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TRI Continental Film Festival - Dona Paula, Goa, Sep 28 - Oct 2, 2007 http://www.moviesgoa.org/tricontinental/tricon.htm Online Media Partner: http://www.goanet.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- Gilbert Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Can your research tell us why did the same fate not > befall Galileo's predecessors, contemporaries and > successors who were pursuing similar scientific > paths? > If "similar scientific paths" refers to the defense and development of the heliocentric theory then any good book on the history of astronomy and the inquisition would provide this information. For example, it is known that Copernicus died just one year after the initiation of the inquisition in 1542. His treatise on the heliocentric theory was published in the year of his death. A preface to it written by a Protestant reformer stating that it was merely an unproven mathematical hypothesis appears to have caused it to evade the eye of the inquisitors, initially. However, it was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1616. Kepler's books on mathematical ideas consistent with heliocentrism were also placed on this Index. Giordano Bruno is believed to have been burned at the stake in part because of his defense of the Copernican view and of the existence of multiple inhabited worlds, although there is some uncertainty about this fact because his file on this matter is missing. Cheers, Santosh