Western Civilization I / Unit 17 WC1 1625 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Galileo's Telescope: The Starry Messenger, 1610
Captions available
The idea
Galileo Galilei, fifteen sixty-four to sixteen forty-two, built a telescope from a description and saw the moon's mountains, the sun's spots and Jupiter's moons. The Starry Messenger of sixteen ten showed the heavens full of unknown objects, imperfect like the earth.
In practice
Publicly demonstrated; famous across Europe's elites.
Where people slip
Ancient knowledge itself now looked unreliable. That was the disruption.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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