Галилеоның Үлкен Гертруда Кристинаға хаты

Essay by Galileo
The "Letter to The Grand Duchess Christina" is an essay written in 1615 by Galileo Galilei. The intention of this letter was to accommodate Copernicanism with the doctrines of the Catholic Church. Galileo tried to use the ideas of Church Fathers and Doctors to show that any condemnation of Copernicanism would be inappropriate.

Christina was the daughter of Charles III of Lorraine and granddaughter of Catherine de' Medici. In 1611 Galileo was informed by a friend, Cigoli, that "ill disposed men envious of your virtue and merits met [to discuss] any means by which they could damage you." The number of scholars who disagreed with his Discourse on Floating Bodies, or were simply ill disposed toward Galileo grew, but other than one letter from Niccolò Lorini there was not much discussion about the issue for the remainder of the year. Late in 1613, Galileo's former student Benedetto Castelli, a Benedictine monk and lecturer in mathematics at the University of Pisa, wrote to Galileo about the events at a recent breakfast in Pisa with the Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici. In the course of conversation at the breakfast Cosimo Boscaglia, a professor of philosophy, argued that the motion of the Earth could not be true, being contrary to the Bible. After breakfast ended, Castelli was called back to answer scriptural arguments against the motion of the Earth from Christina. Castelli took on the role of theologian in response, and convinced everyone there except the Duchess (whom he thought was arguing mainly to hear his answers) and Boscaglia (who said nothing during this dialogue). Galileo decided to address Christina because of her desire to learn more about astronomy. Christina's position of power would also give the letter more exposure to other nobles and Church leaders. Galileo replied to Castelli with a long letter laying out his position on the relation between science and Scripture. By 1615, with the controversy over the Earth's motion becoming more widespread and increasingly dangerous, Galileo revised this letter and greatly expanded it; this became the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina. The letter circulated in manuscript but was not printed until much later, after the Inquisition had condemned Galileo. It appeared in Strasbourg in 1636 with both Italian and Latin text. It was suppressed in Catholic jurisdictions, as were all works of Galileo at that period which dealt with that subject.

Galileo establishes two main premises before addressing his conclusion. God has created Scripture and nature. They cannot contradict each other. Nature is independent of accommodation, but Scripture is produced to accommodate. Galileo argued that the Copernican theory was not just a mathematical calculating tool, but a physical reality. The letter includes a direct paragraph in which Galileo wrote:
I hold the sun to be situated motionless in the center of the revolution of the celestial orbs while the earth rotates on its axis and revolves about the sun. They know also that I support this position not only by refuting the arguments of Ptolemy and Aristotle especially some pertaining to physical effects whose causes perhaps cannot be determined in any other way, and other astronomical discoveries; these discoveries clearly confute the Ptolemaic system, and they agree admirably with this other position and confirm it. This approach caused some, including Dominican friar Niccolò Lorini, to complain to the Inquisition, which in 1616 condemned Copernicanism as philosophically absurd and contrary to scripture. Much later the Inquisition tried Galileo himself and in 1633 condemned him of suspicion of heresy. Throughout the letter, Galileo includes quotes from St. Augustine. For example, he cites, "If anyone shall set the authority of Holy Writ against clear and manifest reason, he who does this knows not what he has undertaken; for he opposes to the truth not the meaning of the Bible, which is beyond his comprehension, but rather his own interpretation, not what is in the Bible, but what he has found in himself and imagines to be there."

Galileo argues that the Bible is written in a way that is accessible to even uneducated people. Therefore, every word in the Bible cannot be taken literally. He cites an example in which God is described as having hands, which St. Augustine elucidated as not being literal. Further, Galileo cites Cardinal Baronio: "[The] intention of the Holy Spirit is to teach us how one goes to heaven and not how heaven goes."

Critics of the Copernican system used the Battle of Gibeon from the tenth chapter of the Book of Joshua as scriptural evidence against heliocentrism. In the chapter, Joshua asks God to stop the Sun in order to lengthen the day and allow the Israelites to win the battle. When taken literally, this story implies that the Sun is mobile. Moreover, his letter misses out on key facts that include the Church's non attacking stance on Copernicus when the canon proposed his heliocentric model. A Dominican theologian Tolosani made an unpublished attack on the Copernican system as early as 1544. Furthermore, the tone of the letter was combative and overly proud. "Many resented his arrogant tone, his presumption for speaking on theological matters, and for crossing over from the world of mathematical astronomy into the world of natural philosophy." "But he has ruined himself by being so much in love with his own genius and having no respect for others. One should not wonder that everyone conspires to damn him."