Original subtitles

Tea trolley's going if anybody wants some, girls.

We need a house light.

Cyril...

Come on, stay quiet.

Action.

In the year of Sixteen hundred and nine

Science's light Began to shine

At Padua City In a modest house

Galileo Galilei

Set out to prove

- The sun is still - The Earth is on the move

The sun is still

The Earth is on the move

The Earth is on the move

The Earth is on the move

Where did you get that thing?

- A coachman brought it. - Who sent it?

It said "Court of Naples."

I don't want their stupid presents.

Illuminated manuscripts,

a statue of Hercules the size of an elephant.

They never send money.

But isn't this an astronomical instrument, Mr. Galilei?

Ooh, it's an antique, too.

An expensive toy.

- What's it for? - It's a map of the sky

according to the wise men of Ancient Greece.

We'll try and sell it to the university.

They still teach it there.

- How's it work, sir? - Oh, it's complicated.

I think I could understand it.

Maybe.

Let's begin at the beginning.

Description?

There are lots of metal rings.

How many?

Eight.

Correct. And?

There are words painted on them.

What words?

The names of the stars.

- Such as? - Well, here's a band with the sun on it.

And on the inside band is the moon.

Those metal bands represent eight crystal spheres,

like huge glass globes, one inside the other.

The stars are supposed to be tacked onto them.

Spin the band with the sun on it.

You see the fixed ball right in the middle?

- Yes. - That's the Earth.

For two thousand years, man has chosen to believe

that the sun and all the host of stars revolve about him.

The Pope, the cardinals, the princes,

the scholars, the merchants and the fish wives

have all pictured themselves squatting in the middle of an affair like that.

- Locked up inside? - Mm-hmm.

- It's like a cage. - So you felt that, too.

But we are pulling out of that old contraption now.

How ?

I'd like to think the ships began it.

They used to hug the shore.

Then all of a sudden, they left the coast

and hunched out onto the oceans.

All sorts of things were set in movement,

including the minds of men.

It was the opening of a new age.

In Siena, when I was a young man,

I saw some masons trying to lift a block of granite.

After talking it over for just five minutes,

they ditched a method that had been in use for centuries...

and found a new, more efficient way of applying the ropes.

I remember thinking then, the millennium of faith is ended.

This is the millennium of doubt.

Everything is called in doubt today.

Everybody at last wants to know why's this? How's that?

That's what the books say, but let's see for ourselves!

I predict that in our time,

astronomy will become the talk of the marketplace

and that the sons of fishwives will go to school.

And with any luck, they'll learn that the Earth rolls 'round the sun

and that the Pope, the cardinals, the princes,

the scholars, the merchants and the fishwives,

their mothers are rolling with it.

The stars must now positively

be regarded as spinning rocks hurdling through darkness.

It seems clear the star we live on

moves at an inconceivable speed.

But are we frightened? No.

We are in favor.

What does the poet say, Andrea?

- "Oh, early morning--" - "Oh, early morning of beginnings,

oh, breath of winds that cometh from new shores."

But I can see with my own eyes

that the sun comes up in one place in the morning

and goes down in a different place in the evening.

It doesn't stand still. I can see it.

You see nothing. All you do is gawk.

Gawking is not seeing.

Now, there's the sun.

Sit down.

Where is the sun? On your right or on your left?

- On my left. - And how could it get to the right?

By your putting it there, of course.

Of course.

- Now where's the sun? - On my right.

- And did it move? - No, I did.

Wrong, stupid. The chair moved.

- But I was on it. - Of course.

The chair is the Earth, and you are sitting on it.

What are you doing with my son, Mr. Galilei?

- Mother, you don't understand. - And I supposed you do.

Last night, he tried to tell me

a feather falls as fast as a cannonball.

We seem to be on the threshold of a new era, Mrs. Sarti.

Well, I hope we can pay the milkman in this new era.

A young gentleman is here to take private lessons,

and he's well-dressed, so don't frighten him away like you did the others.

Wasting your time with Andrea.

How many times have I told you not to wheedle free lessons out of Mr. Galilei?

He can't afford it.

Could I finish my milk even if it isn't paid for?

Andrea, I shouldn't talk about our ideas outside.

- Why not? - Certain authorities won't like it.

Why not if it's the truth?

The universe of the new astronomers

is still not much more than a framework of guesses.

So...

I want to be an astronomer.

This house is like a marketplace!

Good morning, sir. My name is Ludovico Marsili.

Hmm. Hold it.

Mm. You came by way of Holland.

And your family owns property in the Campagna.

Private lessons, ten scudi a month.

That's all right, of course, sir.

- What's your subject? - Horses.

Oh, in that case, 15 scudi a month.

That's all right.

Andrea.

You'll have to be patient with me, sir.

Science makes no sense to me.

Take that tube affair I saw in Amsterdam.

It had a green leather casing and two pieces of glass, one at each end.

One bulged and the other was like... was like that.

As far as I can see, one reduces, the other enlarges.

Any normal person would expect them to cancel each other out,

but they didn't.

Things look five times as large as life.

What sort of things did they enlarge?

Church steeples, pigeons, boats, anything at a distance.

- Did you look through it yourself? - Yes, sir.

Hmm.

The tube... had two lenses.

- Was it like this? - Yes, but--

- A recent invention? - It must be.

They only started peddling it on the streets a few days before I left Holland.

Hmm. Why...

Why do you bother your head with science?

Why don't you just breed horses?

My mother says science is necessary nowadays.

For conversation.

Why not try Latin or theology?

I'll see you on Tuesday afternoon.

- Thank you, sir. - Good morning.

Don't look at me like that.

I took him, didn't I?

I caught your eye just in time.

The treasurer of the university is here to see you.

Mr. Priuli?

- Good morning, Mr. Galilei. - Good morning, Priuli.

Lend me a scudo.

Sarti, give this to Andrea.

Tell him to run to the spectacle maker and bring me two lenses.

Here are the measurements.

Now, Mr. Galilei...

I have come to return your petition for an increase in salary.

Unfortunately, I am unable to recommend your request.

My clear sir,

how can I be expected to make ends meet on 500 scudi ?

What about your private students?

If all I spend my time teaching, when am Ito learn?

My particular science

is on the threshold of important discoveries.

Here are my findings on the laws of falling bodies.

That should be worth 200 scudi more.

Any paper of yours is of infinite worth, Mr. Galilei.

I was limiting it to 200.

If you want money and leisure, go to Florence.

I have no doubt that Medici would be glad to subsidize you.

Eventually, however,

you will be forbidden to think in the name of the Inquisition.

Now, you-- You're happy here in the Republic of Venice.

But you need money. It's only human.

May I suggest a simple solution?

Our city elders are businessmen.

Why don't you invent something useful

uh, that will bring them in a little profit?

Remember that chart you made for the army?

Even General Stefano Gritti

could extract cube roots with it.

- Now that was practical. - Bosh!

It astounded the chiefs of staff.

I see.

Priuli...

- I may have something for you. - Ah.

I haven't quite got there yet.

You are a great man. A--

A discontented man, but I've always said you were a great man.

My discontent, Priuli, is what you should be paying me for if you had any sense.

And for the most part, it's dissatisfaction with myself.

I'm 46 years of age, and I've achieved nothing that satisfies me.

I won't disturb you any further.

Thank you. Good morning.

One scudo wasn't enough.

I had to leave him my jacket before he'd let me take them away.

How will you get through the winter without a jacket?

We'll get it back someday.

Give them to me.

What are they for?

Oh...

Something for the Senate.

Come and look.

Whew! I can read the writing on the bell in the Capanile.

"Gratia dei."

Get out of the way.

No one's virtue is complete

Great Galileo likes to eat

You will not resent, we hope

The truth about His telescope

Gentlemen of the Senate,

gentlemen of the Arsenal of Venice,

as professor of mathematics at your University of Padova

and chief engineer in your great arsenal,

your obedient servant has always counted it

his privilege to offer you such discoveries and inventions

as might prove lucrative to the manufacturers

and merchants of our Venetian Republic.

