person
Galileo Galilei
Galileo
also: Galilei
Italian astronomer (1564-1642) forced by the Inquisition to recant heliocentrism in 1633; his legendary defiant murmur "And yet it moves" is echoed and repurposed as a joke.
Reading notes
- Modern Prayers §3 And yet it turns!
Echoes the words traditionally (if apocryphally) attributed to Galileo Galilei after his forced recantation of heliocentrism before the Inquisition -- "Eppur si muove" ("And yet it moves"); Chekhov turns the famous defiance into a joke about a tax on the heavens.