Il miracolo degli impiccati, Raffaello e aiuti ( Mibact-Direzione regionale musei della Toscana)The tower of Galileo, or Torre del Cantone, also known in Pisa as the Verga d’Oro (Golden rod), is a construction of the 12th century probably built to defend the Domus dei Dodi, one of the tower houses forming part of the original nucleus of the building. The tower is located between via Santa Maria and via San Nicola and is connected by an arch to the Palazzo delle Vedove, and by another to the church of San Nicola. In 1609, the great scientist Galileo Galilei invited the Grand DukeCosimo II de‘ Medicito observe together the stars and the discoveries made by him thanks to his greatest invention: the telescope. These findings were extensively discussed in the astronomy treatise Sidereus Nuncius, from 1610, among which we recall the surface rough and uneven of the moon, the star composition of the Milky Way, the four satellites of Jupiter, called Medicean in honour of Cosimo II.Still on the subject of scientific discoveries, the building also hosted the illustrious professor Francesco Redi, considered the father of modern parasitology.Here, in 1690, he wrote the famous Letter about the invention of glasses, after having found in the convent of Santa Caterina a handwritten chronicle relating to the important invention of the Pisan Dominican Alessandro Della Spina.
