The

middle finger The middle finger, long finger, second finger, third finger, toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, typically located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is al ...

from the right hand of Italian astronomer

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

(1564–1642) is a secular

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...

in the collection of the

Museo Galileo Museo Galileo (formerly ''Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza''; Institute and Museum of the History of Science) is located in Florence, Italy, in Piazza dei Giudici, along the River Arno and close to the Uffizi Gallery. The museum, dedicat ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, Italy. The finger was removed from his body after his death, and is encased in a gilded glass egg. In 1737, 95 years after he died, Galileo's remains were transferred to a mausoleum at the

Basilica di Santa Croce The (Italian language, Italian for 'Basilica of the Holy Cross') is a minor basilica and the principal Franciscan church of Florence, Italy. It is situated on the Piazza Santa Croce, Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 metres southeast of the Flor ...

. Antiquarian Anton Francesco Gori, anatomist Antonio Cocchi, and Italian marquis Vincenzio Capponi removed the finger of Galileo's right hand as well as one of his vertebrae, an index finger, a thumb, and a tooth. The middle finger passed to Angelo Maria Bandini, who exhibited it at the

Laurentian Library The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze u ...

. In 1841, the finger was moved to the Tribune of Galileo at La Specola. It was then transferred to the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in 1927.

Background

Italian astronomer

died in 1642 and had stipulated in his will that his remains go to

, beside those of his father,

Vincenzo Galilei Vincenzo Galilei (3 April 1520 – 2 July 1591) was an Italian lutenist, composer, and music theory, music theorist. His children included the astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei and the lute virtuoso and composer Michelagnolo Galilei. Vinc ...

. Authorities from the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

did not want him to be buried on consecrated grounds given his views on

Copernican heliocentrism Copernican heliocentrism is the astronomical scientific modeling, model developed by Nicolaus Copernicus and published in 1543. This model positioned the Sun at the center of the Universe, motionless, with Earth and the other planets orbiting arou ...

, which were considered heretical at the time. Cardinal Francesco Barberini addressed the matter, writing that people might be scandalized by his entombment in the mausoleum. Instead, his remains were placed in a small enclosure near the Chapel of Saints Cosimo and Damiano. In 1688, Galileo's pupil

Vincenzo Viviani Vincenzo Viviani (April 5, 1622 – September 22, 1703) was an Italian mathematician and scientist. He was a pupil of Torricelli and Galileo.

Removal from corpse

Ninety-five years after his death, on 12 March 1737, Galileo's remains were transferred from an unconsecrated box underneath the Santa Croce bell tower to a memorial tomb inside the church, near

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

's fingers and bones. In a ceremony resembling the transfer of a saintly

, Galileo's remains were taken from his heretic's grave to the mausoleum of the

. The botanist Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti attended the transfer and had brought a knife. Anatomist Antonio Cocchi, Italian marquis Vincenzio Capponi, and antiquarian Anton Francesco Gori used the knife to remove the middle finger from Galileo's corpse, along with his thumb, index finger, one of his teeth, and his fifth

lumbar vertebra The lumbar vertebrae are located between the thoracic vertebrae and pelvis. They form the lower part of the back in humans, and the tail end of the back in quadrupeds. In humans, there are five lumbar vertebrae. The term is used to describe the ...

. The tooth, index finger, and thumb were placed in a handblown glass base and remained with the Capponi family until the beginning of the 20th century. Tozzetti later wrote that Capponi's explanation for taking the two fingers as relics was "because Galileo wrote so many beautiful things with them." The vertebra was donated to the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

by Domenico Thiene in 1823.

Exhibition history

The middle finger was later acquired by Angelo Maria Bandini of the

, where it was exhibited. In 1841, the finger was moved to the Tribune of Galileo at the Museum of Physics and Nature (now La Specola) along with Galileo's Medici-Lorraine instruments. In 1927, it was moved to the Institute and Museum of the History of Science (Museo di Storia della Scienza). The museum's inventory originally listed the finger as his left index finger, though University of Florence professor Francesco Leoncini added a footnote indicating that it was Galileo's right middle finger. MuseoGalileo20120420b

It eventually came to be included in the

collection. The finger is encased in an egg-shaped glass display above a cylindrical marble base. The base includes a commemorative inscription by astronomer Tommaso Perelli. According to the museum, Galileo's middle finger "exemplifies the celebration of Galileo as a hero and martyr of science". The finger is displayed alongside the

objective lens In optical engineering, an objective is an optical element that gathers light from an object being observed and focuses the light rays from it to produce a real image of the object. Objectives can be a single lens or mirror, or combinations of ...

from Galileo's telescope. The

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

inscription of Tommaso Perelli: American journalist Nino Lo Bello wrote in 1986 about his attempts to track down Galileo's finger in the 1960s. He reported being told by an employee of the

National Library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, ...

that it had resided there for years before it was given to the Museum of the History of Science. Galileo's middle finger is a rare example of a secular

, the preservation of body parts being a practice usually reserved for saints within the Catholic Church. Bonnie Gordon remarked on "the irony of preserving relic style the remains of a heretic". British art critic Julian Spalding remarked that the Museum of Science took pride in the finger, adding "I don't particularly recommend going to see it, because what is the point of looking at Galileo's finger?" In Italy, Galileo's middle finger is considered the property of the state.

Galileo's other body parts

Galileo's index finger, the thumb of his right hand, and a tooth were sealed in a glass jar that disappeared sometime after 1905 and remained lost to the public until 2009. Rufus Suter wrote in 1951 that the other two fingers were said to be preserved in the reliquary of Luigi Rosselli del Turco in Florence. They turned up at auction in 2009 and were turned over to the Museum. The Museum applied a DNA test to forensically confirm the authenticity of the remains. One of Galileo's vertebrae is kept at the

Notes

References

External links

{{Commonscat, Finger of Galileo Galilei
Middle finger of Galileo's right hand
Museo Galileo Fingers

Middle finger The middle finger, long finger, second finger, third finger, toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, typically located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is al ...

Body parts of individual people Museo Galileo Relics