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Volume 13 - Spring 2000

Contents

Page 2 of 2

3. The Contexts of the Church, Patrons, and Colleagues: New Science and Traditional Power Structures

  • Replication or Monopoly? The Economies of Invention and Discovery in Galileo's Observations of 1610

  • Mario Biagioli
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    26 September 2008, pp. 547-590

  • I propose a revisionist account of the production and reception of Galileo's telescopic observations of 1609–10, an account that focuses on the relationship between credit and disclosure. Galileo, I argue, acted as though the corroboration of his observations were easy, not difficult. His primary worry was not that some people might reject his claims, but rather that those able to replicate them could too easily proceed to make further discoveries on their own and deprive him of credit. Consequently, he tried to slow down potential replicators to prevent them from becoming competitors. He did so by not providing other practitioners access to high-power telescopes and by withholding information about how to build them. This essay looks at the development of Galileo's monopoly on early telescopic astronomy to understand how the relationship between disclosure and credit changed as he moved from being an instrument-maker to becoming a discoverer and, eventually, a court philosopher.

Appendix: A Forgotten Controversy

Front cover (OFC, IFC) and matter

Back cover (IBC, OBC) and matter

Appendix: A Forgotten Controversy

Other

Front cover (OFC, IFC) and matter

Back cover (IBC, OBC) and matter

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