The Ghost of Galileo: Professor John Heilbron (1643)
Professor John Heilbron, author of The Ghost of Galileo
In this episode we’re venturing back to a dramatic moment in the seventeenth century, to investigate the secret histories embedded in a forgotten painting with one America’s great historians.
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Picture this. It is 1643, a crucial year in the English Civil War. In Oxford - the university city where King Charles I has established his court - a young and sickly scholar sits in the gloom of his chambers. Beside him stands his tutor who leans against a globe. On a table before them both a book lies open at the title page. A lesson is in progress.
This is the scene that Professor John Heilbron glimpsed a few years ago when he was visiting the National Trust property of Kingston Lacey in Dorset. This picture was hidden away on a top floor and it instantly engaged his attention. An expert in the history of astronomy and the work of Galileo, Heilbron knew there was more going on in this painting than initially met the eye.
Although only painted roughly, Heilbron immediately recognised the book in the painting as Galileo’s Dialogue on the two chief world systems - the work that brought him to trial before the Inquisition.
This clue set Heilbron off on a long, thrilling journey that stretches from Dorset to Denmark, through almanacks, general literature, plays, masques, sermons, and political rhetoric of King Charles's reign. His aim was to discover why the book was featured in this painting, and who the sitters and the artist were.
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Show notes
Scene One: Sir John Bankes arrives in Oxford, probably in February of 1643
Scene Two: Summer 1643. Young John Bankes arrives in Oxford to begin his studies at Oriol College
Scene Three: The painter Francis Cleyn comes to Oxford on business.
Memento: Three copies of the original edition of Galileo’s Dialogue (current market value $1m each)
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People/Social
Presenter: John Hillman
Interview: Violet Moller
Guest: Professor John Heilbron
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
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About Professor John Heilbron
John Heilbron is professor of history and the vice chancellor emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, and an Honorary Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. He writes about the history of the physical sciences and their wider cultural context from the 17th to the 20th centuries. His work has won several prizes and brought him honorary doctorates from several universities. He lives in Oxfordshire for most of the year and Pasadena, California, for the rest
John Bankes and his Tutor, Sir Maurice Williams. Oil on canvas. Francis Cleyn (1643)
National Trust Photographic Library/Derrick E. Witty / Bridgeman Images
More about the scenes
Scene One
Sir John Bankes arrives in Oxford, probably in February of 1643. He had been in London doing his duty to the law and the House of Lords. He had not always been a government man, he had opposed the Crown in the last parliaments of King James and the first of King Charles. By 1643 he had advanced to Chief Justice of Common Pleas and Privy Councilor. When war came, he threw in his lot with the king; parliament responded by charging him with high treason and confiscating his property. During 1643 Sir John suffered additionally by witnessing the collapse of the government he had helped to sustain and the perpetration of many illegalities he had tried to prevent. The shock of the collapse and his conviction for treason undermined his health and he died not long after the painting of our picture.
Scene Two
Summer of 1643. Young John Bankes (Sir John’s son) arrives in Oxford to begin his studies at Oriole College, matriculating in July. Being sickly and melancholic and also rich, he took most of his meals in his rooms. He is interested in astronomy, which is also in keeping with his horoscope, dominated by the planet Saturn, whose natives tend to be mathematicians if they are not criminals. His tutor is Maurice Williams, who had made a particular study of Galileo's work and teaches him astronomy. Williams had attended the medical school of the University of Padua 15 years after Galileo had resigned his chair of mathematics there in order to join the court of the grand Duke of Tuscany.
Scene Three
The painter Francis Cleyn comes to Oxford on business. He has been serving King Charles as chief designer at the royal tapestry works in Mortlake near London. His salary is often in arrears and likely to remain so since the Civil War has depressed the market for the fine work he produced. He hopes that Sir John Bankes might be able to help him get paid, and also that there might be the possibility of painting portraits of cavaliers wanting to leave an impression of themselves before being destroyed on the battlefield.
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