The Galileo affair began around 1610 and culminated with the trial and condemnation of Galileo Galilei by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633. Galileo was prosecuted for his support of heliocentrism, the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the centre of the universe.
Photomontage of the moons of Jupiter, named after Galileo. Galileo viewed these moons as a smaller Copernican system within the Solar System and used them to support heliocentrism.
Christian painting of God creating the cosmos (Bible Moralisee, French, 13th century)
The Council of Trent (1545–63) sitting in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. The Roman Inquisition suspected Galileo of violating the decrees of the council. Museo Diocesano Tridentino, Trento.
Pope Paul V (1552–1621), who ordered that the inquisitorial commission's 1616 judgement be delivered to Galileo by Cardinal Bellarmine (Caravaggio)
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei, commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei or simply Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. He was born in the city of Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method, and modern science.
1636 portrait
Portrait believed to be of Galileo's elder daughter Virginia, who was particularly devoted to her father.
Galileo's "cannocchiali" telescopes at the Museo Galileo, Florence
An illustration of the Moon from Sidereus Nuncius, published in Venice, 1610