Galileo Galilei Biography: Timeline

February 18, 1564: ·birth of Galileo Galilei in the Tuscan city of Pisa

1574: ·Galilei family moves to Florence

Summer 1581: ·Galileo enrolls in the University of Pisa to pursue a degree in medicine

1585: ·Galileo leaves the University of Pisa without having obtained a degree

Summer 1589: ·Galileo hired as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Pisa

1589-1592: ·Galileo teaches in Pisa, and reportedly makes his famous velocity experiment, dropping objects off the leaning tower to disprove Aristotle's theory that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones

1591: ·Death of Vincenzo Galilei, Galileo's father

Autumn 1592: ·Galileo takes post at the University of Padua

1600: ·Galileo's first daughter, Virginia, born in Padua

1601: ·Galileo's second daughter born

1604: ·Appearance of Kepler's Nova in the sky; Galileo debates its significance with conservative scholars.

1606: ·Birth of Galileo's third child, a son

Summer 1609: ·News of the invention of the telescope reaches Italy; Galileo develops his own device in August.

Autumn 1609: ·Galileo makes his first observations using his telescope, discovers uneven surface of the moon.

January 1610: ·Galileo discovers four moons orbiting Jupiter

March 1610: ·Publication of Sidereus Nuncius, dedicated to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II

June 1610: ·Galileo leaves Padua to take a new, more lucrative position in Tuscany

Spring 1611: ·Galileo travels to Rome, where he is cordially received by the Jesuit astronomers and Pope Paul V

December 1614: ·Father Tommasso Caccini attacks Galileo in sermon in Florence, and later denounces him to the Inquisition

December 1615: ·Galileo goes to Rome

March 1615: ·Papal commission issues edict against Copernican theory; Cardinal Bellarmine orders Galileo to cease in his support of heliocentricity

June 1615: ·Galileo leaves Rome

September 1621: ·Death of Cardinal Bellarmine

June 1623: ·Urban VIII becomes Pope; Galileo visits him in Rome

October 1623: ·Galileo's treatise on comets, The Assayer, is published with Urban VIII's blessing

1624-1629: ·Galileo works on his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems from his home outside Florence

February 1632: ·Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems published in Florence, with tentative Papal approval

August 1632: ·Inquisition bans further printing of the Dialogue

September 23, 1632: ·Galileo summoned to Rome

February 13, 1633: ·Galileo arrives in Rome

April 12, 1633: ·Galileo interrogated for the first time. Afterwards, he is imprisoned in the Vatican for three weeks.

April 30, 1633: ·Galileo interrogated again, and allowed to return to the home of the Tuscan ambassador

May 10, 1633: ·Third interrogation; Galileo begs for mercy.

June 21, 1633: ·Final interrogation. The following day, Galileo is officially charged with heresy; he is forced to confess his errors, renounce the Copernican system, and accept the Church's judgment. He is sentenced to imprisonment "for a period determinable at our pleasure."

December 1633: ·Galileo is allowed to return to the village of Arcetri, outside Florence, where he lives under house arrest

April 2, 1634: ·Death of Virginia, now Sister Maria Celeste.

1637: ·Galileo's eyesight begins to fail.

1638: ·Galileo's Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences is published in Holland. John Milton visits Galileo in Arcetri.

January 8, 1642: ·Death of Galileo

Previous section Context Next section Origins