The events that led to the condemnation of Galileo in June 1633 have been the subject of lively and interesting debate, which has involved historians as well as writers on science and philosophy from the end of the 18th century until the present. This episode was certainly crucial for the identification of the basic principles of modern science and its relations with the world of faith, as well as the theological and religious thought that draws inspiration from it.
Study of the debate requries a wider examination of its cultural and religious aspects, and its real significance. This book examines the two proceedings against Galileo, in 1616 and 1633, to idenitfy the complex historical, political and cultural components - theological, exegetical and philosophical - which were to have a decisive role in the Galileo question.
The criterion followed in the historical reconstruction of the two trials has been that of putting the reader in contact with the documents, opinions and judgements of those who played a leading role in them, with the aim of giving a more complete historical picture of the Galileo questioin, in the hope that this will resolve the doubts about the opposition of science and faith on which the condemnation was based.
Mario d'Addio has taught History of Political Doctrine in the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Pisa, and at the Faculty of Political Science at La Sapienza University in Rome. He has a deep interest in the study of the political thought of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with special regard to the German humanist Gaspare Scioppio - a friend and correspondent of Galileo - and to the Storia delle guerre civili di Francia by Enrico Caterino Davila. He has also devoted research and study to Italian political thought from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. He was a member of the Pontifical Commission for the study of the Galileo question, and is a corresponding member of the Real Academia de la Historia.
