Santa Croce
Detail #14

GALILEO GALILEI PATRICIAN OF FLORENCE
ASTRONOMY GEOMETRY PHILOSOPHY GREATEST RENOVATOR
TO BE COMPARED TO NOBODY OF HIS TIME
HERE MAY WELL REST
HE LIVED 78 YEARS, DIED IN 1641
(WERE) CARING FOR FATHERLAND'S EVERLASTING GLORY
THE TEN NOBLE MEN IN CHARGE OF THIS HOLY HOUSE
THIS MEMORIAL BY VINCENZO VIVIANI FOR THE ASHES OF THE TEACHER TOGETHER WITH HIS OWN ACCORDING TO HIS WILL
THE HEIR GIO. BATTISTA CLEMENTE DE' NELLI SON OF GIO. BATTISTA SENATOR
EAGERLY ACHIEVED
IN THE YEAR 1737

Translation: M. Fidecaro

Note: In Florence, for centuries, the civic year began on 25 March, The Feast of the Annuciation, and that dating was true until 1750. This peculiarity of Florence should explain the difference between the date for Galileo's death usually given as Jan. 8, 1642, and the date recorded on the tomb, 1641.