Books: Martyr of Thought

THE CRIME OF GALILEO (338 pp.)—Georgia de Santillana—University of Chicago ($5.75).

In the gallery of what might be called martyrs of thought, the image of Galileo recanting before the Italian Inquisition stirs the minds of educated modern men second only to the picture of Socrates drinking the hemlock. That image of Galileo is out of focus, in the view of M.I.T.'s Professor Georgio de Santillana, because it has been distorted by three centuries of rationalist prejudice and clerical polemics.

To refocus it clearly, within the logic of its own time, Author de Santillana has...