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Durham University, School of Modern Languages & Cultures, Department Member add
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History of Science, Renaissance Studies, Italian Studies, Italian (European History), Renaissance Philosophy, History of Astronomy, and 50 moreTranslation History, History of Astrology, Printing History, Giordano Bruno, Renaissance Rome, Scientific Revolution, Copernicus, Early Modern Intellectual History, Renaissance magic and astrology, History of geography, Ptolemy, Galileo, New Stars, Maurolico, Christoph Clavius, History of Cosmology, Translation Studies, History of Medicine, Philosophy of Science, History of Philosophy, Galileo Galilei, Philosophy of Art, Miguel Angel Granada, Early Modern History, History of Plague, Biopolitics, History of Venice, History of Death & Dying, Giorgio Agamben, History, Venetian History, Cultural Intermediaries In The Early Modern Mediterranean, Cultural History, Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, Renaissance Humanism, History of Science and Technology, University, History of Sciences, Thomas S. Kuhn, Intellectual History, Science and Religion, History of Philosophy of Science, History of Ideas, Learning And Teaching In Higher Education, History of higher education, Art and Science, Italian Renaissance Art, Leonardo da Vinci, and Alessandro Tassoni edit
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I am interested in the history of the science of the Renaissance / Early Modern period (with special focus on the six... moreI am interested in the history of the science of the Renaissance / Early Modern period (with special focus on the sixteenth century).
Topics I have dealt with span the history of astronomy and cosmology, natural philosophy, scientific patronage and, more recently, the history of translation. edit
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This article seeks to revise the common scholarly assumption that in early modern Europe there was no single word for the study of the universe as a whole until the word “cosmology” appeared in Christian Wolff’s Cosmologia generalis... more
This article seeks to revise the common scholarly assumption that in early modern Europe there was no single word for the study of the universe as a whole until the word “cosmology” appeared in Christian Wolff’s Cosmologia generalis methodo scientifica pertractata (1731). In fact, the term “cosmology” had circulated in both Latin and European languages since at least the 1530s in the context of critical appraisals of the largely dominant Aristotelian and scholastic frameworks. The aim of this study is to unearth the earliest attempts to define cosmology as a philosophical discipline and, thereby, to highlight the lasting authority of traditional disciplinary boundaries.
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This article explores the sixteenth-century reception of Aristotle’s Meteorology in relation to contemporary theories of translation and textual reception. Fausto da Longiano’s Meteorologia (1542) and his literary theory are taken as... more
This article explores the sixteenth-century reception of Aristotle’s Meteorology in relation to contemporary theories of translation and textual reception. Fausto da Longiano’s Meteorologia (1542) and his literary theory are taken as salient points for a discussion of the forms and genres of vernacular Aristotelianism. While translations have been the subject of numerous studies, less attention has been paid to vernacular texts that tread the line between translation and other forms of metatextual discourse, such as compendia, paraphrases, metaphrases, dialogues, discorsi, poems, and others. This study seeks to contribute to the understanding of this relevant section of the Italian Aristotelian corpus by reconsidering the work of one of the most prominent literary theorist of sixteenth-century Italy. Keywords: Aristotelianism, Aristotle, meteorology, translation, metaphrase, Sebastiano Fausto da Longiano
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The article is published in I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance (2016, 1) as part of a cluster of articles on "Shared Spaces and Knowledge Transactions in the Italian Renaissance City", edited by Roisin Cossar, Christina Neilson... more
The article is published in I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance (2016, 1) as part of a cluster of articles on "Shared Spaces and Knowledge Transactions in the Italian Renaissance City", edited by Roisin Cossar, Christina Neilson and Filippo De Vivo. The issue is dedicated to the memory of Shona Kelly Wray. Read the entire volume here: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/isis/current
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The article studies the Dialogo del Gobbo da Rialto, et Marocco dalle pipone dalle colonne di S. Marco, a rare and little-known pamphlet that stages an oral conversation between two talking statues about the comet of 1577. It investigates the way in which the conversation it purports to represent relates to Venice’s social and cultural environment. , and how the Dialogo is in turn connected to other pamphlets with which it constitutes a shared cultural environment.