Thus, I tender you this, my optical tube, or telescope,

manufactured in your great arsenal

and constructed on the most scientific and Christian principles.

The product of 17 years' patient research.

A waste of time, Sagredo.

You'll be able to pay the butcher, old friend.

Yes. They'll make money out of it.

Gentlemen, our republic can congratulate itself.

Not only because this new acquisition will be another feather in the cap of Venice...

not only because our own Mr. Galilei has so generously handed over

this fresh product of his teeming brain entirely to you

so that you can manufacture

as many of these highly salable articles as you please...

but gentlemen, has it also occurred to you

that with the help of this remarkable new instrument,

the enemy fleet will be visible to us

a full two hours before we are visible to them.

Ancl now, gentlemen, Mr. Galilei entreats you to accept the instrument

from the hands of his charming daughter, Virginia.

I don't know that I can go through with this farce.

You do realize it's more than a money-making gadget.

I turned it on the moon last night.

Astronomy has been held back for three generations

for lack of a thing like this.

Mr. Galilei.

It-- It's extraordinary. I--

I could see the fortifications of Santa Rosita.

What about the moon?

For one thing,

it doesn't give off any light of its own.

Good heavens!

I shall have to tell my wife to stop bathing on the roof.

A thing like this is worth ten scudi apiece.

Father, here's Ludovico to congratulate you.

Congratulations, sir.

I improved it.

Yes, sir, I see you had it covered in red.

Do you know what the Milky Way is made of?

- No. - I do.

Congratulations, Mr. Galilei.

Your extra 500 scudi a year are secure.

Oh. Of course, the 500 scudi.

Isn't it a pity a great republic

always has to find a pretext to reward its great men.

Oh, what incentive would great men have otherwise?

- Mr. Galilei. - Congratulations, Mr. Galilei.

Well clone. Well done, sir.

Just marvelous.

Did 1 do it all right?

Seemed all right to me.

I think they're pleased with Father.

I think I'm beginning to understand something about science.

January 10, 1610

Galileo Galilei

Abolishes

Heaven

The edge of the crescent is jagged.

All along the dark part,

near the shiny crescent.

Bright particles of light keep appearing, one after the other,

and growing larger,

and finally, merge with the bright crescent.

How do you explain those spots of light, my friend?

- It can't be true. - It is true.

They're high mountains, Sagredo.

- On the moon? - Yes.

Gigantic mountains.

The spots of light are peaks catching the rising sun.

The slopes of the mountains are still dark.

If you look again, you can see the sunlight moving down

from the peaks into the valleys.

But this gives the lie

to all the astronomy that's been taught for the last 2,000 years.

Yes, what you are seeing now

has been seen by no other man beside myself.

But the moon can't be an earth with mountains and valleys like our own

any more than the Earth can be a planet.

The moon is an earth with mountains and valleys.

Ancl the Earth is a planet.

Simply another heavenly body, one among thousands.

As the moon appears to us, so we appear to the moon.

From the moon, the Earth looks sometimes like a crescent,

sometimes like a half-globe, sometimes a full globe,

and sometimes it's not visible at all.

Galileo, this is frightening.

I have discovered something else.

Something even more astonishing.

There it is.

Your miraculous optical tube.

Do you know this product of 17 years of patient research

will be on sale tomorrow for two scudi apiece?

The telescope.

Down at the harbor at this very moment,

a ship from Holland is unloading a full cargo of them.

What have you to say?

When I think of the poor gentlemen of Venice

who thought they were getting exclusive rights.

Why, when they took their first look through the glass,

it was only by the merest chance they didn't see a peddler seven times enlarged

selling tubes exactly like it on the street corner.

Mr. Priuli,

with the help of this instrument,

Mr. Galilei has made discoveries that will revolutionize

our conception of the universe.

Mr. Galilei has provided the town with a first-rate water pump.

The irrigation works you designed function splendidly.

How was I to expect this?

Not so fast, Priuli.

I may be on the track of a sensational gadget.

Certain of the stars appear to have regular movements.

If there were a clock in the sky,

it could be seen from anywhere.

That might be useful to your shipowners. Hm?

No. I won't listen to you.

I listened to you before,

and as a reward for my friendship, you made me

the laughingstock of the town.

Oh, yes, you can laugh. You got your money.

But let me tell you this:

You have destroyed my faith in a lot of things, Mr. Galilei.

This world makes me sick!

He's almost human when he's angry.

Did you hear?

A world where you can't do business makes him sick.

Did you know about these Dutch instruments?

I'd heard about them.

But the one I made for the arsenal

was twice as good as any Dutchman's.

Besides, I needed the money.

How can I work with a tax collector on the doorstep?

And my poor daughter will never acquire a husband unless she has a dowry.

Besides, I like books. All kinds of books.

And you know I don't think well unless I eat well.

I get my best ideas over a good meal and a bottle of wine.

If only I could have five years to do nothing but research.

What about Copernicus' theory...

that the Earth...

rotates around the sun?

I noticed something through the telescope on Tuesday

which might prove a step towards even that.

There are four lesser stars near Jupiter.

I happened on them on Monday,

but didn't take any particular note of their position.

On Tuesday, I looked again.

I could've sworn they'd moved.

I've recorded their positions.

Now...

they've changed again.

Tell me what you see.

I see three.

Where is the fourth?

Here are the charts. Let's get down to work.

The fourth must have moved 'round behind Jupiter where we can't see it.

That means there's a small star revolving 'round a big star.

Jupiter can't be fixed to anything.

If there's another star revolving round it--

Where are the crystal spheres now,

that the stars are supposed to be fixed to?

Nowhere. There's no scaffolding in the sky.

There's nothing holding the universe up.

Don't stand there like a stockfish,

as if you are afraid it isn't true.

I'm not standing like a stockfish.

I'm trembling because I'm afraid it is true.

Why?

What do you think is going to happen to you

when you say that there's another sun

with other earths revolving 'round it?

That this earth is a planet

and not the center of the universe?

Ancl that there's nothing but stars.

No difference between Earth and heaven.

No heaven at all.

Where's God, then?

What do you mean?

God. Where is God?

Not out there, any more than he'd be down here

if somebody out there came down to look for him.

Where is he, then?

I'm a mathematician, not a theologian.

You're a human being.

Where is God in your system of the universe?

Inside us. Or nowhere.

Ten years ago, a man was burned at the stake for saying that.

Giordano Bruno spoke too soon.

He'd never have been burned if he could have backed up what he said with proof.

Do you really believe that proof makes any difference?

All the difference in the world.

I believe in man,

and that means I believe in reason.

Without that belief,

I wouldn't have the strength to get out of bed in the morning.

How can you mistake man's contemptible cunning... for reason?

I know they call a donkey a horse when they want to sell it,

and a horse a donkey when they want to buy it.

Is that the whole story?

If I were to drop a stone and tell people it didn't fall,

do you think they'd accept it?

No.

The seduction of proof is still strong.

In the long run, no one can resist it.

Good morning, father.

Up So early?

I'm going to matins with Mrs. Sarti.

Lud0vico's coming, too.

- How was the night, Father? - Clear.

- May I look through the tube? - What for? It isn't a toy.

I know that, Father.

What did you find?

Some little specks by the side of a big star.

I must find a way of drawing attention to them.

Perhaps I'll call them the Medician Stars to please the Duke of Florence.

By the way, we may move to Florence.

I've written to His Highness,

asking if he can use me as court mathematician.

- Shall we live at court, father? - Galileo.

My dear Sagredo, I must have time to work out my proof.

And I need my comforts.

My only worry is the Duke may not take me.

Oh, surely he'll take you, Father.

But those new stars--

I'm not used to writing letters to important people.

Do you think this will do?

"With this, I commend myself as one of your most faithful and devoted servants

whose chief desire is to bask in the presence of Your Highness,

the rising sun of our great age."

The Duke of Florence is a boy of nine.

