Statue of Galileo by Stefania Guidi
Lungarno Ranieri Simonelli
Pisa, March 2013
“Cardinal Pietro Maffi (1858—1931) wasn't your usual porporate: he was a scientist, an astronomer and the director the Vatican Observatory since 1904. In 1922, when he was Archbishop of Pisa, proposed to erect a statue of Galileo Galilei in piazza dei Miracoli, to make an amend of sorts to the scientist condemned by the Inquisition as a heretic, but nothing came out of this at the time. About twenty years ago Flaminio Farnesi, a Pisan entrepreneur, commissioned a 5-meter bronze statue of Galileo to the sculptress Stefania Guidi. When the work was ready the city of Pisa wasn't yet able or willing to find a suitable location for it, so Mr. Farnesi placed the statue at the entrance of his factory. Only recently he succeeded in getting the monument erected in Pisa, on Lungarno Ranieri Simonelli. How did he managed that? Mr. Farnesi seriously threatened to donate the bronze to Livorno...” (Galileo, Livorno Daily Photo)
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