ITALIAN NEWS - Issue # 14, February 2009

Italian News
Periodical On-Line that Promotes, Supports, Spreads ITALY,
and ITALIAN Language, History, Culture, Tradition, Genealogy,
Articles, Products, Services, Every Aspect of ITALIAN Life Style
by THE ITALIAN PROJECT

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Italian Regions

PUGLIA (APULIA)
Official Website: www.regione.puglia.it

The Territory
The territory of Puglia (or Apulia, in English) is a long,
narrow peninsula, mostly occupied by plains and hills, apart
from some lower mountains of the Southern Apennine chain
and the Gargano promontory, with high, steep cliffs. The
hilly area is called Le Murge, while the plains are the Terra
di Bari, Terra d'Otranto, Penisola Salentina and the
Tavoliere, the second largest plain in Italy, while the very
long coastline is usually low and with sandy beaches. Apart
from the province capitals, other important centers are
Alberobello, Conversano, Barletta, Canosa di Puglia, San
Giovanni Rotondo, Manfredonia, Martina Franca, Mesagne,
Molfetta, Ostuni, Otranto, Santa Maria di Leuca, San Vito dei
Normanni, Gioia del Colle.

The Provinces of Puglia (Apulia)
The region is presently divided into 6 provinces of which
Barletta-Andria-Trani established in 2004 with communes
previously in Bari and Foggia (read here the Italian Law for
the institution of the new province of Barletta-Andria Trani).
Province of Bari (BA), Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani (BT),
Province of Brindisi (BR), Province of Foggia (FG), Province
of Lecce (LE), Province of Taranto (TA),

Population
The region has a remarkable population density, mostly
concentrated in populous centers, while the countryside is
all occupied by flourishing cultivation. Agriculture, which
was very difficult in the past for the dryness of the land, is
now supported by the Aqueduct, so that now the region is
among the biggest Italian producers of tomatoes, salad,
carrots, olives, eggplants, artichokes, almonds and citrus
fruit. Also highly developed is sheep raising in the Tavoliere
plain and fishing in the Gulf of Taranto. Tourism in the
summer is another great resource, thanks to the beautiful
beaches along the coast, and the many tourist villages and
campsites.

History
Originally inhabited by an Illyric population, the region was
always a strategic area for Mediterranean peoples, and
since early times was colonized by the Greeks, who
founded the colony of Taranto, then in the 4th century the
Romans began their conquest of the territory, and built the
Via Appia to connect it to Rome. After the fall of the Western
Roman Empire in 476 AD Apulia was for a time under the
influence of Byzanthium, then was gradually occupied by the
Lombards, the Franks and the Saracens. In the 10th century
the Eastern Roman Empire defeated the Saracens and came
in control once again, but already the cities were rising in
power and requesting more autonomy. Starting from 1059
the Norman Roberto il Guiscardo occupied part of Southern
Italy becoming Duke of Puglia and Calabria, and since then
the history of Apulia was the history of the Kingdom of
Sicily. The Normans gave way to the Swabians and these to
the Anjou and the Aragonese, and the region suffered all the
evils of bad government, until in the 18th century some
improvement took place under the Bourbons, who improved
the communications building roads and ports, and granted
some social and land reforms. In 1860 Puglia was annexed
to the Kingdom of Italy, and at that time it was divided into
only three provinces: Bari, Foggia (or Capitanata) and
Lecce, while Taranto and Brindisi were added in 1927.

As a consequence of its variegated history and the different
languages spoken in this region for centuries, there are a
number of very different dialects: in the northern areas a
Neapolitan dialect called northern Pugliese, in the southern
part a Sicilian dialect called Salentino, and in isolated areas
of Salento a hybrid language dating back to the 9th century
called Griko, as well as a rare dialect of the
French-Provençal language called "Faetar" is spoken in
Faeto and Carlantino in the Province of Foggia and in a
number villages, the "Arbëreshë" dialect has been spoken
since Albanian refugees settled there in the 15th century,
following the invasion of the Balkans by the Turkish Empire.

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Italian Genealogy

HOW TO FIND Places of your Ancestors
and Living Relatives in ITALY

Here are Step-by-Step, Detailed, and Useful Suggestions:

1- Go to PAGINE BIANCHE.it Web Site, by clicking HERE.

2- In the "Cognome o nome Azienda" box, Write the Family
Name, or the Last Name of your Ancestors, and of your
Living Relatives in ITALY.

3- In the "Nome" box, Write the First Name of your
Ancestors, and of your Living Relatives in ITALY, or Leave
it Blank, if you are Looking for the Family Name in ITALY.

4- In the "Dove" box, Write the Name of the Birth Town, or
Province, or Region of your Ancestors, and of your Living
Relatives in ITALY.

5- Click on the button "Cerca": a List of Persons with that
Family Name, with their full names, addresses, and
telephone numbers will appear!

6- Save, and/or Print their full names, addresses, and
telephone numbers, and Towns, and/or Provinces that you
have found, where they are living in ITALY!

They are your "Potential" Living Relatives, and the
"Potential" Towns, and/or Provinces of Birth of your
Ancestors in ITALY!

7- Then, click on the LINKS here below, to Know HOW TO
OBTAIN Information and Extracts, Acts, Certificates of your
ITALIAN Ancestors, and/or HOW TO CONTACT your Living
Relatives in ITALY!

H OW TO OBTAIN Information and
Documents of your Ancestors in ITALY

H OW TO CONTACT your Living Relatives
in ITALY

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Italian Companies

Pirelli

Pirelli & C. S.p.A.

Type: Public (BIT: PC)
Founded: 1872
Founder: Giovanni Battista Pirelli
Headquarters: Milan, Italy
Marco Tronchetti Provera, Chairman,
Alberto Pirelli, Deputy Chairman,
Carlo Alessandro Puri Negri, Deputy Chairman
Industry: Diverse Multi-national
Products: tires, broadband, real estate, robotics
Revenue: ▲ €4.8 billion (2006)
Employees: 31,502 (2007)
Subsidiaries: Pirelli Tyre S.p.A.
Pirelli Broadband Solutions S.p.A
Pirelli & C. Real Estate S.p.A
Pirelli Labs S.p.A.
Olimpia S.p.A.

