The Louvain Lectures (Lectiones Lovanienses) of Bellarmine and the Autograph Copy of his 1616 Declaration to Galileo, and: The Galileo Affair: A Meeting of Faith and Science (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 149 The Editorial Afterword concludes with a section "Situating Semiotic," which is a careful explanation of the significance of Poinsot's work for both the history of philosophy and the history of Semiotics. Not only is Charles Sanders Peirce treated, but the review goes back to the impact of nominalism stemming from William Ockham on the history of philosophy and carries the study up to the contemporary scene. Historians and semiodcians are indebted to Deely for making this bilingual edition of Poinsot's Tractatu.sde Signis available. Every library and every serious student of the doctrine on signs should have this volume. DESMOND J. FITZGERALD University of San Francisco Ugo Baldini and George V. Coyne, editors. The Louvain Lectures (LectionesLovanienses) of BeUarmine and the Autograph Copy of his 1616 Declaration to Galileo. Studi Galileiani, vol. 1, no. ~. Vatican City: Specola Vaticana, a984. Pp. 48. N. P. G. V. Coyne, M. Heller, and J. Zycinski, editors. The GalileoAffair: A Meeting ofFaith and Science. Vatican City: Specola Vaticana, ~985. Pp. 179. N. P. The trial of Galileo by the Inquisition is certainly not the only episode that can shed light (and heat) on the science-religion controversy; Protestant reactions to Darwin reveal that the problem is not unique to Catholicism, while episodes like the Lysenko affair in totalitarian societies suggest that similar problems beset secular religions. It should also be noted that the Galileo affair has sometimes been interpreted in terms of conflicts between science and philosophy, or between scientific truth and political expediency, or between one religious faction and another. Nevertheless, the affair remains the cause celebre par excellence for the science-religion controversy. In the last several years there have been several developments stemming from the Vatican which have scholarly import besides the historical-cultural significance deriving from the fact that the source of these developments is the same institution that condemned Galileo. In 1979, in a speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences commemorating the centennial of Einstein's birth, Pope John Paul II admitted that Galileo had been the victim of an injustice on the part of the Church, and argued that the injustice was all the more tragic since he had really been a model of piety and had also shown exemplary insight in his reflections on the issue. Then in t98o a Vatican commission was appointed to study the affair and the proper relationship between science and religion; it was subdivided into four subcommittees, dealing with exegetical, cultural, scientific-epistemological, and historical issues. Several books have already appeared through their efforts. Bishop Paul Poupard, head of the cultural subcommittee, has edited the anthology Galileo Galilei: 35~ anni di storia 0633-t983) (Rome: Marietti, a983). In an action that may be presumed to stern from the historical subcommittee, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has published a very valuable improved critical edition of the Vatican dossier containing the Inquisition proceedings: I documenti del processo di Galileo Galilei, edited by Sergio M. Pagano (Vatican City, 1984). The two 150 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 26:1 JANUARY 1988 present volumes derive from the scientific-epistemological subcommittee, explicitly in the case of the Baldini-Coyne booklet, and implicitly for the other one. The upshot of all these developments is two-fold. First, we have an effort aimed at the publication of relevant documents; the Baldini-Coyne booklet and the Inquisition proceedings volume are examples of this. On the other hand, we also have the elaboration of the thesis that the Galileo affair proves the harmony between science and religion , which is not merely a denial of the traditional conflictual interpretation, but a reversal of its implied lesson; The GalileoAffair is a good example of such a program (first adumbrated in the Pope's 1979 speech). Needless to say, this latter effort is bound to generate controversy, even among those who applaud the new documents. To be more specific, the Baldini-Coyne booklet contains material relating to Cardinal Bellarmine, a key figure in the episode. There are Latin selections and English translations of the theological lectures he gave at Louvain in 157o-1572; these bear on the question of the extent of his knowledge of astronomy, his willingness...