Giorgio de Santillana

Giorgio Diaz de Santillana was an Italian-American philosopher and historian of science, born in Rome on May 30, 1902. He specialized in ancient science and Renaissance science, particularly the work of Galileo Galilei. He earned a degree in physics from Sapienza University of Rome in 1925. He continued his studies in Paris and Milan before teaching history and philosophy of science in Rome. Moving to the US in 1936, he taught at The New School for Social Research and Harvard University before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1941. He served as a war correspondent in the US Army from 1943 to 1945 and became a naturalized US citizen in 1945. At MIT, he rose through the ranks to become a full Professor of the History of Science in 1954. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1957. Santillana is best known for his books 'The Crime of Galileo' (1955), which analyzed Galileo's trial, and 'Hamlet's Mill' (1969), co-authored with Hertha von Dechend, which explored connections between mythology and ancient astronomical observations. He married Dorothy Hancock Tilton in 1948 and maintained friendships with prominent figures in cybernetics and science. Santillana died on June 8, 1974, in Dade County, Florida.