The galilean aftermath in European culture

One traditional approach to studying Galileo's legacy is to examine his works to use them as models in one's own cognitive activities. Another is to try to establish relevant chronological facts, epistemological principles, historical precursors, and authentic documents. A third more recent approach examines the cultural aftermath of Galileo's scientific discoveries and inventions. I illustrate this third approach by a critical appreciation of The Science and Myth of Galileo between the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries in Europe, edited by Massimo Bucciantini, and consisting of thirty chapters by different authors. The interdisciplinary wealth of topics is phenomenal and the novelty of results impressive, as I show by a succinct summary and occasional evaluation of each chapter; but I also criticize the volume from the viewpoint of the concept of myth, for neither the editor nor the contributors understand that to be a myth a claim must be both widely believed and basically false [Publisher's text].

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