CHAPTER III.

_Galileo announces his discoveries in Enigmas--Discovers the Crescent of Venus--the Ring of Saturn--the Spots on the Sun--Similar Observations made in England by Harriot--Claims of Fabricius and Scheiner to the discovery of the Solar Spots--Galileo's Letters to Velser on the claims of Scheiner--His residence at the Villa of Salviati--Composes his work on Floating Bodies, which involves him in new controversies._

The great success which attended the first telescopic observations of Galileo, induced him to apply his best instruments to the other planets of our system. The attempts which had been made to deprive him of the honour of some of his discoveries, combined, probably, with a desire to repeat his observations with better telescopes, led him to announce his discoveries under the veil of an enigma, and to invite astronomers to declare, within a given time, if they had observed any new phenomena in the heavens.

Before the close of 1610, Galileo excited the curiosity of astronomers by the publication of his first enigma. Kepler and others tried in vain to decipher it; but in consequence of the Emperor Rodolph requesting a solution of the puzzle, Galileo sent him the following clue:--

"Altissimam planetam tergeminam observavi."

I have observed that the most remote planet is triple.

In explaining more fully the nature of his observation, Galileo remarked that Saturn was not a single star, but three together, nearly touching one another. He described them as having no relative motion, and as having the form of three o's, namely, oOo, the central one being larger than those on each side of it.

Although Galileo had announced that nothing new appeared in the other planets, yet he soon communicated to the world another discovery of no slight interest. The enigmatical letters in which it was concealed formed the following sentence:--

"Cynthiae figuras aemulatur mater Amorum."

Venus rivals the phases of the moon.

Hitherto, Galileo had observed Venus when her disc was largely illuminated; but having directed his telescope to her when she was not far removed from the sun, he saw her in the form of a crescent, resembling exactly the moon at the same elongation. He continued to observe her night after night, during the whole time that she could be seen in the course of her revolution round the sun, and he found that she exhibited the very same phases which resulted from her motion round that luminary.

Galileo had long contemplated a visit to the metropolis of Italy, and he accordingly carried his intentions into effect in the early part of the year 1611. Here he was received with that distinction which was due to his great talents and his extended reputation. Princes, Cardinals, and Prelates hastened to do him honour; and even those who discredited his discoveries, and dreaded their results, vied with the true friends of science in their anxiety to see the intellectual wonder of the age.

In order to show the new celestial phenomena to his friends at Rome, Galileo took with him his best telescope; and as he had discovered the spots on the sun's surface in October or November 1610, or even earlier,[16] he had the gratification of exhibiting them to his admiring disciples. He accordingly erected his telescope in the Quirinal garden, belonging to Cardinal Bandini; and in April 1611 he shewed them to his friends in many of their most interesting variations. From their change of position on the sun's disc, Galileo at first inferred, either that the sun revolved about an axis, or that other planets, like Venus and Mercury, revolved so near the sun as to appear like black spots when they were opposite to his disc. Upon continuing his observations, however, he saw reason to abandon this hasty opinion. He found that the spots must be in contact with the surface of the sun,--that their figures were irregular,--that they had different degrees of darkness,--that one spot would often divide itself into three or four,--that three or four spots would often unite themselves into one,--and that all the spots revolved regularly with the sun, which appeared to complete its revolution in about twenty-eight days.

[16] Professor Rigaud is of opinion that Galileo had discovered the solar spots at an earlier period than eighteen months before May 1612.

Previous to the invention of the telescope, spots had been more than once seen on the sun's disc with the unassisted eye. But even if these were of the same character as those which Galileo and others observed, we cannot consider them as anticipations of their discovery by the telescope. As the telescope was now in the possession of several astronomers, Galileo began to have many rivals in discovery; but notwithstanding the claims of Harriot, Fabricius, and Scheiner, it is now placed beyond the reach of doubt that he was the first discoverer of the solar spots. From the communication which I received in 1822 from the late Dr Robertson, of Oxford,[17] it appeared that Thomas Harriot had observed the solar spots on the 8th of December 1610; but his manuscripts, in Lord Egremont's possession,[18] incontestably prove that his regular observations on the spots did not commence till December 1, 1611, although he had seen the spots at the date above mentioned, and that they were continued till the 18th of January 1613. The observations which he has recorded are 199 in number, and the accounts of them are accompanied with rough drawings representing the number, position, and magnitude of the spots.[19] In the observation of Harriot, made on the 8th December 1610, before he knew of Galileo's discovery, he saw three spots on the sun, which he has represented in a diagram. The sun was then 7 deg. or 8 deg. high, and there was a frost and a mist, which no doubt acted as a darkening glass. Harriot does not apply the name of spots to what he noticed in this observation, and he does not enumerate it among the 199 observations above mentioned. Professor Rigaud[20] considers it "a misapplication of terms to call such an observation a discovery;" but, with all the respect which we feel for the candour of this remark, we are disposed to confer on Harriot the merit of an original discoverer of the spots on the sun.