ABSTRACT
The article studies the Dialogo del Gobbo da Rialto, et Marocco dalle pipone dalle colonne di S. Marco, a rare and little-known pamphlet that stages an oral conversation between two talking statues about the comet of 1577. It investigates the way in which the conversation it purports to represent relates to Venice’s social and cultural environment. , and how the Dialogo is in turn connected to other pamphlets with which it constitutes a shared cultural environment.
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Review published in Isis, 105, 4, 2014.
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The appearance of a new star in the constellation of Cassiopeia between November 1572 and March 1574 provoked wide discussion which spread across the entire continent of Europe and lasted right until the end of the following century,... more
The appearance of a new star in the constellation of Cassiopeia between November 1572 and March 1574 provoked wide discussion which spread across the entire continent of Europe and lasted right until the end of the following century, finally culminating in the debate over the ...
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"Co-authored article with M. A. Granada.
This is a sample digital offprint. Please contact the author or the publisher for a complete copy"
This is a sample digital offprint. Please contact the author or the publisher for a complete copy"
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Book III of Giordano Bruno's De immenso and innumerabilis (1591) sets out a new examination of some of the principal tenets of the philosopher's infinitist cosmology. In its ten chapters Bruno deals with such crucial issues as the... more
Book III of Giordano Bruno's De immenso and innumerabilis (1591) sets out a new examination of some of the principal tenets of the philosopher's infinitist cosmology. In its ten chapters Bruno deals with such crucial issues as the infinity and homogeneity of the physical universe, universal animation, heliocentricity, the movements of the earth and of the planets. These topics were already a constitutive part of Bruno's cosmology since his early Italian dialogues (1584-1585). Yet, the evident continuities do also embed deviations from previous works, most notably on celestial physics and the interpretation of Copernicus, whose De revolutionibus is quoted and commented extensively in the final two chapters of De immenso III. The aim of this paper is to provide a close reading of this crucial section of De immenso, and to reconsider its significance within Bruno’s natural philosophy.
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Talking statues discuss comets: the circulation of astrological prognostications in Venice at the end of the 16th century @ Cultural Encounters and Shared Spaces in the Renaissance City, 1300-1700 A Conference in Memory of Shona Kelly Wray (University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 12-13 September 2014)more
The Gobbo di Rialto and Marocco dalle pipone are two popular Venetian talking statues, whose imaginary dialogue, shouting at each other across the city marketsquares, is staged in a rare pamphlet on the comet of 1577. This text is but one... more
The Gobbo di Rialto and Marocco dalle pipone are two popular Venetian talking statues, whose imaginary dialogue, shouting at each other across the city marketsquares, is staged in a rare pamphlet on the comet of 1577. This text is but one of a spate of astrological pamphlets and prognostications that invaded the Venetian book market in the mid- and late-1570s. They provided forecasts, counsel and practical advices, all the while popularizing explanations from natural philosophy, astrology and medicine. The authors were often members of the medical or of the academic profession, engaging with the popular press, and battling fierce polemics in the public arena. This paper will discuss contexts, forms and channel of communication of the astrological ephemeral literature, looking in particular at how the Venetian urban spaces formed both its historical and fictional stage.
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http://www.uv.es/uvweb/institut-universitari-historia-medicina-ciencia-lopez-pinero/ca/institut-historia-medicina-ciencia-lopez-pinero/conferencia-sobre-interrelacio-astrologia-meteorologia-medicina-venecia-segle-xvi-1285893059754/Novetat.h... more
http://www.uv.es/uvweb/institut-universitari-historia-medicina-ciencia-lopez-pinero/ca/institut-historia-medicina-ciencia-lopez-pinero/conferencia-sobre-interrelacio-astrologia-meteorologia-medicina-venecia-segle-xvi-1285893059754/Novetat.html?id=1285906685130
"L'Institut d'Història de la Medicina i de la Ciència López Piñero (centre mixt de la Universitat de València i el CSIC), amb seu al Palau de Cerveró, presenta el seminari The comet and the plague: medical and astrological debates in early modern Venice, que tindrà lloc el pròxim dimarts 20 de maig, a les 17 hores, a la sala de conferències de l'Institut.