I know.

Oh, I see.

You think my letter is too servile.

I wonder if it's servile enough.

The only way a man like me can land a decent job is by crawling on his belly.

Run along to matins, now.

- Galileo, don't go to Florence. - Why not?

It's ruled by monks.

There are scholars, too.

- Lackeys. - I'll take them by the scruff of the neck

and make them look through my tube.

Even monks can be seduced by proof.

Galileo, you're setting out on the road to disaster.

You're suspicious and skeptical in science.

But in politics, you're as naive as your daughter.

How can those in power leave a man at large who tells the truth?

Even about the remotest stars.

Can you see the Pope calmly writing down in his diary

"Tenth of January, 1610.

Heaven abolished."

A while ago, when you were at your telescope...

I saw you tied to the stake.

And when you said you believed in proof,

I smelled burning flesh.

If they'll have me, I'll go.

Your Highness.

Shall we begin with an observation

of the satellites of Jupiter,

the Medician Stars.

- Sit down here, please. - Thank you, my boy.

No, I'm afraid it's not as simple as that.

Before we use your celebrated instrument, Mr. Galilei,

we beg the favor of a disputation.

Subject: Can these moons exist?

A formal disputation.

Why don't you just look through the telescope and see for yourselves?

- Here, please. - Yes, yes.

You are aware that your proposition-

that there are stars revolving around some center other than the Earth,

that there's nothing holding the universe up--

is in contradiction to the wisdom of the ages?

- Yes. - Apart from my mathematical friends'

reservations as to whether these moons are possible,

I, as a philosopher ask you, are they necessary?

Aristotleis divini--

Shall we speak in everyday language?

My colleague Mr. Federzoni doesn't understand Latin.

- Does that matter? - Yes.

The debate will be less brilliant, but it's your house.

The cosmos of the divine Aristotle,

with its crystal spheres and their mystical music

is an edifice of incomparable order and beauty.

Why should we go out of our way to look for things

which can only strike a discord in that inevitable harmony?

Your Highness, would you care to observe

these unnecessary and impossible stars through the telescope?

Mr. Galilei, nobody doubts that your brainchild--

or shall we say your adopted brainchild-- is brilliantly contrived.

But one is tempted to observe that if your tube

shows something that cannot exist,

it must be a rather unreliable tube.

- How's that? - With the utmost deference, Mr. Galilei,

I suggest that what one sees in your eyeglass...

and what is in the heavens, might be two entirely different things.

Admirably put.

Great restraint.

They think we painted the Medician Stars on the lens.

Huh-- Are you accusing me of fraud?

We wouldn't dream of it in the presence of His Highness.

Is there something wrong with my stars?

Your Highness' stars are fine.

The gentlemen are only wondering whether they really exist.

Can you see the claws on the Great Bear?

Yes. And everything on the bull.

Are you gentlemen going to look or not?

Certainly.

- What is the matter with you? - They're stupid.

Deplorable child.

Your Highness...

I have just received an important message.

- I think we should go at once. - Gentlemen.

The sum of our knowledge is pitiful.

It has been my singular good fortune to get hold of a new instrument

that brings a small patch of the universe a little bit closer.

It's at your disposal. Make use of it.

Your Highness, ladies and gentlemen, where is all this leading?

Are we, as scholars,

concerned with where the truth might lead us?

Mr. Galilei, the truth might lead us anywhere.

Your Highness, these nights,

all over Italy, telescopes have been turned on the sky.

The moons of Jupiter have never been seen before, and yet, they exist.

The man in the street may conclude that a good many other things may exist

if only he opens his eyes.

Gentlemen,

we oughtn't to be defending shaky doctrines.

You are teachers.

You ought to be doing the shaking.

I wish your man would keep out

of what is supposed to be a scientific debate.

Your Highness...

Looks as if we have to go to the shipyards nowadays

to find the high curiosity that was the glory of Greece.

Well, I'm sure Mr. Galilei will find admirers in the shipyards.

Your Highness, I find this highly informative discussion

has exceeded the time we allowed for it.

It is imperative that we leave at once.

One of my cakes, your Highness.

But you need only to look through the telescope.

His Highness will, of course, seek the opinion

of the greatest living authority...

Christopher Clavius,

Astronomer-in-Chief at the papal college in Rome.

Things take indeed A wondrous turn

When learned men Do stoop to learn

Clavius We are pleased to say

Upheld Galileo

Hopeless, hopeless, hopeless!

Is there anything in the world that people won't believe?

Yes, Monsignor, that you don't like your belly!

Oh, they'd believe that.

They only won't believe what's good for them.

They doubt the devil, but fill them up with a lot of fiddledeedee

about the Earth rolling in the gutter like a marble,

and they swallow it hook, line and sinker.

Sancta simplicitas!

Ooh! Ooh! The Earth is going around too quickly!

Ooh! Ooh! I'm dizzy!

May I hold onto you, Professor?

Old Mother Earth's been at the bottle again.

Venus is listening badly. I can only see half of her behind!

Help! Hope we don't get thrown onto the moon!

All those nasty, sharp mountain peaks.

Don't look down!

Every child and half-skinny piglet in Holy Rome.

What does the Bible say?

"Sun, stand thou still upon Gabanon

and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon."

Can the sun come to a standstill if it doesn't ever move?

Does the Bible lie?

How did Christopher Clavius, the greatest astronomer alive,

get mixed up in an investigation of this kind?

He's in there, with his eyes glued to that diabolical instrument.

Mr. Galilei...

I think something just fell down.

Are you sure, Monsignor, that it didn't fall up?

Insolence.

Aren't they out yet?

Can't they reach a decision on this paltry matter?

Christopher Clavius ought to know his astronomy after all these years.

I hear this Mr. Galilei transfers mankind

from the center of the universe to somewhere in the outskirts.

This Mr. Galilei is therefore an enemy to mankind

and must be dealt with as such.

Is it conceivable that God would trust

the most precious fruit of his labor to some mere flip-it-tich-i-bit of a star?

Would he have sent his son to such a place?

How can men be so perverse as to listen to something

that's told them by some slave of the multiplication table.

The gentleman is over there.

So you're the man.

Yeah, and our eyes are not what they were, but...

I can-- I can see you bear a striking resemblance to the man we burned.

He-- What was his name?

Your Eminence, the doctor said you mustn't excite yourself.

So you have degraded the Earth in spite of the fact

that you live by it and receive everything from her.

Well, I won't have it!

I won't be a nobody on some nondescript star,

twirling briefly, hither and dither.

I tread the Earth and the Earth is firm beneath my feet!

It stands still and is the center of the universe,

and I am in the center, and the eye of the Creator is upon me.

About me, fixed to the crystal spheres

revolve the lesser lights of the stars

and the great light of the sun,

created to illumine me, that God might see me.

Man, the supreme work of God...

a central figure in-- in His own image

created him immortal and-- and--

Your Eminence, you have overtaxed yourself.

Your Eminences, Father Clavius.

He's right.

Father Clavius says

it's up to the theologians now to set the heavens right again.

You've won.

Who is this man?

His Eminence, the Cardinal Inquisitor.

When Galileo was

In Rome

A cardinal asked him To his home

And dined and wined him As his guest

He only made

One small request

I won't dance with anyone but you, Ludovico.

- You're showing some lace. - Oh.

- Father, feel my heart. - Oh! It's thumping.

- Oh, I want to look beautiful. - You'd better.

If you don't, they'll start saying all over again

that the Earth doesn't turn.

It doesn't turn, sir.

I was to wait here for Cardinal Bellarmine.

His Eminence will be with you in a few minutes.

Oh, Mr. Galilei.

This is an honor, sefior Galileo.

- Congratulations. - Thank you.

Run along, and enjoy yourselves.

Rome.

- Big party? - 250 guests, Mr. Galilei.

The first carnival after the years of the plague.

All the great families of Italy are represented here this evening.

The Orsinis, the Granatis, the Pescis.

- The Cesarinis. - The Guidis, the Lastricardis.