Official Website: www.Pirelli.com

Pirelli & C. S.p.A. (BIT: PC) is a diverse multinational company based in Milan, Italy.

History
Founded 1872 in Milan, by Giovanni Battista Pirelli, Pirelli initially specialized in rubber and derivative processes.
Effectively, Pirelli's activities are still primarily focused on the production of tires, and cables (for energy and
telecommunications). In 2005 Pirelli sold its cable division to Goldman Sachs, which changed the new group's name to
Prysmian.

In the 1950s, Alberto Pirelli commissioned the building of a famous Milanese skyscraper in the same area that housed the
very first Pirelli factory during the 19th century: see Pirelli Tower[citation needed].

In 1974, Pirelli invented the "wide radial tyre", upon a request from the Lancia rally racing team for a tire strong enough to
resist the power of the new Lancia Stratos car.

At that time, racing tires were either slick tires made with the cross ply technique (very wide tires with a reduced sidewall
height), or radial tires, which were too narrow to withstand the Stratos' power and did not provide enough grip. Both were
unusable for the Lancia Stratos, as the radials were destroyed within 10km, and the slicks too stiff. Lancia asked Pirelli for
a solution, and in 1974 Pirelli created a wide tire with a reduced sidewall height like a slick, but with a radial structure.

Subsequently, Porsche started using the same tires with the award-winning Porsche 911 Turbo.

Today, the wide tyres are still the standard in sport & racing cars worldwide.

In 2004, Pirelli tires were used by Subaru, and other competitors in the World Rally Championship. In 2008, Pirelli is the
contol tyre for both the World Rally Championship, the British Rally Championship, and Superbike World Championship.

Marketing
The Pirelli Calendar is published annually, and regularly features famous actresses and fashion models.

The Pirelli Internetional Award is given annually for the best international multimedia involving the communication of
Science & Technology conducted entirely on the Internet.

Power is nothing without control is the well known slogan of Pirelli Tyre Company, and is featured in numerous television
and print advertisements.

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Italian Language

Direct Object Pronouns

A direct object is the direct recipient of the action of a verb.

I invite the boys. Whom do I invite? The boys.
He reads the book. What does he read? The book.

The nouns boys and books are direct objects. They answer
the question what? or whom? Verbs that take a direct object
are called transitive verbs. Verbs that do not take a direct
object (she walks, I sleep) are intransitive.

Direct object pronouns replace direct object nouns.

I invite the boys. I invite them.
He reads the book. He reads it.

In Italian the forms of the direct object pronouns (i pronomi
diretti) are as follows:

SINGULAR PLURAL
mi me ci us
ti you (informal) vi you (informal)
La you (formal m. and f.) Li you (form., m.)
Le you (form., f.)
lo him, it li them (m. and f.)
la her, it le them (f.)

A direct object pronoun is placed immediately before a
conjugated verb.

Se vedo i ragazzi, li invito. (If I see the boys, I’ll invite them.)
Compra la frutta e la mangia. (He buys the fruit and eats it.)

In a negative sentence, the word non must come before the
object pronoun.

Non la mangia. (He doesn’t eat it.)
Perchè non li inviti? (Why don’t you invite them?)

The object pronoun is attached to the end of an infinitive.
Note that the final –e of the infinitive is dropped.

È importante mangiarla ogni giorno. (It is important to eat it
every day.)
È una buon’idea invitarli. It’s a good idea to invite them.

It is possible, but not necessary, to elide singular direct
object pronouns in front of verbs that begin with a vowel or
forms of avere that begin with an h. However, the plural
forms li and le are never elided.

M’ama, non m’ama. (Mi ama, non mi ama.). (He loves me, he
loves me not.)
Il passaporto? Loro non l’hanno (lo hanno). (The passport?
They don’t have it.)

A few Italian verbs that take a direct object, such as
ascoltare, aspettare, cercare, and guardare, correspond to
English verbs that are used with prepositions (to listen to to
wait for, to look for, to look at).

Chi cerchi? – Cerco il mio ragazzo. Lo cerco già da mezz’ora!
(Who are you looking for? – I’m looking for my boyfriend. I’ve
been looking for him for half an hour!)

Object pronouns are attached to ecco to express here I am,
here you are, here he is, and so on.

Dov’è la signorina? – Eccola! (Where is the young woman?
– Here she is!)
Hai trovato le chiavi? – Sì, eccole! (Have you found the
keys? – Yes, here they are!)

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Italian History

Italo-Cileni (Italian-Chileans)

Total Population:
150,000

Regions with Significant Populations:
Chile

Languages:
Chilean Spanish, Italian

Religion:
Roman Catholicism

Related Ethnic Groups:
Italians

Italian-Chileans (In Spanish: Italochilenos, in Italian: Italo-Cileni) are Chileans of Italian descent. The Chilean census
officially stated 150,000 Chileans of Italian descent, but could be 3 to 4 times the number or above 600,000, due to the
census used Italian surnames to identify those of Italian descent. There is a notable Italian influence in Chile for example
in people's surnames, a large porportion of politics, business and culture in the country are from persons and families of
Italian descent, mostly intermarried into the "Castilian-Basques" elites.

Italian Chileans along with French Chileans contributed to the development, cultivation and ownership of the
world-famous Chilean wines from haciendas in the Central Valley ever since the first wave of Italians arrived to colonial
Chile in the early 19th century.

