Galileo Study Guide & Plot Synopsis

Galileo Plot Summary

Preview of Galileo Summary:

Galileo by Bertolt Brecht is a short history play about the scientist and astronomer Galileo Galilei. It charts Galileo's later years, when his experiments with telescopes and development of evidence for a heliocentric model of the solar system threatened the Church, resulting in Galileo's inquisition and his eventual recantation of his scientific findings.

Middle-aged Galileo, already a famed scientist living in Venice, is in his study when he receives a geocentric model of the universe, geocentrism being the long-accepted theory about the cosmos and one Galileo knows is not true. Galileo shows Andrea, son of his housekeeper, how the earth circles the sun even though to the eyes it appears that the sun is moving through the sky. Ludovico, a student, arrives to study under Galileo. He tells Galileo about a new device, the telescope, that is sweeping Europe but which has not arrived to Italy. Priuli, a curator, arrives...
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