Someday the World will Know

A fictional story about Galileo

Galileo's servant, Giuseppi, left him in January of 1615. His father had died so he had to go live with his mother. The whole town of Arcetri was buzzing. Who would become Galileo's new servant? Everyone knew he was too busy watching the stars or whatever crazy things he did to worry about making food. Everyone also knew that he paid well. The problem was, however, that nobody wanted to answer his call for a new servant. Sure, he was court mathematician at Florence, but there in Arcetri, where he lived, people believed the church before they would believe some scientist. The church said that the earth was stationary, and Galileo said it wasn't. Having him believe such a different thing somewhat alienated him from the rest of the town.

I would never have imagined I would do such a thing as go serve Galileo, but another thing that happened that January changed my mind. My mother got sick. We were a poor family as it was, but the costs of medicine made life extremely hard. We needed more money. So that was why, one cold January morning, I stood apprehensively outside the door of Galileo's villa on the edge of town.

I shivered, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door. Half hoping that he would not come so that I could leave, I waited, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. Soon, I heard footsteps coming across the courtyard. As the door opened, I heard a voice muttering, "I need a servant who can come answer the door when I am working!" By then, the door was fully open and there was Galileo, staring down at me. Of course, I had seen him many times before, in the town, but to have him actually paying attention to me was a new thing. I managed to stammer, "Sir, I have come in answer to your request for a servant." His interest in me grew visibly.

"It is true that I wanted a servant, but I had in mind someone a bit older. How old are you?"

"Fifteen, sir." He looked me over for a bit more.

"I suppose you'll do," he said, "What is your name?"

"Giovanni Cavacelli."

"Very well, come in."

Thus began my life with Galileo. He wasted no time in telling me my duties for, as he put it, "I'm very busy!" He took me inside, showed me my room, the kitchen, and his room. I had no time to look around as he was hurrying me from place to place. After he was done, he turned around and started walking down the dark hall to his room. He paused at the doorway, suddenly remembering me. "Oh, you can go to your room now. I'll ring when I want you." The whole procedure had taken five minutes. I supposed that he was in the middle of some experiment. I stared at his closed door, wondering what on earth he could be doing in his room. Right then, it seemed clear to me that I had come to be his servant and nothing else. He was not going to tell me anything about his experiments and beliefs. To my surprise, I felt a little disappointed at this. As I slowly turned and walked into my room, I reprimanded myself. "Come, Giovanni! You yourself were reluctant to work for him because of his peculiar beliefs. As a good Catholic, you should be happy he will not share his ideas with you." Still, there was a strange feeling of disappointment in the back of my mind that would not go away.

For a few weeks, about a month, it seemed that Galileo would not share anything with me. My life repeated itself every day, with only a few variations. I woke up early in order to prepare breakfast. I soon found that my master had certain habits he would never break. His breakfast was one of them. It was to be served at seven o'clock sharp, and it was to be eggs. Eggs were common in my family, as we owned a few chickens, so it was not a change for me to have them for breakfast. I just made a little for myself when I made his. After breakfast I was free until lunch, when I gave him his meal, and the same with supper. In between, I could stay in my room, walk around the courtyard, or roam the house, provided I did not disturb Galileo. I hardly ever went outside, as during that time of year it was terribly cold. The only time, in fact, that I ventured out of doors was to answer the door when someone came or when he sent me on some errand to town, perhaps to buy food or to mail a letter. These were the only things (not including making meals) that Galileo made me do besides a bit of cleaning. Other than these odd jobs, I had most of the day completely to myself.

Most of the time I stayed in my room and wondered about Galileo. There were some things everyone knew. The Grand Duke favored him and had given him money, he had been a professor in Padua and Pisa, and now he was court mathematician at Florence. From my description of him, it may seem that Galileo stayed out of the public and had no friends. This was far from the truth. Sometimes people would stay in his house for a while, and he seemed to be very friendly with them. Also, he sometimes went out to social gatherings. Some of the townspeople in Arcetri were his friends, but he thought himself brilliant and most townspeople hardly liked his arrogant ways. Though there were some that agreed with him about things like his belief that the earth rotates around the sun, many people in our town thought him a bit strange, famous as he was. I was one of those people. How was I to know that all my feelings would change in the course of two months?

