John Smith Gallery

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Il saggiatore: nel quale con bilancia esquisita e giusta si ponderano le cose contenute nella Libra Astronomica e Filosofica di Lotario Sarsi Sigensano. Rome, 1623. [D.20.15]

In Il Saggiatore (The Assayer) Galileo sought to debunk a theory concerning the comets that had been propounded a few years earlier by the Jesuit mathematician Orazio Grassi. In this matter Galileo was wrong: he had incorrectly perceived the comet as a play of light rather than as a real object. Nevertheless, it was in Il Saggiatore that Galileo famously articulated one of the defining tenets of the new approach to science. This proffered ‘the language of mathematics’ as the true means through which to comprehend philosophy and the universe. In Galileo’s view, those neglectful of mathematics would ‘wander endlessly in a dark labyrinth’.