During the Renaissance (15-16th century), Florence was ruled by the Medici family. Under their patronage the arts, science and literature flourished as nowhere else in Europe. Florence was the city of such writers as Dante, Petrarch, and Macchiavelli, and artists and engineers such as Boticelli, Brunelleschi (who built the magnificent dome on the church of St. Mary of the Flowers), Alberti, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Michelangelo. Also Galileo could count on the support of this family. He also gave lots of his tools to the de Medici. A few of them can still be seen in the Museum of Science, next to the Arno river. The de Medici asked Brunelleschi to construct the church of San Lorenzo.

The original property on the Costa di San Giorgio was purchased in 1628, and was the home of Galileo’’s son, Vincenzio and his family. Galileo is listed as the owner. An adjoining house was purchased in 1634. The current property is numbered 17,19 and 21. Galileo lived in the house during 1638, visiting his son. To find the house, the best place to start is Piazza Santa Felicita, very near the Ponte Vecchio and then follow the narrow Costa di San Giorgio.
Source:http://e-urope.physics.lsa.umich.edu/tours/florence/galileohouse/index.html

The link between Dante and Galileo is the following: in 1588, Galileo gave two public lectures at the Accademia Fiorentina (Florentine Academy) about the shape, location, and dimensions of hell as described in Dante’’s Inferno. The presentation was held in the Sala del Consiglio dei Duecento in Palazzo Vecchio.

The Medici Chapels are attached to the Basilica of San Lorenzo and contain the tombs of many of the Medici family. The Basilica and the Chapels are worth visiting, not only to see the art of Michelangelo and Donatello, but because of the connection of the Medici to Galileo’’s life.

The Belgian Justus Susterman made many portrets of famous people such as Galileo Galilei. You can still see a few of his paintings in the Uffizi museum.

In the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, you can see a painting of Tito Lessi, showing a discussion between Galileo Galilei and his biographer Vincenzo Viviani. On that painting, you will also notice a globe of the Dutch cartographer Blaeu and a sphere of Girolamo della Volpaia.

Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, Dante and Macchiavelli are burried in the Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze.

In december 1614, Tommaso Caccini preaches a sermon in the church Santa Maria Novella of Florence against Galileo and mathematicians who subscribe to the Copernican view which, Caccini avers, is heretical. This was one of the main triggers to bring Galileo Galilei to the Inquisition. Santa Maria Novella was an important place in the conflict between Galileo and the Church. Galileo was denounced from the pulpit of Santa Maria Novella on at least two occasions. Besides the attacs of Caccini, also the Dominican Niccolo Lorini in 1612 zent for him.
The church contains itself many astronomical measuremnt instruments: these instruments were placed on the façade by Dominican Egnatio Danti at the request of of Cosimo I de’’ Medici.

Tommasco Caccini got thimself focussed on Galileo Galilei because of his ‘heretic belief’ of the Earth rotating the Sun. He worked behind the scenes until the trial of Galileo Galilei in 1633. Tommasco Caccini became confessor to the nuns of the convent of Orsina, and then penitentiary at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. He was confined for some time in Viterbo, after which he was allowed to return to Florence where he became a high theologian of the Dominican order. As prior of the famous monastery of San Marco, he was active behind the scene in the events leading up to Galileo’s trial in 1633. Caccini died in Florence in 1648.

Egnatio Danti placed an astronomical instrument in the Duomo: the Gnomon of Florence. This instrument measures the exact moment of the solstice and therefore teh exact time of the year. This was probabaly used to indicate sowing and harvest times, but was also probably used to work out whether the sun’’s yearly path through the stars is constant, and was a great tool for Galilei and other astronomers.

• Read information (1 text(s)) in Dutch