Galileo and the senses : vision and the art of deception / Nicholas J. Wade.
Abstract:
The senses and perception feature in many of Galileo's letters and published works. For example, in Il Saggiatore (1623) there are some well known passages concerned with touch, taste, smell and hearing, but very little about vision. Galileo seemed to anticipate the epistemological and physiological approaches to sensory mechanisms that we associate with modern studies. He pointed out the importance of both experimentation and direct observation of natural phenomena and he belongs to the observational tradition in the study of vision as contrasted to that based on optics. Galileo stood at the threshold of a revolution in visual optics that took place in his own lifetime, but he did not step over it. He was closely associated with those who did transform understanding of the dioptrics and anatomy of the eye, like Kepler and Scheiner. Galileo did not apply his optical knowledge to the eye itself but added to the descriptions and analyses of visual phenomena, particularly those associated with contrast. Galileo's comparisons between painting and sculpture are also examined
Letture galileiane (2006 : Pisa) Conquista del visibile Galileo e le arti. p. 279-307