The Essential Galileo (26 page)

Perhaps it was this consideration that first led Dionysius the Areopagite (in the Letter to Polycarpus) to say that in this miracle the Prime Mobile stopped and, as a consequence of its stopping, all other celestial spheres stopped. The same opinion is held by St. Augustine himself (in book 2 of
On the Miracles of the Holy Scripture
), and the Bishop of Avila supports it at length (in questions 22 and 24 of his commentary on chapter 10 of Joshua). Indeed one sees that Joshua himself intended to stop the whole system of celestial spheres, from his giving the order also to the moon, even though it has nothing to do with the prolongation of the day; in the injunction given to the moon one must include the orbs of the other planets, which are not mentioned here, as they are not in the rest of the Holy Scripture, since its intention has never been to teach us the astronomical sciences.

I think therefore, if I am not mistaken, that one can clearly see that, given the Ptolemaic system, it is necessary to interpret the words in a way different from their literal meaning. Guided by St. Augustine's very useful prescriptions, I should say that the best nonliteral interpretation is not necessarily this, if anyone can find another which is perhaps better and more suitable. So now I want to examine whether the same miracle could be understood in a way more in accordance with what we read in Joshua, if to the Copernican system we add [345] another discovery which I recently made about the solar body. However, I continue to speak with the same reservations—to the effect that I am not so enamored with my own opinions as to want to place them ahead of those of others; nor do I believe it is impossible to put forth interpretations which are better and more in accordance with the Holy Writ.

Let us first assume, in accordance with the opinion of the abovementioned authors, that in the Joshua miracle the whole system of heavenly motions was stopped, so that the stopping of only one would not introduce unnecessarily universal confusion and great turmoil in the whole order of nature. Second, I think that although the solar body does not move from the same place, it turns on itself, completing an entire rotation in about one month, as I feel I have conclusively demonstrated in my
Sunspot Letters;
this motion is sensibly seen to be inclined southward in the upper part of the globe and thus to tilt northward in the lower part, precisely in the same manner as the revolutions of all planetary orbs. Third, the sun may be regarded as a noble body, and it is the source of light illuminating not only the moon and the earth but also all the other planets, which are in themselves equally dark; having conclusively demonstrated this, I do not think it would be far from correct philosophizing to say that, insofar as it is the greatest minister of nature and, in a way, the heart and soul of the world, it transmits to the surrounding bodies not only light, but also (by turning on itself) motion; thus, just as all motion of the limbs of an animal would cease if the motion of its heart were to cease, in the same way if the sun's rotation stopped then all planetary revolutions would also stop. Now, concerning the admirable power and strength of the sun I could quote the supporting statements of many serious writers, but I want to restrict myself to just one passage from the book
The Divine Names
by the Blessed Dionysius the Areopagite. He writes this about the sun: “Light also gathers and attracts to itself all things that are seen, that move, that are illuminated, that are heated, and, in a word, that are surrounded by its splendor. Thus the sun is called Helios because [346] it collects and gathers all things that are dispersed.” And a little below that he again writes about the sun: “If in fact this sun, which we see and which (despite the multitude and dissimilarity of the essences and qualities of observed things) is nevertheless one, spreads its light equally and renews, nourishes, preserves, perfects, divides, joins, warms up, fertilizes, increases, changes, strengthens, produces, moves, and vitalizes all things; and if everything in this universe in accordance with its own power partakes of one and the same sun and contains within itself an equal anticipation of the causes of the many things which are shared; then certainly all the more reason, etc.” Therefore, given that the sun is both the source of light and the origin of motion, and given that God wanted the whole world system to remain motionless for several hours as a result of Joshua's order, it was sufficient to stop the sun, and then its immobility stopped all the other turnings, so that the earth as well as the moon and the sun (and all the other planets) remained in the same arrangement; and during that whole time the night did not approach, and the day miraculously got longer. In this manner, by stopping the sun, and without changing or upsetting at all the way the other stars appear or their mutual arrangement, the day on the earth could have been lengthened in perfect accord with the literal meaning of the sacred text.

