Galileo Galilei was born on February 16th, 1564, in Pisa, to Giulia Ammannati and Vincenzo Galileo, a professional musician and member of a noble but impoverished Florentine family. He was the eldest of six (perhaps seven) children, two (or three) of whom died in infancy. Before he was ten the family moved to Florence, where he was educated by the Vallombrosans. In 1581 he matriculated at the University of Pisa to study medicine, but became interested instead in mathematics, returning to Florence in 1585 without a degree. He set to work on applied mathematics, mechanics and scientific instruments, inventing a hydrostatic balance, and also perhaps following (probably at a distance) courses taught at the Jesuit College in Rome in the late 1580s.
In 1587 and 1588 he delivered two lectures on
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Citation: Wilding, Nick. "Galileo Galilei". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 June 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1670, accessed 21 November 2024.]
