Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Heilbron, J. L., author.

Title The ghost of Galileo : in a forgotten painting from the English Civil War / J. L. Heilbron
Edition First edition
Published Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2021
©2021

Copies

Description 1 online resource (vii, 518 pages): illustrations (some color), maps
Contents Galileo's Europe -- Religious noise -- The king and his lawyer -- Cultural threads -- Heavens above -- Medicine and melancholy -- The painter -- The setting -- The image
Summary In 1643/4 the once-famous Francis Cleyn painted the unhappy young heir of Corfe Castle, John Bankes, and his tutor, Dr Maurice Williams. The painter is now almost forgotten,the painting much neglected, and the sitters themselves have left little to mark their lives, but on the table of the painting lies a book, open to an immediately identifiable and very significant page. The representation omits the author's name and the book's title; it sits there as a code, as only viewers who had encountered the original and the characteristic figures on its frontispiece would have known its significance. The book is Galileo's Dialogue on the two chief world systems (1632), the defence of Copernican cosmology that incited the infamous clash between its author and the Church, and its presence in this painting is no accident, but instead a statement of learning, attitudes, and cosmopolitan engagement in European discourse by the painting's English subjects. Grasping hold of the clue, John Helibron deciphers the significance of this contentious book's appearance in a painting from Stuart England to unravel the interlocking threads of art history, political and religious history, and the history of science. Drawing on unexploited archival material and a wide range of printed works, he weaves together English court culture and Italian connections, as well as the astronomical and astrological knowledge propagated in contemporary almanacs and deployed in art, architecture, plays, masques, and political discourse. Heilbron also explores the biographies of Sir John, Sir Maurice, and the painter, Francis Clyne, setting them into the narrative of their rich and cultured history
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (ProQuest Ebook Central platform, viewed November 7, 2022)
Subject Galilei, Galileo, 1564-1642. Dialogo dei massimi sistemi.
Bankes, John, Sir, 1589-1644 -- Portraits
Williams, Maurice -- Portraits
Cleyn, Franz, 1590?-1658.
SUBJECT Bankes, John, Sir, 1589-1644 fast
Cleyn, Franz, 1590?-1658 fast
Williams, Maurice fast
Dialogo dei massimi sistemi (Galilei, Galileo) fast
Subject Art and science -- England -- History -- 17th century
Art and science
Intellectual life
SUBJECT Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 17th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056854
Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056789
Subject England
Great Britain
Genre/Form History
Portraits
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780192605542
0192605542
9780192605559
0192605550