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GALILEO GALILEI, 1564–1642

Abstract

IF there is something noteworthy in every tercentenary, in the conjunction of two such events in a single year there is something far more remarkable. The deatl: of Galileo and the birth of Newton are important enough when considered separately. A great man has played his part and leaves the stage; or another enters on a career no less brilliant. Both episodes are impressive; that one followed the other within a space of twelve months adds to the significance of both. The two lives cover the whole of the seventeenth century and by themselves make it illustrious. The period between the birth of Galileo and the death of Newton was longer-no less than 163 years-running from the year which also saw the birth of Shakespeare in the reign of the Tudor Queen Elizabeth to the death of the first Hanoverian king. If that were all, it would be nothing extraordinary; old Parr himself, who is reputed to have joined the reigns of Richard III and Charles I, covered nearly as long a span in a single life. But the age of Galileo and Newton was marked by an altogether unusual development of the human mind, and though this growth was far from being the work of two men, none contributed more powerfully to decide the extent and direction of its course than these two.

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PLUMMER, H. GALILEO GALILEI, 1564–1642. Nature 149, 206–208 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149206a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149206a0

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