Galileo was born in Pisa in 1954 to
Vincenzo Galilei, which was well known for his studies of music, and Gila Ammannati. He
studied at Pisa, where he later taught Mathematics from 1589-1592 He then was called to
teach at the University of Padua, where he remained until 1610. During these years he
carried out studies and experiments in mechanics, and also built a thermoscope. He
constructed a geometrical and military compass, and wrote a handbook which describes how
to use this instrument. In 1594 he obtained the patent for a machine that raises water
levels. He invented the microscope, and built a telescope, with which he made celestial
observations, the most spectacular of which was his discovery of the satellites of
Jupiter. In 1610 he was nominated as the foremost Mathematician of the University of Pisa
and given the title of mathematician to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He studied Saturn and
observed the phases of Venus. In 1611 he went to Rome. He joined the Accademia dei Lincei
and observed the sunspots. In 1612 he began to encounter serious opposition to his theory
of the motion of the earth that he taught after Copernicus. In 1614, Father Tommaso
Caccini denounced the opinions of Galileo on the motions of the Earth from the ministry of
Santa Maris Novella, judging them to be inaccurate. Galileo therefore went to Rome, where
he defended himself against charges that had been made against him but, in 1616, he was
warned by cardinal Bellarmino and told that he could not defend Copernican astronomy
because it went against the belief of the Church. In 1622 he wrote the Saggiatore (The
Assayer) which was approved and published in 1623. In 1630 he returned to Rome to obtain
the right to publish his Dialogue on the two chief world systems, which was eventually
published in Florence in 1632.
In October of 1632 the Holy Office called him to Rome. The tribunal
sentenced and demanded that he would retract his theory. In December 1633, he was allowed
to retire to his villa in Arcetri. His health condition was steadily declining, -by 1638
he was completely blind. Falileo died in Arcentri on 8 January 1642. Within the Museo,
Sala IV is entirely dedicated to Galileo and his studies; among other things are preserved
the lenses, the inclined plane, the lodestone, the model of the application of the
pendulum to the clock, several portraits and relic.