Freedom to philosophize in Galileo's Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine and Campanella's Apology for Galileo

The following contribution, in memory of Germana Ernst, develops a detailed textual comparison between the ideas in favour of freedom of philosophical discussion put forward by Galileo in his famous letters to Benedetto Castelli (1613), followed by the much extended version addressed to Christina of Lorraine (1615), and those put forward by Campanella in his Apologia pro Galileo (1616). The comparison in the arguments put forward by the two philosophers in the dramatic context of the Catholic Church's rejection of the new Copernican astronomy brings to light a number of important convergences between their thoughts, but also a number of divergences that help to explain their strained personal relationship.