What is Your Major Who Are Your Parents

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What is Your Major?Who Are Your Parents?
Jane Crisler February 14, 2003
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Social Marginality and Creativity

• Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

• Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

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Medieval Social Organization

• In 15th c. Florence illegitimate birth prevented
  entry into
• Guild of magistrates and notaries (and
  gravediggers, priests, and criminals also
  refused)
• Medicine and apothecary
• University
• Social standing and wealth made a difference

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Social OrganizationMedieval-Renaissance Italy

• Arti maggiori (noble professions)
• Cloth merchants
• Bankers
• Notaries
• Arti minori
• Craftsmen
• Artisans

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Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

• Marginalized by birth, vocation, sexual
  orientation
• Illegitimate ? could not follow in fathers
  profession as notary
• Lived with grandparents in Vinci until
  apprenticed at 14-15 to Verrochio, painter in
  service to Medici in Florence
• Artisans in the service of great building
  projects in Florence Cathedral private homes
• 1472 Became member of arte of painters in
  Florence

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Leonardo Politics

• 1482 Protection of Ludovico Sforza, the Moor,
  in Milan
• French allied with Milan battled Hapsburg
  emperor Pope
• When Sforza defeated, Leonardo left Milan
• 1507 Painter engineer to Louis XII
• 1516 Went to court of Francois I in France

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Leonardo da Vinci's Polyhedra

• His most outstanding polyhedral accomplishment is
  the illustrations for Luca Pacioli's 1509 book
  The Divine Proportion. 

From www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/
leonardo.html
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Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

• Legitimate birth to Florentine magistrate
  marginalized by vocation, sexual orientation
• Sent to wet-nurse in countryside family of
  stone-cutters (where he learned about marble)
• Father arranged education with Florentine
  humanists, but he liked to draw
• Wanted to be a painter father appalled that son
  wanted to work with hands

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Michelangelo Politics

• Went into service with Medici family Lorenzo
  the Magnificent patron until 1492
• Caught in political conflict between Florentine
  Republic and Medici
• Affected by wars with French (fortifications)
• Dominated by Papacy
• Julius II (1503-1513)
• Paul III (1534-1549)

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Michelangelo Creativity
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Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

• Legitimate birth, reputable profession,
  marginalized by Church
• Oldest of 6-7 children father combined theory
  and practice of music
• Father performed experiments with strings and
  weights to investigate octaves believed to be
  observed by son ? observation and experiment in
  inquiry

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Galileos Academic Career

• 1581 matriculated at University of Pisa in
  Arts father wanted him to study medicine
• Studied Euclids Elements not at University,
  but with Florentine court mathematician, Ostilio
  Ricci
• Studied 4 years at University left w/o degree

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Galileos Academic Career, cont.

• Faculty appointments
• 1588 Lectureship in mathematics at University of
  Pisa
• 1592 Chair of mathematics at University of Padua
• 1610 Chief Mathematician of University of Pisa
• Personal life
• 1599 relationship with Marina Gamba ? 3
  illegitimate children, including daughter
  Virginia who became Maria Celeste

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Galileo Politics

• 1611 Patronized by Cardinal Maffeo Barberini,
  later Pope Urban VIII
• 1614-1615 Galileo denounced by Dominican friars
• 1616 Inquisition declared Copernican theory
  absurd and heretical Galileo forbidden to
  discuss theory orally or in writing Galileo
  assured by Pope Paul V and Cardinal Bellarmine
  that he was not on trial or condemned by the
  Inquisition

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Galileo Politics, cont.

• 1624 Galileo assured by Pope Urban VIII that can
  write about Copernican theory if treated as a
  mathematical hypothesis
• 1631 Review of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief
  World Systems conducted by Inquisition
• 1632 Printing of Dialogue distribution halted
  Galileo ill, but summoned to Inquisition in Rome

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Galileo Politics, cont.

• 1633 Galileo imprisoned indefinitely, threatened
  with torture, formally abjured errors returned
  to home near Florence where was under house
  arrest for the rest of his life

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Galileos Creativity
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Sources

• Bramly, Serge. Leonardo The Artist and the Man.
  New York Penguin Books, 1988.
• Nardini, Bruno. Michelangelo Biography of a
  Genius. Florence Giunti, 1999.
• Sobel, Dava. Galileos Daughter A Historical
  Memoir of Science, Faith and Love. New York
  Walker Company, 1999.
• http//es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/