La conferència se centrarà en l'estudi de la difusió del coneixement científic a través de fullets i publicacions similars. Els casos concrets a tractar tenen el seu origen en les escriptures mèdiques i astrològiques que van inundar les llibreries venecianes després de la plaga de 1576 i després del cometa de l'any següent. Textos plens de discursos curts i diàlegs satírics, amb estil poètic en llatí, a més de cartells. A través de l'anàlisi del contingut, la funció, el gènere i les maneres de circulació d'aquestes publicacions, el seminari planteja com a objectiu aportar algunes consideracions sobre la interrelació entre l'astrologia, la meteorologia i la medicina en la primerenca Venècia moderna.
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"L'Institut d'Història de la Medicina i de la Ciència López Piñero (centre mixt de la Universitat de València i el CSIC), amb seu al Palau de Cerveró, presenta el seminari The comet and the plague: medical and astrological debates in early modern Venice, que tindrà lloc el pròxim dimarts 20 de maig, a les 17 hores, a la sala de conferències de l'Institut.
La conferència se centrarà en l'estudi de la difusió del coneixement científic a través de fullets i publicacions similars. Els casos concrets a tractar tenen el seu origen en les escriptures mèdiques i astrològiques que van inundar les llibreries venecianes després de la plaga de 1576 i després del cometa de l'any següent. Textos plens de discursos curts i diàlegs satírics, amb estil poètic en llatí, a més de cartells. A través de l'anàlisi del contingut, la funció, el gènere i les maneres de circulació d'aquestes publicacions, el seminari planteja com a objectiu aportar algunes consideracions sobre la interrelació entre l'astrologia, la meteorologia i la medicina en la primerenca Venècia moderna.
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... Pythagorean astronomy and its reception in the sixteenth century, which explains anotherriddle in Bruno's works, namely, the assertion that Mercury and Venus form a similar epicycle. It turns out that this was a variation of the... more
... Pythagorean astronomy and its reception in the sixteenth century, which explains anotherriddle in Bruno's works, namely, the assertion that Mercury and Venus form a similar epicycle. It turns out that this was a variation of the Pythagorean ...
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Session @ Summer School, 'Things That Matter. Material Culture and the Digital Age', organized by Prof. Raingard Esser (University of Groningen), Dr. Mikael Alm (University of Uppsala) , Dr. Dario Tessicini (Durham University)
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“Things That Matter. Materials and Culture in/for the Digital Age.” The Groningen-Uppsala-Durham International Summer School in Medieval and Early Modern Studies. Uppsala, 17-21 June “Things That Matter” is a module offered in... more
“Things That Matter. Materials and Culture in/for the Digital Age.”
The Groningen-Uppsala-Durham International Summer School
in Medieval and Early Modern Studies.
Uppsala, 17-21 June
“Things That Matter” is a module offered in partnership by the Universities of Uppsala, Groningen and Durham. It takes place during the Easter Term, and consists of a (non compulsory) preparatory ‘International Classroom’ module delivered online, and of a week-long Summer School held each year in one of the partner universities in collaboration with their local cultural institutions (University of Uppsala, Gustavianum; University of Groningen Library and Museum; Durham Palace Green Library).
More details are available at https://www.rug.nl/education/summer-winter-schools/summer_schools_2019/ttm/.
