450th Birth Anniversary of Galileo

 

Date of Issue : 5 April 2014

Italian Post issued a stamp on 5th April, commemorating Galileo Galilei on the 450^th anniversary of his birth.

Galileo Galilei, often known mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the “father of modern observational astronomy”, the “father of modern physics”, the “father of science”, and “the Father of Modern Science”.

His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons in his honour), and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, inventing an improved military compass and other instruments.

Galileo’s championing of heliocentrism was controversial within his lifetime, when most subscribed to either geocentrism or the Tychonic system. He met with opposition from astronomers, who doubted heliocentrism due to the absence of an observed stellar parallax. The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which concluded that heliocentrism was false and contrary to scripture, placing works advocating the Copernican system on the index of banned books and forbidding Galileo from advocating heliocentrism. Galileo later defended his views in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which appeared to attack Pope Urban VIII, thus alienating not only the Pope but also the Jesuits, who had both supported Galileo up until this point.

He was tried by the Holy Office, then found “vehemently suspect of heresy”, was forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. It was while Galileo was under house arrest that he wrote one of his finest works, Two New Sciences, in which he summarised the work he had done some forty years earlier, on the two sciences now called kinematics and strength of materials.

The stamp shows the statue of Galileo Galilei sculpted by Aristodemo Costoli, on display in the Courtyard of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Stamp on Michelangelo’s 450th Death Anniversary

Issue of a regular stamp on 23 March 2014, belonging to the "Il Patrimonio artistico e culturale italiano" (Italian Artistic and Cultural Heritage) series, dedicated to Michelangelo on the 450th anniversary of his death. The stamp shows  detail of the statue of “David”, sculpted by Michelangelo between 1501 and 1504 and held at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence.