Galileo's Name

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Name

Galileo tended to refer to himself only by his given name. At the time, surnames were optional in Italy, and his given name had the same origin as his sometimes-family name, Galilei. Both his given and family name ultimately derives from an ancestor, Galileo Bonaiuti, an important physician, professor, and politician in Florence in the 15th century. Galileo Bonaiuti was buried in the same church, the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, where about 200 years later, Galileo Galilei was also buried. When he did refer to himself with more than one name, it was sometimes as Galileo Galilei Linceo, a reference to his being a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, an elite pro-science organization in Italy. It was common for mid-sixteenth-century Tuscan families to name the eldest son after the parents' surname. Hence, Galileo Galilei was not necessarily named after his ancestor Galileo Bonaiuti. The Italian male given name "Galileo" (and thence the surname "Galilei") derives from the Latin "Galilaeus", meaning "of Galilee", a biblically significant region in Northern Israel. Because of that region, the adjective galilaios (Greek Γαλιλαῖος, Latin Galilaeus, Italian Galileo), which means "Galilean", has been used in antiquity (particularly by emperor Julian) to refer to Christ and his followers. The biblical roots of Galileo's name and surname were to become the subject of a famous pun. In 1614, during the Galileo affair, one of Galileo's opponents, the Dominican priest Tommaso Caccini, delivered against Galileo a controversial and influential sermon. In it he made a point of quoting Acts 1:11:

"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?" or "Viri Galilaei, quid statis aspicientes in caelum?" ^[1]