Galileo, courtier
by Mario Biagioli · first published 1993
3mentions
1recommended by
2HN commenters
2015–2020first – last mentioned
50% recommend50% neutral
"Galileo, Courtier is Mario Biagioli's radical reinterpretation of Galileo's career. In the early baroque court of the Medicis and the Vatican, Galileo fashioned both his career and his science to the demands of patronage and its complex systems of power and prestige. Where other writers make distinctions between Galileo the scientist and Galileo the courtier, Biagioli demonstrates that the two cannot be separated. He argues that Galileo's courtly role was integral to his science - the questions he chose to examine, his methods, even his conclusions." "Biagioli focuses on the period between 16
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…religion (or reason and ignorance, or any other binary opposition really), and I think the parent comment is correct in suggesting that most historians today would answer "no" to that. Mario Biagioli's book Galileo Courtier is a really excellent work of history that I recommend to anyone interested in the details - it's more about the role of patronage in supporting Galileo's work, but gives a lot of insight into the systems…
on “They knew it was round, damn it” ↗…Capitalism series (the best history books of the 20th century, in my view). I also remember loving John Brewer's "The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the 18th Century" and Mario Biagioli's "Galileo Courtier." Also "Mad Blood Stirring" by Edward Muir, which tackles the question of why 16th century Italian street life was so incredibly violent. Edit: seems apropos to mention that a couple friends of mine…
on “Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival” ↗…Galileo was envied by his colleagues because despite being paid full time by University of Pisa he was exempted from teaching and could devote all of his time to research. (source should be Biagioli, Galileo Courtier, 159)
on “I’m leaving academia” ↗