Although being just a fraction of the size of the migration to Argentina, Italian immigration to Chile has been present since
the arrival of the first Spaniards into the country, like captain Giovanni Battista Pastene who helped Pedro de Valdivia's
expedition. Thence, with akin Latin culture, Italians have helped forge the nation, with architects (Gioacchino Toesca),
painters (Camilo Mori), businessmen (Anacleto Angelini), Economists (Vittorio Corbo) and statesmen (Arturo Alessandri).

In an unusual manner, since Italian immigration was never massive or organized, the only case of concerted immigration
appeared in the town of Capitán Pastene, in the Araucanía region in southern Chile, where in 1904, 23 families from
Emilia-Romagna were left at their own device after being wrongfully enticed to the "riches" of Chile. Today, this small
town celebrates a renaissance of their Italic heritage.

Notable Italian-Chileans
Arturo Alessandri liberal politician, senator, President of Chile
Fernando Alessandri politician
Gustavo Alessandri Balmaceda politician
Hernan Alessandri politician, lawyer
Jorge Alessandri politician, President of Chile
Anacleto Angelini businessman
Cecilia Bolocco Miss Chile, model, TV hostess
Hortensia Bussi First Lady of Chile, wife of President Salvador Allende
Pedro Carcuro TV host
Claudia Conserva TV hostess
Vittorio Corbo President of the Central Bank of Chile
Nicolás Corvetto football (soccer) player
Javier di Gregorio football (soccer) goalkeeper
Misael Escuti football (soccer) player
Eduardo Gatti singer
Claudia Di Girólamo actress
Claudio Di Girólamo artist, painter
Beatriz Marinello chess player
Nicole Natalino singer
Giovanni Batista Pastene explorer
Manuel Pellegrini former football (soccer) player, trainer
Giancarlo Petaccia TV host
Osvaldo Puccio politician, diplomat
Ricardo Rozzi biologist, philosopher
Gioacchino Toesca architect
Cristopher Toselli football (soccer) goalkeeper
Manuel Trucco politician, diplomat, senator
Mathias Vidangossy football (soccer) player
Giancarlo Zolezzi swimmer

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Italian Latest News

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Famous Italians

Galileo Galilei

Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Giusto Sustermans

Born: February 15, 1564
Pisa, Tuscany - Italy
Died: January 8, 1642 (aged 77)
Arcetri, Tuscany - Italy
Residence: Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Fields: Astronomy, Physics and Mathematics
Institutions: University of Padova
Alma mater University of Pisa
Known for: Kinematics, Telescope, Solar System
Religious Stance: Roman Catholic

Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was a Tuscan (Italian) physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and
philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope
and consequent astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern
observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and “the Father of Modern Science.”
The motion of uniformly accelerated objects, taught in nearly all high school and introductory college physics courses,
was studied by Galileo as the subject of kinematics. His contributions to observational astronomy include the discovery of
the four largest satellites of Jupiter, named the Galilean moons in his honour, and the observation and analysis of
sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, improving compass design.

Galileo's championing of Copernicanism was controversial within his lifetime. The geocentric view had been dominant
since the time of Aristotle, and the controversy engendered by Galileo's opposition to this view resulted in the Catholic
Church's prohibiting the advocacy of heliocentrism as potentially factual, because that theory had no decisive proof and
was contrary to the literal meaning of Scripture. Galileo was eventually forced to recant his heliocentrism and spent the
last years of his life under house arrest on orders of the Inquisition.

Life
Galileo was born in Pisa (then part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany), the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei, a famous
lutenist and music theorist, and Giulia Ammannati. At the age of 8, his family moved to Florence, but he was left with
Jacopo Borghini for two years. He then was educated in the Camaldolese Monastery at Vallombrosa, 33 km southeast of
Florence. Although he seriously considered the priesthood as a young man, he enrolled for a medical degree at the
University of Pisa at his father's urging. He did not complete this degree, but instead studied mathematics. In 1589, he was
appointed to the chair of mathematics in Pisa. In 1591 his father died and he was entrusted with the care of his younger
brother Michelagnolo. In 1592, he moved to the University of Padua, teaching geometry, mechanics, and astronomy until
1610. During this period Galileo made significant discoveries in both pure science (for example, kinematics of motion, and
astronomy) and applied science (for example, strength of materials, improvement of the telescope). His multiple interests
included the study of astrology, which in pre-modern disciplinary practice was seen as correlated to the studies of
mathematics and astronomy.

Although a devout Roman Catholic, Galileo fathered three children out of wedlock with Marina Gamba. They had two
daughters (Virginia in 1600 and Livia in 1601) and one son (Vincenzio, in 1606). Because of their illegitimate birth, their
father considered the girls unmarriageable. Their only worthy alternative was the religious life. Both girls were sent to the
convent of San Matteo in Arcetri and remained there for the rest of their lives. Virginia (b. 1600) took the name Maria
Celeste upon entering the convent. She died on April 2, 1634, and is buried with Galileo at the Basilica di Santa Croce di
Firenze. Livia (b. 1601) took the name Suor Arcangela and was ill for most of her life. Vincenzio (b. 1606) was later
legitimized and married Sestilia Bocchineri.

In 1610 Galileo published an account of his telescopic observations of the moons of Jupiter, using this observation to
argue in favor of the sun-centered, Copernican theory of the universe against the dominant earth-centered Ptolemaic and
Aristotelian theories. The next year Galileo visited Rome in order to demonstrate his telescope to the influential
philosophers and mathematicians of the Jesuit Collegio Romano, and to let them see with their own eyes the reality of the
four moons of Jupiter. While in Rome he was also made a member of the Accademia dei Lincei. In 1612, opposition arose
to the Sun-centered solar system which Galileo supported. In 1614, from the pulpit of Santa Maria Novella, Father
Tommaso Caccini (1574–1648) denounced Galileo's opinions on the motion of the Earth, judging them dangerous and
close to heresy. Galileo went to Rome to defend himself against these accusations, but, in 1616, Cardinal Roberto
Bellarmino personally handed Galileo an admonition enjoining him neither to advocate nor teach Copernican astronomy.
During 1621 and 1622 Galileo wrote his first book, The Assayer (Il Saggiatore), which was approved and published in
1623. In 1630, he returned to Rome to apply for a license to print the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems,
published in Florence in 1632. In October of that year, however, he was ordered to appear before the Holy Office in Rome.

