Abstract
Our story’s central figure, the Italian physicist Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), was intellectually active during the late Renaissance, an exciting and unprecedented period in history. Discoveries in the New World were opening eyes to the idea that our own planet was far vaster and more diverse than anyone had previously dared to suspect. Not only were new discoveries easily disseminated to the educated masses by the printing press, but new ways of thinking about the world were promulgated through pamphlets and books, often couched in the medium of fictional literature.
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© 2010 Springer New York
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Grego, P., Mannion, D. (2010). Eyes on the Skies. In: Galileo and 400 Years of Telescopic Astronomy. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5592-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5592-0_1
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