Galileo Galilei

1564 – 1642 · died at about 78^[1][2]

Science & Invention

Fun Facts About Galileo Galilei

• When Galileo Galilei was reburied in 1737, three fingers and a tooth were removed from his remains. One of the fingers is on display at the Museo Galileo in Florence.^[1]
• Galileo saw Neptune in 1612 and even noted its motion, but he did not identify it as a planet.^[1]
• Galileo first mistook Saturn's rings for planets. When the rings later turned edge-on to Earth, he thought two of the bodies had disappeared.^[1]
• Galileo once gave two lectures on the shape, location and size of Dante's Inferno.^[1][3][4]
• After his trial, Galileo was ordered to read the Seven Penitential Psalms weekly, but his daughter Maria Celeste got church permission to take the burden on herself.^[1]
• Galileo enrolled at the University of Pisa to study medicine. After accidentally attending a geometry lecture, he talked his father into letting him study mathematics instead.^[1]
• Shakespeare and Galileo were born in the same year, 1564.^[1][2][5][6]
• Galileo Galilei was alive at the same time as Louis XIV — their lives overlapped for 4 years (1638–1642).^[1][2][7][8]

Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei, commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. He was born in the city of Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method, and modern science.^[1]

Contemporaries

Peter Paul Rubens

63 yr overlap

Francis Bacon

62 yr overlap

Johannes Kepler

59 yr overlap

Tokugawa Ieyasu

52 yr overlap

Miguel de Cervantes

52 yr overlap

William Shakespeare

52 yr overlap

René Descartes

46 yr overlap

Oliver Cromwell

43 yr overlap

Diego Velázquez

43 yr overlap

Akbar the Great

41 yr overlap

Elizabeth I

39 yr overlap

Caravaggio

39 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Galileo Galilei

When was Galileo Galilei born?

Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564, and died on January 8, 1642.

How old was Galileo Galilei at death?

Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564, and died on January 8, 1642, at age 77.

What was Galileo Galilei known for?

Galileo Galilei was known for: Father of modern observational astronomy. Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei, commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. He was born in the city of Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method, and modern science.

Who was alive at the same time as Galileo Galilei?

Galileo Galilei's closest contemporary was Peter Paul Rubens. Their lives overlapped for 63 years.