HIS 250 — The Trial of Galileo: An MLA-Style Course
prior to enrollment
In 1633, the Italian mathematician Galileo was tried and condemned for advocating that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the cosmos. The Catholic Church did not formally admit that Galileo was right until 1992. This course examines the many factors that led to the trial of Galileo and looks at multiple perspectives on this signal event in the history of science and religion. We will consider the nature of intellectual heresy in the 16th and early 17th centuries, including the case of Galileo’s infamous predecessor Giordano Bruno (burned at the stake in 1600). Looking closely at documents surrounding the trial and related literature on Renaissance and Reformation Italy, our goal is to understand different perspectives on this famous event. What, in the end, were the “crimes” of Galileo?
This course aims to introduce those who are strongly
interested in pursuing a degree in the Master of Liberal
Arts Program to the kind of seminar they would likely
encounter in the program. Students will face the same
kind of intellectual challenges, the same kind of opportunities
to engage in weekly discussion, and the same kind
of stimulus to write persuasive research essays.
The course is open to students who have not previously
enrolled in an MLA-style course through Stanford
Continuing Studies (courses include PHI 200, LIT 200,
LIT 223, LIT 225, LIT 226, and CLS 83). Students are
required to take this course for Credit, submit written
work, and contribute to class discussions, as happens in
all MLA seminars. However, this course may not be taken
for a Letter Grade, though students’ written work will
receive extensive feedback from the instructor.
For more
information on the MLA Program, please visit mla.stanford.edu.
Paula E. Findlen, Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of Italian History and Department Chair, Stanford
Paula Findlen received a PhD from UC Berkeley and has taught at UC Davis and Harvard. Her main interests are Italy in the age of Galileo and the scientific revolution. She has written on many aspects of the early history of science and medicine, and writes regularly for The Nation.Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Robert Blackwell, Galileo, Bellarmine and the Bible (ISBN 978-0268010270)
(Required) Bucciantini,Camerota,Giudice, Galileo’s Telescope (ISBN 978-0674736917)
(Required) Maurice Finocchiaro (Editor), The Essential Galileo (ISBN 978-0872209374)
(Required) Maria Celeste Galilei, Letters to Father (ISBN 978-0142437155)
(Required) Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms (ISBN 978-1421409887)
(Required) Thomas Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution (ISBN 978-0674171039)
(Required) Ingrid Rowland, Giordano Bruno: Philosopher/Heretic (ISBN 978-0226730240)