Galileo’s revolution and the infancy of meteorology in Padua, Florence and Bologna

Abstract

This article reconstructs the historical and scientific framework within which modern science, and meteorology in particular, were born and developed beginning in the late XVI century. Scientific knowledge during this period was based on Aristotle’s books and the Holy Bible, and this constituted a serious obstacle for the new astronomical discoveries that contradicted this framework. The paper starts with the earliest experiments made by Galileo, his discoveries, e.g. thermoscope, telescope, solar spots and motion that caused his trial. Galileo facilitated the transition from the middle age to modern science, fighting against the old ideas and separating faith from research. The new science had a strong development with Ferdinand II, grand Duke of Tuscany who founded the Accademia del Cimento (i.e. Experiment Academy), and the first international network of temperature observations in the mid XVII century. The passage from the thermoscope to the modern thermometer is also explained, as well as the pioneering activity at the Universities of Padua and Bologna, and in Florence.