[17] See page 40.

[18] These interesting MSS. I have had the good fortune of seeing in the possession of my much valued friend, the late Professor Rigaud of Oxford.

[19] Edin. Phil. Journ. 1822, vol. vi. p. 317. See Rigaud's Life of Bradley, Supplement, p. 31.

[20] Id. It., p. 37, 38.

Another candidate for the honour of discovering the spots of the sun, was John Fabricius, who undoubtedly saw them previous to June 1611. The dedication of the work[21] in which he has recorded his observation, bears the date of the 13th of June 1611; and it is obvious, from the work itself, that he had seen the spots about the end of the year 1610; but as there is no proof that he saw them before October, we are compelled to assign the priority of the discovery to the Italian astronomer.

[21] Joh. Fabricii Phrysii de Maculis in Sole observatis, et apparente earum cum Sole conversione, Narratio. Wittemb. 1611.

The claim of Scheiner, professor of mathematics at Ingolstadt, is more intimately connected with the history of Galileo. This learned astronomer having, early in 1611, turned his telescope to the sun, necessarily discovered the spots which at that time covered his disc. Light flying clouds happened, at the time, to weaken the intensity of his light, so that he was able to show the spots to his pupils. These observations were not published till January 1612; and they appeared in the form of three letters, addressed to Mark Velser, one of the magistrates of Augsburg, under the signature of _Appelles post Tabulam_. Scheiner, who, many years afterwards, published an elaborate work on the subject, adopted the same idea which had at first occurred to Galileo--that the spots were the dark sides of planets revolving round and near the sun.[22]

[22] It does not appear from the history of solar observations at what time, and by whom, coloured glasses were first introduced for permitting the eye to look at the sun with impunity. Fabricius was obviously quite ignorant of the use of coloured glasses. He observed the sun when he was in the horizon, and when his brilliancy was impaired by the interposition of thin clouds and floating vapours; and he advises those who may repeat his observations to admit at first to the eye a small portion of the sun's light, till it is gradually accustomed to its full splendour. When the sun's altitude became considerable, Fabricius gave up his observations, which he often continued so long that he was scarcely able, for two days together, to see objects with their usual distinctness. Fabricius speaks of observing the sun by admitting his rays through a small _hole_ into a dark room, and receiving his image on paper; but he says nothing about a lens or a telescope being applied to the hole; and he does not say that he saw the spots of the sun in this way. Harriot also viewed the solar spots when the sun was near the horizon, or was visible through "thick layer and thin cloudes," or through thin mist. On December 21, 1611, at a quarter past 2 P.M., he observed the spots when the sky was perfectly clear, but his "sight was after dim for an houre."

Scheiner, in his "Appelles post Tabulam," describes four different ways of viewing the spots; one of which is by the _interposition of blue or green glasses_. His first method was to observe the sun near the horizon; the second was to view him through a transparent cloud; the third was to look at him through his telescope with a blue or a green glass of a proper thickness, and plane on both sides, or to use a thin blue glass when the sun was covered with a thin vapour or cloud; and the fourth method was to begin and observe the sun at his margin, till the eye gradually reached the middle of his disc.