At the time, however, I still thought Galileo odd, and I wondered what he did in his room. I was very interested about the big telescope I often glimpsed out on the porch when I came to make his bed ready for the night. His room was certainly interesting. He had, of course, a bed that was normal enough, and he had a desk strewn with paper. One time, when I brought him his supper, I glimpsed at them over his shoulder. They were a mess of calculations and numbers that meant nothing to me. Just looking at them gave me a headache.

The most interesting part of his room, however, was the porch that his second story room opened onto. It hung over his courtyard, and on it there was that most interesting of objects: a telescope! It was very large, and I was greatly interested in it. I could hear him in the middle of the night sometimes, walking around out on the porch. The sound was quite clear, as my room was near his. I never dreamed that I myself would be allowed to look through it. I was wrong.

It happened one night in February after I had been serving Galileo for a little more than a month. The day had been fairly normal. The only difference from a typical day was that I had prepared supper very late that night. This was because I had been running an errand in town. As I took his meal up to his room, it was already dark. I walked cautiously through the dark hallway, trying not to spill the food. Balancing the tray precariously on one hand, I rapped on the door. Then came a pause which I knew meant I could enter. I walked in and saw Galileo looking through his telescope out on the porch. It was chilly in his room, as the door to the porch was open. I set the tray down on his bed and turned to walk out.

"Giovanni, wait a minute." I turned around, surprised. Galileo hardly ever talked to me while he was working.

"Come look through the telescope. I want you to see something." My eyes full of bewilderment, I approached my master. Shivering, I stepped out on the porch beside him. Galileo showed me where to put my eyes.

For a second, everything seemed out of focus, but my vision soon cleared. What I saw then I will remember always. It looked like balls of light on a velvet black board. I stared.

"Do you see the planet?" asked Galileo, "It is called Jupiter. Do you see the smaller things? Those are the moons of Jupiter. Please note exactly where they are." Extremely surprised but always obeying, I mentally noted where they were. I backed away from the telescope. Then I turned to look at my master.

"Thank you, Giovanni," said Galileo, "Please come back at ten o'clock." I nodded quickly and went out of the room. I opened my door and sat down on my bed. Thousands of questions danced arround in my head. Why in the world had Galileo let me look through his telescope? Why had he told me to note where the moons of Jupiter were? Why was he so anxious for me to come back at ten o'clock? I lay back on my bed and wondered.

At ten o'clock sharp I was at Galileo's door. I knocked and then walked in. At first, I did what I normally did at about this time. I made his bedroom ready for the night. When I was done, Galileo turned around and addressed me.

"Giovanni, come look through the telescope again." Of course, I did as I was told. Again I put my eye to the telescope. Again I saw Jupiter and its moons.

"Now, do you remember where the moons were? Exactly? Look closely. Are the moons not now in slightly different positions?" I looked as he had told me to, and to my amazement, the moons had moved. Not very much, of course, as I had only been gone a few hours, but they weren't in the same positions as before.

I pulled my head away from the telescope and looked at Galileo. Why was he showing me all this?

"Did you see how they were different?" he asked me. "That is because the moons are satellites of Jupiter. And Giovanni, the positioning and movements of these moons around Jupiter is almost identical to the movements of our planets around the sun. So the earth and other planets must be satellites of the sun! Of course, what you just saw was only a very small movement, but if you watched it for longer you would be able to see more clearly." Galileo looked at me searchingly. Slowly, I nodded my head. What he had said had made sense. I suddenly thought he must be right. After seeing me nod, Galileo smiled and started talking again.

"Tomorrow morning, a student whom I advise will be arriving early. I want you to be with me to meet him. Bring breakfast half an hour early so I will be finished when he comes."

"Yes, sir. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Giovanni."

