Giorgio Diaz de Santillana (30 May 1902 – 8 June 1974) was an

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

philosopher and historian of science, born in Rome. He was Professor of the History of Science at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

(MIT).

Biography

A son of the Tunisian-Italian jurist

David Santillana David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and expert on

Islamic Law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

, Giorgio de Santillana was born in Rome and got most of his education there. Santillana moved to the United States in 1936 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1945. In 1941, he began his academic career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, becoming an assistant professor the following year. From 1943 to 1945 he served in the United States Army as a war correspondent. After the war, in 1945 he returned to MIT and in 1948 was made an associate professor. In that year, he was married. In 1953, he published an authoritative edition of

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 ...

Dialogue on the Great World Systems Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is ...

. In 1954, he became a full Professor of the History of Science in the School of Humanities. His Galileo project led him to write, and to publish in 1955, '' The Crime of Galileo''. In 1969, he published his book '' Hamlet's Mill, An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time'' with Dr. Hertha von Dechend. This book focused on the understanding of the connection between the mythological stories of Pharaonic

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

, etc. and ancient observations pertaining to the stars, planets, and, most notably, the 26,000-year

precession of the equinoxes In astronomy, axial precession is a gravity-induced, slow, and continuous change in the orientation of an astronomical body's rotational axis. In the absence of precession, the astronomical body's orbit would show axial parallelism. In partic ...

. He died at

Beverly, Massachusetts Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, and a suburb of Boston. The population was 42,670 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. A resort, residential, and manufacturing community on the Massachusetts North Shore, Beverly incl ...

, in 1974.platonism347.tripod.com
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Bibliography

* ''Development of rationalism and empiricism''. With

Edgar Zilsel Edgar Zilsel (August 11, 1891, Vienna, Austria-Hungary – March 11, 1944, Oakland, California) was an Austrian-American historian and a philosopher of science. He is known for his Zilsel Thesis, a scientific proposal which traces the origi ...

. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1941. (International encyclopedia of unified science Foundations of the unity of science ; v2 no.8). * ''Leonardo Da Vinci'' (1956) * ''The Crime of Galileo''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955. * ''The Origins of Scientific Thought: from Anaximander to Proclus, 600 BC to 300 AD''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1961. * ''Reflections on Men and Ideas'' (1968) * '' Hamlet's Mill''. With Hertha von Dechend (1915–2001). Boston: Gambit Inc., 1969. * '' The Mentor Philosophers: The Age of Adventure: Renaissance Philosophers''

Notes

External links

1902 births 1974 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Italian emigrants to the United States Santillana, Giorgio de Archaeoastronomy Writers from Rome People with acquired American citizenship 20th-century American male writers {{US-sci-historian-stub

Biography

Bibliography

Notes

Further reading

External links