Galileo’s Fame

Science, Credibility, and Memory in the Seventeenth Century

Galileo’s Fame fits into the expanding subspecialty of the historical study of fame, but it is also a wonderful contribution to the history of science and does an excellent job, in its epilogue, of connecting to current social and political interest in the fame of science and scientists. After first exploring the origins and meaning of fame, Post pieces together the various elements of Galileo’s life, from his earliest career to his great renown and his infamy in the Church’s trial. Fame is, and was, affected by accomplishments, but it is just as much a collective process of those around famous individuals who support their personal integrity and public recognition. The modern concept of fame emerged in the 17th century, intertwining with ideas about truth, falsity, and trustworthiness as much as reputation and glory. Fame is ambiguous, volatile, and elastic, but because fame’s gleam can elevate the reputation of an institution such as a university or a city, many people had a stake in appropriating the fame of a scientist such as Galileo. This will be attractive to anyone interested in the history of science or fame. Recommended.

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From the beginning of Galileo’s career, well before the publication of the Sidereus Nuncius, his contemporaries took pains to shape his reputation and fame. They were fully aware that their efforts would shape the course of his career; they also knew that they would profit from helping him. With this book, Anna-Luna Post offers a welcome new perspective on the volatile dynamic between early modern fame and science in Italy, shifting the focus from the recipient of fame to its brokers. Galileo’s contemporaries knew his rise to fame was not a matter of course. Not only were his discoveries highly contested, he was also not the first to turn his telescope to the night sky. Yet, of the men who first observed the rugged lunar surface and Jupiter’s four largest moons between the summer of 1609 and the winter of 1610, Galileo is the only one who achieved both widespread fame and posthumous glory. Rather than the direct result of merit or extraordinary achievements, fame, Post ultimately reveals, is shaped through human intervention.

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There is a story that fame was created in the Enlightenment. But long before that, Galileo Galilei became the famous father of the theory of planetary movements. His defense of his radical ideas and the international debates over science made him one of Europe’s first famous people. In Anna-Luna Post’s brilliantly crafted work, we see not only the origins of modern fame but just how important it was to the legitimacy and the maintenance of scientific authority. Post’s historical lessons seem very pertinent in our own turbulent times. This is a must read for anyone interested in the history of science and media.

Jacob Soll, University of Southern California

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280 Pages, 6 x 9 in.

October, 2025

isbn : 9780822948599

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about the author

Anna-Luna Post is a historian of knowledge at Leiden University. She is interested in all facets of the world of scholarship and learning in the early modern period. Trained as a cultural historian and Italianist, she is also fascinated by the intersections between early capitalism and environmental history, especially in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic.
Post has held fellowships at the University of Southern California, Cambridge University, the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, and the Medici Archive Project and the Netherlands Institute for Art History in Florence. She studied in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Bologna.

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