II.

Early Years

Galileo, whose full name was Galileo Galilei, was born near Pisa, Italy, on February 15, 1564. His father, Vincenzo Galilei, played an important role in the musical revolution from medieval polyphony to harmonic modulation. Just as Vincenzo saw that rigid theory stifled new forms in music, so his eldest son came to see both the then-dominant physics of Greek philosopher Aristotle and the Roman Catholic theology influenced by it as limiting scientific inquiry. Galileo was taught by monks at Vallombrosa and then entered the University of Pisa in 1581 to study medicine. He soon turned to philosophy and mathematics, and although he left the university in 1585 without a degree, he did receive a useful introduction to the versions of Aristotelian physics current at the time.