Galileo Bonaiuti (

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, ''circa'' 1370–1450) was an Italian doctor and member of the Florentine governing council, successful in his time but most noteworthy as the ancestor from whom

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He ...

got both his given and family names.

Biography

Bonaiuti practiced medicine in Florence in the 15th century, taught medicine at the

University of Florence The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first universi ...

, and was on the governing council of the

Republic of Florence The Republic of Florence, officially the Florentine Republic ( it, Repubblica Fiorentina, , or ), was a medieval and early modern state that was centered on the Italian city of Florence in Tuscany. The republic originated in 1115, when the Fl ...

, a powerful position on a par (domestically) with being a member of the US senate, today. He was buried in the

Basilica of Santa Croce The (Italian for 'Basilica of the Holy Cross') is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 meters south-east of the Duomo. The ...

, roughly halfway between where

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was ins ...

and his own descendant, Galileo, would be interred. While officially retaining the Bounaiuti surname for generations, the family began referring to itself by the surnames Galilei or Galileo in his honor around the time he was alive.Galileo Galilei — The Father of Physics and Astronomy
/ref> This is the likely source of his descendant's own name, influenced by the inscription on his tomb in the Basilica; Galileo Bonaiuti was referred to as: : ''Magister Galileus de Galileis, olim Bonaiutis''. which means: Professor Galileo of Galilei, of the Bonaiuti family.

References

14th-century people of the Republic of Florence 15th-century people of the Republic of Florence 1370 births 1450 deaths {{Italy-politician-stub