The Sleepwalkers (206 page)

"...
There
remain
in
opposition
to
my
work
some
stern
defenders
of
every
minute
argument
of
the
Peripatetics.
So
far
as
I
can
see,
their
education
consisted
in
being
nourished
from
infancy
on
the
opinion
that
philosophizing
is
and
can
be
nothing
but
to
make
a
comprehensive
survey
of
the
texts
of
Aristotle,
that
from
divers
passages
they
may
quickly
collect
and
throw
together
a
great
number
of
solutions
to
any
proposed
problem.
They
wish
never
to
raise
their
eyes
from
those
pages
–
as
if
this
great
book
of
the
universe
had
been
written
to
be
read
by
nobody
but
Aristotle,
and
his
eyes
had
been
destined
to
see
for
all
posterity."
³

After
his
return,
in
the
summer
of
1611,
from
his
Roman
triumph
to
Florence,
Galileo
became
immediately
involved
in
several
disputes.
He
had
published
a
treatise
on
"Things
that
Float
on
Water"
–
a
title
that
sounds
harmless
enough.
But
in
this
pioneer
work
on
modern
hydrostatics
Galileo
had
embraced
Archimedes'
view
that
bodies
float
or
sink
according
to
their
specific
gravity,
against
the
Aristotelian
view
that
this
depends
on
their
shape.
The
backwoodsmen
were
out
at
once
in
full
cry,
swinging
their
stone
axes.
They
were
the
more
irate
as
Galileo,
instead
of
letting
the
facts
speak
for
themselves,
had
employed
his
favourite
trick
of
anticipating
the
peripatetics'
arguments,
building
them
up
in
a
mock-serious
manner,
and
then
demolishing
them
with
glee.
Their
leader
was
a
certain
Lodovico
delle
Colombe,
meaning
dove;
hence
the
name
"pigeon-league"
by
which
Galileo
and
his
friends
called
their
opponents.
The
Aristotelians
published
four
books
in
six
months
to
refute
the
Discourse
on
Things
that
Float
on
Water
,
and
the
controversy
went
on
for
nearly
three
years.
It
ended
in
a
complete
rout
of
the
attackers,
both
spiritual
and
physical.
Professors
Palmerini
and
di
Grazzia
died
while
Galileo
was
preparing
his
riposte.
Giorgio
Coressio
lost
his
chair
at
Pisa
because
he
was
discovered
to
adhere
secretly
to
the
Greek
church,
and
went
insane;
the
monk
Francesco
Sizzi,
a
young
fanatic,
who
had
attacked
Galileo's
telescopic
discoveries
but
defended
his
Floating
Bodies
,
was
broken
on
the
wheel
in
Paris
for
writing
a
pamphlet
against
the
King
of
France.

Incidentally,
the
famous
experiment
of
dropping
cannon
balls
from
the
leaning
Tower
of
Pisa
was
carried
out
not
by
Galileo
but
by
his
opponent,
the
aforementioned
Coressio,
and
not
in
refutation,
but
in
confirmation
of
the
Aristotelian
view
that
larger
bodies
must
fall
quicker
than
smaller
ones.
⁴

2.
The Sunspots

The
next
year
(
1612)
brought
a
new
controversy
with
more
serious
consequences.
It
concerned
the
sunspots.

The
affair
starts
at
Ingoldstadt
in
Bavaria,
where
Father
Scheiner,
a
Jesuit
astronomer
of
great
repute,
and
his
young
assistant
Cysat,
profiting
from
a
thick
mist,
turned
their
telescope
directly
at
the
sun.
It
was
Cysat's
turn
first,
who
to
his
amazement
discovered
"several
black
drops"
on
the
face
of
the
sun.
He
exclaimed:
"Either
the
sun
sheddeth
tears
or
she
is
blemished
by
spots."
⁵
Then
he
yielded
the
instrument
to
his
teacher.

After
continued
observations,
Father
Scheiner
reported
on
his
sensational
discovery
in
several
letters
to
Marcus
Welser
in
Augsburg,
a
Maecenas
of
science,
who
also
patronized
Kepler.
Welser
had
the
letter
promptly
printed,
under
the
pseudonym
"Apelles",
as
Scheiner
had
requested.
Welser
then
sent
the
booklet
to
both
Kepler
and
Galileo,
for
their
opinions.

Kepler
answered
immediately.
He
recalled
having
himself
observed
a
sunspot
in
1607
"of
the
size
of
a
meagre
flea",
which
he
had
mistakenly
assumed
to
be
Mercury
passing
in
front
of
the
sun.
⁶
He
laughed
at
his
mistake,
then
quoted
reports
of
similar
observations
dating
back
to
the
days
of
Charlemagne;
then
gave
his
opinion
that
the
spots
were
a
kind
of
dross,
due
to
the
cooling
of
the
sun
in
patches.

Galileo
delayed
his
answer
for
more
than
three
months,
and
then
claimed
the
priority
of
the
discovery
for
himself.
He
alleged
having
observed
sunspots
for
about
eighteen
months,
and
having
shown
them
a
year
before
"to
many
prelates
and
gentlemen
in
Rome",
but
did
not
name
any
of
these
witnesses.