I will explore some aspects of the relationship between Copernicanism and
the Catholic Church in the 1610s and the 1620s. Copernicanism was the main
reason of Galileo Galileo's condemndation by the Catholic Church, and the
Catholic response to heliocentrism and to the Tuscan scientist has been
mainly viewed as a blow by the 'old' and backward intellectual establishment
against the new science. But is it really so? By examining in detail how
some key Catholic leaders responded to the challenge posed by the new
physics and astronomy, I will show that things are not so simple, and I will
conclude with some broad considerations on the relationship between science
and religion in early modern Europe, and on the impact of science on
intellectual debates.
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