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Weighing Up Galileo's Evidence

up Galileo’s Evidence What does it take to establish a new scientific truth? In the case of Galileo and heliocentrism, the death of its sceptics. It is one of the most famous quotations that was never said: Eppur si muove (And yet it moves).

While he emphasised the significance of tiny details to convince his readers that the latest scientific data conformed with biblical narratives, Galileo also relied on persuasion rather than demonstration: instead of supplying incontrovertible proof, he argued rhetorically, mocking his opponents and flattering the patrons who supported his projects. Copernicus, a Catholic canon living in the central European city of Toruń, put the sun at the centre of the universe – but, as his revolutionary On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres was published on the day that he died, he was spared the ensuing furore. In his ingenious trompe l’œil picture, Tycho points across the backdrop of a detailed mural depicting his observatory as a three-tiered heaven, earth and hell – the rooftop for astronomy, the library for study and the basement for experiments (allegedly where he developed a suitable alloy for a prosthetic nose after he lost his own in a duel).

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