Aristotle - Describes the philosopher's ideas in astronomy and phYsics which the Catholic Church accepted.

Galileo Galilei - Describes the life and deeds of Galileo Galilei.

Maffeo Barberini - the man who was the pope the time of Galilei's investigation and trail.

Nicolaus Copernicus - Describes the life of Copernicus and the heliocentric theory, he developed concerning the structure of planets.

The conflict between faith and human knowledge - Deals with the place of the Catholic institutions in the relations between religious ideas and scientific innovations.

The prohibition against subscribing to the Copernican theory - The church prohibition of holding and defending the theory that the earth moves around the sun, which was decided in 1616.

Interpretation of Scripture - The explanation of the scripture's meaning and intention, which was done in the Catholic church by its theologians according to the writing of the fathers of the church.

Geocentric theory - The astronomical theory or theories, which place the earth immovable at the center of the world. The theory explains all the astronomical observations by motions of the planets (including the sun) and the stars around the earth.

Heliocentric theory - A theory in which all the planets including the earth are moving around the fixed sun. The sun is at the center of the planets' system - the sun system. In this theory, the earth moves, and its movement explains the apparent movement of the sun and the stars.

Aristotelian natural philosophers - Philosophers which follow Aristotle's philosophy of nature (physics). These philosophers continued to develop this theory in the middle ages.

Darwin's theory of evolution - The theory that explains the diversity of the living species in milliards of years evolution, from undeveloped creatures. According to this theory all the species (including human) were developed in mechanistic way by accident mutations. Only the mutations which fitted to their environment survived.

A letter to the Duchess Christina - A letter which Galileo wrote to the Duchess in 1615, in which he defends the Copernican theory, and showed that it does not contradict the scriptures. The letter is Galileo's most elaborate explanation of the compatibility of the theory with the Christian faith, and on the connection between science and scripture.

The Inquisition - The inquiry body of the church, which was responsible for finding heretics and deciding on their case in a legal procedure.

Rome - The ancient capital of the roman empire, the current capital of Italy and the center of the Catholic church, the city of the pope and the high hierarchy of the church and its central organizations. In the seventeenth century it was the capital of the papacy state, and also a general cultural center.

Dialogue about the two chief World Systems - Galileo's book, in which he explains the Copernican theory, and shows its plausibility. The book was published in 1632, and was banned soon after that by the church, and Galileo was put in trial by the inquisition.

The Tuscan Duchy - In the seventeenth century was a state in Tuscany in north - central Italy, ruled by the Medici grand dukes. The Duchy was one of the important states of Italy. Florence its capital was an important cultural center for artist and humanists.

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