After that day, my life with Galileo was no longer the same. Instead of his servant, I was almost his student. He let me look through the telescope often, and I helped him in much of his work. Of course, I did not understand most of what he was doing, but he was very good at explaining things. Now, he didn't even send me away when his students came. There were quite a lot of visitors, as he had many students. They actually studied at a university, but they often came to him for help and advice. They were all friendly to me. All in all I was very happy.

One thing that continued to surprise me was Galileo himself. He was so different than I had once thought him! He was a truly nice man, and I could tell he had been a wonderful teacher. He seemed gruff until you got to know him, but once you did his character was very good. His intelligent sounding voice convinced me that anything he said must be right, even the things I had scorned as crazy just a few short months before. He even got me to be an avid believer in Copernicanism. This was the belief that the earth rotated around the sun. The church, however, said that this idea went against the Bible. The church was an endless trouble to Galileo, and I began to find myself on his side.

Of course, Galileo now confided in me about any problems he had, such as opposition from the church. He knew that the religious personages in Rome wanted to investigate him and his beliefs. As much as we knew, however, we were not prepared for the summons from Rome. It came in September, when I had been serving Galileo for almost nine months. The letter ordered my master to Rome immediately, as an investigation was going to be carried out. I, as well as Galileo, was dismayed. I had grown to admire and support my master, and I dreaded what the church might do. Nevertheless, I knew he had to obey the church.

It was with a heavy heart that I watched my master leave for Rome. He left me in charge of his house. He grimly set out as if to war, determined to do what he could to stand up for Copernicanism. Silently, I wished him good luck as he disappeared from my view.

I was fast asleep at midnight about three weeks later when I heard a loud knock on the door. I knew that it had to be Galileo, so I rushed downstairs to let him in. I could tell from my first glimpse of him that he was upset. He didn't bother keeping me in suspense.

"In Rome, they questioned me about all my experiments and beliefs. They told me that I should not teach or defend Copernicanism, and an edict is most likely going to be issued by February." I could see that Galileo was truly upset, so I tried to comfort him.

"They said, 'most likely,' so maybe we can still prevent this edict. You can write to someone who has authority that you might be able to convince!" Galileo looked at me.

"I guess it's worth a try," he said, "but we'd better get going." So we wrote the letter to the Grand Duchess Christina that very night. I sat beside him at his desk as we tried to find the perfect way to state our argument. I think Galileo was pretty satisfied with the final result. We tried so hard to make it perfect, because my master's entire career hinged upon it.

What we finally came up with was that "sensory evidence and mathematical proofs should not be subjected to doubtful scriptural interpretations," to quote the letter. When we finally went to bed at five the next morning, the letter was ready to be sent.

Fall ended and Winter began, but we still had no answer from the Duchess. Galileo was nervous all the time, but he continued his work as we waited and waited for the answer to come. Christmas day we went to church, but other than that it was a typical winter day. The next day, the reply came.

I carried the envelope to Galileo's room with trembling hands, wondering what was inside. He tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter it held. As he skimmed its contents, I could see the sorrow in his face, and I knew what the answer was. He read a line of it to me.

"The edict is expected to be issued in January." Galileo collapsed in his chair, and tears came to my eyes. How could an edict be issued against something that was completely correct? The injustice of it made me angry. The next thing I heard was the voice of my beloved master. He sounded sad, yet his old self-assurance remained with him.

"They will order me never to teach or defend Copernicanism, and publicly, I shall not. But you know, Giovanni, and I know that I am right, so I won't stop my research. They can issue all the edicts they want, but someday, someday the world will know that I am right."

Epilogue

Galileo died twenty years ago. He passed away in the very villa where I served him for many years. For a long time, he was treated badly by the church, and when he died it was in house arrest. His death saddened me greatly and I remembered what a wonderful man he was. He never got to see his dream come true, for during his life people did not really understand or believe that Copernicanism was right. Now, as I grow old, people are beginning to understand, but I believe I will not be alive when people truly realize how great he was. For now, I am happy when I see anyone who knows that the earth is not stationary, and it makes me proud to have ever served Galileo. Whenever anyone mentions Copernicanism, my mind goes back to that night many years ago when Galileo first took me out on his porch and showed me the moons of Jupiter.