This timeline article is intended to set the historical record straight. Based on the scientific knowledge of the time, a heliocentric model was not obvious. While heliocentrism ultimately turned out to be right, Galileo could not present the scientific proofs for it, which came much later. Moreover, Galileo ventured into advising theologians how to interpret Scripture, going beyond his position as a scientist.
A timeline representation of the story is available here (click on the image below:)
Christoph Scheiner SJ (25 July 1573 – 18 June 1650) was a Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer. He was born in Markt Wald bei Mindelheim, belonging at that time to the House Habsburg. He entered the Jesuit Order in Landsberg am Lech on 26 October 1595. He spent the years 1598–1609 in Ingolstadt studying philosophy (metaphysics and mathematics) and theology. Already in 1603, Scheiner invented the pantograph, an instrument designed to reproduce drawings on a different scale. It consists of four hinged rods in the form of a parallelogram with hinge points varying according to the scale of reproduction. It is equipped with a fixed center and two points: a dry one that follows the outline of the original design, and the other writer who tracks the reproduction in an enlarged or reduced form. Due to this invention, he rapidly gained celebrity status.
On 18 April 1609, Scheiner received priestly ordination. In 1610, he was appointed professor of mathematics in Ingolstadt. of Ingolstadt, teaching mathematics (physics and astronomy) and Hebrew. He lectured on sun dials, practical geometry, astronomy, optics, and the telescope.
Scheiner is considered a co-discoverer of the sunspots, together with Galileo Galilei, Thomas Harriot, and Johann Fabricius. Together with his student Johann Baptist Cysat, he could observe the sunspots from the tower of the Holy Cross Church in Ingolstadt in March and October 1611, and originally described them as satellites since in the Aristotelian notion, the sun is perfect and pure. He communicated this in three letters first to the banker and scholar Mark Welser who printed them and brought them to the attention of the Accademia dei Lincei and ultimately to Galilei. Galilei had independently observed the sunspots starting in May 1611 and published his findings in 1612 through the Lincean Academy. Galileo could show that the sunspots were at or near the surface of the sun, a view that Scheiner opposed for several years but finally adopted. Scheiner and Galilei engaged in scientific discourse fiercely debating (1) the priority in the observation, (2) its application to Tycho Brahe’s modified geocentric model versus the heliocentric view and (3) the nature of the sunspots. Scheiner and Galilei remained divided and the pride of both even aggravated the tone in these discussions. It is not known what Scheiner really thought, but one fact stands clear: maybe only in obedience to his superiors in the Jesuit order or following his own conviction, he defended the Tychonic geocentric model during the remainder of his life. In the following years, Scheiner and his students made extensive observations on the sunspots that were finally published in Scheiner’s ‘Rosa Ursini sive Sol‘ in 1630. Contrary to the prevalent view at that time that the sun is solid, he expressed his revolutionary opinion – based on his observations – that the Sun might be fluid.
Composite of Scheiner’s Sunspot Observations of 1612 (taken from van Helden A.)
Christoph Scheiner also made an important contribution on the theory of vision. In 1583, the physician Felix Platter (1536-1614) was the first to suggest that the structure responsible for sensitivity to light was the optic nerve (seen today’s knowledge this is wrong) and the retina (correct). Kepler proposed that the image (he called it “Pictura”) was instead formed on the retina at the back of the eye; this however implicated that the picture was inverted (upside down) and reversed (right and left flipped). In 1604, Kepler rightly assumed that the fact that we see an upright picture is not a question on optics or anatomy but happens in the brain.
Federico Angelo Cesi (26 February 1585 – 01 August 1630) was born to an aristocratic family of Rome. He was educated privately and at an early age became interested in natural science. In 1603, at age eighteen, Cesi founded the Accademia dei Lincei, the Lyncean Academy. Although he looked back to the model of the Aristotelian-Platonic Academy, his aim was altogether special and innovative. Cesi wanted with his Academicians to create a method of research based upon observation, experiment, and the inductive method. He thus called this Academy ‘dei Lincei’ because the scientists which adhered to it had to have eyes as sharp as lynxes in order to penetrate the secrets of nature, observing it at both microscopic and macroscopic levels. Seeking to observe the universe in all its dimensions, the “Lincei” made use of the microscope (tubulus opticus) and the telescope (perspicillus-occhialino) in their scientific research, and extended the horizon of knowledge from the extremely small to the extremely large. Federico bestowed his own motto on the “Lincei”: minima cura si maxima vis (take care of small things if you want to obtain the greatest results).
From the outset the Academy had its ups and downs. A few years after its foundation it was strongly obstructed by Cesi’s father because he believed that within it activity was being engaged in which was not very transparent in character – for example, studies in alchemy. But after the death of Federico’s father (1610), the abundant economic resources which were now obtained thanks to Federico’s inheritance, as well as the fact that renowned scholars such as Galileo Galilei, Giovan Battista della Porta, Fabio Colonna, and Cassiano dal Pozzo joined its ranks, enabled the Academy to progress and advance.
Its initial members were Cesi, the mathematician Francesco Stelluti, the physician Johannes Eck from the Low Countries, and the polymath Anastasio De Fillis. The members lived communally and almost monastically in Cesi’s house, where he provided them with books and laboratory equipment. The religious character of the Academy cannot be overlooked. It was placed under the protection of St. John the Evangelist who was often portrayed in the miniatures of its publications with an eagle and a lynx, both of which were symbols of sight and reason. It was therefore conceived as an assembly of scholars whose goal -as one can read in its Rules, described as the “Linceografo”— was “knowledge and wisdom of things to be obtained not only through living together with honesty and piety, but with the further goal of communicating them peacefully to men without causing any harm.” Nature was seen not only as a subject of study but also of contemplation. Amongst the suggestions of the “Linceografo” there is also that of preceding study and work with prayer — “for this reason the Lynxes, near to doing anything at all, must first raise their minds to God, and humbly pray to him and invoke the intercession of the saints” (cf. di Rovasenda and Marini-Bettòlo, 1986, p. 18). Amongst the practices of the spiritual piety of the members there was the reciting of the liturgical office of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Davidic Psalter. For this reason, as Enrico di Rovesanda observes, “the religious inspiration of the Lincei cannot be overlooked, as is done in many quarters, nor can it be reduced to an ‘almost mystical glow of the school of Pythagoras,’ as has also been suggested. The high moral figure of Cesi acts to guarantee the sincere and loyal profession of its religious faith” (ibidem, p. 19). One of the mottoes of the Academy, Sapientiae cupidi, indicated the striving for constant research into truth through scientific speculation, based upon the mathematical and natural sciences but always located within a sapiential horizon.
Like Galileo, whose great supporter he was, Cesi admired Aristotle but not the Aristotelians of the University of Padua who had refused to look at things through the telescope of the Pisan scientist. He was in addition rather critical of the university culture of his day. Federico Cesi also engaged in important activity of mediation between the Roman theological world and Galileo, reaching the point of advising the latter to not insist in his polemics about the interpretation of Holy Scripture so that he could dedicate himself in a more effective way to scientific research.
Science meets Faith 