Content
“Things that Matter” addresses the tension between the materiality of sources and their digitization. The recent advances of digital technology have created new modes of reproduction and forms of consumption that have substantially reshaped the concepts of ‘object’ and of ‘collection’ at the heart of cultural institutions such as libraries and museums. The Summer School engages with key questions that arise from the study of the past in the digital age. These issues include the changing nature of objects such as books and scientific instruments as source materials; the history and practice of collections and collecting, digitization and its challenges, both technological and intellectual.
“Things that Matter” maps the possibilities and challenges posed by the digital age for researchers. The ongoing process of digitization makes sources of the past available to a previously unknown extent: but what does this mean for researchers?
We will also discuss the role of objects in Public History. How does society approach the legacy of “things” in museums and heritage institutions? Which objects are “worth keeping”, why and when? Who determines the selection process and what are the selection criteria for curators, archivists and other agents in the sector? What collections are digitized and why those? Who makes the selections? How do we meet scientific demands on systematic design and transparency when working on online search engines and on differing (and sometimes incompatible) designs of data bases?
The Summer School brings together experts from both academia and the cultural heritage sector. Over the course of one week of intensive teaching, they will deliver lectures, lead seminars and hands-on sessions in libraries and museums, supervise student-led projects and presentations.
Participants: Master and PhD Students in History, Art History, Archaeology, Literary Studies, Library and Museum Studies.
Teaching Methods and Contact Hours:
- Preparatory online module [optional]
The online module runs for 6 weeks in the Easter Term. Total hours: 70 [inclusive of student-led seminars, discussion groups, and structured readings].
Tasks:
1. Research Presentation and Introduction: Students present their own research or research design submitted and shared online and then presented in virtual classroom at an introductory session.
2. Critical Reading: Prepare and assess key readings related to the subject “Things that Matter”. Students reflect in writing on required readings (which is done individually), identify 4 key questions related to the reading which are shared and discussed in the plenary virtual class room, where 4 guiding principles are developed to be applied to the design of a virtual collection
3. “Dry Swim”: Virtual Collection: Students of each of the three partner universities design a virtual collection of materials specific to the host Library/University Museum which they present to the students of the other partner universities.
Summer School (17-21 June 2019)
Programme: approx. 30 hours of teaching and learning activities over the course of one week (Monday-Friday). Typically, the Summer School will consist of lectures, hands-on sessions and excursions and student-led group work.
Tasks:
1. Actively participate in all components of the Summer School. All participants must demonstrate that they have digested and analysed the reading for each component of the Summer School
2. Present their own research in progress or research design
3. Write an essay in which they critically discuss the themes of the Summer School in relation to their own research
4. Write a SWOT analysis of the Summer School in which they reflect critically on their learning experience
Academic coordinators: Dr Mikael Alm (Uppsala); Prof. Raingard Esser (Groningen); Dr Dario Tessicini (Durham)
Contact: Dario.Tessicini@durham.ac.uk;
The Groningen-Uppsala-Durham International Summer School
in Medieval and Early Modern Studies.
Uppsala, 17-21 June
“Things That Matter” is a module offered in partnership by the Universities of Uppsala, Groningen and Durham. It takes place during the Easter Term, and consists of a (non compulsory) preparatory ‘International Classroom’ module delivered online, and of a week-long Summer School held each year in one of the partner universities in collaboration with their local cultural institutions (University of Uppsala, Gustavianum; University of Groningen Library and Museum; Durham Palace Green Library).
More details are available at https://www.rug.nl/education/summer-winter-schools/summer_schools_2019/ttm/.
Content
“Things that Matter” addresses the tension between the materiality of sources and their digitization. The recent advances of digital technology have created new modes of reproduction and forms of consumption that have substantially reshaped the concepts of ‘object’ and of ‘collection’ at the heart of cultural institutions such as libraries and museums. The Summer School engages with key questions that arise from the study of the past in the digital age. These issues include the changing nature of objects such as books and scientific instruments as source materials; the history and practice of collections and collecting, digitization and its challenges, both technological and intellectual.
