The Forgiven

You can forget the excitement of discovery too easily. When the shuttle docked with Russia’s Mir space station last month, many of us were transported straight back to the excitement and awe of the Moon landing. But we sit indoors in front of the box. It’s not a social or public experience. It pales before the city of Venice abuzz with talk of Galileo discovering the moons of Jupiter which validated Copernicus. Telescope owners were accosted in the streets by people eager for a peek at the heavens – one left town because of the importuning crowd. In the paperback of Galileo (Cassell, £8.99, ISBN 0 304 34462 1), James Reston recounts how poets featured the great man in odes and idylls, while aristocrats fêted him. Until, that is, the Catholic Church’s chilly decrees forbade his work, and Galileo was barred from publishing his theories.