Ah, their Eminencies, Cardinals Bellarmine and Barberini.

- Your Eminence. - Mr. Galilei, Cardinal Barberini.

Your Eminence.

"The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down

and hasteth to his place where he arose."

Thus says Solomon. What says Galilei?

Your Eminence...

When I was so high, I remember standing on a ship.

And when it pulled off, I shouted, "The shore is moving away!"

But I know now it was the ship that was moving away from the shore.

You can't catch you.

Unfortunately for me, I glanced at a few papers on astronomy once,

and it's harder to get rid of than the itch.

We must move with the times, Barberini.

If it makes navigation easier to use new charts

based upon a new hypothesis, let's use them.

We need only scotch doctrines that contradict Holy Writ.

Holy Writ.

"He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him."

Proverbs.

"A prudent man concealeth knowledge."

- Proverbs. - "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean.

But much increase is by the strength of the ox."

"He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city."

"The broken spirit drieth the bones."

"Doth not wisdom cry?"

"Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?"

Welcome to Rome, friend Galilei.

You will recall the story of the founding of the city.

Two little boys found shelter and sustenance with a she-wolf.

And from that day, we've paid the price for the she-wolf's milk.

But the place is not bad.

And we have everything for your pleasure,

from a scholarly debate with my friend Bellarmine

to ladies of, uh, international repute.

Would you like to meet one?

No?

He prefers a serious discussion.

Very well.

Are you sure, friend Galilei, that you astronomers

aren't just trying to make astronomy easier for yourselves?

You speak in terms of circles, ellipsis and uniform velocities,

simple movements that the human mind can grasp.

Very convenient.

But suppose Almighty God had taken it into his head

to make the stars move like that.

What will become of your calculations then?

Your Eminence, if God had created the world like this,

he would've made our minds like this, too,

so that we could grasp it.

I believe in reason.

I consider reason inadequate.

He's too polite to tell me he considers mine inadequate.

But what is one to do with him?

Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

All he wants to prove is that God made a few mistakes.

In astronomy, God didn't work hard enough before he composed Holy Writ.

My clear friend...

Don't put anything down. This is a scientific discussion among friends.

Don't you think it likely the Creator knows more

about his work than the created?

Man may misread not only the heavenly bodies,

but the Bible as well.

The interpretation of the Bible

is a matter for the ministers of God.

You don't answer?

Tonight, the Holy Office has decided

that the theory of Copernicus,

according to which, the Earth moves around the sun,

is false, absurd and heretical.

I am charged, Mr. Galilei,

to admonish you to relinquish this opinion.

Would you repeat that?

His Eminence Cardinal Bellarmine to the aforesaid Galileo Galilei,

"The Holy Office has decided that the theory of Copernicus,

according to which, the Earth goes around the sun,

is foolish, absurd and heretical.

I am charged, Mr. Galilei, to admonish you to relinquish this opinion."

What does this mean?

The Collegium Romanum confirmed my observations.

Yes, they were most complimentary to you.

But... the satellites of Jupiter.

The phases of Venus.

The Holy Office formulated its decree

without taking these particulars into account.

In other words...

the future of all scientific research is completely-

Completely assured, Mr. Galilei.

It is not given to man to know the truth,

but it is granted him to seek after the truth.

Science is the legitimate and beloved daughter of the church.

She must have confidence in the church.

Be realistic, friend Galilei...

and so shall we.

We need you more than you need us.

Barberini, it's time we introduced

Italy's most discussed scientist to our guests.

Let's put on our masks.

Our poor Galilei hasn't got one.

Did you get his last sentence?

Yes. Have you got what he said about believing in reason?

Did the interview take place?

Well, my daughter...

may I congratulate you on your betrothal.

Your young man comes from a distinguished family.

Will you be staying on in Rome?

Not now, Your Eminence. I must return home for the wedding.

Ah, so you're accompanying your father back to Florence.

That should please him.

Mathematics is a cold housewife.

Your youth and warmth will keep him down to Earth.

Oh, it's easy to get lost up there.

He doesn't talk to me about the stars, Your Eminence.

No.

They don't eat fish in the fisherman's house.

Though I can tell you something about astronomy.

It seems, my child, that God has blessed

our modern astronomers with imagination.

Oh, it's getting quite alarming.

Compared to their picture of the world,

our old picture is like a mere miniature,

such as might hang 'round the neck of a charming young lady.

The gentlemen of the Holy Office are worried

that a prelate or even a cardinal might get lost in such enormous spaces.

The Almighty might even lose sight of the Pope himself.

Yes, it's all most amusing.

Even so, my child, I'm glad to know

that you will be staying with your eminent father,

whom we all hold in highest esteem.

I wonder, do I know your father confessor?

Father Jacamo

of Saint Ursula's in Florence, Your Eminence.

Hm.

My dear child, your father will need you.

Not so much now, perhaps, but...

one of these days.

You are pure.

And there is strength in purity.

Greatness is sometimes, indeed often,

too heavy a burden for those to whom God has granted it.

What man is so great...

he has no place in a prayer?

But I'm keeping you.

Your fiancé is going to be jealous.

And I'm afraid that your father will never forgive me

for holding forth to you about astronomy.

And remember me to Father Jacamo.

Galileo, feeling grim

A young monk Came to visit him

The monk was born Of common folk

It was of science That they spoke

Mr. Galilei?

My name is Fulganzio.

I'm student of physics.

For three nights, I have been unable to sleep.

I can't reconcile the decree of the Holy Office which I've read

with the satellites of Jupiter, which I've seen.

So this morning I decided to perform math and then come to see you.

To tell me Jupiter has no moons.

No.

The decree has shocked me into realizing

that unrestricted research is dangerous.

I've decided to give up astronomy.

But first, I felt I had to tell you my reasons.

Such reasons are familiar to me.

You mean, of course...

certain pressures exerted by the church.

But there is something else.

I'd like to talk to you about my family.

I don't come from the great city.

My parents are peasants in the Campagna.

They know about growing olives, but not much about anything else.

Often these days, as I observe the phases of Venus,

I can see my mother and father and sister

sitting by the stove at home,

under rafters blackened by the smoke of centuries.

I can see the spoons in their roughen hands.

They're very poor.

But underlying their poverty,

there is a sort of order, routine, rhythm.

My father's back wasn't bowed all at once,

but little by little each year.

Regularly, year after year, childbearing made my mother more and more sexless.

What gives them the strength to sweat with loaded baskets up the stony paths...

to bear children...

even to eat...

is the sense of stability...

of necessity, which they get

from the sight of the trees turning green every year...

from the sight of the soil...

and the little church.

They've been told the eye of God is on them.

And that the whole pageant of the world was written around them

that they might be saved.

Well, what would they say if I told them

that they're living on a little chunk of stone

spinning in empty space around a second-rate star?

What would be the use of their patience, then?

Of the acquiescence in their misery?

What comfort would there be in holy scripture

which demonstrates the necessity of their submission?

And their sweat.

If holy scripture is shown to be full of error...

now they'd feel they'd been cheated.

I can see their eyes waiver.

I can see them put down their spoons on the table.

Hunger is just going without food,

not a test of strength, they'd say.

Effort is just bending and carrying, not a virtue.

So can you wonder if I see in the decree of the Holy Office

a noble and motherly compassion.

A great magnanimity.

Hmm. Well...

At least you found out that the crux of the matter

is not the satellites of Jupiter,

but the peasants of the Campagna.

And don't talk to me

about the beauty that radiates from suffering.

Do you know how a pearl develops in an oyster?

A jagged grain of sand gets inside the oyster shell

and makes its life unbearable.

The oyster exudes slime to cover the grain of sand.

And that eventually hardens into a pearl.

The oyster nearly dies in the process.

To hell with the pearl. Give me the healthy oyster.

Virtues are not the monopoly of poverty.

If your parents were prosperous and happy,

they could develop the virtues of happiness and prosperity.

Do you want me to lie to your people?

