GALILEE, SEA OF: The body of water into which the Jordan widens north of the Dead Sea and south of Lake Huleh. In the Old and the New Testament several names are applied to it. In the Greek of the New Testament it appears as a limns ("lake"; Luke v. 1, viii. 22-33), and as a thalassa (" sea "; John vi. 18, 23). In one place (Luke v. 1) it is called the Lake of Gennesaret, a name given also to the plain along the northwestern shore and to a town in the plain. Sea of Tiberias is the terminology in John vi. 1, xxi. 1, in the first passage also Sea of Galilee. The term Sea of Galilee is the beat known to the New Testament, occurring Matt. iv. 18, xv. 29; Mark i. 16, vii. 31; John vi. 1. In the Old Testament it appears as the Sea of Chinnereth (Num. xxxiv. 11; Josh. xiii. 27) and the Sea of Chinneroth (Josh. xii. 3), variant forms of the same word, the origin of which is doubtful. I Macc. xi. 67 speaks of "the water of Gennesar." This body of water is thirteen miles long, and nearly seven miles wide, less than 200 feet in depth, approximately an elongated oval in shape, and its surface is 700 feet below the Mediterranean. The northern and southern shores slope gently to the plain of the Jordan, while the eastern and western shores are terminated by the hills which rise abruptly on the east, less so on the west. It is subject to sudden storms of great violence which make its navigation always a matter of peril. Its waters swarm with fish, and one town, Bethsaida (" Home of Fishermen "), took its name from this fact. The most sacred associations of the lake are connected with the life of Jesus.

Bibliography: For literature consult list under Galilee.

GALILEO, gS"li-15'8 (properly Galileo Gslilei): Italian physicist and astronomer; b. at Pisa Feb. 15, 1564; d. at Areetri, near Florence, Jan. 8, 1642. In 1581 he entered the University of Pisa to study medicine and the Aristotelian philosophy, but soon abandoned medicine for mathematics and physical science. In 1585 he left the university and went to Florence to study under Otilio Ricci. He was professor of mathematics at Pisa 1589-91, and at Padua 1592-1610, lecturing there to crowds of enthusiastic pupils from all over Europe. In 1610 Cosmo II., grand duke of Tuscany, appointed him philosopher and mathematician at the Florentine court, thus relieving him of all academic routine and enabling him to devote himself entirely to his scientific investigations. Galileo's opposition to the Ptolemaic cosmology first brought him under the suspicion of the In quisition in 1611, though he continued his investi gations and publicly defended the Copernican sys tem. In a letter to his friend Father Castelli, dated Dec. 21, 1613, he maintained that the theolo gian, instead of trying to restrict scientific investiga tion on Biblical grounds, should make it his business to reconcile the phraseology of the Bible with the results of science. In 1615 a copy of this letter was produced before the Inquisition, with the result that the following year Galileo was warned by the pope to desist from his heretical teachings on the pain of imprisonment. In 1632 he again drew the attention of the Inquisition by publishing a defense of the Copernican system. After a long and wearisome trial he was condemned on June 22, 1633, solemnly to abjure his scientific creed on banded knees. This he did under threats of torture; but whether he was actually put to the torture is still a mooted question. He was also sentenced to indeterminate imprisonment, but this was soon commuted to residence at Sienna, and the following December he was allowed to return to his villa at Arcetri, though he remained under the surveillance of the Inquisition. In 1637 he became totally blind.

Galileo's chief contributions to science are his formulation of the laws governing falling bodies, the invention of the telescope, the discovery of the isochronism of the pendulum, and numerous astronomical discoveries, including the phases of Venus, four satellites of Jupiter, and the spots on the sun. His works were stricken from the Index in 1835. The most important are Dialogo . .

copra i due siatemi dal mondo (Florence, 1632); and Discorsi a demostrazioni matematicU intorno 4 due nuove science (Leyden, 1638; both these are in Eng. transl. by T. Salusbury, The Systems of the World, in Four Dialogues, wherein the two grand Systemes of Ptolemy and Copernicus are . . . discoursed of, . . . The ancient and modern Doctrine of Holy Fathers . . . concerning the rash Citation of the Testimony of . . . Sacred Scripture in Conclusions merely natural. Mathematical Discourses and Demonstrations touching two new Sciences pertaining to Mechaniks and Local Motion . . . with an Appendix of the Centre of Gravity of some Solids.A Discourse concerning the Natation of Bodies upon . . . the Water, London, 1661; by J. Weston, London, 1730). The beat editions of his works are that by E. Alberi (16 vols., Florence, 1842-56) and the new complete edition now being prepared by A. Favaro at the expense of the State (Florence, 1890 sqq.).

Bibliography: A. Favaro, Galilee Galilei, Florence, 1888; F. Picavet, GaliUe, daetructeur de la scolaetique at fondateur de 7a philomphie ecientihque, Paris, 1895; Primate Life of Galileo, London, 1869 (based on his correspondence with his daughters); H. de L'Itpinois, Galil6a, son prooM, as eondamnagon, d'aprts lee documents in6dits, Paris, 1878; g. van Gabler, Galileo and the Roman Curia, London, 1879; F. R. Wegg-Prosser, Galileo and his Judges, ib. 1889 (gives summary of the " Dialogue "); O. Lodge, Pioneers in Science, ib. 1892; D. Nasmith, Makers of Modern Thought, 2 vols., ib. 1892; A. D. White, Warfare of Science with Theology, 2 vols., New York, 1898; J. J. Fahie, Galileo, his Life and Work, London, 1903; HL, v. 18-44 (RomAn Catholic, gives good list of literature). A. Favaro, professor of law in the University of Padua. has published in Italian "Galileo and the Inquisition," 1907, giving the,original documents referring to Galileo's prosecution from the archives of the Vatican and the Holy Office.