Scientific Methods
Galileo Galilei pioneered the use of quantitative experiments whose results could be analyzed with mathematical
precision (More typical of science at the time were the qualitative studies of William Gilbert, on magnetism and electricity).
Galileo's father, Vincenzo Galilei, a lutenist and music theorist, had performed experiments establishing perhaps the
oldest known non-linear relation in physics: for a stretched string, the pitch varies as the square root of the tension. These
observations lay within the framework of the Pythagorean tradition of music, well-known to instrument makers, which
included the fact that subdividing a string by a whole number produces a harmonious scale. Thus, a limited amount of
mathematics had long related music and physical science, and young Galileo could see his own father's observations
expand on that tradition. Galileo is perhaps the first to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical. In The
Assayer he wrote "Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe ... It is written in the language of mathematics,
and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures; ...". His mathematical analyses are a further
development of a tradition employed by late scholastic natural philosophers, which Galileo learned when he studied
philosophy. Although he tried to remain loyal to the Catholic Church, his adherence to experimental results, and their most
honest interpretation, led to a rejection of blind allegiance to authority, both philosophical and religious, in matters of
science. In broader terms, this aided to separate science from both philosophy and religion; a major development in
human thought.

By the standards of his time, Galileo was often willing to change his views in accordance with observation. Philosopher
of science Paul Feyerabend also noted the supposedly improper aspects of Galileo's methodology, but he argued that
Galileo's methods could be justified retroactively by their results. The bulk of Feyerabend's major work, Against Method
(1975), was devoted to an analysis of Galileo, using his astronomical research as a case study to support Feyerabend's
own anarchistic theory of scientific method. As he put it: 'Aristotelians ... demanded strong empirical support while the
Galileans were content with far-reaching, unsupported and partially refuted theories. I do not criticize them for that; on the
contrary, I favour Niels Bohr's "this is not crazy enough." In order to perform his experiments, Galileo had to set up
standards of length and time, so that measurements made on different days and in different laboratories could be
compared in a reproducible fashion.

Galileo showed a remarkably modern appreciation for the proper relationship between mathematics, theoretical physics,
and experimental physics. He understood the parabola, both in terms of conic sections and in terms of the ordinate (y)
varying as the square of the abscissa (x). Galilei further asserted that the parabola was the theoretically-ideal trajectory
for uniformly accelerated motion, in the absence of friction and other disturbances. He also noted that there are limits to
the validity of this theory, stating that it was appropriate only for laboratory-scale and battlefield-scale trajectories, and
noting on theoretical grounds that the parabola could not possibly apply to a trajectory so large as to be comparable to the
size of the planet. Thirdly, Galilei recognized that his experimental data would never agree exactly with any theoretical or
mathematical form, because of the imprecision of measurement, irreducible friction, and other factors.

According to Stephen Hawking, Galileo probably bears more of the responsibility for the birth of modern science than
anybody else, and Albert Einstein called him the father of modern science.

Astronomy

Contributions

It was on this page that Galileo first noted an observation of the moons of Jupiter. This observation upset the notion that all
celestial bodies must revolve around the Earth. Galileo published a full description in Sidereus Nuncius in March 1610

The phases of Venus, observed by Galileo in 1610

Based only on uncertain descriptions of the telescope, invented in the Netherlands in 1608, Galileo, in that same year,
made a telescope with about 3x magnification, and later made others with up to about 32x magnification. With this
improved device he could see magnified, upright images on the earth - it was what is now known as a terrestrial
telescope, or spyglass. He could also use it to observe the sky; for a time he was one of very few who could construct
telescopes good enough for that purpose. On 25 August 1609, he demonstrated his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
His work on the device made for a profitable sideline with merchants who found it useful for their shipping businesses
and trading issues. He published his initial telescopic astronomical observations in March 1610 in a short treatise entitled
Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger).

On January 7, 1610 Galileo observed with his telescope what he described at the time as "three fixed stars, totally
invisible by their smallness", all within a short distance of Jupiter, and lying on a straight line through it. Observations on
subsequent nights showed that the positions of these "stars" relative to Jupiter were changing in a way that would have
been inexplicable if they had really been fixed stars. On January 10 Galileo noted that one of them had disappeared, an
observation which he attributed to its being hidden behind Jupiter. Within a few days he concluded that they were orbiting
Jupiter: he had discovered three of Jupiter's four largest satellites (moons): Io, Europa, and Callisto. He discovered the
fourth, Ganymede, on January 13. Galileo named the four satellites he had discovered Medicean stars, in honour of his
future patron, Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Cosimo's three brothers. Later astronomers, however,
renamed them Galilean satellites in honour of Galileo himself.

A planet with smaller planets orbiting it was problematic for the orderly, comprehensive picture of the geocentric model of
the universe, in which everything was supposed to circle around the Earth. As a consequence, many astronomers and
philosophers initially refused to believe that Galileo could have discovered such a thing.

Galileo continued to observe the satellites over the next eighteen months, and by mid 1611 he had obtained remarkably
accurate estimates for their periods—a feat which Kepler had believed impossible.

From September 1610, Galileo observed that Venus exhibited a full set of phases similar to that of the Moon. The
heliocentric model of the solar system developed by Nicolaus Copernicus predicted that all phases would be visible since
the orbit of Venus around the Sun would cause its illuminated hemisphere to face the Earth when it was on the opposite
side of the Sun and to face away from the Earth when it was on the Earth-side of the Sun. In contrast, the geocentric model
of Ptolemy predicted that only crescent and new phases would be seen, since Venus was thought to remain between the
Sun and Earth during its orbit around the Earth. Galileo's observations of the phases of Venus proved that it orbited the
Sun and lent support to (but did not prove) the heliocentric model.