We must be silent from the highest of motives...

the inward peace of less fortunate souls.

If I condoned this decree,

and left your parents undisturbed,

my motives might not be entirely disinterested.

Easy life, no persecution, and so on.

Would you like to see a Cellini timepiece

that Cardinal Bellarmine's coachman delivered here this morning?

And as a reward for leaving your mother and father's peace untroubled,

the government offers me the wine they produce by the sweat of their brow.

The brow, which, as you know, was made in God's image.

Mr. Galilei, I am a priest.

You're also a physicist.

And you can see that Venus has phases.

How can new machinery be evolved to control rivers

if physicists are forbidden to study

the greatest machinery of all, the mechanism of the stars?

Can I reconcile my findings on the paths of falling bodies

with the tracks of witches riding on broomsticks?

You don't think the truth, if it is truth,

would make its way without us?

No.

Truth prevails only as far as we make it prevail.

You speak about the Campagna peasants

as if there were moss on their huts.

If they don't rouse themselves and learn to think,

the best irrigation systems in the world can't help them.

I can see their divine patience.

But where is their divine wrath?

They're tired.

Are you a physicist?

Here is what draws the ocean when it ebbs and flows.

Let it lie there.

Thou shalt not read.

Already.

You are a physicist.

An apple of the tree of knowledge.

He can't wait. He wolfs it down.

He'll rot in hell for all eternity, and yet, look at him.

Where are his manners?

Sometimes I think...

I would willingly be imprisoned in a dungeon

fathoms under the earth if in exchange

I could find out one thing.

What is... light?

And the worst of it is...

when I find something out...

I have to tell others about it.

Like a lover.

Like a drunkard.

Like a traitor.

I don't understand this sentence.

I'll explain it to you, Fulganzio.

I'll explain it to you.

For eight long years

With tongue in cheek

Of what he knew

He did not speak

Then temptation Grew too great

But Galileo challenged fate

Uh, Thursday.

Floating bodies. Again.

So ice, bowl of water, scales, iron needle.

Aristotle.

Ludovico likes entertaining.

This is for the long dining table.

It's got to be perfect. His mother notices every stitch.

She's not too happy about Father's books any more than Father Jacamo.

Oh, he hasn't written a book for years.

In Rome, a long time ago,

a very important ecclesiastic told me things about astronomy.

Virginia, I want to talk to you about your marriage.

You're such a young thing.

You have no mother.

And your father just puts pieces of ice on water.

A marriage is too serious a business.

I wouldn't ask your father questions about your marriage.

He always says such dreadful things.

And always at meal times when the young men are there.

He hasn't half a scud0's worth of shame in him.

Never has had.

I'm thinking of what the future has in store.

I think you should go to see a real astronomer at the university

and have him cast your horoscope so you'll know where you stand.

What are you laughing at?

Because I've been already.

- Tell me. - Well, I've got to be very careful

for the next three months because the sun is in Aries.

But after that, I get a very favorable ascendant, and the clouds will part.

And as long as I don't lose sight of Jupiter,

I may go on any journey I please because I'm an Aries.

- And Ludovico? - He's a Leo.

That means sensual, I think.

I know that step. It's Mr. Gaffone, the rector.

- Miss Galilei. - Mr. Gaffone.

Just thought I'd bring you a book that might interest your father.

It's about the great issue of the moment.

Oh, for heaven's sake, don't disturb Mr. Galilei.

I can't help feeling that every minute taken from that great man

is a minute stolen from Italy.

I'll just put the book into your little hands

and disappear on tiptoe.

Afternoon.

Thank you.

What's that about?

I don't know.

- "De maculis in sole--" - Ah, it's on the sunspots.

A new one.

Listen to the dedication:

"To the greatest living authority on physics,

Galileo Galilei."

I read Fabricius' paper the other day.

He thinks the spots are clusters of planets between us and the sun.

Isn't that doubtful, Mr. Galilei?

In Paris and Prague, they think they're vapors from the sun.

- Mm. - Federzoni has his doubts.

Oh, leave me out.

I said, "Mm." That's all.

How can I doubt anything?

I'm lens grinder.

I grind lenses, you use them.

You observe the heavens, and what you see

is not sunspots, but a "maculis."

Don't discuss these new things in front of me.

I can't read the books. It's Latin!

There is happiness in doubting. I wonder why?

Are we going to take this up, sir?

Every sunny day for the last fortnight, I've gone up to the attic.

A thin beam of light comes down through a crack in the tiles.

With

With it, you can catch a reverse image of the sun

on a piece of paper.

On the image, I could see a little blurred spot that moved.

Why don't we investigate those spots, Mr. Galilei?

At the moment, we are investigating floating bodies.

Mother has whole baskets full of letters.

All of Europe wants your opinion.

With the reputation you've built up, you can't be silent.

Rome has allowed me to build up a reputation because I've been silent.

Well, I don't see how you can afford to be silent any longer.

I can't afford to be roasted on a wood fire like a ham.

Ah.

You think the sunspots may have something to do with that again.

All right, we'll stick to filling a bowl with bits of ice.

- That can't hurt you. - Exactly.

Our proposition.

All things that are lighter than water float.

All things that are heavier sink.

What does Aristotle say?

"Discus latus plates--

Translate, Fulganzio.

"A broad, flat disc of ice floats in water,

whereas an iron needle sinks."

Why then, according to Aristotle, doesn't ice sink?

"Because being broad and flat, it cannot divide the water."

Very well.

I press the ice firmly,

down to the bottom of the bowl.

Now I remove the pressure of my hand.

What happened?

It rises to the surface.

Correct.

In rising, it seems to be able to divide the water, Fulganzio.

But then why does it float at all?

Ice is heavier than water because it is compressed water.

What if it were expanded water?

It must be lighter than water or it wouldn't float.

Mm-hmm.

Just as an iron needle can't float.

All things that are lighter than water float.

All things that are heavier sink. Q.E.D.

Andrea, you must learn to think carefully.

Give me that iron needle.

A sheet of paper.

- Is iron heavier than water? - Yes.

What happened?

It floats.

Holy Aristotle!

They never checked up on him.

Every time I hear them laugh like that...

I feel afraid.

Well!

Ludovico!

Oh.

Oh, why didn't you let us know you were coming?

I was merely here inspecting our vineyards at Buccioli.

I couldn't keep away.

- Who is that? - Ludovico.

- Oh. - Good clay, sir.

Can't you see him?

Let's celebrate.

Sarti, bring us a jug of that old Sicilian wine.

- How are the horses? - The horses are fine, sir.

Fine. Let's sit down.

Sit down, Ludovico.

You're looking pale.

Country life will do you good.

Oh, Mother's planning on September.

I suppose I oughtn't to.

Wait a moment, I have something to show you.

I hear as many as a thousand students

come to hear you lecture at the university, sir.

What are you working on these days?

Routine stuff.

- Did you come through Rome? - Yes.

Oh, before I forget, Mother sends her congratulations on your restraint

about the fuss in Holland of the sunspots.

Very kind of her.

Christopher Clavius had all Rome by the ears.

He said he was afraid this Earth 'round the sun business

might crop up again because of these spots.

Clavius is on the same track.

Yes.

What news from the Holy City other than the hope of new aberrations of my part?

Pope is on his deathbed.

Hadn't you heard?

Oh.

Who do they say is going to be his successor?

They say Barberini.

Barberini.

Mr. Galilei knows Barberini.

Cardinal Barberini is a mathematician.

A scientist in the chair of Saint Peter.

We might live to see the clay, Federzoni,

when we don't have to look over our shoulders like criminals

every time we say two and two are four.

Mmm. I like this wine.

What do you think of it, Ludovico?

I like it.

I know the hill where it's grown.

The slope is steep and stony.

The grape almost blue.

- I'm fond of this wine. - Yes, sir.

Yes. There are little shadows in it.

It's almost sweet.

Just stops short there. Hm?

Andrea...

- bring in your contraption. - Really?

He's starting on the sunspots.

