Characteristic Features of Galileo’s Scientific Style in His Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Lorraine

Abstract

This article is carried out within a scientific project supported by the “Zhivaya traditsiya” (Traditioviva) Development Fund and dedicated to a detailed theological and philological analysis and commentary on the translation of the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Lorraine (1615), which is part of the series of “Copernican Letters” by Galileo Galilei. It was in these letters (besides the letter to Christina, there are also a letter to Benedetto Castelli of 1613 and two letters to Piero Dini of 1615) that Galileo formulated the principles of a new scientific method of understanding the world, referring to the discoveries of Nicolaus Copernicus. In the letter to Christina, the most striking and important of this series and still not translated into Russian, Galileo expounds in particular detail, consistently and fully his position as a natural scientist, parrying reproaches for the incompatibility of his scientific conclusions with the Holy Bible. But Galileo is not only a scientist, theologian and philosopher. He is also known as a man of letters, a writer, a representative of baroque literature and the founder of the scientific style in the Italian language, which deserves special attention. In the Letter to Christina, one can note the characteristic features of Galileo’s scientific style: simplicity of terminology, metaphorical scientific descriptions, emotionality, complex syntax, aggravated by multitiered subordinate clauses, homogeneous subordinate clauses, wide use of gerunds.