The dangerous dialogue
Galileo’s groundbreaking book is finally translated into
Dutch – and it’s a good read
There are some persistent
misunderstandings about
the Italian physicist
Galileo
Galilei and his historic “argument”
with the
Catholic Church. After his
trial for heresy in 1633, in which he
was condemned to house arrest for
the rest of his life, 69-year-old Galilei
is said to have uttered the famous
phrase: “
And yet it moves.”
Almost four centuries have passed
since the trial, and the idea has
become generally accepted that
Galilei was a true martyr of science,
prosecuted by the Inquisition and,
according to many historians, even
tortured. Some say that it was not
only Galilei who stood trial, but
science in general.
In reality, Galilei was put under
house arrest in his Tuscan villa,
where he could spend the rest of
his life (he died nine years later)
in relative luxury. The subject of
the trial, a book, was put on the
infamous Index, the church’s list of
forbidden books, from which it was
only removed in 1835.
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| English: * Description: Tomb of Galileo Galilei (Location: Santa Croce, Florence, Italy.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
That “pagan” book,
Dialogue
Concerning the Two Chief World
Systems, was originally written in
Italian in 1632. Only now, after nearly
400 years, has it been translated into
Dutch.
In
Dialogue, Galilei introduced his
“new” world view, with the earth
moving and spinning around the
sun – taking away the former status
of the earth as centre of the universe.
It was a clear rejection of the
philosophy of Aristotle, which was,
in Galilei’s time, the main theory on
how nature worked.
“Above all, Galilei wrote his book in
a very understandable manner, so
that even the common man could
understand his ideas,” says Hans
van den Berg, who has translated
the
Dialogue into Dutch. “Maybe
that was why the church was
so concerned about it. Also, the
original is in Italian and not in Latin,
which made this book accessible for
everyone in Italy who could read
– and not only for academics and
priests who understood Latin.”
Revolutionary reading
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| A replica of the earliest surviving telescope attributed to Galileo Galilei, on display at the Griffith Observatory. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Presumably it takes a background in
science, not just linguistic expertise,
to translate a book like this? “Yes, I
trained as a scientist,” explains Van
den Berg. He lectured for decades
in mathematics at the
University
of Wageningen in the Netherlands
until he retired a few years ago. “In
2001, I started to learn Italian as
a hobby, which led to training to
become a professional translator.”
And what, according to Van den
Berg, makes the
Dialogue so
special? “First of all, it’s the content:
Galilei gives fierce opposition to
the theory of Aristotle, who was
at that time the Catholic Church’s
‘house philosopher’. The science in
this book really was revolutionary.
Galilei’s ideas about movement,
speed and acceleration were totally
new – and, most importantly,
they were backed up by evidence,
thanks to the many observations
he made with his self-constructed
telescopes.”
And the book is, says the Dutch
translator, “astonishingly well
written. Galilei limited the pure
maths to a minimum. And, like
the title says, he wrote in a highly
polemical way. He presents his ideas
during a fictional discussion between
three people: Salviati, who shares
Galilei’s point of view; Sagredo, a
neutral moderator; and Simplicio,
a dedicated follower of Aristotle.” As
you might have guessed,
simplicio
means “simpleton” in Italian.
“As the discussion progresses,
Salviati has no mercy with Simplicio’s
arguments, and in some excerpts he
just makes a fool of him,” continues
Van den Berg. “It was this merciless
style of writing that got Galilei into
trouble. In the years before the
publication of the
Dialogue, he had
quite a good relationship with
Pope
Urban VIII. So if he had written
his ideas in a more conciliatory
way, he might have avoided a
trial – however, we can’t know for
sure. Nevertheless, thanks to his
polemical style, Galilei’s
Dialogue
remains one of the cornerstones of
Italian literature – quite exceptional
for a science book.”