Galileo also observed the planet Saturn, and at first mistook its rings for planets, thinking it was a three-bodied system.
When he observed the planet later, Saturn's rings were directly oriented at Earth, causing him to think that two of the
bodies had disappeared. The rings reappeared when he observed the planet in 1616, further confusing him.

Galileo was one of the first Europeans to observe sunspots. He also reinterpreted a sunspot observation from the time of
Charlemagne, which formerly had been attributed (impossibly) to a transit of Mercury. The very existence of sunspots
showed another difficulty with the unchanging perfection of the heavens as assumed in the older philosophy. And the
annual variations in their motions, first noticed by Francesco Sizzi, presented great difficulties for both the geocentric
system and that of Tycho Brahe. A dispute over priority in the discovery of sunspots, and in their interpretation, led Galileo
to a long and bitter feud with the Jesuit Christoph Scheiner; in fact, there is little doubt that both of them were beaten by
David Fabricius and his son Johannes. Scheiner quickly adopted Kepler's 1615 proposal of the modern telescope design,
which gave larger magnification at the cost of inverted images; Galileo apparently never changed to Kepler's design.

Galileo was the first to report lunar mountains and craters, whose existence he deduced from the patterns of light and
shadow on the Moon's surface. He even estimated the mountains' heights from these observations. This led him to the
conclusion that the Moon was "rough and uneven, and just like the surface of the Earth itself," rather than a perfect
sphere as Aristotle had claimed. Galileo observed the Milky Way, previously believed to be nebulous, and found it to be a
multitude of stars packed so densely that they appeared to be clouds from Earth. He located many other stars too distant to
be visible with the naked eye. Galileo also observed the planet Neptune in 1612, but did not realize that it was a planet
and took no particular notice of it. It appears in his notebooks as one of many unremarkable dim stars.

Controversy over comets and The Assayer
In 1619 Galileo became embroiled in a controversy with Father Horatio Grassi, the professor of mathematics at the Jesuit
Collegio Romano. It began as a dispute over the nature of comets, but by the time Galileo had published The Assayer (Il
Saggiatore) in 1623, his last salvo in the dispute, it had become a much wider argument over the very nature of Science
itself. Because The Assayer contains such a wealth of Galileo's ideas on how Science should be practised, it has been
referred to as his scientific manifesto.

Early in 1619 Father Grassi had anonymously published a pamphlet, An Astronomical Disputation on the Three Comets of
the Year 1618, which discussed the nature of a comet that had appeared late in November of the previous year. Grassi
concluded that the comet was a fiery body which had moved along a segment of a great circle at a constant distance from
the earth, and that it had been located well beyond the moon.

Grassi's arguments and conclusions were criticised in a subsequent article, Discourse on the Comets, published under
the name of one of Galileo's disciples, a Florentine lawyer named Mario Guiducci, although it had been largely written by
Galileo himself. Galileo and Guiducci offered no definitive theory of their own on the nature of comets, although they did
present some tentative conjectures which we now know to be mistaken.

In its opening passage, Galileo and Guiducci's Discourse gratuitously insulted the Jesuit Christopher Scheiner, and
various uncomplimentary remarks about the professors of the Collegio Romano were scattered throughout the work. The
Jesuits were offended, and Grassi soon replied with a polemical tract of his own, The Astronomical and Philosophical
Balance, under the pseudonym Lothario Sarsi, purporting to be one of his own pupils.

The Assayer was Galileo's devastating reply to the Astronomical Balance. It has been widely regarded as a masterpiece of
polemical literature, in which "Sarsi's" arguments are subjected to withering scorn. It was greeted with wide acclaim, and
particularly pleased the new pope, Urban VIII, to whom it had been dedicated.

Galileo's dispute with Grassi permanently alienated many of the Jesuits who had previously been sympathetic to his
ideas, and Galileo and his friends were convinced that these Jesuits were responsible for bringing about his later
condemnation. The evidence for this is at best equivocal, however.

Galileo, Kepler and theories of tides
Cardinal Bellarmine had written in 1615 that the Copernican system could not be defended without "a true physical
demonstration that the sun does not circle the earth but the earth circles the sun". Galileo considered his theory of the
tides to provide the required physical proof of the motion of the earth. This theory was so important to Galileo that he
originally intended to entitle his Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems the Dialogue on the Ebb and Flow of the Sea. For
Galileo, the tides were caused by the sloshing back and forth of water in the seas as a point on the Earth's surface
speeded up and slowed down because of the Earth's rotation on its axis and revolution around the Sun. Galileo circulated
his first account of the tides in 1616, addressed to Cardinal Orsini.

If this theory were correct, there would be only one high tide per day. Galileo and his contemporaries were aware of this
inadequacy because there are two daily high tides at Venice instead of one, about twelve hours apart. Galileo dismissed
this anomaly as the result of several secondary causes, including the shape of the sea, its depth, and other factors.
Against the assertion that Galileo was deceptive in making these arguments, Albert Einstein expressed the opinion that
Galileo developed his "fascinating arguments" and accepted them uncritically out of a desire for physical proof of the
motion of the Earth.

Galileo dismissed as a "useless fiction" the idea, held by his contemporary Johannes Kepler, that the moon caused the
tides. Galileo also refused to accept Kepler's elliptical orbits of the planets, considering the circle the "perfect" shape for
planetary orbits.

