On_the_Shape,_Location,_and_Size_of_Dante's_Inferno
On the Shape, Location, and Size of Dante's Inferno
Lectures by Galileo
On the Shape, Location, and Size of Dante's Inferno is the title of two lectures by Galileo Galilei presented in 1588 upon invitation by the Florentine Academy. The lectures secured him a job as a lecturer of mathematics at the University of Pisa.[1] Galileo attempted to mathematically map Dante's description of hell, trying to bridge the Divine Comedy and scientific thinking. According to professor Mark Peterson, Galileo may have had a secondary aim, to attack the cosmological model of hell proposed by Alessandro Vellutello of Lucca, while supporting another model by the Florentine architect Antonio Manetti during the animosity between the two cities.[2] The lectures were not mentioned by Galileo's first biographer, Vincenzo Viviani,[2] but are available in the standard 20-volume Opere of Galileo among the "literary" writings in Volume 9.