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Dear Eduardo,
Here is more information on Galileo. Anyone who prefers to avoid a
long historical note with references can stop here and skip the rest.
(1) Sources on Galileo:
Some time back, I lectured on Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton
for courses on the history and philosophy of science. Some of it
stuck. In the early 1990s, I gave most of my books on Galileo to the
University of Iowa. Rather than using sources for everything in my
note, I relied in great part on memory. You can probably get the
inventory of my books on Galileo from Alternative Traditions in
Contemporary Art at the University of Iowa Library Department of
Special Collections.
To refresh my memory, I reviewed several sources. These include
Richard Westfall's (1997 [1985]) essay on Galileo's relation to his
patrons and Albert van Helden's (1997 [1974]) article on the
telescope. On other points, I consulted Daniel Boorstin's (1985) The
Discoverers, Margaret Wertheim's (1997) Pythagoras's Trousers, and
history of science by Thomas Crump (2001) that uses the development
of instruments as its organizing theme.
Your question stated that Galileo applied for membership and that he
was accepted. You stated that this was a fact, and you asked why it
happened. I answered based on what I know about Galileo's life and
history and what I recall from books and articles read long ago. From
that definite nature of your statement, I understood that you had
sources for the fact of Galileo's membership. I tried to answer the
question "why."
If you want to study Galileo's life in detail, the place to start is
in the work of the late Stillman Drake, probably the leading Galileo
scholar of the twentieth century. Drake, a professor at the
University of Toronto, published a massive scientific biography on
Galileo with University of Chicago Press. This biography has never
been surpassed. He wrote several more excellent books and many
studies on different aspects of Galileo's life and work.
My sources on the evolution of the academies, guilds, and
universities are accessible in two published articles Friedman 2003a,
2003b) and one manuscript (Friedman 2005). You'll find my sources in
the reference lists.
(2) Galileo's Studies and Professional Activities:
My comments on Galileo's academy membership are based on his
participation in the Accademia dei Lincei and in several scholarly
and scientific networks.
Galileo's career and history suggest similar purposes in any academy
membership. 16th century patronage was never secure. The beneficiary
of patronage - the "client" - always depended on the goodwill of the
patron. These were nobles, prelates, and occasionally wealthy
merchants. The death of the patron or a change in the patron's tastes
or fortune could swiftly end a client's position. Galileo always
worried about money. He kept his eye out for opportunities, income,
advancement, and honors.
Galileo did not hold a doctorate. He wanted to earn a degree, but he
was poor. He started his studies at the university, but he left after
four years without earning a degree. He applied for a scholarship to
remain at university where he hoped to complete his degree, but he
was unsuccessful in his application. As a result, he left without a
degree of any kind. He would have earned a doctorate had it been
possible.
Nevertheless, Galileo was appointed professor of mathematics at the
University of Pisa in 1589 at the unusual age of 25. (Some historians
describe this as a lectureship, rather than a professorship.) Pisa
was in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, ruled by the Medici of Florence.
The position had a low salary and Galileo left Pisa in 1592 to take a
chair at Padua.
In 1592, he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University
of Padua. At that time, Padua was part of Venice. Galileo was several
times reappointed as a professor on ordinary contract terms. After
Galileo presented a telescope to the Doge and College of Venice - the
college was a council of ministers - the College ordered the
University of Padua to grant Galileo a lifetime appointment. That
same year, however, Galileo left Padua.
In 1610, Galileo's telescope - then the best in Europe - enabled him
to discover four moons circling Jupiter. Soon after this discovery,
he published The Starry Messenger. In this book, he announced his
discoveries and named the four moons of Jupiter the Medicean Stars.
Grand Duke Cosimo II called Galileo to Tuscany with a dual
appointment. He once again became professor of mathematics at the
University of Pisa, but this time the chair had no obligation to
teach or reside in Pisa. He was also appointed mathematician and
philosopher to the grand duke, whose court was located in Florence.
From 1589 to 1610, Galileo earned his living as an ordinary
university professor, teaching mathematics and what we would now call
natural science. He also tutored students, rented rooms in his house,
and made instruments.
Galileo descended from a patrician family of minor Florentine
nobility, Galileo saw himself as a scholar, philosopher (scientist),
rather than as an artist or artisan. While Galileo had artisan
skills, he employed them as a gentleman scientist and professor,
teaching scientists and philosophers, rather than working as a studio
master while training apprentices.
Even though Galileo never completed his university degrees, his
position and profession identified him with the philosophy doctors
rather than with the designers.
Galileo's membership in the scientific Accademia dei Lincei provides
clear evidence of this. The academy published two of Galileo's most
famous publications, Letters on Sunspots in 1613, and Assayer in
1623. Galileo intended that the academy publisher his Concerning the
Two Chief World Systems, but the academy founder and patron died in
1630 and the academy went defunct until its subsequent revival.
Galileo joined the scientific Accademia dei Lincei three years before
applying to the Accademia del Disegno. His work with the Accademia
dei Lincei and his decision to publish his books through the academy
suggests that Galileo's primarily saw himself as a gentleman and
scholar rather as a designer or even as an engineer.
(3) Galileo's Intellectual and Professional Context:
This information comes to us from an era that thought about these
matters in different ways than we do today. Our knowledge of Galileo,
for example, involves translating words and concepts from the Italian
and Latin that people used in the late 16th century and early 17th
century.
Science was different then, as Klaus pointed out, and scientific
institutions - including universities - worked in different ways.
