Review by Choice Review
In this very readable study of Galileo, Sharratt, a Roman Catholic priest, avoids any technicalities of Galileo's mathematics and dwells on anecdotal history, managing to sustain reader interest without imparting anything new to the understanding of Galileo. But all of Galileo's major publications and controversies are discussed here, from his telescope observations to his eventual condemnation by the Inquisition in 1632 for defending Copernicanism. The last chapter, "Rehabilitation," describes the steps Pope John Paul II took in 1992 to exonerate Galileo. What is surprising is that no mention is made here of Pope Leo XIII's earlier attempt to reconcile science and religion in the 19th century through a revival of neo-Thomism, largely in response to Darwin's theory of evolution, in hopes that the Church would avoid another potentially embarrassing condemnation of scientific theory. The book's last line concludes that Galileo's "rehabilitation" was actually "a posthumous Roman triumph." General; undergraduate. J. W. Dauben; Herbert H. Lehman College, CUNY
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
