Behind the Scenes at Galileo's Trial: Including the First English Translation of Melchior Inchofer's Tractatus syllepticus - Softcover

Blackwell, Richard J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0268022100 ISBN 13: 9780268022105

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008

Synopsis

Galileo's trial in 1633 before the Roman Inquisition is one of the most frequently mentioned topics in the history of science. Galileo's encounter with the Catholic Church was not only a major turning point in the history of western culture; it is the paradigm case of the clash between the institutional authority of religion and the authority of scientific reason, a clash that has helped to define the modern era.

Blackwell's new contribution to "the Galileo affair" concerns the official theological position against Galileo. The centerpiece of his project is the treatise entitled Tractatus syllepticus, written by Melchior Inchofer, S.J., whose judgment of the orthodoxy of Galileo's Dialogue had been requested earlier by the Holy Office and was then incorporated into the proceedings of the trial. At the time, Inchofer's judgment against Galileo's book was both detailed and harsh. That judgment formed the basis for Inchofer's subsequent Tractatus, the first English translation of which is included in this volume. Inchofer's text provides a new and fascinating way of looking at the defense of the guilty verdict. Blackwell's analysis of this material greatly enriches our knowledge of Galileo and his trial.

Both legal and theological behind-the-scenes aspects of Galileo's trial are discussed. Because of a weak legal case, a plea bargain was arranged, extrajudicially, then sabotaged in the Holy Office before the final decision of the case. Through his close scrutiny of the specifics of the trial, Blackwell renders a picture that is more complex, and ominous, than the usual portrayal of the trial.

About this title

About the Author

Richard J. Blackwell is professor emeritus of philosophy, Saint Louis University. He is the author of numerous books, including Behind the Scenes at Galileo's Trial (University of Notre Dame Press, 2008), and is translator of A Defense of Galileo, the Mathematician from Florence (University of Notre Dame Press, 1994).

From the Back Cover

"With these . . . defenses of the Church's condemnation of Copernicanism we have a new, intriguing glimpse behind the scenes." --Renaissance Quarterly

"Richard Blackwell offers yet another important volume for our understanding of the context and thought around the trial of Galileo and more broadly the interaction of theology and science in the early modern era. Blackwell's scholarship is well known to Galileo scholars. . . . This latest volume makes Melchior Inchofer's Tractatus syllepticus (1633) available in English for the first time, affording those lacking Latin better insights into the mind of the advisor to the Holy Office of the (Roman) Inquisition who gave the most detailed analysis of Galileo's Dialogue. Blackwell's five introductory chapters set Inchofer and other dramatis personae in Galileo's life in the context of the history of theology as well as of science. Blackwell especially considers the biblical hermeneutics that prompted figures like Inchofer to conclude that the Bible in fact taught the immobility of the Earth."-- Journal for the History of Astronomy

"Blackwell exposes details of the infamous trial that are not universally known: Galileo's explanation in the first session that he did not know there was a warning against writing the book that brought him to the Inquisition, his premature admission of guilt in the second session, and the misreporting of court proceedings to the cardinal in terms that would resonate with them. . . . Recommended." -- Choice

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0268022100
• ISBN 13: 9780268022105
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264