| Dialogue |
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Abbreviated form of the title, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, the Ptolemaic and the Copernican, a book by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) published in 1632. Aware of potential opposition from the Church authorities,
Galileo had delayed writing such a book at all. Encouraged by a change in the papacy in 1624, Galileo eventually started his work but cast it in the form of a conversation between three men in order to appear as if he were not supporting one argument against another.
However, he presented the arguments in favour of a Copernican, Sun-centred solar system so persuasively that the few disclaimers were ineffectual, and Galileo, then aged 68 and infirm, was tried before the Inquisition in Rome. He was forced to abjure
his "heresies" and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. See also: Copernican system, Ptolemaic system. |