Furthermore, what deserves special appreciation, if I am not mistaken, is that with the Copernican system one can very clearly and very easily give a literal meaning to another detail which one reads about the same miracle; that is, that the sun stopped in the middle of heaven. Serious theologians have raised a difficulty about this passage: it seems very probable that, when Joshua asked for the prolongation of the day, the sun was close to setting and not at the meridian; for it was then about the time of the summer solstice, and consequently the days were very long, so that if the sun had been at the meridian then it does not seem likely that it would have been necessary to pray for a lengthening of the day in order to win a battle, since the still remaining time of seven hours or more could very well have been sufficient. Motivated by this argument, very serious theologians have held that the sun really was close to setting; [347] this is also what the words “Sun, stand thou still” seem to say, because if it had been at the meridian, then either there would have been no need to seek a miracle or it would have been sufficient to pray merely for some slowing down. This opinion is held by the Bishop of Gaeta,
³⁵
and it is also accepted by Magalhaens,
³⁶
who confirms it by saying that on the same day, before the order to the sun, Joshua had done so many other things that it was impossible to complete them in half a day; thus they really resort to interpreting the words “in the midst of heaven” somewhat implausibly, saying they mean the same as that the sun stopped while it was in our hemisphere, namely, above the horizon. We can remove this and every other implausibility, if I am not mistaken, by placing the sun, as the Copernican system does and as it is most necessary to do, in the middle, namely, at the center of the heavenly orbs and of the planetary revolutions; for at any hour of the day, whether at noon or in the afternoon, the day would have been lengthened and all heavenly turnings stopped by the sun stopping in the middle of the heavens, namely, at the center of the heavens, where it is located. Furthermore, this interpretation agrees all the more with the literal meaning inasmuch as, if one wanted to claim that the sun's stopping occurred at the noon hour, then the proper expression to use would have been to say that it “stood still at the meridian point,” or “at the meridian circle,” and not “in the midst of heaven”; in fact, for a spherical body such as heaven, the middle is really and only the center.

As for other scriptural passages which seem to contradict this position, I have no doubt that, if it were known to be true and demonstrated, those same theologians who consider such passages incapable of being interpreted consistently with it (as long as they regard it as false) would find highly congenial interpretations for them; this would be especially true if they were to add some knowledge of the astronomical sciences to their expertise about Holy Writ. Just as now, when they consider it false, they think that whenever they read Scripture they only find statements repugnant to it, so if they thought otherwise they would perchance find an equal number of passages agreeing with it. Then perhaps they would judge [348] it very appropriate for the Holy Church to tell us that God placed the sun at the center of heaven and that therefore He brings about the ordered motions of the moon and the other wandering stars by making it turn around itself like a wheel, given that she sings:

Most holy Lord and God of heaven,

Who to the glowing sky hast given

The fires that in the east are born

With gradual splendors of the morn;

Who, on the fourth day, didst reveal

The sun's enkindled flaming wheel,

Didst set the moon her ordered ways,

And stars their ever-winding maze.
³⁷

They could also say that the word firmament is
literally
very appropriate for the stellar sphere and everything above the planetary orbs, which is totally still and motionless according to this arrangement. Similarly, if the earth were rotating, then, where one reads “He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the terrestrial globe,”
³⁸
one could understand its poles literally; for there would be no point in attributing these poles to the terrestrial globe if it did not have to turn around them.

1.
Reprinted from: Maurice A. Finocchiaro, trans. and ed.,
The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History
, © 1989 by the Regents of the University of California. Published by the University of California Press.

2.
For the historical background, see the Introduction, especially §0.7.

3.
Galilei 1890–1909, 5: 281–88; translated by Finocchiaro (1989, 49–54). For the historical background, see the Introduction, especially §0.7.

