Galileo Galilei
Sidereus nuncius
Venice: Thomas Baglioni, 1610

Galileo was the first to use the newly invented telescope to examine the stars with more than the power of the naked eye. What he published challenged doctrine about the Universe and by affirming Copernicus’s view that that the Sun is the centre of our Solar System, Galileo came into conflict with the Church. Over the next century Cambridge scholars including Horrocks and Newton developed our theoretical understanding of the Universe; manuscripts and published works by these and other great scientific thinkers will feature in the exhibition.