Galileo's new mathematical philosophy

Abstract

Galileo's earliest mathematical work, on problems originating in literature and the arts, is closely related, thematically, to his late mathematical philosophy and the beginnings of modern physics. It is suggested that a key role in the transition from the early work to the late work, in which once seemingly isolated observations about the arts came to be seen as illustrations of a general and universal theory about the world, was played by one of Galileo's protégés, Niccolò Aggiunti, a person almost lost to history.