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Themiddle finger from the right hand of Italian astronomerGalileo Galilei (1564–1642) is a secularrelic in the collection of theMuseo Galileo inFlorence, Italy. The finger was removed from his body after his death, and is encased in a gilded glass egg.
In 1737, 95 years after he died, Galileo's remains were transferred to a mausoleum at theBasilica di Santa Croce inFlorence. AntiquarianAnton Francesco Gori, anatomistAntonio Cocchi, and Italian marquis Vincenzio Capponi removed the finger of Galileo's right hand as well as one of his vertebrae, an index finger, a thumb, and a tooth. The middle finger passed toAngelo Maria Bandini, who exhibited it at theLaurentian Library. In 1841, the finger was moved to theTribune of Galileo atLa Specola. It was then transferred to theInstitute and Museum of the History of Science in 1927.
Italian astronomerGalileo Galilei died in 1642 and had stipulated in his will that his remains go toBasilica di Santa Croce, beside those of his father,Vincenzo Galilei.[1] Authorities from theCatholic Church did not want him to be buried on consecrated grounds given his views onCopernican heliocentrism, which were considered heretical at the time.[a][3] CardinalFrancesco Barberini addressed the matter, writing that people might be scandalized by his entombment in the mausoleum.[1] Instead, his remains were placed in a small enclosure near the Chapel of Saints Cosimo and Damiano.[4]
In 1688, Galileo's pupilVincenzo Viviani stipulated in his will that his fortune should be used to establish a mausoleum for Galileo.[5] The mausoleum was not constructed until well after Viviani's death, delayed at first by the potential disapproval of the Catholic Church and later by the "dillydallying" of Viviani's nephew and heir, Abbot Jacopo Panzanini.[4]
Ninety-five years after his death, on 12 March 1737, Galileo's remains were transferred from an unconsecrated box underneath the Santa Croce bell tower to a memorial tomb inside the church, nearMichelangelo's fingers and bones. In a ceremony resembling the transfer of a saintlyrelic, Galileo's remains were taken from his heretic's grave to the mausoleum of theBasilica di Santa Croce.[6][4]
The botanistGiovanni Targioni Tozzetti attended the transfer and had brought a knife. AnatomistAntonio Cocchi, Italian marquis Vincenzio Capponi, and antiquarianAnton Francesco Gori used the knife to remove the middle finger from Galileo's corpse,[1] along with his thumb, index finger, one of his teeth, and his fifthlumbar vertebra.[7] The tooth, index finger, and thumb were placed in a handblown glass base[1] and remained with the Capponi family until the beginning of the 20th century.[8][9] Tozzetti later wrote that Capponi's explanation for taking the two fingers as relics was "because Galileo wrote so many beautiful things with them."[1] The vertebra was donated to theUniversity of Padua by Domenico Thiene in 1823.[10]
The middle finger was later acquired byAngelo Maria Bandini of theLaurentian Library, where it was exhibited. In 1841, the finger was moved to theTribune of Galileo at the Museum of Physics and Nature (nowLa Specola) along with Galileo's Medici-Lorraine instruments. In 1927, it was moved to theInstitute and Museum of the History of Science (Museo di Storia della Scienza). The museum's inventory originally listed the finger as his left index finger,[11] though University of Florence professor Francesco Leoncini added a footnote indicating that it was Galileo's right middle finger.[4]
It eventually came to be included in theMuseo Galileo collection. The finger is encased in an egg-shaped glass display above a cylindrical marble base. The base includes a commemorative inscription by astronomerTommaso Perelli. According to the museum, Galileo's middle finger "exemplifies the celebration of Galileo as a hero and martyr of science".[6] The finger is displayed alongside theobjective lens from Galileo's telescope.
TheLatin inscription by Tommaso Perelli reads:
Leipsana ne spernas digiti quo dextera coeli
Mensa vias nunquam visos mortalibus orbes
Monstravit, parvo fragilis molimine vitri
Ausa prior facinus cui non Titania quondam
Suffecit pubes congestis montibus altis
Nequidquam superas conata ascendere in arces.[b]Spurn not the remains of the finger by which the right hand measured out paths of the sky, pointed to orbs[c] never before seen by mortals; with the aid of a small pile of fragile glass[d] first dared the deed to whichTitania, in full vigor, on mountains heaped high, was once inadequate, having tried in vain to ascend into the loftiest heavens.[4]
American journalistNino Lo Bello wrote in 1986 about his attempts to track down Galileo's finger in the 1960s. He reported being told by an employee of theNational Library that it had resided there for years before it was given to the Museum of the History of Science.[12]
Galileo's middle finger is a rare example of a secularrelic, the preservation of body parts being a practice usually reserved for saints within the Catholic Church.[13] Bonnie Gordon remarked on "the irony of preserving relic style the remains of a heretic".[1] British art criticJulian Spalding remarked that the Museum of Science took pride in the finger, adding "I don't particularly recommend going to see it, because what is the point of looking at Galileo's finger?"[14]
In Italy, Galileo's middle finger is considered the property of the state.[1]
Galileo's index finger, the thumb of his right hand, and a tooth were sealed in a glass jar that disappeared sometime after 1905 and remained lost to the public until 2009.[15] Rufus Suter wrote in 1951 that the other two fingers were said to be preserved in the reliquary of Luigi Rosselli del Turco in Florence.[11] They turned up at auction in 2009 and were turned over to the Museum.[15] The Museum applied aDNA test toforensically confirm the authenticity of the remains.[1] One of Galileo's vertebrae is kept at theUniversity of Padua.[7]
