Museum: Galileo's fingers, tooth are found

[mcablue]

Source: AP

AP – In this image provided by Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze shows a finger attributed to Galileo Galilei...

ROME – Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again and will soon be put on display, an Italian museum director said Friday.

Three fingers, a vertebra and a tooth were removed from the astronomer's body by admirers in 1737, 95 years after his death, as his corpse was being moved from a storage place to a monumental tomb — opposite that of Michelangelo, in Santa Croce Basilica in Florence.

One of the fingers was recovered soon afterward and is now part of the collection of the Museum of the History of Science, in Florence. The vertebra has been kept at the University of Padua, where Galileo taught for years.

But the tooth and two fingers from the scientist's right hand — the thumb and middle finger — were kept by one of the admirers, an Italian marquis, and later enclosed in a container that was passed on from generation to generation in the same family, Paolo Galluzzi, the museum's director, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091121/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_galileo_s_fingers;_ylt=AtWNZdDQM08C6qoxKXoSclCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFpanY4a25xBHBvcwMzOQRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDbXVzZXVtZ2FsaWxl

[Ian David]

1. Galileo Continues to give The Vatican The Finger. n/t

[Libertas1776]

4. +1

[eagertolearn]

6. You must have seen it there because I think that is what it said by the finger.

My son thought that was the best thing he saw in all the museums!

[SkyDaddy7]

10. Yes he does!!

The Vatican continues to give humanity the finger as well!

[Auggie]

13. DUZY

:rofl:

[johnfunk]

15. ROTFLMAO

:rofl: :evilgrin:

[Drunken Irishman]

2. WTF? That finger is extremely long.

[Lithos]

3. It includes the metacarpal bone

which is the bone you feel in your palm. You can see 4 segments.

See:

[Drunken Irishman]

5. I'm an idiot.

:(

[Dead_Parrot]

16. That, or he worked for the TSA. nt

[Hekate]

7. Ah, the Italians and their fondness for saints' relics, Galileo being a saint of Science, after all

The marquis even had a reliquary made for these grisly bits. How ... nice.

Hekate

[rooboy]

8. So that's it then... he's definitely dead. n/t

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. If he has his middle finger back, he can drive in Houston traffic!!

:rofl:

Or Dallas, for that matter.

[boppers]

11. Ah, relic worship.

How monotheistic of them.

:sarcasm:

[Historic NY]

12. This isn't bad but poor Napoleon well he lost his...............

http://tonyperrottet.com/napoleonsprivates/

[Manifestor_of_Light]

17. So did Rasputin......a huge specimen, apparently.

[Taverner]

14. OK - so when do we clone him?