Opera magazine
2025-03-03
The beauty of science: art and astronomy in ancient Florence
A journey with the Museo Galileo to explore the link between science, art and faith from the Middle Ages to the modern age
This article explores the fascinating interplay between science, art, and faith in ancient Florence, focusing on the dialogue between the Galileo Museum and the monumental complex of Santa Maria del Fiore. A journey through artistic masterpieces and scientific instruments reveals how these disciplines influenced each other, shaping the culture and worldview from the Middle Ages to the modern age.
The Galileo Museum – Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence is dedicated to Galileo Galilei (Pisa, February 15, 1564 – Florence, January 8, 1642), one of the greatest astronomers, physicists, and mathematicians in history, as well as the father of the modern scientific method. His likeness can be found both inside the Museo Galileo, where he is depicted in marble by Carlo Marcellini with his famous telescope (there preserved), and on the 19th-century façade of Florence Cathedral.
Galileo is just one of many scientists born and raised in Tuscany. Since the Middle Ages, this region has fostered a profound connection between art and science, theology and mathematics, architecture and astronomy. The monumental complex of Santa Maria del Fiore and the collections of the Museo Galileo preserve the memory of this ongoing dialogue between the heavens, artists, scientists, and theologians.
In the early 13th century, a large Zodiac wheel was created on the marble floor of the Baptistery. According to ancient sources, it was more than just a decorative motif inspired by Persian designs; it was part of a sundial. Between June 20 and June 25, the solar disk would illuminate the sign of Cancer, marking the summer solstice.
A century later, astronomy played a significant role in the 14th-century reliefs of Giotto’s Bell Tower, created by Andrea Pisano and his workshop. The discipline is depicted within the series of the Seven Liberal Arts, in the rhomboidal panels on the east side, where it takes the form of a medieval lady studying a Ptolemaic armillary sphere. This instrument, used to study the celestial vault, is represented by rare and precious examples preserved in the Museo Galileo, including Antonio Santucci’s monumental armillary sphere, dating from the late 16th century.
The same instrument appears in another panel on the Campanile, dedicated to Gionitus, the legendary founder of astronomy, who is shown observing the sky with a quadrant. The Museo Galileo houses several ancient quadrants, including one of the very few surviving 14th-century examples in the world. In the relief, Gionitus studies the constellations of the celestial sphere, but his gaze cannot reach beyond—the Empyrean, the dwelling place of God and the angels, is accessible only through faith.
Giotto’s Bell Tower also features a representation of the entire Ptolemaic system, with the Earth at the center and the seven known planets orbiting it. This was the very model that Galileo helped to revolutionize through his observations and calculations. The Museo Galileo preserves a valuable educational model illustrating this system, which helps visitors understand how Dante used the medieval cosmology of his time to structure Paradise in the Divine Comedy.
A similar representation appears in Florence Cathedral, in the 1465 painting by Domenico di Michelino, where the sky is traversed by the arches of the seven heavens, each associated with a planet marked by its astronomical symbol.
In the 15th century, the astronomer, cartographer, and mathematician Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli—one of the most renowned scholars of the Renaissance and a close friend of Brunelleschi—took advantage of the unique opportunity provided by the construction of the Cathedral’s dome, then the tallest vault in the world, to install a massive gnomon inside. To this day, this extraordinary instrument still marks the passage of the Sun during the summer solstice, casting its light onto the north tribune of the Cathedral.
