Health

Galileo's Two Fingers and a Tooth Found in Ancient Case

by Amy Judd | November 21, 2009 at 11:23 am

243 views | 38 Recommendations | 4 comments

Galileo Galilei's two fingers and a tooth have been found in an ancient wooden case by a collector who spotted the discarded case at an auction. Galileo Galilei was a 17th century Italian astronomer, inventor, mathematician and physicist.

"The case was surmounted by a wooden bust of Galileo. Inside there was an 18th-century blown-glass vase which contained a tooth and two dried up fingers. It wasn't difficult to attribute the relics to Galileo as the case and its content fully match descriptions found in historic accounts," Cristina Acidini, superintendent of Florence museums, told Discovery News.

The two fingers are from Galileo's right hand, and were removed in 1737 when he was exhumed from his grave and transferred to the Church of Santa Croce in Florence. He died in 1642 but it wasn't until 1737 that church authorities allowed the astronomer to be buried on consecrated ground.

Galileo was a controversial figure as he made the first complete astronomical telescope and determined that the Earth revolved around the Sun. He was accused by the Church

of bringing "such universal scandal to Christianity" with theories "so false and so erroneous."

The two fingers from his right hand were removed because they were the fingers that held the pen that wrote so many influencial works. His tooth was also removed.

The fingers and tooth had many different owners over the years, but they disappeared about a century ago.

They will go on display in March at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence.

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generaldecay

at 11:31 on November 21st, 2009

Oh crikey. Interesting but YUK!

Barry Artiste

at 17:10 on November 21st, 2009

2 fingers eh? And a tooth?

Wonder if nose pickin had anything to do with it, though it does not explain the tooth.

master_jim2008

at 17:18 on November 21st, 2009

Sure it explains the tooth Barry. If you pick your nose, you use the tooth as a fingernail file to clean under the nail, LOL NOW THAT is "oh crikey interesting but YUK!" lmao

Tomitheos

at 16:09 on November 22nd, 2009

Interesting find amy, thanks for posting; Galileo was ridiculed for his beliefs because he was so much ahead of his time, perhaps he is giving us the finger(s) (and tooth) to serve as a reminder that one person can be right in a scientific belief when all the rest can be wrong simply because of one misplaced theory..