Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642)

Auctions and Galileo

We were talking to friends recently about traveling some Thursday evening to attend Bob Stewart's auction at Jane Lew. Auctions are so much fun and you get all those items that are essential in your life! (Chuckle) Stewart's Auction Company certainly has a fine facility.

I thought about strange items offered at auctions. The one below may take first prize for being weird.

Galileo's fingers and tooth found

Was that any way to treat a genius? Back in 1737, Galileo Galilei's admirers removed three fingers, a vertebra and a tooth from the astronomer's body when his corpse was being moved to a new tomb. The vertebra and one of the fingers were recovered soon afterward, but the whereabouts of the tooth and the other two fingers were a mystery. Recently, however, the relics turned up in a container that was auctioned off to a private collector. Now the Galilean body parts, including the finger shown below, will be put on display at the Museum of the History of Science in Florence.



OK- this auction item is certainly not essential in my life! I collect canes and walking sticks, but who in the world collects dried up human fingers?