On the publication of Scheiner's letters, Velser transmitted a copy of them to his friend Galileo, with the request that he would favour him with his opinion of the new phenomena. After some delay, Galileo addressed three letters to Velser, in which he combated the opinions of Scheiner on the cause of the spots. The first of these letters was dated the 4th of May 1612;[23] but though the controversy was carried on in the language of mutual respect and esteem, it put an end to the friendship which had existed between the two astronomers. In these letters Galileo showed that the spots often dispersed like vapours or clouds; that they sometimes had a duration of only one or two days, and at other times of thirty or forty days; that they contracted in their breadth when they approached the sun's limb, without any diminution of their length; that they describe circles parallel to each other; that the monthly rotation of the sun again brings the same spots into view; and that they are seldom seen at a greater distance than 30 deg. from the sun's equator. Galileo likewise discovered on the sun's disc _faculae_, or _luculi_, as they were called, which differ in no respect from the common ones but in their being brighter than the rest of the sun's surface.[24]

[23] The original of this letter is in the British Museum.

[24] See Istoria e Dimonstrazioni, intorno alle macchie solare. _Roma_, 1616. See Opere di Galileo, vol, v., p. 131-293.

In the last of the letters which our author addressed to Velser, and which was written in December 1612, he recurs to his former discovery of the elongated shape, or rather the triple structure, of Saturn. The singular figure which he had observed in this planet had entirely disappeared; and he evidently announces the fact to Velser, lest it should be used by his enemies to discredit the accuracy of his observations. "Looking on Saturn," says he, "within these few days, I found it solitary, without the assistance of its accustomed stars, and, in short, perfectly round and defined like Jupiter; and such it still remains. Now, what can be said of so strange a metamorphosis? Are the two smaller stars consumed like the spots on the sun? Have they suddenly vanished and fled? or has Saturn devoured his own children? or was the appearance indeed fraud and illusion, with which the glasses have for so long a time mocked me, and so many others who have often observed with me? Now, perhaps, the time is come to revive the withering hopes of those who, guided by more profound contemplations, have followed all the fallacies of the new observations, and recognised their impossibilities. I cannot resolve what to say in a chance so strange, so new, and so unexpected; the shortness of the time, the unexampled occurrence, the weakness of my intellect, and the terror of being mistaken, have greatly confounded me." Although Galileo struggled to obtain a solution of this mystery, yet he had not the good fortune to succeed. He imagined that the two smaller stars would reappear, in consequence of the supposed revolution of the planet round its axis; but the discovery of the ring of Saturn, and of the obliquity of its plane to the ecliptic, was necessary to explain the phenomena which were so perplexing to our author.

The ill health to which Galileo was occasionally subject, and the belief that the air of Florence was prejudicial to his complaints, induced him to spend much of his time at Selve, the villa of his friend Salviati. This eminent individual had ever been the warmest friend of Galileo, and seems to have delighted in drawing round him the scientific genius of the age. He was a member of the celebrated Lyncaean Society, founded by Prince Frederigo Cesi; and though he is not known as the author of any important discovery, yet he has earned, by his liberality to science, a glorious name, which will be indissolubly united with the immortal destiny of Galileo.

The subject of floating bridges having been discussed at one of the scientific parties which had assembled at the house of Salviati, a difference of opinion arose respecting the influence of the shape of bodies on their disposition to float or to sink in a fluid. Contrary to the general opinion, Galileo undertook to prove that it depended on other causes; and he was thus led to compose his discourse on floating bodies,[25] which was published in 1612, and dedicated to Cosmo de Medici. This work contains many ingenious experiments, and much acute reasoning in support of the true principles of hydrostatics; and it is now chiefly remarkable as a specimen of the sagacity and intellectual power of its author. Like all his other works, it encountered the most violent opposition; and Galileo was more than once summoned into the field to repel the aggressions of his ignorant and presumptuous opponents. The first attack upon it was made by Ptolemy Nozzolini, in a letter to Marzemedici, Archbishop of Florence;[26] and to this Galileo replied in a letter addressed to his antagonist.[27] A more elaborate examination of it was published by Lodovico delle Colombe, and another by M. Vincenzo di Grazia. To these attacks, a minute and overwhelming answer was printed in the name of Benedetti Castelli, the friend and pupil of Galileo; but it was discovered, some years after Galileo's death, that he was himself the author of this work.[28]

[25] Discorso intorno alle cose che stanno in su l'acqua, o che in quella si muovono. Opere di Galileo, vol. ii. pp. 165-311.

[26] Opere di Galileo, vol. ii. pp. 355-367.

[27] Ibid. 367-390.

[28] These three treatises occupy the whole of the third volume of the Opere di Galileo.