The Sidereal Messenger, by Galileo, Reading 1
Boring Books for Bedtime Readings to Help You Sleep
Sharon Handy
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2019
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Space out with a classic of astronomy, Galileo's "The Sidereal Messenger," in which he shares mankind's first observations of the Moon's surface, and heaps a mind-numbing amount of praise on his patron.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good evening and welcome to boring books for bedtime. I hope tonight's |
| 0:07.8 | installment provides all the boredom your busy brain needs to quiet down and let you get some sleep for once. So lie back, |
| 0:18.0 | adjust your volume. Take a nice deep breath and off we go. |
| 0:25.0 | This evening we're relaxing with a true classic of science, |
| 0:30.0 | the Sidereal messenger of Galileo Galileo, Galileo, and a part of the preface to Kepler's dioptrix, |
| 0:39.5 | containing the original account of Galileo's astronomical discoveries. |
| 0:44.3 | A translation with introduction and notes by Edward Stafford Carlos |
| 0:51.3 | M.A. Head Mathematical Master in Crum. Crawford Carlos, MA, head mathematical master in Christ's Hospital, |
| 0:57.2 | Rivington's Waterloo Place London, 1880. Let's begin. Preferatory note. About five years ago I was engaged in |
| 1:11.0 | preparing a catalog of the ancient books which belong to Christ's hospital. |
| 1:16.3 | One portion of these books consisted of a collection of ancient mathematical works presented at various times for the use of that part of the school, which is known as the Royal Mathematical Foundation of King Charles II. |
| 1:32.0 | Amongst them were some well known by name to every mathematical student, but which |
| 1:37.6 | few have ever seen. Perhaps the most interesting of them all was a little volume, printed in London in 1653, |
| 1:47.0 | containing Gascendy's explanation of the Ptoleic and Copernican systems of astronomy, as well as that of Tycho Brahe, Galileo's Sidirius Nutsius and Kepler's Diopteryx. |
| 2:02.0 | I found Galileo's account of his astronomical discoveries so interesting both in |
| 2:07.7 | matter and in style that I translated it as a recreation from school work. I venture to think that others also will be |
| 2:16.7 | interested in following Galileo through the apprehension of his famous discoveries and in |
| 2:22.4 | reading the language in which he announced them. |
| 2:27.0 | Introduction |
| 2:29.5 | In 1609 Galileo, then professor of mathematics at Padua, in the service of the Venetian Republic, heard |
| 2:38.9 | from a correspondent at Paris of the invention of a telescope, and set to work to consider how such an instrument could be made. |
| 2:48.3 | The result was his invention of the telescope known by his name and identical in principle with the modern opera glass. |
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