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From: H-Net Staff <revhelp@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Date: March 15, 2010 1:01:44 PM EDT
To: H-REVIEW@H-NET.MSU.EDU
Subject: H-Net Review Publication: 'Galileo's Credit'
Reply-To: revhelp@mail.h-net.msu.edu
Mario Biagioli. Galileo's Instruments of Credit: Telescopes, Images,
Secrecy. Chicago University of Chicago Press, 2007. 316 pp.
$20.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-226-04562-7.
Reviewed by Andrew Berns (University of Pennsylvania)
Published on H-HRE (March, 2010)
Commissioned by Tryntje Helfferich
Galileo's Credit
_Galileo's Instruments of Credit_, Mario Biagioli's recent book,
makes an important contribution to Galileo studies and the history of
science more broadly. Over the course of the last twenty years,
Biagioli has been one of the most important scholars working in these
fields. In his _Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the
Culture of Absolutism_ (1993), Biagioli demonstrated how Galileo's
scientific discoveries were driven by his experience in the Medici
court and dependent on his exploitation of Florence's patronage
system. This book builds on Biagioli's prior conclusions and uses
terminology borrowed from economics--credit, monopoly, investors--to
explicate Galileo's skilful manipulation of various systems of
credit, both financial and interpersonal. According to the author,
"instruments of credit" refers not only to compasses and telescopes
but also to "techniques [Galileo] used to maximize the credit he
could receive from readers, students, employers, and patrons" (p. 2).
_Galileo's Instruments of Credit_ addresses other issues as well: the
use of visual evidence in Galileo's work, ideas about intellectual
property in early modern Europe, and the tension between scientific
and religious truth in Counter-Reformation Italy. It is also
theoretical--one of the author's clear, but unstated aims is to
deploy his considerable knowledge of Galileo's writings in order to
analyze the origins of modern science. With such an ambitious goal,
this book's tone, as well as some of its conclusions, is occasionally
imposing. But readers more interested in history than theory will
also find in Biagioli's book a series of claims, based on hard
historical labor, that advance our understanding of Galileo and his
fascinating world.
Chapter 1, "Financing the Aura: Distance and the Construction of
Scientific Authority," introduces Galileo as a mathematics professor
in Padua and explains his search for financial support from the
Medici family for his new astronomical discoveries. Biagioli
describes how the Medici invested in Galileo with only partial
knowledge of his work, and suggests that the physical distance
between the Medici in Florence and Galileo in Padua may have enabled
rather than impeded their confidence in him. Most studies on the
formulation of scientific ideas stress proximity as a facilitator for
easy exchange of information and ideas; Biagioli turns this idea on
its head and deftly points out that if the Medici had known more
about Galileo's work they may not have risked patronizing him. This
position could have been argued even more rigorously. For example, if
Biagioli had told us more about networks of communication in early
modern Italy and invoked data about how long news took to travel
between various cities, it would have strengthened his argument.
Biagioli dismisses this sort of information as "banal trivia," but
including it would only have helped and not hurt his provocative
claims (p. 22). This rich preliminary chapter also includes a
comparison of Galileo's role in the Medici court with the
professional structure of London's Royal Society. Even though
Biagioli acknowledges the fifty-year time lag between Galileo's
discoveries in 1610 and the Royal Society's charter of 1662, the
juxtaposition between the two episodes is creative and compelling.
The second chapter, "Replication or Monopoly? The Medicean Stars
between Invention and Discovery," explores how Galileo tried to
create a monopoly on his telescope. Drawing on his exhaustive
knowledge of Galileo's writings, Biagioli shows how protective
Galileo was of his discoveries. For example, he tried to slow down
potential imitators by withholding information on how to build a
telescope--Biagioli underscores how different this was from most
early modern inventors and how contrary to the spirit of early modern
science. Chapter 3, "Between Risk and Credit: Picturing Objects in
the Making," examines the crucial role pictorial tactics played in
_Siderius nuncius_ (1610). As Biagioli puts it, "most of Galileo's
claims were constructed and presented through images" (p. 143). The
material included in this chapter, as well as some of Biagioli's
glosses on it, suggest that Galileo excelled as a communicator, not
just as a manipulator.