“Things that Matter” maps the possibilities and challenges posed by the digital age for researchers. The ongoing process of digitization makes sources of the past available to a previously unknown extent: but what does this mean for researchers?
We will also discuss the role of objects in Public History. How does society approach the legacy of “things” in museums and heritage institutions? Which objects are “worth keeping”, why and when? Who determines the selection process and what are the selection criteria for curators, archivists and other agents in the sector? What collections are digitized and why those? Who makes the selections? How do we meet scientific demands on systematic design and transparency when working on online search engines and on differing (and sometimes incompatible) designs of data bases?
The Summer School brings together experts from both academia and the cultural heritage sector. Over the course of one week of intensive teaching, they will deliver lectures, lead seminars and hands-on sessions in libraries and museums, supervise student-led projects and presentations.
Participants: Master and PhD Students in History, Art History, Archaeology, Literary Studies, Library and Museum Studies.
Teaching Methods and Contact Hours:
- Preparatory online module [optional]
The online module runs for 6 weeks in the Easter Term. Total hours: 70 [inclusive of student-led seminars, discussion groups, and structured readings].
Tasks:
1. Research Presentation and Introduction: Students present their own research or research design submitted and shared online and then presented in virtual classroom at an introductory session.
2. Critical Reading: Prepare and assess key readings related to the subject “Things that Matter”. Students reflect in writing on required readings (which is done individually), identify 4 key questions related to the reading which are shared and discussed in the plenary virtual class room, where 4 guiding principles are developed to be applied to the design of a virtual collection
3. “Dry Swim”: Virtual Collection: Students of each of the three partner universities design a virtual collection of materials specific to the host Library/University Museum which they present to the students of the other partner universities.
Summer School (17-21 June 2019)
Programme: approx. 30 hours of teaching and learning activities over the course of one week (Monday-Friday). Typically, the Summer School will consist of lectures, hands-on sessions and excursions and student-led group work.
Tasks:
1. Actively participate in all components of the Summer School. All participants must demonstrate that they have digested and analysed the reading for each component of the Summer School
2. Present their own research in progress or research design
3. Write an essay in which they critically discuss the themes of the Summer School in relation to their own research
4. Write a SWOT analysis of the Summer School in which they reflect critically on their learning experience
Academic coordinators: Dr Mikael Alm (Uppsala); Prof. Raingard Esser (Groningen); Dr Dario Tessicini (Durham)
Contact: Dario.Tessicini@durham.ac.uk;
Research Interests:
Museo Galileo GALILAEANA. Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science Il Saggiatore at 400: An Early Modern Controversy and Its Legacy 2023 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Galileo Galilei’s Il Saggiatore... more
Museo Galileo
GALILAEANA. Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science
Il Saggiatore at 400: An Early Modern Controversy and Its Legacy
2023 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Galileo Galilei’s Il Saggiatore (The Assayer), a work on cometary theory that is best known for its controversial scientific claims and for being a turning point in its author’s relations with the Jesuits. Il Saggiatore was published as Galileo’s own contribution (with the aid of members of the Accademia dei Lincei) to the scientific dispute between Mario Guiducci, Galileo’s own pupil, and the Jesuit astronomer Orazio Grassi,. In addition to its immediate intellectual and social context, the polemical exchange among Guiducci, Grassi, and Galileo develops themes and arguments that had characterized European cometary debates since the late sixteenth century, including, crucially, the significance of comets for the study of the universe, its order and matter. Famously, Il Saggiatore contains well-known considerations on the telescope, natural philosophy, and matter theory. Galileo’s volume was also the target of at least three anonymous denunciations because of its alleged support of Copernicanism and of atomism.
Despite the wealth of literature on Galileo and the publication of a critical edition of Il Saggiatore in 2005 (ed. by O. Besomi and M. Helbing), many aspects of this volume remain understudied or need to be reconsidered in light of recent research. In order to reignite study of Galileo’s complex work, the journal Galilaeana: Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science invites article proposals for a monograph issue on Il Saggiatore and its legacies. Proposals are welcome on any aspect of Il Saggiatore, its intellectual context and its reception. Topics may include, but are by no means restricted to:
- the history of Il Saggiatore, its production and early-modern fortune, including the study of individual copies and marginalia.
