The Sleepwalkers (284 page)
Authors: Arthur Koestler
30.10.1607,
G.
W.
,
Vol.
XVI,
p.
71.
The
writer
is
the
Danzig
astronomer
P.
Crueger,
quoted
in
W.
v.
Dyck
and
M.
Caspar
Nova
Kepleriana
4
,
Abhandlungen
der
Bayrischen
Ak.
d.
Wiss.
XXXI,
p.
105
seq
.
Loc.
cit.
Astronomiae
Pars Optica, Dedication to Rudolph II, G. W., Vol. II.
"Letter
to
Besold,
18.6.1607",
G.
W.
,
Vol.
XV,
p.
492.
"Letter
to Herwart, 10.12.1604", G. W., Vol. XV, p. 68 f.
"Letter
to
Herwart,
24.11.1607",
G.
W.
,
Vol.
XVI,
p.
78
seq
.
"Letter
to
D.
Fabricius,
11.10.1605",
G.
W.
,
Vol.
XV,
p.
240
seq
.
Dissertatio
cum Nuncio Sidero, G. W., Vol. IV, p. 281seq.
There
has
been
some
controversy
on
the
question
whether
the
title
meant
"messenger"
or
"message"
–
cf.
Stillman
Drake
,
Discoveries
and
Opinions
of
Galileo
,
New
York,
1957,
p.
19.
Stillman
Drake
translates
the
title
as
The
Starry
Messenger
;
de
Santillana
(see
below),
as
Sidereal
Message
(Dialogue)
or
Starry
Message
(The
Crime
of
Galileo)
.
I
propose
to
use
Messenger
from
the
Stars
,
or
Star
Messenger
for
short.
Part
IV Chapter VIII. KEPLER AND GALILEO
F.
Sherwood
Taylor,
Galileo
and
the
Freedom
of
Thought
(
London,
1938),
p.
1.
This
is
strictly
true
for
small
angles
only,
but
sufficient
for
practical
purposes
of
time-measurement.
The
correct
law
of
the
pendulum
was
discovered
by
Huygens.
The
candelabra
still
shown
at
the
Cathedral
of
Pisa,
whose
oscillations
are
alleged
to
have
given
Galileo
his
idea,
was
only
installed
several
years
after
the
discovery.
His
manuscript
treatise
De
Motu,
written
about
1590,
and
privately
circulated,
certainly
deviates
from
Aristotelian
physics,
but
by
subscribing
to
the
entirely
respectable
theory
of
impetus
which
had
been
taught
by
the
Paris
school
in
the
fifteenth
century
and
by
several
of
Galileo's
predecessors
and
contemporaries.
Cf.
A.
Koyré,
Etudes
Galileennes
(
Paris,
1939).
About
his technical treatise on the proportional compass, see below.
"Letter
to
Maestlin,
September
1597",
G.
W.
,
Vol.
XIII,
p.
140
seq
.
G.
W.
,
Vol.
XIII,
p.
130
f.
Trattato
della
Sfera,
Opere,
Ristampa
della
Ediz.
Nazionale
(
Florence,
1929-39),
Vol.
II,
pp.
203-255.
Henceforth
"Opere"
refers
to
this
edition,
except
when
marked
"Ed.
F.
Flora",
which
refers
to
the
handier
selection
of
works
and
letters
in
one
volume,
published
in
1953.
Quoted
by Sherwood Taylor, op. cit., p. 85.
G.
W.,
Vol.
XIII,
p.
144
seq
.
G.
W.
,
Vol.
XIV,
p.
256.
It
is
surprising
to
read
that
Prof.
Charles
Singer
attributes
the
discovery
that
the
nova
of
1604
had
no
parallax
to
Galileo,
and
moreover,
passing
in
silence
over
Tycho's
classic
book
on
the
nova
of
1572,
writes:
"New
stars
when
previously
noticed
had
been
considered
to
belong
to
the
lower
and
less
perfect
regions
near
the
earth.
Galileo
had
thus
attracked
the
incorruptible
and
interchangeable
heavens
and
had
delivered
a
blow
to
the
Aristotelian
scheme,
wellnigh
as
serious
as
the
experiment
on
the
tower
of
Pisa
(sic)."
(Ch.
Singer,
A
Short
History
of
Science
to
the
Nineteenth
Century
,
Oxford,
1941,
p.
206.)
Since
that
experiment
is
also
legendary,
Prof.
Singer's
comparison
contains
an
ironic
truth;
but
this
triple
misstatement
is
characteristic
of
the
power
of
the
Galileo
myth
over
some
eminent
historians
of
science.
Prof.
Singer
also
seems
to
believe
that
Galileo
invented
the
telescope
(op.
cit.,
217),
that
in
Tycho's
system
"the
sun
revolves
round
the
earth
in
twenty-four
hours
carrying
all
the
planets
with
it"
(
ibid.,
p.
183
),
that
Kepler's
Third
Law
was
"enunciated
in
the
Epitome
Astronomiae
(
ibid.,
p.
205
),
etc.
