An overview of the full conference schedule is available here:
Galileo Meets Kepler: Motion in the Heavens
Personae Dramatis
Galileo Galilei (Scientist and Astronomer)
Robert Carson
Johannes Kepler (Imperial Mathematician and Astronomer)
Pierre Boulos
Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (Master of Controversial Questions)
Don Metz
In the spring of 1611, Galileo came to Rome to “exhibit the new discoveries and to explain their great consequences”. Clearly he was referring to the recent discoveries he made about motion and especially the celestial observations of 1609 with his new optical instrument. While in Rome, Galileo also had an audience with Cardinal Bellarmine, a Jesuit and an admirer of Galileo. In the play, Galileo succeeds to arrange a meeting with the Cardinal and Johannes Kepler, who was persuaded to come to Italy for this auspicious occasion. The Cardinal first hesitates to accede to Galileo’s request, but he is curious to meet the great Kepler and discuss motion on Earth and in the Heavens with the two acknowledged masters of terrestrial and celestial motion. The play is about this fictitious meeting but the discussion is based on the extensive correspondence between Galileo and Kepler and between Galileo and Cardinal Bellarmine.
