The Sleepwalkers (180 page)

In
the
next
paragraph,
Horky
and
the
vulgar
crowd
came
in
for
some
more
abuse;
"but
Jupiter
defies
both
giants
and
pygmies;
Jupiter
stands
in
the
sky,
and
the
sycophants
may
bark
as
they
wish".
Then
he
turned
to
Kepler's
request
for
witnesses,
but
still
could
not
name
a
single
astronomer;
"In
Pisa,
Florence,
Bologna,
Venice
and
Padua,
a
good
many
have
seen
[the
Medicean
stars]
but
they
are
all
silent
and
hesitate."
Instead,
he
named
his
new
patron,
the
Grand
Duke,
and
another
member
of
the
Medici
family
(who
could
hardly
be
expected
to
deny
the
existence
of
stars
named
after
them).
He
continued:

"As
a
further
witness
I
offer
myself,
who
have
been
singled
out
by
our
University
for
a
lifelong
salary
of
a
thousand
florins,
such
as
no
mathematician
has
ever
enjoyed,
and
which
I
would
continue
to
receive
forever
even
if
the
Jupiter
moons
were
to
deceive
us
and
vanish."

After
complaining
bitterly
about
his
colleagues
"most
of
whom
are
incapable
of
identifying
either
Jupiter
or
Mars,
and
hardly
even
the
moon",
Galileo
concluded:

"What
is
to
be
done?
Let
us
laugh
at
the
stupidity
of
the
crowd,
my
Kepler...
I
wish
I
had
more
time
to
laugh
with
you.
How
you
would
shout
with
laughter,
my
dearest
Kepler,
if
you
were
to
hear
what
the
chief
philosophers
of
Pisa
said
against
me
to
the
Grand
Duke...
But
the
night
has
come
and
I
can
no
longer
converse
with
you..."

This
is
the
second,
and
last,
letter
which
Galileo
ever
wrote
to
Kepler.
²⁹
The
first,
it
will
be
remembered,
was
written
thirteen
years
earlier,
and
its
theme-song
had
been
the
perversity
of
philosophers
and
the
stupidity
of
the
crowd,
concluding
with
the
wistful
remark
"if
only
more
people
like
Kepler
existed".
Now,
writing
for
the
first
time
after
these
thirteen
years,
he
again
singled
out
Kepler
as
a
unique
ally
to
laugh
with
him
at
the
foolishness
of
the
world.
But
concerning
the
quandary
into
which
his
loyal
ally
had
got
himself,
the
letter
was
as
unhelpful
as
could
be.
It
contained
not
a
word
on
the
progress
of
Galileo's
observations,
about
which
Kepler
was
burning
to
hear;
and
it
made
no
mention
of
an
important
new
discovery
which
Galileo
had
made,
and
which
he
had
communicated,
about
a
fortnight
earlier,
to
the
Tuscan
Ambassador
in
Prague.
³⁰
The
communication
ran
as
follows:

"SMAISMRMILMEPOETALEUMIBUNENUGTTAURIAS."

This
meaningless
sequence
of
letters
was
an
anagram
made
up
from
the
words
describing
the
new
discovery.
The
purpose
behind
it
was
to
safeguard
the
priority
of
the
find
without
disclosing
its
content,
lest
somebody
else
might
claim
it
as
his
own.
Ever
since
the
affair
of
the
proportional
compass.
Galileo
had
been
very
anxious
to
ascertain
the
priority
of
his
observations
–
even,
as
we
shall
hear,
in
cases
where
the
priority
was
not
his.
But
whatever
his
motives
in
general,
they
can
hardly
excuse
the
fact
that
he
asked
the
Tuscan
Ambassador
to
dangle
the
puzzle
before
the
tantalized
eyes
of
Kepler,
whom
he
could
not
suspect
of
intending
to
steal
his
discovery.

Poor
Kepler
tried
to
solve
the
anagram,
and
patiently
transformed
it
into
what
he
himself
called
a
"barbaric
Latin
verse":
"
Salve
umbistineum
geminatum
Martia
proles
"
–
"Hail,
burning
twin,
offspring
of
Mars."
³¹
He
accordingly
believed
that
Galileo
had
discovered
moons
around
Mars,
too.
Only
three
months
later,
on
13
November,
did
Galileo
condescend
to
disclose
the
solution
–
not,
of
course,
to
Kepler,
but
to
Rudolph,
because
Julian
de
Medici
informed
him
that
the
Emperor's
curiosity
was
aroused.

The
solution
was:
"
Altissimum
planetam
tergeminum
observavi
"
–
"I
have
observed
the
highest
planet
[Saturn]
in
triplet
form".
Galileo's
telescope
was
not
powerful
enough
to
disclose
Saturn's
rings
(they
were
only
seen
half
a
century
later
by
Heuygens);
he
believed
Saturn
to
have
two
small
moons
on
opposite
sides,
and
very
close
to
the
planet.