Places > Siena
Palazzo delle Papesse
Siena, via di Cittą 126
Palazzo
delle Papesse, also known as Palazzo Piccolomini, houses today, in one of its
sections, the Center of Contemporary Art, after having been the headquarters of
the Banca d'Italia. According to tradition, it is named for the two sisters of
Pope Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini), although it was built for only one of
them, Caterina.
The
palace also has historical-scientific significance in relation to Galileo's
biographical vicissitudes. In 1633, after having been convicted by the Court of
the Inquisition, the Pisan scientist was
consigned to the residence of the Tuscan ambassador to Rome. He was then
allowed to leave the Papal city and, starting from July 9th, was a guest in
Siena of his friend Archbishop Ascanio Piccolomini, probably staying in the
Palazzo delle Papesse.
Teofilo
Gallaccini, a reader in logics and mathematics at the University of Siena, in
his work Celestial Monad, or true
Treatise on Cosmography (Monade Celeste, o vero Trattato di Cosmografia),
the manuscript of which is now kept in the Municipal Library of the Intronati
in Siena, records six telescopic observations of the Moon conducted from the
loggia of the palace in the month of August 1633. As reports Gallaccini, those
present observed with Galileo that "the lunar body does not have an even,
uniform surface; but it resembles the Earth." This episode becomes especially
significant in considering that it occurred after Galileo's conviction.
Galileo's
stay in Siena was fruitful also as regards speculation on physics. As Galileo himself
recalled to Elia Diodati in a letter dated 7 March 1634, "In Siena in the house
of Msgr. the Archbishop [...] I composed a treatise on a new subject,
concerning mechanics, filled with many curious and useful speculations." This
was the Discorsi e dimostrazioni
matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze [Discourse and Mathematical Demonstrations on Two New Sciences] (Leiden,
1638), published at Leiden in 1638.
Galileo remained in Siena until mid-December of 1633, when he returned to his residence at Arcetri.