Memorials

S. Croce 038f.1 ossa e ceneri del astronomo Galileo Galilei

January 8th, 1642 a

burial

January 8th, 1642

1737

pp. 268, 290, no. 38

[a] It is not clear whether the tomb off of the corridor connecting the sacristy and novitiate, accessed through a small door (porticella) to the right of the Medici Chapel, had been in use for some time as a temporary burial place or it was created specifically for Galileo's burial in early 1642. His monumental tomb, which was originally forbidden, was not installed until 1737.
[b] Despite some popular belief, Galileo was not banned from having a church burial. While Pope Urban VIII did not allow a special monument, he did send a special blessing to the scientist on his death bed. Why the friars put him in a deposit and not in one of his family tombs in the complex is unclear, but it was likely because removal to a new tomb appropriate to his fame was anticipated. A little over a decade past his death, Stefano Rosselli noted Galileo's burial in the small room, that the "very famous and never sufficiently praised mathematician and astronomer" had but put there until a tomb "commensurate with his merit" was built in the church proper. He notes that Grand Duke Ferdinand II wanted to use the site opposite Michelangelo's great monument, but that the project had stalled at the monarch's death.