The prose of episteme: The knowledge of literature and the non-knowledge of science

Abstract

What literature, art – especially painting – and music meant for Galileo’s human formation is easy to guess, given his oft-stated love for all the most important artistic and cultural expressions of humanity. From this point of view, he is a child of his time and is perfectly embedded in the cultural environment that characterized Europe and, in particular, many of the major Italian cities in which he lived and worked: from Pisa to Florence, from Padua to Rome. Less known, however, is the influence that the liberal arts exerted on his science, on his way of thinking about man, the cosmos, and their relationship; the influence, that is, on his style of thought and action. In this article, therefore, an attempt will be made to recover some of the main elements useful for reconstructing the delicate and interesting relationship that linked Galileo to the arts and, especially, to literature, but with the aim of ascertaining whether the hypothesis is well-founded that in the almost perfect synthesis that was achieved in him between strictly scientific discourse and literary writing, the root of that humility, indeed, should always inform science and its search for what is closest to the truth.