Controversy over the Comets
Controversy
While mathematicians defied the attempts of physicists and theologians to discount their conclusions, mathematical methods alone were not able to explain the appearance of comets, parallax, and diverse systems of the world. Galileo advocated for the Copernican theory of the universe, while disregarding the system of Tycho Brahe.
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An astronomicall description of the late Comet from the 18. of Novemb. 1618 to the 16. of December following. With certaine Morall Prognostics Bainbridge, John (1619) |
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On the Three Comets of 1618 Grassi, Oratio (1619) In 1618, three comets appeared, visible to the unaided eye. These were the first comets to be observed with the telescope. Grassi was the leading astronomer in Rome and a professor at the Rome College (Collegio Romano). |
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On the Comets of the years 1607 & 1618 Kepler, Johann (1619) In this minor work, Kepler offered an analysis of comets that agreed with Grassi’s. |
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Discourse on the Comets Galileo , (1619) In this book, Galileo opened a “Controversy over the Comets” by attacking Grassi. Published under the name of his student, Mario Guiducci, it was actually written almost entirely by Galileo himself. |
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The Astronomical Balance Grassi, Oratio (1619) In this book, Grassi responded to the criticism of Guiducci/Galileo. Comets seemed to provide a test of the Copernican and Tychonic systems: if the Earth were moving, then with three comets, one might have hoped to see at least one of them retrograding. |
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A Probing of the Astronomical Balance Stelluti, Giovanni Battista (1622) In the Scandaglio, Galileo’s friends tried to refute Grassi’s Astronomical Balance. This obscure and mysterious work appeared under the name of the brother of the better-known Francesco Stelluti, one of the founders of the Academy of the Lynx and friend of Galileo and Prince Cesi. |
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The Assayer, early state Galileo , (1623) The crest of the Barberini family, showing three busy bees, appears at the top of the frontispiece. Galileo’s supporter, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, had become Pope Urban VIII. The election of Barberini seemed to assure Galileo of support at the highest level in the Church. |
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The Assayer, later state Galileo , (1623) Although Galileo eloquently championed mathematical methods in science, the main target of his wit and sarcasm in The Assayer was Grassi, a fellow astronomer, whose mathematical methods proved that comets move above the Moon. |
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Treatise on the Sphere Grassi, Oratio (1623) In the same year that Galileo published The Assayer, Grassi delivered these lectures to Jesuit students in the Rome College (Collegio Romano). |
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The Shield-Bearer for Tycho Brahe Kepler, Johann (1625) In his second and last contribution to the “Controversy over the Comets,” Kepler stepped in as a “shield-bearer” to defend Tycho from Galileo’s attacks. |
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A Comparison of the Weights for The Astronomical Balance and the Small Scale Grassi, Oratio (1627) The Jesuit astronomers who had celebrated Galileo’s telescopic discoveries during his visit to Rome in 1611 now felt estranged by the biting satire of the The Assayer. The controversy concluded with this final reply. Both comets and cosmic systems remained enigmas. |