Technology

Galileo Galilei. Portrait in crayon by Leoni

A replica of the earliest surviving telescope attributed to Galileo Galilei,
on display at the Griffith Observatory

Galileo made a number of contributions to what is now known as technology, as distinct from pure physics, and suggested
others. This is not the same distinction as made by Aristotle, who would have considered all Galileo's physics as techne
or useful knowledge, as opposed to episteme, or philosophical investigation into the causes of things. Between 1595–
1598, Galileo devised and improved a Geometric and Military Compass suitable for use by gunners and surveyors. This
expanded on earlier instruments designed by Niccolò Tartaglia and Guidobaldo del Monte. For gunners, it offered, in
addition to a new and safer way of elevating cannons accurately, a way of quickly computing the charge of gunpowder for
cannonballs of different sizes and materials. As a geometric instrument, it enabled the construction of any regular polygon,
computation of the area of any polygon or circular sector, and a variety of other calculations. About 1593, Galileo
constructed a thermometer, using the expansion and contraction of air in a bulb to move water in an attached tube.

In 1609, Galileo was among the first to use a refracting telescope as an instrument to observe stars, planets or moons.
Galileo's telescope was the first instrument given that name by an unidentified Greek poet/theologian, present at a banquet
held in 1611 by Prince Federico Cesi to make Galileo a member of his Accademia dei Lincei. The name was derived from
the Greek tele = 'far' and skopein = 'to look or see'. In 1610, he used a telescope at close range to magnify the parts of
insects. By 1624 he had perfected a compound microscope. He gave one of these instruments to Cardinal Zollern in May of
that year for presentation to the Duke of Bavaria, and in September he sent another to Prince Cesi. The Linceans played a
role again in naming the "microscope" a year later when fellow academy member Giovanni Faber coined the word for
Galileo's invention from the Greek words μικρόν (micron) meaning "small", and σκοπεῖν (skopein) meaning "to look at".
The word was meant to be analogous with "telescope". Illustrations of insects made using one of Galileo's microscopes,
and published in 1625, appear to have been the first clear documentation of the use of a compound microscope.

In 1612, having determined the orbital periods of Jupiter's satellites, Galileo proposed that with sufficiently accurate
knowledge of their orbits one could use their positions as a universal clock, and this would make possible the
determination of longitude. He worked on this problem from time to time during the remainder of his life; but the practical
problems were severe. The method was first successfully applied by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1681 and was later
used extensively for large land surveys; this method, for example, was used by Lewis and Clark. For sea navigation,
where delicate telescopic observations were more difficult, the longitude problem eventually required development of a
practical portable marine chronometer, such as that of John Harrison.

In his last year, when totally blind, he designed an escapement mechanism for a pendulum clock, a vectorial model of
which may be seen here. The first fully operational pendulum clock was made by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s. Galilei
created sketches of various inventions, such as a candle and mirror combination to reflect light throughout a building, an
automatic tomato picker, a pocket comb that doubled as an eating utensil, and what appears to be a ballpoint pen.

Physics
Galileo's theoretical and experimental work on the motions of bodies, along with the largely independent work of Kepler
and René Descartes, was a precursor of the classical mechanics developed by Sir Isaac Newton. He was a pioneer, at
least in the European tradition, in performing rigorous experiments and insisting on a mathematical description of the laws
of nature.

A biography by Galileo's pupil Vincenzo Viviani stated that Galileo had dropped balls of the same material, but different
masses, from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to demonstrate that their time of descent was independent of their mass. This was
contrary to what Aristotle had taught: that heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones, in direct proportion to weight. While
this story has been retold in popular accounts, it is generally accepted by historians that there is no account by Galileo
himself of such an experiment, and that it was at most a thought experiment which did not actually take place. However,
Galileo did perform experiments which proved the same thing by rolling balls down inclined planes: falling or rolling
objects (rolling is a slower version of falling, as long as the distribution of mass in the objects is the same) are
accelerated independently of their mass. Galileo was the first person to demonstrate this via experiment, but he was not—
contrary to popular belief—the first to argue that it was true. A number of scholars prior to Galileo wrote -- or showed by
experiment -- that in a vacuum, bodies which are composed of the same substance but which have different masses, fall
through equal distances in equal times: Lucretius (ca. 99 - ca. 55 B.C.E., Roman poet), John Philoponus (ca. 490 - ca. 570
C.E., Greek philosopher in Alexandria, Egypt), Thomas Bradwardine (ca. 1290 - 1349, scholar at Merton College of Oxford
University), Albert of Saxony (1316 - 1390, German cleric and philosopher), Pietro Monte (a.k.a. Petrus Montius, ca. 1457 -
1530, Spanish master at arms who resided in N. Italy), Benedetto Varchi (1502/3 - 1565, Italian historian and poet),
Domingo de Soto (1494 - 1560, Spanish cleric and theologian), Giambattista Benedetti (1530 - 1590, Venetian
mathematician), Giuseppe Moletti (1531 - 1588, Italian mathematician), and Simon Stevin (1548/9 - 1620, Flemish engineer
and mathematician).

Galileo arrived at the correct mathematical law for uniform acceleration: the total distance covered, starting from rest, is
proportional to the square of the time (), already discovered by Domingo de Soto in the 16th century. He expressed this law
using geometrical constructions and mathematically-precise words, adhering to the standards of the day. (It remained for
others to re-express the law in algebraic terms). But he erroneously claimed gravitational free-fall universally is uniformly
accelerated as the fundamental law of motion of his cosmology and cosmogony, a claim that was never generally
accepted and soon refuted by the 1660s discovery that it is exponentially increasingly accelerated (a difform motion in
scholastic terms) and inversely proportional to distance from its gravitational centre. He also concluded that objects
retain their velocity unless a force—often friction—acts upon them, refuting the generally accepted Aristotelian hypothesis
that objects "naturally" slow down and stop unless a force acts upon them (philosophical ideas relating to inertia had
been proposed by Ibn al-Haytham centuries earlier, as had Jean Buridan, and according to Joseph Needham, Mo Tzu had
proposed it centuries before either of them, but this was the first time that it had been mathematically expressed, verified
experimentally, and introduced the idea of frictional force, the key breakthrough in validating inertia). Galileo's Principle of
Inertia stated: "A body moving on a level surface will continue in the same direction at constant speed unless disturbed."
This principle was incorporated into Newton's laws of motion (first law).

