Galileo Galilei is the scientist who laid the foundations of the experimental method and the autonomy of research, "the greatest physicist and mathematician of the world" and "the greatest writer of Italian literature of every century". Galileo was also a virtuoso musician, an effective artist, a great critic of art, and still a wise entrepreneur, a man of the world, of friendships, of very earthly passions, a masterly skillful technician, an intuitive engineer, and over the centuries an icon of Italian genius, the symbol of rebellion, the prototype and the archetype of modern man. --Translated from back cover.