Death and Legacy: Galileo died on January 8th, 1642, at the age of 77, due to fever and heart palpitations that had taken a toll on his health. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando II, wished to bury him in the main body of the Basilica of Santa Croce, next to the tombs of his...
According toVincenzo Vivian, one of Galileo’s contemporaries, it was in 1641 while under house arrest that Galileo created a design for a pendulum clock. Unfortunately, being blind at the time, he was unable to complete it before his death in 1642. As a result, Christiaan Huygens’ publicat...
Later Life, Legacy, and DeathWhile under house arrest, copies of Galileo’s Dialogue were published in Holland. In addition, his work regarding the effects of forces on the matter was translated and published in French. In 1638, he wrote Two New Sciences, which was published in Holland. On...
the pendulum led to his first major discovery, that the period of a pendulum does not depend upon the arc of the swing, and this discovery fuelled further study, including the development of a pendulum clock, although it is likely that his son did not build this until after his death. ...
“When beggars die there are no comets seen. / The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes” (Julius Caesar, 2.2.30). With the work of Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, western thought moved away from the idea that human life mirrored c...