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GALILEO GALILEI

Releted objects

Galileo's objective lens

Inv. 2429 IV.1 Galileo's objective lens Lens: early 17th century / Frame: 1677 Lens: glass, gilt brass / Frame: ivory, ebony Lens diameter 30 mm / Frame 410x300mm

Description Objective lens which Galileo used for many observations between 1609 and 1610. In 1610 he observed for the first time Jupiter's moons, which he called "Medicean Planets". The great discovery was announced in the Sidereus Nuncius, published in Venice in the same year. Galileo donated the lens of the telescope with which the discovery was made to the Grand Duke Ferdinand II. In later times the lens was accidentally cracked. After Galileo's death (1642) the lens was kept in the Guardaroba of the Prince, then Cardinal, Leopoldo de' Medici. When Leopoldo died (1675), the lens was added to the Medici collection, kept in the Uffizi Gallery, where it remained until 1793, when it was transferred in the Museum of Physics and Natural History. In the mid- nineteenth century it was displayed in the Tribuna di Galileo with other objects relating to Galileo. In 1677 the Medici commissioned the ebony frame in which the lens is inserted from Vittorio Crosten.