Galileo's Finger

Today's Google doodle celebrates one of my heroes and his most famous inventions -- Galileo and his telescope. Hooray for Galileo whose sight and foresight introduced a speeding line of seers and inventors resulting in our ability today to see the most intimate details of the universe "out there."

Some years ago, I visited The Institute and Museum of the History Science in Florence, Italy. Unlike more popular tourist sites, the museum had no entrance line or crowd, so I could take my time and enjoy the fascinating collections.

Room IV features some of Galileo's original instruments and other miscellany. Along one wall, a glass contains a startling object: Galileo's middle finger, preserved in a beautifully balanced glass egg-shaped jar atop a marble base.

I am not entirely why I was so taken with this macabre artifact when I saw it and why it still looms so large in my memory and imagination. Perhaps this finger, which once participated in the creation of so much of our notion of the heavens, perhaps because it was one part of the body of a man who was a martyr for science, perhaps because it was so recognizably human, perhaps because it was in a science museum rather than a church as a saint's reliquary (though it and he deserve adoration as much as saints and their parts) -- I cannot identify the reason.

I do know that I stared and stared and that my wonder at the stars and the greatness of what lies out there is as powerful today as it was in my childhood when I tried to sign my way home.

Note: I have blogged before about Florence and my fascination with astronomy, so if some of this sounds familiar, I apologize.