Vincenzo or Vincenzio Gamba (1606–1649), later Vincenzo Galilei (1619), was the illegitimate son of

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 was ...

(1564–1642) and his mistress

Marina Gamba Marina Gamba of Venice ( – ) was the mother of Galileo Galilei's illegitimate children. Marina Gamba was born around 1570 in Venice. Relationship with Galileo Galilei During one of his frequent trips to Venice, Galileo met a young woman named ...

(1570–1612). Vincenzo was legitimated to his father in 1619. Like his grandfather Vincenzo Galilei, the younger Vincenzo became a

lutenist A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can refe ...

Life

Vincenzio was born in

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

like his two sisters: Virginia (1600–1634) (later Sister Maria Celeste) and Livia (1601–1659) (later Sister Arcangela). He was named after his grandfather. In 1619, after his mother's death in 1612, his birth was legitimized by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. As a consequence, the names of the older and younger Vincenzo Galilei became identical, sometimes leading to confusion in biographies. Vincenzo was particularly gifted in poetry, music, and mechanics. His father encouraged him to study law in Pisa, entrusting him to Benedetto Castelli (1577/1578–1643). In 1629, he married Sestilia Bocchineri (c. 1610–1669). After his marriage, he quarreled with his father over money. Their relationship later improved and Vincenzo lovingly assisted his father in the last, difficult years of Galileo's life, and supported Galileo to build

escapement An escapement is a mechanical linkage in mechanical watches and clocks that gives impulses to the timekeeping element and periodically releases the gear train to move forward, advancing the clock's hands. The impulse action transfers energy to ...

. Galileo's student and biographer, Vincenzo Viviani (1622–1703) mentions Vincenzo Galilei's skill as inventor of musical instruments and in particular his construction of a "lute made with such art that, playing it so excellently, he extracted continuous and goliardic voices from the cords as if they were issuing from an organ's pipes...".Vincenzo Galilei junior
brunelleschi.imss.fi.it

References

1606 births 1649 deaths Galilei family Italian lutenists {{Italy-musician-stub