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 GALILEI

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GALILEI

tine. The simple term O^t'il (Galilee) occurs first in Jos., XX, 7 (cf. Jos., xxi, 32; and I Par., vi, 76), where it denotes that portion of Nephtali lying to the north- east of Lake Merom, in which lay Cedes, one of the six cities of refuge. In III Kings, ix, 11, the expression " land of Galilee " is used to designate the northern part of Palestine, that embraced the twenty cities given by Solomon to Hiram, King of Tyre. Isaias (ix, 1) gives to "the land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephtali" the name "Galilee of the Nations" (D. V. " Galilee of the Gentiles"), undoubtedly on account of the large (ientile population in that region. As early as the Slachabean period, the limits of Galilee had ex- tended to Samaria (I Mach., x, 30), without however including the plain of Jezrael and the territory of Ptolemais (I Mach., xii, 47, 49). The New Testament frequently recognizes it as dividing, with the provinces of Samaria and Judea, all of Western Palestine. Josephus and, more accurately, the Talmudists (cf. Neubauer, "La Geographic du Talmud", Paris, 1868) give its boundaries at this period, as Phoenicia and Coele-Syria on the north; the Jordan valley on the east; Samaria, having En Gannini (modern Jennin) at its frontier, on the south; the Mediterranean and Phcenicia on the west. The territory thus described is naturally divided by a high ridge, at the eastern extremity of which was Caphar Hanan (Kcfr 'Andn), into Upper Galilee, embracing ancient Nephtali and the northern part of Asher, and Lower Galilee, em- bracing ancient Zabulon and parts of Asher and Issa- char. Although mountain ranges extend throughout the territory, rising to a height of 4000 feet in Upper, and to 1800 feet in Lower Galilee, the land is very productive, especially in the southern division where the valleys and plains are greater, and is capable of sustaining a very large population.

Josue (xix, 10-39) names 09 important Canaanite towns and cities, existing in the conquered territory allotted to the Hebrew tribes of Nephtali, Zabulon, Asher, and Issachar. Josephus (" Vita", 45) counted 204 prosperous villages and 15 fortified cities in the Galilee of his time. Now its population is small, and for the most part scattered among miserable villages and mud hamlets. Safed, one of the four sacred cities of Palestine revered by Jews, which has a population of about 1 5,000, of whom 9000 are Jews, is the principal city in the north. Nazareth, a Christian city (about 10,000), is the chief city in the south. The deporta- tion of Jews by Theglathphalasar (Tiglath-Pileser), 734 B. c, gave an overwhelming predominance to the Gentile elements noted in the population by Isaias. Although the Jews multiplied rapidly in Galilee after the Babylonian exile, they were oppressed by the heathen as late as the Machabean period (I Mach., v, 45-54), and did not prevail until the first century before Christ. As results of their long intercourse with the conquered Canaanites, and Phoenician, Syr- ian, and Greek immigrants, and their separation from their brethren in Judea by interlying Samaria, they spoke a dialect and had peculiarities in business, family and religious customs, that brought upon them the contempt of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Under the Roman Empire both Christianity and Judaism flourished there, as is evidenced by the ruins of numer- ous synagogues, churches, and monasteries belonging to that period that were destroyed by the Moslems. There are also notable ruins of churches and monas- teries erected by the Crusaders, who restored Chris- tianity in Palestine in the twelfth century, and were not finally overcome until 1291, when .\cre in Galilee, their last stronghold, was taken by the Moslems. The territory is now a Turkish possession brloii^ing to the vilayet of Heirut. The people arc ilividid in their religious beliefs. Catholics of the Latin, Greek, and MaroMJte Rites, Orthodox ( Ireeks, and Druses live side liy side with .Moslems. Near Safed there are several modern Jewish colonies.

Smith, //is( cog of the Holy Land (London, ISS,5); Palestine Exploration tund, Memoirs, 1 (ISSl); Merrill, Galilee in the lime of Christ (Lomion, 1891); vonSchurer, Jewish People in the .^'"'1 °/ Christ (New \ork, 1SS6); Guerin, Galilee (2 vola.,

A. L. McMaiion.

Galilei, Alessandbo, an eminent Florentine archi- tect; b. 1691; d. 1737. Having attained some distinc- tion, he was invited by several noblemen to accompany them to England, where he resided seven years. Af- terwards he returned to Tuscany and was appointed state architect by the Grand Dukes Cosmo III and Giovanni Gastone. He does not seem to have erected anything remarkable either in England or Tuscany. His abilities, hojvever, were made manifest at Rome, to which place he had been invited by Clement XII. He designed the facade of S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini (1734), and the great fagade of S. Gio- vanni in Laterano. The latter was the result of a competition set on foot by Clement XII. Of twenty- one designs sent in, that of Galilei was accepted and carried out. He also designed the Corsini chapel in the same edifice. Galilei has been nmch criticized on the ground that his arrangement of the orders was not correct.but his treatment of the ornamental parts is con- sidered admirable. He was well versed in mathemat- ics, and possessed many other valuable acquirements.

MiLiziA, Lives of Celebrated Architects, II, 319; Spooner, Bio- graphical History of the Fine Arts, I, 337; Anderson. Halian Renaissance Architecture, 157; Langham Series: Rome as an Art City, 74; Longfellow, Cyclopcedia of Architecture in Italy, Greece and the Levant, 384-6-8; LtiBKB, History of Art, II, 334.

Thomas H. Poole.

Galilei, Galileo, generally called Galileo, b. at Pisa, 18 February, 1564; d. 8 January, 1642. His father, Vincenzo Galilei, belonged to a noble family of straitened fortune, and had gained some distinction as a musician and mathematician. The boy at an early age manifested his aptitude for mathematical and mechanical pursuits, but his parents, wishing to turn him aside from studies which promised no substantial return, destined him for the medical profession. But all was in vain, and at an early age the youth had to be left to follow the bent of his native genius, which speedily placed him in the very first rank of natural philoso- phers.

_ It is the great merit of Galileo that, happily com- bining experiment with calculation, he opposed the prevailing system according to which, instead of going directly to nature for investigation of her laws and processes, it was held that these were best learned by authority, especially by that of Aristotle, who was supposed to have spoken the last word upon all such matters, and upon whom many erroneous conclusions had been fathered in the course of time. Against such a superstition Galileo resolutely and vehemently set himself, with the result that he not only soon dis- credited many beliefs which had hitherto been ac- cepted as indisputable, but aroused a storm of oppo- sition and indignation amongst those whose opinions he discredited; tlie more so, as he was a fierce controver- sialist, who, not content with refuting adversaries, was bent upon confounding them. Moreover, he wielded an exceedingly able pen, and unsparingly ridiculed and exasperated his opponents. Undoubtetlly he thua did much to bring upon himself the troubles for which he is now chiefly remembered. As Sir David Brewster (Martyrs of Science) says, " The boldness, may we not say the recklessness, with which Galileo insisted on making proselytes of his enemies, served but to alien- ate them from the truth."

Although in the popular mind Galileo is remem- bered chiefly as an astronomer, it was not in this char- acter that he matle really sulistantial contributions to human knowledge, as is testified by such authorities as liagrange, Arago, and Delambre, but rather in the field of mechanics, and especially of dynamics, which