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The Re-Trial of Galileo

The Retrial of Galileo

The Re-Trial of Galileo

Date: Monday 26th October 2009
Time: 6:30pm
Venue: The Clancy Auditorium, University of New South Wales, Kensington Campus, Sydney 2052

This event was filmed by the ABC Compass Program to be shown as an hour long special in early 2010.

Galileo before the Holy Office

Galileo before the Holy Office, a 19th century painting by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury

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Galileo Affair Poster Poster (PDF) (115 Kb)

The 2009 International Year of Astronomy

www.astronomy2009.org

International Year of Astronomy 2009

The year 2009 is the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning a telescope to the sky. This was the beginning of modern instrumental astronomy, and a milestone in the history of evidence-based science. To mark this historical turning point, 2009 has been endorsed as the International Year of Astronomy by both UNESCO and the UN General Assembly. IYA will be a year-long, community-based celebration of the science, history and cultural impact of astronomy for people throughout the world, and will draw attention to the night sky as the common cultural heritage of all humanity.

Globally, IYA is coordinated by the International Astronomical Union, which represents the world’s professional astronomers. A hundred and twenty-six countries have committed to participating in IYA. In Australia, the National Committee for Astronomy, a committee of the Academy of Science, is responsible for coordinating IYA activities.

Background

Image

Portrait of Galileo Galilei
by Giusto Sustermans

Galileo’s clash with the Catholic Church has been characterised as the ‘greatest scandal of Christendom’. Galileo was tried in 1633 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the Roman Inquisition – and condemned for “vehement suspicion of heresy”. However, the original ‘Galileo Affair’ of the 17th Century gave rise to an intense debate that continues today among scientists, historians, philosophers and theologians. Central to this ongoing debate has been the question of whether the original condemnation of Galileo was right or wrong on a variety of issues that have contemporary importance in theology, science, philosophy, law, morality, politics. Leading scholar on Galileo, Professor Maurice Finocchiaro has written: “This subsequent controversy is about interpreting and evaluating the original trial and so partly reflects the original issues. But it has also acquired a life of its own, with debates on whether, for example, science and religion are incompatible, whether political expediency must prevail over scientific truth, and whether scientific research must bow to social responsibility.”

For these reasons, the idea of a re-trial of Galileo is a valuable pedagogical device and has been successfully employed at the University of New South Wales as part of a course taught on the Galileo Affair. At the end of each semester, students and staff play various parts such as Galileo, the Pope Urban VIII and Cardinal Bellarmine. The re-trial involves improvisation in a role-play rather than scripted performances. The trial itself is conducted according to familiar, modern court-room procedures with judge, jury and counsels for defence and prosecution. Other anachronisms have been permitted such as calling witnesses who would not have been available in 1633 including Bellarmine himself (who died earlier) and modern philosophers or historians such as Paul Feyerabend or Thomas Kuhn.

As part of the commemorations for IYA-2009 in Australia, the School of History and Philosophy staged a version of such a re-trial essentially along the same lines as an event that was open to the public. For this purpose, we used participants other than university staff and students who are public figures having some special social, political or cultural role.

People who participated include the following:

  • Julian Burnside AO, QC as as Defence Counsel.
  • Dr. Maurice Finocchiaro, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA as Defence Junior Counsel.
  • The Hon. Bob Carr (former Premier of New South Wales) as Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo de Medici II.
  • Dr. Paul Collins as Cardinal Robert Bellarmine.
  • Monsignor Tony Doherty as Pope Urban VIII.
  • Anna Katzmann SC as Prosecution Counsel.
  • Dr. Peter Slezak as Prosecution Junior Counsel.
  • Dr. Charlie Lineweaver as Christopher Clavius.
  • Julie McCrossin as the Judge.
  • Dr. Paul Brown, assistant to the judge.
  • Alan Saunders, ABC Radio National, The Philosophers' Zone, Tommaso Caccini, Aristotelian Philosopher.
  • Prof. Fred Watson (Astronomer-in-Charge of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) at Siding Spring near Coonabarabran, NSW.) as Galileo.
  • Dr. Debra Aarons, juror.
  • Dr. Valerie Levy, juror.
  • Laura Constantine, juror.
  • Prof. Stephen Hetherington, juror.
  • Robyn Williams, ABC Radio National Science Show, juror.

The trial derives its academic, intellectual and cultural interest because both 'sides' in the trial have a strong case when considered appropriately in the historical context of their time. Our concern is to explore these issues in a way that is both intellectually interesting and also publicly entertaining in the best sense.

Although following modern court procedures, there are certain rules about the admissibility of evidence to guarantee the academic, intellectual interest of the proceedings and outcome. Of course, this means that the outcome was far from a foregone conclusion for Galileo since the later vindication of Copernican heliocentrism couldn't count in his favour at the trial itself.

By agreeing to visit and participate, the world's foremost scholar of Galileo, Professor Maurice Finocchiaro of the USA, raised the event to a very significant level of interest. He gave a public lecture on the occasion in addition to being involved with, and participating in, the re-trial.

Copyright:
Images used on this site are in the public domain and may be attributed as follows:

  1. NASA – banner drawn from Hubble website images(http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/solar_system)
    and are available under copyright as follows http://hubblesite.org/about_us/copyright.php
  2. Galileo before the Holy Office, a 19th century painting by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury (Public Domain – source: Wikimedia Commons)
  3. Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Giusto Sustermans (Public Domain – source: Wikimedia Commons)

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