4.
Joshua 10:12–13; I quote this passage in the Introduction, §0.7.

5.
In this sentence, the translation in Finocchiaro 1989, 52 has been corrected slightly.

6.
Galilei 1890–1909, 5: 309–48; translated by Finocchiaro (1989, 87–118). For the historical background, see the Introduction, especially §0.7.

7.
Christina of Lorraine (d. 1637), wife of Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici and mother of Cosimo II.

8.
Here and elsewhere in this essay, Galileo gives references for his Latin quotations by displaying the bibliographical information in the margin to his text, whereas I insert the references in parentheses in the text. Unless indicated otherwise in a note, I have translated the Latin passages from the wording as quoted by Galileo.

9.
Here and in the rest of this paragraph, Galileo makes a number of misstatements about Copernicus. For example, although Copernicus was a canon and hence a type of cleric, he was not a clergyman in the sense of being a priest. Although he sent a written report to the Fifth Lateran Council, he did not go to Rome to attend it. Although the Copernican system played a role in the reform of the calendar, the new Gregorian calendar (which was implemented in 1582 during the papacy of Gregory XIII) was based on non-Copernican ideas. Although Copernicus' book was not officially condemned (before 1616), it was widely censured. See Rosen 1958; 1975.

10.
Actually Poland.

11.
Paul of Middelburg (1445–1533).

12.
Cardinal Nicolaus von Schoenberg (1472–1537), archbishop of Capua.

13.
Tiedemann Giese (1480–1550), Polish friend of Copernicus.

14.
Here quoted from Copernicus 1976, 26–27.

15.
Tertullian 1972, 47; I have made some slight emendations to Evans' translation of this passage.

16.
Here my translation of this sentence is a slight emendation of the one given in Finocchiaro 1989, 94. This improved translation results from my now taking into account the emendation in Galileo's own wording of this sentence in the first published edition of the
Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina
(Galilei 1636, 14; cf. Motta 2000, 97–98; Finocchiaro 2005, 379–80 n. 56), as well as the scholarly discussions found in Fantoli 2003, 437–38 n. 39, and McMullin 2005b, 109, 116.

17.
The term
planet
originally meant “wandering star,” namely, a heavenly body that appears to move relative to the fixed stars as well as to the earth, thus subsuming the sun and the moon.

18.
Cesare Baronio (1538–1607), appointed cardinal in 1596.

19.
Here quoted from Mourant 1964, 110. This letter is labeled number 143 in most editions of Augustine's works.

20.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (Douay Version).

21.
Flora (1953, 1019 n. 4) gives the following reference: Cicero,
Academia
, II, 39, 123.

22.
Here quoted from Schaff and Wace 1893, 99. Galileo indicates the number of this letter as 103, but there is no doubt that his quotation is from what modern scholars and editors now designate as Letter No. 53. Further, I have slightly altered the punctuation and spelling in Schaff and Wace's translation for the sake of uniformity and easier comprehension.

23.
Antonio Santucci (d. 1613).

24.
Christoph Clavius (1538–1612), a Jesuit, professor at the Collegio Romano, one of the leading mathematicians and astronomers of his time, who was on friendly terms with Galileo.

25.
Both the variation in the apparent magnitudes of Mars and Venus and the phases of Venus had been previously undetected, but they became observable with the telescope soon after the publication of
The Sidereal Messenger
.

26.
This seems to refer to Psalm 103:2 (Douay), which reads in part “Who stretchest out the heaven like a pavilion,” corresponding to Psalm 104:2 in the King James Version, which reads “who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain.” Another relevant passage is Isaiah 40:22. Russo (1968, 346, nn. 1 and 2) comments that “neither St. Augustine nor Galileo seems to have understood that the hide concerned the hide of a tent,” and that “the ‘hide' in question is not a hide stretched out flat ‘but the hide of a tent.'”