Galileo and Buonamici on the Tides of the Sea: Was Something Omitted from the Dialogue?

TL;DR

This paper examines Galileo's 1616 discourse on tides, highlighting potential omissions of key information from his 1632 Dialogue, and discusses how Buonamici's contributions clarify the understanding of diurnal tides.

Contribution

It reveals that Galileo may have unintentionally omitted crucial data on diurnal tides, and emphasizes Buonamici's role in providing this missing information.

Findings

Galileo's 1616 claim about Lisbon's tides was inaccurate.

Buonamici supplied Galileo with sources on diurnal tides.

Galileo's omission may have affected his credibility.

Abstract

In his 1616 discourse on the tides, Galileo claimed that diurnal tides occurred in Lisbon, Portugal, bolstering his theory of the tides. Lisbon does not feature such tides, but in an exchange of letters in 1629-1630, Giovanfrancesco Buonamici provided Galileo with information on where such tides could be found. Buonamici referred Galileo to the Regimiento de Navegaci\'on of Andr\'es Garc\'ia de C\'espedes, and to the Descrittione di Tutti i Paesi Bassi of Lodovico Guicciardini. Galileo omitted any information on where diurnal tides occurred from his 1632 Dialogue, perhaps unintentionally, leaving him open to criticism. Buonamici's material militates against that criticism.