The pope's convinced the Earth stands still.

Or so the Bible proves.

He tries to take it by the ears...

Ancl yet, and yet, it moves!

We might find that the sun turns, too.

How would you like that, Mr. Marsili?

What's all the excitement?

You're not going to start those hellish goings on again, Galileo.

Correct me if I'm wrong...

Barberini is in the ascendant.

Your mother's uneasy.

And you have been sent to investigate.

Clavius is right.

These sunspots... do interest me.

How do you like my wine, Ludovico?

I told you I liked it, sir.

- Do you really like it? - I like it.

What has my astronomy to do with my daughter?

The phases of Venus don't affect Virginia's rear end.

That isn't funny, just vulgar.

- I'll get Virginia. - Mrs. Sarti...

Marriage in families like mine is not decided

by sexual considerations alone.

Oh, was it the family that kept you

from marrying my daughter for eight years.

My future wife will have to take her place

in our village church.

If a bad man's daughter sat in the family pew,

it might stop your peasants from paying their rent.

In a way.

The reflector and the screen...

will throw the image of the sun on it to save our eyes.

Andrea, your method--

My mother was positively assured that you'd undertaken

not to get mixed up in this Earth 'round the sun business again, sir.

We had a reactionary pope, then.

Had? His Holiness isn't dead yet.

- Pretty nearly. - Pretty nearly?

Fifty times, this man will weigh a chip of ice.

But when it comes to something that suits him, he believes it blindly.

If His Holiness dies, the new pope, whoever he turns out to be,

will respect the convictions held by the country's leading families.

God made the physical world.

God made the human brain.

God will allow physics.

Galileo, let me tell you something.

I've watched my son fall into sin

for the sake of these experiments

and theories and observations.

And I haven't been able to do anything about it.

You set yourself against the authorities

and they gave you a warning.

The greatest cardinal spoke to you the way you speak to a sick horse.

But it worked. For a while.

But two months ago, I caught you sneaking back to your observations.

I didn't say anything.

But I knew.

And I lit a candle to St. Joseph.

It's more than I can bear.

When we're alone, you share some sense.

You say you've got to behave because it's dangerous not to.

But two clays of these experiments

and you're as bad as ever.

If I lose my eternal salvation because I stand by a heretic, that's my business.

But you've no right to trample your daughter's happiness with your big feet.

Uncover the telescope.

Giuseppe, put the luggage back in the coach.

Shefilnever get over this.

You can tell her yourself.

Mr. Galilei, if we Marsilis were to countenance teaching

frowned on by the church, it could unsettle our peasants.

Don't forget these poor wretches would get everything mixed up.

- They're nothing but animals. - Really?

I've seen the day when my poor mother

has had to have a dog whipped in front of them

to remind them to keep their place.

Oh.

You may have occasionally seen the corn

waving from the window of your comfortable coach.

You've no doubt nibbled our olives or absentmindedly eaten our cheese.

But you can have no idea how much responsibility that sort of thing is.

What makes you think I ever eat my cheese absentmindedly?

- Are we ready? - Yes, sir.

It isn't only dogs you whip

to keep discipline, is it, Marsili?

Mr. Galilei, you have a wonderful brain.

It's a pity.

- He's threatening you. - Yes.

I might unsettle his peasants and his housekeeper and his agent.

It's all right. None of them speak Latin.

A might write in the vernacular for the many,

instead of in Latin for the few.

What we need for our new ideas

is people who work with their hands.

Who else wants to know the causes of everything?

People who never see bread except on their tables

don't want to know how it's baked.

The bastards would rather thank God than the baker.

You've made your decision.

You'll always be a slave to your passions.

Excuse me to Virginia.

I think it's as well if I don't see her now.

The dowry's at your disposal at any time.

Good day.

And our regards to the Marsilis,

who order the Earth to stand still

so that their castles won't fall off.

- And the Guidos and the Orsinis. - And the Rosellis.

- And the Cesarinis. - And the Gianottis.

Who'll only kiss the pope's foot

as long as he tramples on the people with it.

The new pope will be an enlightened man.

Hm.

No, let's start observing these sunspots at our own risk.

Not counting too much on the protection of the problematical new pope.

But fully confident of dispelling

that Fabricius' star shadows and the solar vapors of Paris and Prague

and of proving that the sun rotates.

Andrea.

Reasonably confident of proving that the sun rotates.

My intention is not to prove that I was right,

but to find out whether I was right.

Turn it on the sun.

I thought you'd been working at it.

Do you know when I guessed it?

When you didn't recognize Mr. Marsili.

You sent him away!

I've got to know.

When the Almighty Made the universe

He made the Earth And next he made the sun

Then 'round the Earth, He bade the sun to turn

That's in the Bible, Genesis One

And since that time, AH beings here below

Were in obedient circles Meant to go

Around the Pope, The cardinals

Around the cardinals, The bishops

Around the bishops, The ministers

- Oh-ho! - Around the ministers

The aldermen

Around the alderman, The craftsmen

Around the craftsmen, The servants

Around the servants, the dogs, The chickens and the beggars

Up stood the learned Galileo

Glanced briefly at the sun

And said Almighty God Was wrong

In Genesis Chapter One

And that is bold, my friends

This is no matter small

For heresies could spread at once Like bad diseases

Change Holy Writ, forsooth?

What would be left at all?

Why each of us Would say and do

Just as he pleases

As he pleases

together} As he pleases

Good people, What will come to pass

If Galileo's teachings Spread?

No altar boy Will serve the mass

No servant girl Will make the beds

Now that is grave, My friends

This is no matter small

An independent spirit Spreads like bad diseases

For life is sweet And man is weak

And after all

How good it is Just for a change

To do just as one pleases

As one pleases

As one pleases

The carpenters take wood And build

Their houses, Not the church's pews

The members Of the cobbler's guild

Now boldly walk the streets In shoes

The tenant kicks The noble lord

Right off his land Like that

The milk the wife Once fed the priest

Now makes at last Her children fat

Now that is grave My friends

This is no matter small

An independent spirit Spreads like bad diseases

For life is sweet And man is weak

And after all

How good it is Just for a change

To do just as one pleases

As one pleases

As one pleases

The duchess washes Her chimneys

The emperor has to Fetch his beer

His troops make love Behind the trees

Commands they do not hear

Now that I think of it

I feel that I could Also use a change

You know for me You have appeal

Maybe tonight We could arrange

No, no, no, No, no, no, StOP

Galileo, stop

An independent spirit spreads As do diseases

People must keep their place

Some down and some on top

Still it feels good Just for a change

To do just as one pleases

As one pleases

As one pleases

Good creatures

Who have trouble here below

In serving cruel lords

And gentle Jesus

Who bids you

Turn the other cheek Just so

While they get set

To strike the second blow

together} Obedience

Will never cure your woe

Let each of us get wise And do for once

Just as he pleases

As he pleases

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

Presenting Galileo's phenomenon,

the Earth rounding around the sun!

A procession.

The depths are hot

The heights are chill

The streets are loud

The court is still

The Grand Duke's been keeping us waiting a long time.

Yes.

Will he say your book is heretical?

You hang around church too much.

Getting up at dawn and scurrying to mass is ruining your complexion.

You pray for me, don't you?

I've been worried.

It's that man over there, again.

The one who's always hanging 'round the house.

Here's Mr. Vanni, the iron founder.

The one you designed the furnace for.

Don't forget to thank him for the quail he sent us.

How were the quail, Mr. Galilei?

Excellent.

Again, many thanks.

They were talking about you upstairs.

They're saying you're responsible for the new crop

of pamphlets against the Bible.

I know nothing about pamphlets.

Homer and the Bible are my favorite reading.

It doesn't bother me.

I'm glad of this chance to tell you

that we, the manufacturers, are on your side.

I don't know much about the motions of the stars,

but you're fighting for the freedom to teach new knowledge.

Take that mechanical cultivator in German you told me about.

I can tell you it'll never be used in this country.