Even the word "academy" had different meaning. The academies of that
era were not primarily teaching institutions but associations of
gentlemen and professionals in the sciences and the arts. The
academies of what we now call the natural sciences came first, and
the academies of the arts came soon after.
As you note, the word "science" simply meant an organized body of
knowledge. The crucial issue here is Galileo's engagement in a
specific kind of knowledge. As a mathematician and philosopher, his
focus was natural philosophy. His work covered topics in what we now
identify as natural science - astronomy, physics, optics, mathematics
- and engineering including mechanics and applied physics.
In his own terms, Galileo saw himself as what we would now call a
scientist, not as what we would now call a designer. He focused on
discovering and describing the world of nature and the world of facts
that human beings could change through engineering. Only to a lesser
degree did Galileo focus on artifice and manufacture, especially of
research instruments. Some physicists earn renown by building
research tools. In Galileo's time, some scientists built what were
called - in English - "philosophical apparatus." To some degree, this
is what Galileo did. Some of his tools, such as the telescope and the
compass, had commercial or military applications as well, and Galileo
did more than one thing as many scholars and scientists do today.
(4) Academies and Universities:
When we use the word "academy" to describe the institutions and
activities of different eras, we use one word to describe very
different kinds of institution.
"The academy" is a metaphor for the university today, and "an
academic" today is a university scholar. "An academy" or "the academy
of [x]" is a specific kind of institution and "an academician" is a
member of an academy. Not all academics are academicians and not all
academicians are academics.
We speak of the university in metaphoric terms as "the academy" in
reference to Plato's Academy, an institution for philosophy and
mathematics organized in 387 BC on the site of a 6th century
gymnasium. In classical Greece and Rome, specialized professionals
and tradesmen practiced the artisan skills of architecture,
engineering, sculpture, and manufacture. The philosophers who studied
at the academy until its disestablishment in 526 AD did not practice
these skills.
In medieval times, the guilds practiced and taught the artisan skills
under the direction of guild masters.
The 16th century foundation of the scientific academies and other
kinds of academies for gentleman interested in the different arts
also gave rise to special institutions for art, design, and
architecture. The term art academy or design academy derives from
this later usage. Even though today's academies trace this usage back
to the academies of the 16th century, most are quite different,
organized as teaching institutions with salaried teachers rather than
voluntary associations of unpaid members.
Galileo was both an academic and an academician. In his own view, he
was first a philosopher and mathematician and only second an
engineer, instrument maker, or designer.
Interpreting Galileo's membership in the Accademia del Disegno as an
indication that he saw himself as a designer rather than a
philosopher would be inaccurate to Galileo's own view. He was a
philosopher and university professor first, though often interested
in engineering problems, along with physics and mechanics. He was a
working engineer, designer, and instrument maker only incidentally,
usually to create the instruments for his scientific research or to
acquire money and patronage. He was a member of the scientific
Accademia dei Lincei before joining the Accademia del Disegno.
Many people today are both philosophers and designers, working as
research scholars while practicing the professional art of design.
Things have changed since the 1600s, sometimes for the better.
Yours,
Ken
References
Boorstin, Daniel J. 1985. The Discoverers. New York: Random House.
Crump, Thomas. 2001. A Brief History of Science as Seen through the
Development of Scientific Instruments. London: Robinson.
Friedman, Ken. 2003a. "Design Curriculum Challenges for Today's
University." [Keynote conference lecture.] Enhancing the Curricula:
Exploring Effective Curricula Practices in Art, Design and
Communication in Higher Education. Center for Learning and Teaching
in Art and Design. First International Conference at the Royal
Institute of British Architects (RIBA) London, UK, 10th - 12th April
2002. Co-sponsored by ELIA (European League of Institutes of Arts)
and ADC-LTSN (The Art, Design and Communication - Learning and
Teaching Support Network). London: CLTAD, The London Institute, 29-63.
Friedman, Ken. 2003b. "Design Education in the University: a
Philosophical and Socio-Economic Inquiry." Design Philosophy Papers.
No. 5, 2003. URL: http://www.desphilosophy.com
Friedman, Ken. 2005. The Conflict of the Faculties. Management
Education and the University. PDF Preprint.
Van Helden, Albert, 1997 [1974] "The Telescope in the Seventeenth
Century." The Scientific Enterprise in Early Modern Europe. Peter
Dear, editor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 133-153.
Wertheim, Margaret. 1997. Pythagoras' Trousers. God, Physics, and the
Gender Wars. London: Fourth Estate.
Westfall, Richard S. 1997 [1985] "Science and Patronage: Galileo and
the Telescope." The Scientific Enterprise in Early Modern Europe.
Peter Dear, editor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 113-132.
--
Eduardo Corte-Real wrote:
-snip-
1. I really don't know if Galileo has been an academic of Disegno.
Maybe he was apointed and never knew about it... But you seem to have
found the information.
2. Galileo was already a Linceo and a Court Prime Philosopher and
Matematician when he suposingly entered so he didn't needed that
extra honour.
3. Was he a Doctor?
4. Was he, by entering, an exception?
-snip-
--
Prof. Ken Friedman
Institute for Communication, Culture, and Language
Norwegian School of Management
Oslo
Center for Design Research
Denmark's Design School
Copenhagen
+47 46.41.06.76 Tlf NSM
+47 33.40.10.95 Tlf Privat
email: [log in to unmask]
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