Dome of the cathedral of Pisa with the "lamp of Galileo"

Galileo also noted that a pendulum's swings always take the same amount of time, independently of the amplitude. The
story goes that he came to this conclusion by watching the swings of the bronze chandelier in the cathedral of Pisa, using
his pulse to time it. While Galileo believed this equality of period to be exact, it is only an approximation appropriate to
small amplitudes. It is good enough to regulate a clock, however, as Galileo may have been the first to realize. (See
Technology above)

In 1638 Galileo described an experimental method to measure the speed of light by arranging that two observers, each
having lanterns equipped with shutters, observe each other's lanterns at some distance. The first observer opens the
shutter of his lamp, and, the second, upon seeing the light, immediately opens the shutter of his own lantern. The time
between the first observer's opening his shutter and seeing the light from the second observer's lamp indicates the time it
takes light to travel back and forth between the two observers. Galileo reported that when he tried this at a distance of
less than a mile, he was unable to determine whether or not the light appeared instantaneously. Sometime between
Galileo's death and 1667, the members of the Florentine Accademia del Cimento repeated the experiment over a distance
of about a mile and obtained a similarly inconclusive result.

Galileo is lesser known for, yet still credited with, being one of the first to understand sound frequency. By scraping a
chisel at different speeds, he linked the pitch of the sound produced to the spacing of the chisel's skips, a measure of
frequency.

In his 1632 Dialogue Galileo presented a physical theory to account for tides, based on the motion of the Earth. If correct,
this would have been a strong argument for the reality of the Earth's motion. In fact, the original title for the book described
it as a dialogue on the tides; the reference to tides was removed by order of the Inquisition. His theory gave the first
insight into the importance of the shapes of ocean basins in the size and timing of tides; he correctly accounted, for
instance, for the negligible tides halfway along the Adriatic Sea compared to those at the ends. As a general account of the
cause of tides, however, his theory was a failure. Kepler and others correctly associated the Moon with an influence over
the tides, based on empirical data; a proper physical theory of the tides, however, was not available until Newton.

Galileo also put forward the basic principle of relativity, that the laws of physics are the same in any system that is
moving at a constant speed in a straight line, regardless of its particular speed or direction. Hence, there is no absolute
motion or absolute rest. This principle provided the basic framework for Newton's laws of motion and is central to
Einstein's special theory of relativity.

Mathematics
While Galileo's application of mathematics to experimental physics was innovative, his mathematical methods were the
standard ones of the day. The analysis and proofs relied heavily on the Eudoxian theory of proportion, as set forth in the
fifth book of Euclid's Elements. This theory had become available only a century before, thanks to accurate translations by
Tartaglia and others; but by the end of Galileo's life it was being superseded by the algebraic methods of Descartes.

Galileo produced one piece of original and even prophetic work in mathematics: Galileo's paradox, which shows that
there are as many perfect squares as there are whole numbers, even though most numbers are not perfect squares. Such
seeming contradictions were brought under control 250 years later in the work of Georg Cantor.

Church Controversy

Cristiano Banti's 1857 painting Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition

Western Christian biblical references Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 include text stating that "the world
is firmly established, it cannot be moved." In the same tradition, Psalm 104:5 says, "the LORD set the earth on its
foundations; it can never be moved." Further, Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "And the sun rises and sets and returns to its
place, etc."

Galileo defended heliocentrism, and claimed it was not contrary to those Scripture passages. He took Augustine's position
on Scripture: not to take every passage literally, particularly when the scripture in question is a book of poetry and songs,
not a book of instructions or history. The writers of the Scripture wrote from the perspective of the terrestrial world, and
from that vantage point the sun does rise and set. In fact, it is the earth's rotation which gives the impression of the sun in
motion across the sky.

By 1616 the attacks on Galileo had reached a head, and he went to Rome to try to persuade the Church authorities not to
ban his ideas. In the end, Cardinal Bellarmine, acting on directives from the Inquisition, delivered him an order not to "hold
or defend" the idea that the Earth moves and the Sun stands still at the centre. The decree did not prevent Galileo from
discussing heliocentrism hypothetically. For the next several years Galileo stayed well away from the controversy. He
revived his project of writing a book on the subject, encouraged by the election of Cardinal Barberini as Pope Urban VIII in
1623. Barberini was a friend and admirer of Galileo, and had opposed the condemnation of Galileo in 1616. The book,
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was published in 1632, with formal authorization from the Inquisition
and papal permission.

Pope Urban VIII personally asked Galileo to give arguments for and against heliocentrism in the book, and to be careful
not to advocate heliocentrism. He made another request, that his own views on the matter be included in Galileo's book.
Only the latter of those requests was fulfilled by Galileo. Whether unknowingly or deliberate, Simplicius, the defender of
the Aristotelian Geocentric view in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was often caught in his own errors
and sometimes came across as a fool. This fact made Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems appear as an
advocacy book; an attack on Aristotelian geocentrism and defense of the Copernican theory. To add insult to injury, Galileo
put the words of Pope Urban VIII into the mouth of Simplicius. Most historians agree Galileo did not act out of malice and
felt blindsided by the reaction to his book. However, the Pope did not take the suspected public ridicule lightly, nor the
blatant bias. Galileo had alienated one of his biggest and most powerful supporters, the Pope, and was called to Rome to
defend his writings.

With the loss of many of his defenders in Rome because of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Galileo was
ordered to stand trial on suspicion of heresy in 1633. The sentence of the Inquisition was in three essential parts:

Galileo was required to abjure the opinion that the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe, and that the Earth is
not at its centre and moves; the idea that the Sun is stationary was condemned as "formally heretical." However, while
there is no doubt that Pope Urban VIII and the vast majority of Church officials did not believe in heliocentrism,
heliocentrism was never formally or officially condemned by the Catholic Church, except insofar as it held (for instance, in
the formal condemnation of Galileo) that "The proposition that the sun is in the center of the world and immovable from its
place is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical; because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scriptures", and the
converse as to the Sun's not revolving around the Earth.
He was ordered imprisoned; the sentence was later commuted to house arrest.
His offending Dialogue was banned; and in an action not announced at the trial, publication of any of his works was
forbidden, including any he might write in the future.

