Galileo between history and myth: new observations on the life and works of Galileo Galilei

The present paper is the result of a joint work between Charles University of Praha, the Catholic University of Ružomberok and the University of Nitra to make known a very famous but unknown personality, Galileo Galilei. The main task of this group of researchers was the Slovak translation of Galileo’s last work: Dialogue around two new sciences related to mechanics and movement of bodies. The first part of the paper concerns the life of the scientist, with particular regard to the famous process to Galileo Galilei in 1633. The article then examines the Galilean mythos, that image that in the century was created around the Florentine scientist for several reasons and which does not correspond to reality. For example, the famous statement assigned to Galileo “And yet it moves!”, which is not recorded in any document, not even in the papers of his process. Finally, this paper recalls some of the steps taken by the Catholic Church that led to an instance of annulment of the process.