Your opinion carries weight, Vanni.

Well, I hope so.

Did you know they have money markets in Amsterdam and London?

Here, we're not even free to make money.

We sink or swim with men like you, Mr. Galilei.

If they ever try anything, Mr. Galilei,

remember you have friends in every branch of industry.

The cities of Northern Italy are behind you.

As far as I know, nobody's thinking of harming me.

No?

No.

In my opinion, you'd be better off in Venice.

You could put up a fight from there.

I have a coach and horses.

I don't see myself as a refugee.

I like my comfort.

Yes, but from what I hear, there's an element of time involved.

I got the impression they'd be relieved

if you were out of Florence just now.

Nonsense.

The Duke is my pupil.

Not to mention the fact that

if anybody tries anything in Rome,

the Pope himself will tell him where to get off.

You don't seem to know your friends from your enemies, Mr. Galilei.

I know who's in power.

Well.

Good luck to you.

What is the Cardinal Inquisitor doing in Florence?

I don't know.

He was not disrespectful.

The Lord Chamberlain.

His Highness had hoped to find time for you, Mr. Galilei.

Unfortunately, he has leave immediately to judge the parade at the riding academy.

On what business did you wish to see His Highness?

Um, I wanted to present my book.

How are your eyes today?

So-so.

With His Highness' permission, I'm dedicate--

Your eyes are a matter of great concern to His Highness.

Could it be that you had been looking too long and too often

through your marvelous tube?

Father, I'm afraid.

Don't show your feelings.

We're not going home.

We're going to the glass cutters.

I've arranged with him to have a cart ready to take us away at any time.

- Mr. Galilei? - Don't look 'round.

Mr. Galilei.

His Highness has just charged me to inform you

that the Florentine Court can no longer oppose the request

of the Holy Inquisition to interrogate you in Rome.

The carriage of the Holy Inquisition is waiting.

The Pope

No, no, no.

Oh, the shuffling feet.

Doctors of all the faculties,

representatives of all the religious orders of the entire clergy...

who have come believing with childlike faith in the word of God

as set forth in the Scriptures,

who have come to hear Your Holiness confirm their faith.

Ancl Your Holiness is really going to tell them

that the Bible can no longer be regarded as the alphabet truth.

I will not set myself up against the multiplication table, no.

It is what these people say,

that it is only the multiplication table.

Their cry is, "Figures compel us."

But where do the figures come from?

Plainly, they come from doubt.

These people doubt everything.

Can society stand on doubt instead of on faith?

"You are my master.

Ancl I doubt whether that is a good arrangement.

This is your house, your wife,

but I doubt whether they shouldn't be mine."

After the plague,

after the new war,

and after the unparalleled disaster of the Reformation,

your dwindling flock is looking to its shepherd.

And now these worms of mathematicians

choose this moment to turn their tubes upon the sky

and announce that Your Holiness has not the best advice about the heavens either.

This man is the greatest physicist of our time.

He is the life of Italy, not just some crank.

Would we have had to arrest him otherwise?

Aristotle...

whom these renegades otherwise regard as a dead dog, said...

"If the shuttle were to weave by itself,

masters would no longer need apprentices

nor lords servants.

Well, they believe this time has come.

Ancl this evil man knows what he's doing.

And he writes his books not in Latin,

but in the language of iron founders and fishwives.

Well, it's certainly not in the best of taste.

I'll mention it to him.

The seaports of Northern Italy keep insisting

they must have Galileo's star charts.

Well, we shall have to give in.

There are material interests involved.

But the star charts are based on his heretical teachings.

We cannot damn the teachings and still use the star charts.

No, you cannot do otherwise.

All those shuffling feet make me nervous.

May they be more telling than my words, Your Holiness.

Shall all these go from you with doubt in their hearts?

But this man has friends.

What about France?

What about the Viennese court?

They will call the church a cesspool of defunct ideas.

Keep your hands off him.

Well, actually, we shouldn't have to go very far.

He's a man of the flesh.

Oh, he'd cave in very quickly.

Well, he likes eating,

drinking and thinking more than any man I ever knew.

He gets pleasure out of everything.

Even his thinking is central.

He indulges in thinking bouts.

He could never say no to an old wine or a new idea.

I don't want any condemnation of physical facts.

I don't want to hear any battle cries of

"Church, church, church, reason, reason, reason."

I gave him leave to write his book on condition it ended by saying

the last word is not with science but with faith.

- He has complied. - But how?

His book shows a simpleton propounding the opinions of Aristotle

and an intelligent man expressing Galileo's own views.

And who makes the concluding remark, Your Holiness?

But who states our opinion?

Not the intelligent one.

Oh, these shuffling feet are intolerable.

Has the whole world come to me?

At the very most, he may be shown the instruments.

That will be enough, Your Holiness.

Mr. Galilei understands machinery.

June 22, 1633

A momentous day

For you and me

Of all the days

That was the one

The Age of Reason Could have begun

23 days.

And the Pope hasn't even granted him an audience.

No more scientific discussions.

The Discorsi...

the sum of his findings will never be finished.

They'll kill him.

Do you really think so?

He'll never recant.

You know how when you lie awake at night...

your mind will fasten onto one thing?

Last night I kept thinking, if only they'd let him

take his little stone in with him.

The appeal to reason pebble he always carries in his pocket.

In the room they'll be taking him to, people don't wear pockets.

They won't dare.

And if they do, he'll never recant.

How can they beat the truth out of a man

who gave his sight to see?

Maybe they can't.

She is praying that he will recant.

Leave her alone.

She doesn't know whether she's on her head or her heels since they talked to her.

They brought her confessor from Florence.

Mr. Galilei will be here soon.

You may need a bed.

Has he been released?

Mr. Galilei is expected to recant at five o'clock.

As soon as he recants, the big bell of Santa Maria will be rung,

and the complete text of his recantation publicly announced.

I don't believe it.

Mr. Galilei will be brought here to the back of the embassy

to avoid the crowds collecting in the street.

The moon is an earth and has no light of its own.

Venus has no light of its own, either.

Like the Earth, it moves 'round the sun.

Four moons revolve around Jupiter,

which is as far away as the fixed stars

and not fixed to any crystal sphere.

The sun is the center of the universe and immovable.

The Earth is not the center and is not immovable!

And he was the man who proved it.

A man can't unsee what he has seen.

Well, it's five o'clock.

Damned for telling the truth.

No bell.

No bell.

It's after the hour.

He hasn't!

He hasn't!

He held firm.

It's all right.

It's all right.

He didn't recant.

Oh, no!

So...

force isn't everything.

Stupidity isn't invincible.

Man is steadfast in the face of death!

June the 22nd, 1633,

the dawn of the Age of Reason.

I wouldn't have wanted to go on living if he'd recanted.

I didn't say anything, but I was in agony.

Oh, ye of little faith!

I was sure. I was sure.

It would've been as if the clay had turned back to night again.

As if the mountain said, "I am water."

Oh, thank God!

That God and humanity can lift its head,

for one man has stood up and said, "No!"

The great bell of Santa Maria.

He is not damned!

"I, Galileo Galilei,

teacher of mathematics and physics,

at the University of Florence,

do hereby publicly renounce my teaching

that the sun is the center of the universe and motionless

and the Earth is not the center and not motionless.

I forswear this teaching with a sincere heart and unfaded faith,

and I abjure, condemn and execrate

this and all other errors and heresies

contrary to the teaching of Holy Church.

So...

the mountain turned to water.

I can't look at him.

- Tell him to go away! - Steady.

He saved his big gut!

Get him a drink.

I can walk, I can...

If you just help me a little...

Unhappy is the land...

that has no heroes.

Incorrect.

Unhappy is the land...

that needs a hero.

Sixteen hundred thirty three

To 1642

Galileo

Galilei

Is a prisoner

Of the Inquisition

Until his death

I was told to deliver this.

I didn't order a goose.

I was told to say it was from someone who was passing through.

Someone who was passing through sent you this.

What is it?

Can't you see?

