CHRONOLOGY

CHRONOLOGY

FEBRUARY 15, 1564
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy.

1574
His father Vincenzo Galilei, with his family, moved to Florence.

1579
Galileo was at the monastery of Santa Maria di Vallombrosa, where he considered joining the order.Galileo returned to his family in Florence in July.

SEPTEMBER 5, 1581
Galileo matriculated as a student of the ‘Arts’ at the University of Pisa. Then after in the same year he entered the University of Pisa to study medicine.

1583
During his student days at Pisa, Galileo formulated the isochronism of the ‘Pendulum’ while watching the oscillations of a lamp in the cathedral of Pisa. Galileo did not study Euclid’s Elements at the University but in Florence under the court mathematician Ostilio Ricci.

1585
He completed the fourth year of his studies and returned to Florence without a degree. He gave private lessons in mathematics in Florence and Sienna.

1586
It was his first voyage to Rome and he met Christopher Clavius. He applied for a lectureship of mathematics at the University of Sienna. He found certain propositions about centers of gravity, which go beyond the work of Archimedes.

1587
Vincenzo Galilei performed experiments on the relationship between the tension and pitch of stings. Galileo, his son, must have helped him with these and surely was aware of them. Galileo gave two public lectures at the Academia Florentina (Florentine Academy) about the shape, location, and dimensions of hell as described in Dante’s Inferno. He tried to get teaching positions at the University of Sienna, Padua, Pisa and Bologna. He also tried for the lectureship at Florence. Finally he got lectureship of mathematics at the university of Pisa.

1589-1592
In ‘On Motion’ Galileo used the Archimedian approach to motion : As Aristotle maintained, the speed of falling bodies is propositional to their density

1592
Galileo obtained the chair of mathematics at the University of Padua in the Venetian Republic where he remained until the year 1610. His initial contract is for four years, renewable for two further years. His duties were to lecture on geometry and astronomy.

1593
Galileo put together treaties on fortifications and mechanics for his private students.

1595
He developed his explanation of the tides, which invokes the annual and diurnal motion of the Earth. It seemed that his preference for Copernican theory dated from this year.

1597
He invented ‘Geometric and Military Compass’, and a ‘Sector’ (a mathematical instrument consisting of two rulers connected at one end by a joint and marked with several scales"). It was used to solve practical mathematical problems. He taught its use to his private students and wrote an instruction manual, which was later published.

1599
His relations with Marina Gamba began. To make scientific instruments and produce the sector, he employed a craftsman, Marc’ Antonio Mazzoleni. These products were sold to wealthy students along with his treatise explaining its use.

AUGUST 13, 1600
Marina Gamba gave birth to a daughter, who was baptized Virgina. Later she took the name ‘Maria Celeste’.

JANUARY 1601
Galileo’s sister, Livia married Taddeo Galetti.Marina Gamba gave birth to second daughter who was baptized Livia. Later she took the name Arcangela in August.

1602
Galileo experimented with pendulum in connection with natural accelerated motion.