Tomb of Galileo Galilei, Santa Croce, Italy

According to popular legend, after recanting his theory that the Earth moved around the Sun, Galileo allegedly muttered the
rebellious phrase And yet it moves, but there is no evidence that he actually said this or anything similarly impertinent.

After a period with the friendly Ascanio Piccolomini (the Archbishop of Siena), Galileo was allowed to return to his villa at
Arcetri near Florence, where he spent the remainder of his life under house arrest, and where he later became blind. It
was while Galileo was under house arrest that he dedicated his time to one of his finest works, Two New Sciences. Here
he summarized work he had done some forty years earlier, on the two sciences now called kinematics and strength of
materials. This book has received high praise from both Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. As a result of this work,
Galileo is often called, the "father of modern physics".

Galileo died on January 8, 1642. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando II, wished to bury him in the main body of the
Basilica of Santa Croce, next to the tombs of his father and other ancestors, and to erect a marble mausoleum in his
honour. These plans were scrapped, however, after Pope Urban VIII and his nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini,
protested. He was instead buried in a small room next to the novices' chapel at the end of a corridor from the southern
transept of the basilica to the sacristy. He was reburied in the main body of the basilica in 1737 after a monument had been
erected there in his honour.

The Inquisition's ban on reprinting Galileo's works was lifted in 1718 when permission was granted to publish an edition of
his works (excluding the condemned Dialogue) in Florence. In 1741 Pope Benedict XIV authorized the publication of an
edition of Galileo's complete scientific works which included a mildly censored version of the Dialogue. In 1758 the
general prohibition against works advocating heliocentrism was removed from the Index of prohibited books, although the
specific ban on uncensored versions of the Dialogue and Copernicus's De Revolutionibus remained. All traces of official
opposition to heliocentrism by the Church disappeared in 1835 when these works were finally dropped from the Index.

In 1939 Pope Pius XII, in his first speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, within a few months of his election to the
papacy, described Galileo as being among the "most audacious heroes of research … not afraid of the stumbling blocks
and the risks on the way, nor fearful of the funereal monuments" His close advisor of 40 years, Professor Robert Leiber
wrote: "Pius XII was very careful not to close any doors (to science) prematurely. He was energetic on this point and
regretted that in the case of Galileo."

On February 15, 1990, in a speech delivered at the Sapienza University of Rome, Cardinal Ratzinger cited some current
views on the Galileo affair as forming what he called "a symptomatic case that permits us to see how deep the self-doubt
of the modern age, of science and technology goes today." Some of the views he cited were those of the philosopher Paul
Feyerabend, whom he quoted as saying “The Church at the time of Galileo kept much more closely to reason than did
Galileo himself, and she took into consideration the ethical and social consequences of Galileo's teaching too. Her verdict
against Galileo was rational and just and the revision of this verdict can be justified only on the grounds of what is
politically opportune.” The Cardinal did not clearly indicate whether he agreed or disagreed with Feyerabend's assertions.
He did, however, say "It would be foolish to construct an impulsive apologetic on the basis of such views".

On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and officially conceded
that the Earth was not stationary, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Galileo's Writings
The Little Balance (1586)
The Starry Messenger (1610; in Latin, Sidereus Nuncius)
Letters on Sunspots (1613)
Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615; published in 1636)
Discourse on the Tides (1616; in Italian, Discorso del flusso e reflusso del mare)
Discourse on the Comets (1619; in Italian, Discorso Delle Comete)
The Assayer (1623; in Italian, Il Saggiatore)
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632; in Italian Dialogo dei due massimi sistemi del mondo)
Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences (1638; in Italian, Discorsi e Dimostrazioni
Matematiche, intorno a due nuove scienze)

Statue of Galileo Galilei outside the Uffizi, Florence, Italy

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ITALIAN LANGUAGE: Lessons of Italian Grammar, Spelling, and Usage: Direct Object
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ITALIAN PROVINCES: Bari - Barletta-Andria-Trani - Brindisi - Foggia - Lecce - Taranto
ITALIAN RECIPES: Easy Pea Ravioli with Mint - Easy Baked Parmesan Meatballs
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In This Issue:

Issue # 14, February 2009

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Italian Recipes

Easy Baked Parmesan Meatballs

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 egg
1 clove garlic, minced

Cooking Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix meat, cheese, parsley,
egg and garlic.
Shape into 12 meatballs. Place in foil-lined 15x10x1-inch
baking pan.
Bake 25 minutes or until cooked through.

Yield
6 servings

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Italian Recipes

Easy Pea Ravioli with Mint

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 1/4 cups shelled fresh or thawed frozen peas
6 tablespoons dry white wine
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
40 wonton wrappers (3 1/2 inches each)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup unsalted butter
4 fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced

Cooking Directions
Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add shallot;
cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add garlic; cook until soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Add peas, wine,
1 cup water, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt; season with pepper.
Simmer until liquid has almost evaporated and peas are
tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool slightly.
Puree pea mixture in a food processor. Brush edges of 10
wrappers with egg. Place 1 tablespoon puree in centers.
Top with a dry wrapper; seal edges. Trim using a 3-inch
round cutter. Repeat with remaining wrappers and puree.
Working in batches, cook ravioli in salted simmering water
until they are soft and rise to the surface, about 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium skillet over medium
heat; add ravioli to skillet, and cook until butter is frothy
and ravioli is coated, 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle with mint.
Serve immediately (as a first course).

Yield
4 servings
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