Sure we know that Galileo pioneered modern physics and astronomy, but what do we really know about the guy? Allow us to provide you with some insight. Let’s get started!
We don’t want you to get any crazy ideas, or do because you could be the next Galileo, but he dropped out of college. At the young age of just 16 years, he was sent to study at the University of Pisa. He initially majored in medicine, but during his time at the university, he became increasingly interested in math. Unfortunately due to financial reasons, Galileo was forced to drop out of college, tale as old as time, right? Even once he was no longer a student Galileo continued to study and research mathematics, eventually becoming a tutor. Now, he did return to the University of Pisa in 1589. As a professor. (Mic drop.) History tells us he was theatrical and at times controversial, but all the great ones are aren’t they?
Galileo never married, but he did have a family. While anything goes today, there was certainly a period where this was unheard of, and because Galileo roamed the Earth many, many years ago this may sound progressive, but during this time it actually wasn’t uncommon. Galileo and Marina Gamba had three children together, two daughters and one son. When his daughters were around 12 and 13, they were sent to a convent where they remained, and his one son was a musician who eventually followed in his father’s footsteps and studied medicine at the University of Pisa.
Galileo didn’t invent the telescope, but he did improve it. It was Galileo who improved the tool to magnify 20 to 30 times, and it was Galileo who first tilted a telescope to the sky. There must be some life lesson here about less being more or something like that, right?
You can find Galileo’s middle finger on display in a museum. Yes, you read that right. Galileo was originally buried in a side chapel at the church of Santa Croce in Florence, but roughly a century later his remains were transferred to a burial place of honor. Three of his fingers, a vertebra, and exactly one tooth were removed and kept by one of his admirers who handed down those, uhm, possessions for generations. These things were thought to be lost in the early 1900s then the fingers and tooth appeared at an auction and were purchased by a historical collector. It was eventually concluded these body parts belonged to Galileo, and the middle finger from his right hand has been housed at several museums in Italy since the beginning of the 1800s, and the vertebra ended of at the University of Padua. The more you know, we guess.