No.

A goose.

- Any name? - No.

I'll eat the liver.

Have it cooked with an apple and an onion.

Tell them to cook the liver with an apple and a little onion.

We ought to get the eye doctor for Father.

He couldn't see what it was.

Has he started to write again?

No. You know he's been dictating his book to me.

I gave you pages 131 and 132.

They were the last.

He's an old fox.

You ought to have been able to see that goose.

- You were standing in my light-- - No, I wasn't.

You're straining your eyes playing with that ball.

You may read me some Horace.

We ought to get on with your weekly letter to the archbishop.

I've been told he's very pleased with your cooperativeness.

Where were we?

- Paragraph four. - Read what you have.

"The position of the church in the matter of the unrest at Genoa.

I agree with the opinion of Cardinal Spoletti

on the matter of the unrest amongst the Venetian bell rope makers."

Yes, yes, yes. I agree with the opinion of Cardinal Spoletti

about the unrest among the rope makers.

It's better to distribute good soup

in the name of charity

than to pay more to the bell rope makers.

Saint Paul says, "Charity never faileth."

How is that?

- It's beautiful, Father. - Good.

Couldn't be taken as irony?

- No. - Good.

The archbishop will like it. It's so practical.

Mm, I trust your judgment.

Read it over slowly.

"The position of the church in the matter of the unrest at Genoa.

I agree with the opinion of Cardinal Sp0letti--

"on the matter of the unrest amongst the Venetian bell rope makers."

I'm sorry to call so late in the afternoon.

I'm on my way to Holland.

I was asked to see him on my way though,

bring the latest news of him.

May I go in?

I don't know whether he'll see you.

You never came.

Ask.

Is that Andrea?

Yes, I'll send him away.

Bring him in.

Have you been keeping well, Mr. Galilei?

Sit down.

What are you doing these days?

What are you working on?

I heard it was something about hydraulics in Milan.

Fabricius in Amsterdam

asked me to visit you and inquire about your health.

I'm very well. I receive every attention.

I'm glad I can report you're in good health.

Hm. And you might inform Fabricius

that thanks to the depths of my repentance,

I live in comparative comfort

and am allowed certain scientific pursuits

- under clerical supervision. - Yes.

We understand the church is more than pleased with you.

Your complete submission has had its effect.

Not one single paper expounding a new thesis

has been published in Italy since.

Hm. Unfortunately...

there are countries not under the wing of the church.

I'm afraid the condemned theories are being taught there.

Things are almost at a standstill.

Are they?

Nothing from Descartes in Paris?

Yes.

When he heard you had recanted,

he put aside his treatise on the nature of light.

I sometimes worry about my assistants whom I led into error.

Have they benefited by my example?

In order to carry on working,

I have to go to Holland.

Yes, yes.

Federzoni is grinding lenses again.

Back in some shop.

He doesn't know Latin.

Fulganzio, our little monk, has given up science...

- and returned to the fold. - Mm.

The church is looking forward to my father's complete spiritual recovery.

Virginia, go and see to the goose.

I don't like that man.

He's harmless.

He was his pupil.

So now he's his enemy.

I can't think why you've come to unsettle me, Sarti.

Even as it is, I have my relapses.

I've no desire to upset you.

What relapses?

I've been writing again.

I finished the Discorsi.

The discoveries concerning two new branches of science.

Here.

My superiors aren't stupid.

They know ingrained vices can't be cured overnight.

I am allowed ink and paper.

The Discorsi in the hands of the monks.

Amsterdam, London and Prague are starving for this book.

They locked the pages away as I dictated them.

But I copied out each batch at night beforehand.

I suppose it's the height of folly...

to pass it on.

You'll find it in the globe.

My foolish vanity has prevented me from destroying it up to now.

If you were to consider taking it across the border,

you'd have to bear the risk.

The Discorsi.

"It is my opinion that the Earth is very noble and admirable

by reason of so many and so different alterations and generations

which are incessantly made therein."

I had to do something with my time.

This will be the start of a new physics.

- Put it under your coat. - And we thought you'd deserted us.

Mine has been the loudest voice against you.

That was as it should be.

I taught you science...

and I denied the truth.

This changes everything.

- Yes? - You hid the truth from the enemy.

Even in ethics, you were centuries ahead of us.

- Ethics? - We lost our heads.

With a crowd at street corners,

we said he'll die, but he'll never surrender.

You came back, I surrendered.

But I'm alive.

We cried your hands are stained.

You say, "Better stained than empty."

Better stained than empty.

New.

Sounds realistic.

Sounds like me.

New science.

New ethics.

I, of all people, should've understood.

I was 12 when you sold another man's telescope to the Venetian Senate

and then saw you put it to immortal use.

You always laughed at heroics.

"People who suffer bore me," you said.

Misfortunes are mainly miscalculations.

- I remember. - So ...

when you agreed to abjure one popular item of your doctrine in '33,

I should've known .

You were just withdrawing from a hopeless political brawl

in order to further the true interests of science.

Which are?

The study of the properties of motion, the mother of machines,

which will make the Earth so good to live on.

We shall have no need of heaven.

You got the leisure to write a scientific work

which you alone could write.

Had you burned at the stake in a blaze of glory,

the others would have won.

They have won.

Besides...

There's no scientific work that only one man can write.

Then why did you recant?

I recanted because...

I was afraid of physical pain.

It was not a plan.

No, it was not.

In science, only one thing counts:

Contribution to knowledge.

And you have contributed more than any man in a hundred years.

Have I?

Contributed for whom?

Welcome to my gutter,

brother scientist and fellow traitor.

I sold out, you're a buyer.

The first sight of the book, the curses are drowned.

Hallowed be our bargaining, whitewashing,

death-fearing community.

Science is not concerned with our personal weakness.

No? My clear Sarti...

even in my present situation,

I may still be able to give you a few pointers about science.

In my spare time-- and I've got plenty of that--

I've gone over my case.

The pursuit of science calls for particular courage.

It deals in knowledge distilled from doubt.

Our new art of doubting delighted the people.

They tore the telescope out of our hands

and turned it on their tormenters.

Princes, landowners.

Priests.

These men felt the cold eye of science

being turned on an age-old poverty

that could clearly be got rid of

if only they were got rid of themselves.

So we are deluged

with threats and bribes.

But can we cut ourselves off from the people and still remain scientists?

The battle to measure the heavens is won by doubt.

By credulity, the Roman housewives' battle for milk

will be lost again and again.

Science, Sarti, is involved in both struggles.

What are you scientists working for?

The sole aim of science, to my mind...

is to lighten the toil of human existence.

If... you give away to coercion...

Your progress must be progress away from humanity.

The gulf between you and humanity

might grow so wide

that the response to your exaltation at some new achievement

could be a universal howl of horror!

As a scientist...

I had a unique opportunity.

In my clay, astronomy emerged into the marketplace.

At that particular time, if one man had put up a fight,

it might have had vast repercussions.

I've come to the conclusion, Sarti...

that“. I was never in real danger.

For a time, I was as strong as the authorities.

And I surrendered my knowledge to the powers that be.

To use it, not use it, abuse it...

just as they saw fit.

I betrayed my calling.

No man who does what I have done

can be tolerated in the ranks of science.

You have been received into the ranks of the faithful, Father.

Yes.

I must eat now.

You're a teacher, you know, yourself.

Can you afford to take such a hand as mine?

Someone who was passing through today sent me a goose.

I still enjoy eating.

Regarding your opinion of the author we discussed...

I don't know the answer.

But I cannot believe that your savage analysis is the last word.

Thank you, sir.

We don't like visitors from the past.

They disturb him.

Any idea...

who could have sent the goose?

Not Andrea.

No.

Perhaps not.

How is the night?

Clear.

And now, good folks The story's clone

The great book Has its freedom won

But we hope You'll keep in mind

You and I are left behind

Keep the light Of science bright

Keep the heat

And use it right

Lest it be a flame to fall

That were to consume us all

To consume us all