The fourth and final chapter, "The Supplemental Economy of Galileo's
Book of Nature," consists of a close reading of Galileo's 1615 letter
to Grand Duchess Christina of Lorraine. Biagioli proposes, based on
convincing evidence, that its actual recipient was Robert Bellarmine,
the Roman cardinal and inquisitor. Another subject of this chapter is
the relationship between religion and science in Galileo's time.
Biagioli occasionally exaggerates the rarity of Bible reading in
sixteenth-century Italy. For example, because there were no
authorized vernacular translations of scripture the author assumes
that few Italians read the Bible in their native language. We know
from the work of Gigliola Fragnito (_La Bibbia al rogo: la censura
ecclessiastica e i volgarizzamenti della Scrittura_ [1997]), whom
Biagioli cites, as well as from other recent scholarship, that the
vernacular Bible translations of Sancte Pagnini and Antonio Brucioli,
for example, were frequently read in late sixteenth- and early
seventeenth-century Italy. But apart from minor obfuscations such as
this, Biagioli has a unique ability to offer crisp formulations about
Galileo's position on matters of faith. He writes that "by presenting
astronomy and theology as disciplines dealing with the same truth
inscribed in two different but equally sacred books, Galileo tried to
cast himself as respectful of the authority of divine books, not an
atheist who put scientific evidence above scriptural teachings" (p.
233). And complementing the insightful work of Rivka Feldhay
(_Galileo and the Church: Political Inquisition or Critical Dialogue_
[1995]), who argued that Galileo developed some of his most
controversial ideas while in dialogue with inquisitors, Biagioli
explains how "the space [Galileo] tried to develop for astronomy was
not carved away from that of theology but rather constructed through
the features and discursive practices of that more authoritative
field" (p. 221). These statements about the relationship between
religion and science in early modern Europe are models for students
and scholars who teach and write about these matters.
This book has one main drawback. It consists of four chapters, three
of which previously appeared as articles. As such, transitions from
one chapter to the next sometimes feel forced, and this volume lacks
some of the coherence that characterized _Galileo, Courtier_. But in
spite of this defect the book has many virtues. It blends theoretical
reflection with historical analysis, incorporates visual evidence
alongside textual proof, and forces alert readers to confront a
series of assumptions concerning Galileo and early modern science
that, over the years, have calcified into articles of faith. Perhaps
most importantly, _Galileo's Instruments of Credit_ possesses the
ability to generate further scholarship. Both directly and indirectly
Biagioli challenges his readers to stretch and test his ideas. For
example, the comparison of Galileo and the Royal Society in chapter 1
teases readers to consider if the founders of London's Royal Society
may have been influenced in any way by the model of Galileo at the
Medici court. Similarly, Biagioli's reminder that "Kepler _confirmed
Galileo's discoveries without having been able to see them himself"
_prompts researchers to look more closely at epistolary exchanges and
consider how the omission of information may have been as alluring as
its inclusion (p. 37, emphasis in the original). Finally, the book
contains ample evidence of Galileo's innovations as a writer and
illustrator. Biagioli points out how _Siderius nuncius_, because it
features elegant prose instead of technical figures, appealed to a
broad spectrum of philosophically curious readers and not only
professional astronomers. Indeed, the format of _Siderius nuncius_
and its contents seem as important as the specific relationships he
cultivated and manipulated. Future work in this field might draw
inspiration not only from Biagioli but also from literary scholars,
such as Eileen Reeves (_Painting the Heavens: Art and Science in the
Age of Galileo_ [1997]) and consider the intersections between art,
economics, and literature to assess Galileo's virtues as a writer and
merchant of ideas.
In sum, _Galileo's Instruments of Credit_ is a welcome addition to
historical scholarship. Readers curious about the theoretical
foundations of modern science and the fiscal aspects of Galileo's
career, as well as communication, interpersonal relationships, and
book illustration in early modern Europe will find much of interest
in Biagioli's most recent book.
Citation: Andrew Berns. Review of Biagioli, Mario, _Galileo's
Instruments of Credit: Telescopes, Images, Secrecy._. H-HRE, H-Net
Reviews. March, 2010.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=25565
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
License.