Long-lost illustrations by Galileo of the Moon’s surface as he saw it through his telescope have come to light after four centuries.

The five watercolours are in Galileo’s own copy of Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger) in which he gave details of his revolutionary “celestial discoveries”. The work was crucial in overturning the belief that the Sun revolved around the Earth and provoked a show-down with the Vatican that ended in imprisonment for heresy.

The illustrations show the Moon with ochre and light brown shadings, highlighting the Moon’s craters and valleys.

They do not feature in any other copy of the book.

They were authenticated by Professor Horst Bredekamp, head of the Art History Institute at Humboldt University in Berlin, and Professor William R. Shea, holder of the Galileo Chair of the History of Science at Padua University.

“I initially suspected that they were forgeries,” Professor Bredekamp said. “But when I realised after close examination and tests that they were authentic, I was overcome with emotion.”

The drawings were unveiled this week at Padua University. Professor Shea said that he, too, had been hugely sceptical, especially since it remained a mystery where the book had been for 400 years.

Professor Shea said that he had been contacted by Richard Lan, an art dealer in New York, for help in authenticating the book, which was published in Venice in 1610. Mr Lan would not say how he acquired it, except to say that it had turned up in a collection in South America.

Professor Shea enlisted the help of Professor Bredekamp, and together they set up a joint team of scientists to analyse the paper and colours, aided by experts from the National Library of Florence and Antony Griffin, an art historian at Princeton University.

“Our conclusion was clear,” Professor Shea said. “There was no doubt whatever that that we had before us coloured drawings which Galileo himself had traced on pages eight, nine and ten of the first copy of his book.”

Professor Bredekamp said that Galileo had been in a hurry to circulate the work. “He was very worried that someone else might beat him to it”, he said. “We know of about 30 examples of the first edition of Sidereus Nuncius, but this one is by far the most precious and important.”

Professor Bredekamp said that the drawings showed a “refined hand”, reflecting the fact that Galileo was a talented painter. The Italian daily Corriere della Sera, published the illustrations, saying that they helped readers “to imagine the fascination which gripped Galileo as he scanned the night skies above Padua. It wasn’t enough to draw what he saw, he felt impelled to use colour as well to bring his vision alive.” The paper said that Padua University hoped to buy the book.

Galileo was the first scientist to report lunar mountains and craters, concluding 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 Galilei is often described as the father of modern astronomy and physics. He was born in 1564 in Pisa and became quickly noted for his skill in mathematics. In 1589 he was appointed to the chair of mathematics, a post he for three years before moving to Padua University, where he taught geometry, mechanics, and astronomy until 1610 .

It was during his time in Padua that he made some of his most significant discoveries. In Sidereus Nuncius he used his telescopic observations of Jupiter’s moons to support his argument for a Sun-centered theory of the Solar System.

He went to Rome to demonstrate his telescope, but the Vatican denounced his opinions on the motion of the Earth as near heresy. His book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was published in 1632 with the Inquisition’s permission, but Pope Urban VIII took the view that Galileo had failed to honour an agreement not to advocate heliocentrism, only to describe it. A year later Galileo was put on trial for heresy. He was ordered to recant and put under house arrest near Florence until his death in 1642, a month shy of his 78th birthday. He was rehabilitated in 1741, when Pope Benedict XIV authorised the publication of Galileo’s complete scientific works. Pope John Paul II expressed in 1992 regret over Galileo’s treatment.

The father of astronomy

— Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa on February 15, 1564, and died there January 8, 1642.

— His observation of a lantern swinging in Pisa Cathedral led to a theory that enabled him to design the pendulum clock

— Drew religious controversy by dropping things from the Tower of Pisa to prove that weight does not affect the acceleration of falling bodies

— Improved on the telescope, building a model providing 33 times magnification

Source: Catholic Encyclopedia

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