No, it doesn't piss me off. Why would it. I say things as I remember them, and if I'm ever right, it is, personally, cause for amazement. Galileo's "crime", was publishing. I will have to review, the details of his presentation. Venus, Jupiter, et al.
I did say that it was known, accepted, in educated circles of Europe, before Galileo.
When Galileo announced his world-shaking telescopic discoveries in 1610, Clavius and his Jesuit students (who had already
been experimenting with telescopes) were some of the first and most influential astronomers to confirm the accuracy of Galileo's
observations. Clavius, however, never agreed (and he was correct in this) that Galileo's work established the truth of the
Copernican theory. However, he did admit, in the final edition of his Sphere Commentary, published in 1611 just before his
death, that Galileo's observations presented a fundamental challenge to the traditional astronomy-- a challenge that his
successors were obliged to face. |
