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Re: Galileo's _Dialog..._

On Mon, 24 Apr 2000, Dick Heckathorn wrote:

Greetings,
Is it Salviati who spoke the thoughts of Galileo, Sagredo who had to be convinced as he believed the ideas of Aristotle, and Simplicio who took the form of the Court Jester who would offer encouragement to Salviati (Galileo)? (Or do I have Salviati and Sagredo reversed?)

From an article on The Washington Post (fragment)

Two Views of the Universe: Galileo vs. the Pope
By Hal Hellman, Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, September 9, 1998; Page H01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/horizon/sept98/galileo.htm

The Dialogue

Its 500 pages are structured as a series of conversations over four days
among three participants -- Salviati, Sagredo and Simplicio. Salviati,
named for an old friend of Galileo's who had died in 1614, speaks for
Galileo. Sagredo, named in memory of another deceased
friend, is the intelligent, impartial moderator, a man of high rank and of
the world. Simplicio is a composite of all of Galileo's opponents.

Galileo's technique is to build his opponents' arguments through
Simplicio, adding some of his own, and then to demolish those assertions
with powerful arguments and often devastating satire.

Wilson