Galileo's middle finger

Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei died in 1642 and had stipulated in his will that his remains go to Basilica di Santa Croce, beside those of his father, Vincenzo Galilei. Cardinal Francesco Barberini addressed the matter, writing that people might be scandalized by his entombment in the mausoleum. The mausoleum was not constructed until well after Viviani's death, delayed at first by the potential disapproval of the Catholic Church and later by the "dillydallying" of Viviani's nephew and heir, Abbot Jacopo Panzanini. ==Removal from corpse==

Ninety-five years after his death, on 12 March 1737, Galileo's remains were transferred from an unconsecrated box underneath the Santa Croce bell tower to a memorial tomb inside the church, near Michelangelo's fingers and bones. In a ceremony resembling the transfer of a saintly relic, Galileo's remains were taken from his heretic's grave to the mausoleum of the Basilica di Santa Croce. Tozzetti later wrote that Capponi's explanation for taking the two fingers as relics was "because Galileo wrote so many beautiful things with them." ==Exhibition history==

The middle finger was later acquired by Angelo Maria Bandini of the Laurentian Library, where it was exhibited. In 1841, the finger was moved to the Tribune of Galileo at the Museum of Physics and Nature (now La Specola) along with Galileo's Medici-Lorraine instruments. In 1927, it was moved to the Institute and Museum of the History of Science (Museo di Storia della Scienza). The museum's inventory originally listed the finger as his left index finger, though University of Florence professor Francesco Leoncini added a footnote indicating that it was Galileo's right middle finger. The finger is displayed alongside the objective lens from Galileo's telescope. The Latin inscription by Tommaso Perelli reads: , containing the rest of his remains American journalist Nino Lo Bello wrote in 1986 about his attempts to track down Galileo's finger in the 1960s. He reported being told by an employee of the National Library that it had resided there for years before it was given to the Museum of the History of Science. Galileo's middle finger is a rare example of a secular relic, the preservation of body parts being a practice usually reserved for saints within the Catholic Church. Bonnie Gordon remarked on "the irony of preserving relic style the remains of a heretic". British art critic Julian Spalding remarked that the Museum of Science took pride in the finger, adding "I don't particularly recommend going to see it, because what is the point of looking at Galileo's finger?" In Italy, Galileo's middle finger is considered the property of the state. ==Galileo's other body parts==

Galileo's index finger, the thumb of his right hand, and a tooth were sealed in a glass jar that disappeared sometime after 1905 and remained lost to the public until 2009. The Museum applied a DNA test to forensically confirm the authenticity of the remains. ==See also==