Karl von Gebler

Karl von Gebler (born November 29, 1850 in Vienna , † September 7, 1878 in Graz ) was an Austrian officer and historian, known for publishing the files of the trial of Galileo Galilei .

Life

He was the son of the Austrian field marshal Wilhelm von Gebler (1803-1884), grew up in Graz and should also embark on a military career. After graduating from high school, he became a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1869 , first in the 7th Infantry Regiment. Soon afterwards he became a lieutenant in the 4th Dragoon Regiment. He was considered an excellent rider and marksman and was called in for general staff work because of his intellectual inclinations and because he was an excellent draftsman. In his spare time he published in magazines on military history and translated a book by a French general staff officer. After a subsequent step, there was an almost fatal outbreak of tuberculosis and he had to quit the service. He moved to his parents' house in Graz. They moved with him to the milder climate around Bolzano . There he recovered and began his four-year studies on the Galileo Trial, which he completed in November 1875 and the results of which he published in 1876. His book on the process earned him a lot of recognition both in Germany and in Italy (the Accademia dei Lincei , the Academies of Pisa and Padua praised the work, King Victor Emmanuel awarded him the Order of the Crown of Italy ). After his mother's death, he moved with his father to Meran , where he recovered well and took part in social life. Next he planned to research the process and life of Joan of Arc and had already made some headway when Domenico Berti , who had viewed the original files in the Vatican, criticized his book of Galileo . In particular, it concerned a document in the files of February 26, 1616, according to which Cardinal Bellarmine expressly warned Galileo not to present the Copernican system as a fact. Gebler considered this to be a subsequent forgery. Challenged by Berti, despite his deteriorating health, he went to Rome in May 1877, where he had access to the original files in the Vatican archives, examined them with the greatest care for ten weeks (14 hours a day despite the heat in Rome) and copied them and published them in 1877 (the first full publication). In it he now took the view that the 1616 document was genuine, which sparked a lively debate. After returning from Rome in July 1877, he lost his voice and fell ill. In October, however, he went back to Italy and visited all Galileo's places of activity and undertook further Galileo studies, about which he published a travel report in the Deutsche Rundschau (1878, No. 7). In it he corrected the then widespread view of Galileo's strict imprisonment. That was his last release. His illness broke out again and a cure in Gleichenberg made things worse. He died in his hometown, where he was buried next to his only brother.

Fonts

• The Acts of the Galilean Trial, based on the Vatican manuscript, Stuttgart: Cotta 1877
• Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia, Stuttgart: Cotta, 1876, Archives
  • Extended English translation: Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia, London: Paul Kegan 1879 (translator and editor Jane Sturge, with biography of the author), Archives

Web links

• Entry on Karl von Gebler in Kalliope