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Stillman Drake (December 24, 1910 – October 6, 1993) was a Canadian historian of science best known for his work on
Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He ...
(1569–1642). Drake published over 131 books, articles, and book chapters on Galileo. Including his translations, Drake wrote 16 books on Galileo and contributed to 15 others.


Career

Drake earned a
bachelor’s degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six y ...
in
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
and was at
UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...
in the early 1930s for graduate mathematics but went to work in the financial sector. In a prelude to scholarly life, Drake was for a time an administrator at the Government Development Bank in
San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ...
. Drake received his first academic appointment in 1967 at the age of 57 as full professor at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
after a career as a financial administrator in the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
system. Although he had been recruited in the past by
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, he demurred in finance until he was attracted to Toronto by the offer made only to stars. During that time he had begun his studies of the works of Galileo and translated Galileo's ''
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems The ''Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems'' (''Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo'') is a 1632 Italian-language book by Galileo Galilei comparing the Copernican system with the traditional Ptolemaic system. It was tran ...
'' (1953), parts of four of Galileo's works in ''Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo'' (1957), and Galileo's ''
The Assayer ''The Assayer'' ( it, Il Saggiatore) was a book published in Rome by Galileo Galilei in October 1623 and is generally considered to be one of the pioneering works of the scientific method, first broaching the idea that the book of nature is t ...
'' in ''The Controversy of Comets'' (1960), co-authored with C. D. O'Malley. Jed Z. Buchwald, Noel M. Swerdlow.
Eloge
Stillman Drake, 24 December 1910-6 October 1993". ''Isis'', Vol. 85, No. 4 (Dec., 1994), pp. 663–666.
Possibly his most significant contribution to the
history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...
was his defense of Galileo's experiments as documented in his translation of ''
Two New Sciences The ''Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences'' ( it, Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze ) published in 1638 was Galileo Galilei's final book and a scientific testament covering muc ...
'', chiefly in his footnotes. Drake showed how the complex interaction of experimental measurement and mathematical analysis led Galileo to his law of falling bodies. His footnotes to ''Two New Sciences'' refute Alexandre Koyré's claim that experiment played no significant part in Galileo's thought by demonstration, for example in his models of Galileo's experiments which are described in his footnotes. In 1980, Roger Hahn wrote that Drake was "probably the foremost authority on Galileo of our times". In 1984 Drake was awarded the Galileo Galilei Prize for the Italian History of Science by the Italian
Rotary Clubs Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, prof ...
. The jury was composed of Italian epistemologists and science historians. In 1988 Drake was awarded the Sarton Medal by the
History of Science Society The History of Science Society (HSS) is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science. It was founded in 1924 by George Sarton, David Eugene Smith, and Lawrence Joseph Henderson, primarily to support the publi ...
. He spent his entire academic career, beginning in 1967, at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. Drake was reputedly "one of the greatest collectors of books and manuscripts of the twentieth century", and the books that he brought with him were housed at the university in what later became the
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is a library in the University of Toronto, constituting the largest repository of publicly accessible rare books and manuscripts in Canada. The library is also home to the university archives which, in addit ...
. Landon writes that "at a single stroke" his donation "transformed the strength and emphasis of the University Library and provided the basis for what has become one of the richest collections of early scientific works, from many countries and in many languages, in North America."


Personal life

Drake married twice. Earlier in life, several years after receiving his bachelor's degree at the
University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...
(1932), Drake joined several college friends in creating the original version of a board game called ''Empire'' in 1938, which went on to inspire Peter Langston to create his computer game of the same name.Langston on Empire vs Empire
Peter Langston, 2011-1-15


Selected works

*(1949) ''Book of Anglo-Saxon Verse''. *(1953) ''Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems''. Berkeley:
University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facul ...
. *(1957) ''Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo''. New York:
Doubleday & Company Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed th ...
. *(1973) "Galileo's Discovery of the Law of Free Fall," ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...
'' 228(5): 84–92. *(1974) ''Two New Sciences'',
University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic community; works of fiction, memoir and ...
, 1974. . A new translation including sections on centers of gravity and the force of percussion. *(1978) ''Galileo At Work''. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including '' The Chicago Manual of Style' ...
. *(1982) ''Forming Book Collections'', Toronto: The Amtmann Circle. *(1990) ''Galileo: Pioneer Scientist''. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press founded in 1901. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911. The press originally printed only examination books and the university cale ...
. . .


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drake, Stillman 1910 births 1993 deaths Historians of science Philosophers of science 20th-century Canadian historians University of Toronto faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni