Last Wednesday I attended a showing at the University of Michigan undergraduate library of the manuscript they have written by Galileo in late 1609 and January 1610 which records his initial notes on observing the moons of Jupiter. To be honest, the provenance of this document is uncertain. There are few, if any other Galileo documents outside of Italy and this document appears to have only been traced back to the early 1920's. On the other hand, various scholars which have looked at the manuscript say it looks like Galileo's hand and the inks and paper look authentic. According to the Special Collections Director, no scholar has been interested enough in tracking down its history to be able to say for certain if it is genuine. However, most scholars who have looked at it believe it to be real, and so does the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan. That's good enough for me.
Galileo's observations are a good place to start for looking at modern science. You can make a convincing case that it was Galileo's observing and publishing of his observations in the pamphlet Sidereus Nuncius which started modern science. (Other scientists were certainly making observations, Thomas Harriot is a good example of another early astronomer who preceeded Galilieo. But Harriot did not publish.) Our methods have improved since then, but the combination of making observations, developing a hypothesis based on those observations, and publishing it for everyone to criticise is one of the core ideas of modern science.
In the four centuries since Galileo this apparently simple idea: observe, consider, publish, critique; has changed the world more than the preceeding four millenia.
On a more personal note, several years ago I took a trip to Florence, Italy. Knowing that there was plenty to see in Florence, I rented and apartment there for a couple weeks with some friends. After seeing the Uffizi a couple times and the Pitti Palace and the David and the Boboli Gardens, and etc. (there was a lot to see), I noticed I kept walking past a place called, Museo di Storia della Scienza. There didn't seem to be many tourists about, but I thought I'd give it a try.
If you ever get to Florence, make an effort to see this museum.
It's not huge, and doesn't contain miles of galleries of paintings and sculpture. It contains scientific instruments. The collection is somewhat ecclectic, but fascinating. There are huge armillary spheres, early microscopes, clocks, surgical instruments, a large number of static electricity generators, and Galileo's telescope.
The telescope he likely used in January of 1610 to observe the moons of Jupiter, as he recorded on the scrap of paper which resides in the University of Michigan Special Collections Library we saw earlier.
Of course, any personal reminisce about Galileo artifacts wouldn't be
complete without mention of that one other artifact housed in the Museo di Storia della Scienza: Galileo's finger.
When Galileo's body was moved from its original resting place to its current crypt in the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, his finger was broken off by Anton Francesco Gori. Its provenance is well established.
It makes you wonder why the manuscript Galileo used as a scratchpad for one of the most important observations in history wasn't as important as the finger that recorded that observation.
Visit the Museo di Storia della Scienza on-line.
And the University of Michigan Special Collections site on the Galileo Letter.
If you are in the SE Michigan Area, there is an exhibit of Early Astronomy going on on the 7th floor of the University of Michigan Graduate Library in Ann Arbor until April 19th, 2009.
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