Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

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Today Galileo is a famous and romantic name। We have all been taught the story of his heroic fight in the name of science against the intractable ignorance of the tyrannical Catholic church. The reality is not so starkly drawn, but no less interesting for that; Galileo's own arrogance created many enemies, and Rome's anxiety over its authority in the schismatic era of the Protestant reformation made their collision inevitable.

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