- the history of astronomy and of observational techniques, including issues related to the use of the telescope and the parallax method.
- cometary theory and its cosmological consequences.
- the critical reception of Il Saggiatore, particularly studies of twentieth-century historiography.
Prospective contributors should submit 300-word abstracts by 31 March 2022 to galilaeana_focus@museogalileo.it. Abstracts must include the author’s/co-authors’ name(s), affiliation(s), and email address(es). Finally, a brief CV (maximum of 2 pages) should also be submitted. Proposals will be assessed by the journal’s editorial committee. Selected contributors will be notified by the end of April 2022. It is expected that the deadline for complete article manuscripts will be 31 May 2023. Each manuscript will undergo double-blind peer-review.
Galilaeana: Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science is a journal of the Museo Galileo in Florence. From 2023, Galilaeana will be published biannually as an online, open-access journal. For any further information on the journal, please check the website: https://www.museogalileo.it/en/library-and-research-institute/publications-and-conferences/journals/480-galilaeana -studies-in-renaissance-and-early-modern-science.html or contact galilaeana@museogalileo.it .
GALILAEANA. Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science
Il Saggiatore at 400: An Early Modern Controversy and Its Legacy
2023 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Galileo Galilei’s Il Saggiatore (The Assayer), a work on cometary theory that is best known for its controversial scientific claims and for being a turning point in its author’s relations with the Jesuits. Il Saggiatore was published as Galileo’s own contribution (with the aid of members of the Accademia dei Lincei) to the scientific dispute between Mario Guiducci, Galileo’s own pupil, and the Jesuit astronomer Orazio Grassi,. In addition to its immediate intellectual and social context, the polemical exchange among Guiducci, Grassi, and Galileo develops themes and arguments that had characterized European cometary debates since the late sixteenth century, including, crucially, the significance of comets for the study of the universe, its order and matter. Famously, Il Saggiatore contains well-known considerations on the telescope, natural philosophy, and matter theory. Galileo’s volume was also the target of at least three anonymous denunciations because of its alleged support of Copernicanism and of atomism.
Despite the wealth of literature on Galileo and the publication of a critical edition of Il Saggiatore in 2005 (ed. by O. Besomi and M. Helbing), many aspects of this volume remain understudied or need to be reconsidered in light of recent research. In order to reignite study of Galileo’s complex work, the journal Galilaeana: Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science invites article proposals for a monograph issue on Il Saggiatore and its legacies. Proposals are welcome on any aspect of Il Saggiatore, its intellectual context and its reception. Topics may include, but are by no means restricted to:
- the history of Il Saggiatore, its production and early-modern fortune, including the study of individual copies and marginalia.
- the history of astronomy and of observational techniques, including issues related to the use of the telescope and the parallax method.
- cometary theory and its cosmological consequences.
- the critical reception of Il Saggiatore, particularly studies of twentieth-century historiography.
Prospective contributors should submit 300-word abstracts by 31 March 2022 to galilaeana_focus@museogalileo.it. Abstracts must include the author’s/co-authors’ name(s), affiliation(s), and email address(es). Finally, a brief CV (maximum of 2 pages) should also be submitted. Proposals will be assessed by the journal’s editorial committee. Selected contributors will be notified by the end of April 2022. It is expected that the deadline for complete article manuscripts will be 31 May 2023. Each manuscript will undergo double-blind peer-review.
Galilaeana: Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science is a journal of the Museo Galileo in Florence. From 2023, Galilaeana will be published biannually as an online, open-access journal. For any further information on the journal, please check the website: https://www.museogalileo.it/en/library-and-research-institute/publications-and-conferences/journals/480-galilaeana -studies-in-renaissance-and-early-modern-science.html or contact galilaeana@museogalileo.it .