The Greatest Astonishment

SATB a cappella

Text: Galileo Gallilei

Duration: 4 mins

The text is an extract from The Sidereal Messenger (sometimes known as The Starry Messenger), published in 1610 by Galileo Galilei - a gentleman of Florence, professor of mathematics in the university of Padua.

Galileo's 'greatest astonishment' was his discovery of four moons orbiting Jupiter. He originally called them 'stars' but here they are translated as 'planets'. The significance of this was that it demonstrated that not everything revolved round the Earth! Furthermore, it paved the way to think that perhaps, after all, the Earth really did revolve around the Sun - a very controversial and dangerous idea to have at the time. 

The Text

In the present small treatise I set forth some matters of great interest for all observers of natural phenomena to look at and consider.

They are of great interest, I think, first, from their intrinsic excellence; secondly, from their absolute novelty; and lastly, also on account of the instrument by the aid of which they have been presented to my apprehension...

But that which will excite the greatest astonishment by far, and which especially moved me to call the attention of all astronomers and philosophers, is this, namely, that I have discovered four planets, neither known or observed by any one of the astronomers before my time, which have their orbits round a certain bright star, one of those previously known, like Venus and Mercury round the sun, and are sometimes in front of it, sometimes behind it, though never depart from it beyond certain limits.

All which fact were discovered and observed a few days ago by the help of a telescope devised by me, through God's grace first enlightening my mind.

English translation: Edward Stafford Carlos (1842-1927)

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