Tag Archives: Galileo

A measure of the universe; Renaissance slide-rules and Heavenly spheres

Facebooktwitterlinkedininstagram

Measurement is a cornerstone of science, in fact of pretty well everything we do: How far? How fast? How long?  We take most measurement for granted, with little thought to how the process originated.  We demand accuracy and precision, forgetting that these are relatively modern luxuries.  Before the universal clock chimed GMT in 1884, there were more than 200 time zones in the US.  A league in France was shorter than a league in Spain, a discrepancy for which the 16th C French scribe François Rabelais had an imaginative, if rollicking explanation.  In his tale, The Life of Gargantua and Pantegruel (1532-1564), a king required a standard distance to be determined (after all, if he was going to send his armies to battle it would be best if his advisors new how far they had to go).  He sent a trusted Knight, instructing him to ride to Spain, stopping every league to “roger and swive”; hence the discrepancy.  The leagues gradually became longer. The amusing satire of this explanation had its roots in real Medieval measures; the width of a hand, the distance one could walk in an hour. Continue reading

Facebooktwitterlinkedininstagram
Facebooktwitterlinkedin

Galileo’s finger

Facebooktwitterlinkedininstagram

“Their final resting place…” a sepulchral phrase, redolent of a fate that awaits us all.  There is no doubt as to its finality, but resting…?  A nice metaphor that may convey a sense of comfort to the living, rather than the deceased.  Wander through any church or cathedral in Europe and Britain, and you will inevitably walk over cold marble slabs, engraved with the details of those who lie beneath, polished by the feet of a myriad worshipers and tourists.  The Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence is, in many respects, like any other magnificent church; it is old, construction beginning in 1295, with alterations and additions during the 14th -15th century overlapping the earlier Gothic forms.  The Basilica is stunning, but differs from many of its contemporaries in that it became THE place in Italy to be buried. Continue reading

Facebooktwitterlinkedininstagram
Facebooktwitterlinkedin