Scientist, Author, Astronomer.
Born February 15, 1564 in Pisa, the first child of Vincenzio
Galilei, a merchant and musician and an abrasive champion of
advanced musical theories of the day. The family moved to
Florence in 1574, and that year Galileo started his formal
education in the nearby monastery of Vallombrosa. Seven years
later he matriculated as a student of medicine at the University
of Pisa.
In 1583, while Galileo was at home on vacation, he began to
study mathematics and the physical sciences. His zeal astonished
Ostilio Ricci, a family friend and professor at the Academy of
Design. Ricci was a student of Nicolo Tartaglia, the famed
algebraist and translator into Latin of several of Archimedes'
works. Galileo's life-long admiration for Archimedes started,
therefore, as his scientific studies got under way. His new
interest brought to an end his medical studies, but in Pisa at
that time there was only one notable science teacher, Francisco
Buonamico, and he was an Aristotelian. Galileo seems, however,
to have been an eager disciple of his, as shown by Galileo's
Juvenilia, dating from 1584, mostly paraphrases of Aristotelian
physics and cosmology. Because of financial difficulties Galileo
had to leave the University of Pisa in 1585 before earning his
degree.
Back in Florence, Galileo spent 3 years vainly searching for a
suitable teaching position. He was more successful in furthering
his grasp of mathematics and physics. He produced two treatises
which, although circulated in manuscript form only, made his
name well known. One was La bilancetta (The Little Balance),
describing the hydrostatic principles of balancing; the other
was a study on the center of gravity of various solids. These
topics, obviously demanding a geometrical approach, were not the
only evidence of his devotion to geometry and Archimedes. In a
lecture given in 1588 before the Florentine Academy on the
topography of Dante's Inferno, Galileo seized on details that
readily lent themselves to a display of his prowess in geometry.
He showed himself a perfect master both of the poet's text and
of the incisiveness and sweep of geometrical lore.
