Galileo Galilei was a notable Italian astronomer, physicist, philosopher and mathematician. Together with Archimedes, Einstein and Newton he represents one of the greatest scientists in the world. Galileo was not the first to invent the telescope, but the first to improve it and expand the ideas of the world in that time period. Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa, Italy, and was the first of seven children of Vincenzio Galilei, a merchant, and Giula Ammannati, an upper-class woman who married lower-class people. When Galileo was a young boy his family moved to Florence, Italy. In November 1581 Vincenzio Galilei had Galileo enrolled at the University of Pisa, Faculty of Medicine, because he wanted Galileo to become a doctor. Galileo had other plans, and in early 1583 he began spending his time with mathematics professors instead of medicine professors. When the father learned this, he was furious and traveled 60 miles from Florence to Pisa to confront his son with the knowledge he had neglected in his studies. The mathematician professor intervened and convinced Vincenzio to allow Galileo to study mathematics on the condition that after one year all Galileo's support would be stopped and he would be left alone. In the spring of 1585 Galileo missed his final exams and left the university without a degree. He started getting work as a math teacher. In November 1589 Galileo found a position as professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa, the same school he had left without a degree four years earlier. Galileo was a brilliant teacher, but his surprising way of thinking and his open criticism of Aristotle's teachings were not acceptable to the other professors at the university. They believed that his t...... middle of paper ...... was executed at the stake for the crime of heresy. On May 10 he admitted the heresy in writing and on June 22 he confessed it publicly. He was sentenced to house arrest in his home near Florence for an indefinite period of time. In 1638 Galileo was blind and paralyzed by arthritis. He continued to work on the books with the help of his devoted students and friends. The Vatican later pardoned Galileo and officially admitted that he had been right all along. But it was only three hundred and fifty years later, in 1992, that this theory was proven. Works Cited Bendick, Jeanne. Then came Galileo. Sandwich, Massachusetts: Beautiful Foot Books, 1999. Print.Bendick, Jeanne. Galen and the door of medicine. Bathgate, ND: Bethlehem Books;, 2002. Print.Nardo, Don. The trial of Galileo: science against the Inquisition. San Diego, California: Lucent Books, 2004. Print.