Meaning of And yet it moves

What it means And yet it moves:

"And yet it moves" is a phrase mistakenly attributed to the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei, who would have pronounced it after being forced to retract the heliocentric model of the universe that he proposed, in contradiction with the vision of the world accepted by the Catholic Church.

Galilei Galilei considered, thanks to his observations on the movement of the stars, that the Earth and the others planets revolved around the Sun, and not that other celestial bodies, including the Sun, revolved around our planet.

Hence, the statement "and yet it moves" is enormously significant, as it illustrates the conflict that, around truth, existed between religion and science. Here's the story.

Story behind the phrase "And yet it moves"

The scientific work of Galileo Galilei supposed, in its historical moment (the Renaissance), a break with the model of the universe and the vision of the world accepted by the Catholic Church.

Questioning the geocentric model

Galilei, with his observations, contradicted Claudius Ptolemy, who, based on the ideas of Aristotle,

held that the Earth was immobile and was at the center of the universe, and that the other planets and the Sun revolved around it, that is, the theory known as geocentric.

It was thus the model of Ptolemy, dating from 130 AD. of C., the accepted and approved by the catholic Church in the times of Galilei.

Galilei, however, was aware of the investigations of the Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus, who, in 1593, had published a work entitled On the revolutions of the celestial spheres, in which he concluded that the Earth was not the center of the universe, but rather it and the other planets revolved around the Sun, which inaugurated the heliocentric theory.

So, based on the theories of Copernicus and supported by the observations he makes with the telescope (to which he had made important improvements), Galilei manages to verify what was said by Copernicus.

In 1632, therefore, Galilei published his work Dialogue on the two main systems of the world: the Ptolemaic and the Copernican, which causes commotion in the community not only scientific, but also in the religious one.

The Galilei trial

The publication of the theories of Galileo Galilei was considered challenging by the Catholic Church and by Pope Urban VIII, and for that reason Galilei is summoned to appear in Rome, before the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition, immediately.

Galilei arrives in 1633. He is not locked up or tortured, but will be shown, to dissuade him, the instruments used for torture.

During the trial Galilei acknowledges that he exceeded his observations, but he claims that he does not expect too severe a punishment for it. However, he is sentenced to unconditional prison.

Faced with this scenario, Galilei, old and sick, he chooses to retract and categorically renounce the postulation of a heliocentric model of the world. And so he gets, only, a sentence that forces him to a life confinement.

"And yet he moves"

It is said that at the end of the trial, before withdrawing from the presence of the judges, Galilei could not repress saying, between teeth: "and yet it moves" or, in Latin, eppur si mouve.

The story of this phrase is believed to be the work of a writer and traveler named Giuseppe Baretti, who would have imagined that Galileo could not contain himself, stubbornly, in court. Still, Baretti lived long after Galilei and published this 124 years after the trial.

Furthermore, the historical evidence contradicts the veracity of Galilei having dared such a challenge, bearing in mind that his life was at stake.

So if the phrase was actually uttered by Galilei, it will have been later, during his confinement, in privacy or with his friends.

In any case, the truth is that this phrase is not even mentioned in the biography that his disciple Vincenzo Viviani wrote about Galilei.

However, the phrase is quite significant, because it allows to illustrate the confrontation that at the time existed between the truth of the Church and scientific truth

Posthumous justice

In the end, however, Galilei would triumph. In the year 1893, Pope Leo XIII would adopt as true the observations of an Italian astronomer, and in 1992, Pope John Paul II would invalidate the judgment of 1633, offering Galilei the justice that in life deserved.

About Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and engineer and one of the most important minds in the scientific revolution that occurred in the Italian Renaissance. He is also considered the father of modern astronomy. His theories represent a break with the Aristotelian model of the universe, and led him to face the Catholic Church and the court of the Holy Inquisition.