“E pur si muove” or “and yet it moves”: rumored to have been uttered by Galileo Galilei as his foot struck the ground when being transferred from confinement in the Vatican back to his home for house arrest after his trial for the heresy of claiming the earth revolves around the sun over the course of a year along with the other planets. My Italian heritage of stubborn perseverance positively quakes within my soul as the implications of this statement resound through the centuries to this moment in history. As Gallagher relates, even after Galileo recants and retracts his theories based on views from his telescope, equations, and the observations of the natural world: And Yet it Moves – touches our lives by embracing the dissonance of scientific discovery at odds with a rigid theocracy. These poems become powerful testaments to the emergence of the Renaissance from the Middle or “Dark” ages and into the illumination of new knowledge and the sometimes volatile intersection of Arts, Sciences and Theology.
“And Yet”, that glorious flowering was hindered by the fervor of the Inquisition.
In order to give us “perspective” Gallagher reaches back to Petrarach and Lucretius where the seeds of enlightenment begin and revelations spring. We hear from each of the major players including de’Medici who funded the enlightenment, a library, arts and sciences. Gallagher gives voice to those funded by or in conflict with de’Medici including Galileo who improved upon the telescope and made shattering discoveries; Michelangelo whose brilliant sculptures and frescos defined and inspired the era; or Savronarola who condemned the excesses of wealth and corruption of the church. The Renaissance ushered in new ways of thinking and advances in architecture and technology. This book of poems brings these events into intimate focus and is in dialogue with the major characters.
About one year ago I had the great privilege to sing, The “Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” by contemporary composer Jocelyn Hagen. She pulls out lines from da Vinci’s notebooks famously written in mirror image from right to left (he was left-handed). Hagen sets to music such lines as: “The painter is a poet seen but not heard, the poet is a painter heard but not seen...”; these words come back to me as I read the poems in “And Yet it Moves”. I mention it because both are immersive experiences and a rare opportunity to see the world through the eyes of master innovators and iconic historical figures. Reading Gallagher’s poems give insight into an era, a peek behind the curtain of history and valuable insight into the foundations of our modern world that we have come to take for granted.
The historical perspective of an assault on new knowledge and technology, attacked as heresy during the lifetime of Galileo, has a chilling resonance in our own times. The crowning irony is that, attacks on scientific inquiry, seems to be equally relevant today as it was 600 years ago.
“And Yet it Moves” requires us to come to terms with “truth” in a period of threats to scientific discovery and attacks on well proven theories.
In the 14th century writers and philosophers such as Petrarch and Bracciolini advocated for a humanist approach which began to investigate new ways of thinking about humanity and art. Gallagher has Petrarch say in “Number 9”: “There is so much more to see than things...//The same way you, who are a sun yourself...”
The poem, “Poggio Bracciolini”, asks: “Is it torture not to be permitted to read/the books you take care of/or are the titles of them unknown?//The books I look for may be crawling with worms.” Bracciolini discovered the works of Lucretius from the 1st century whose works greatly influenced the intellectual foundations of the Renaissance.
Gallagher has Lucretius say: “I have the slow feet of a thousand years” and then in # III:
“Hurl your fears
at what you used to think were gods.
Random atoms wiggle in space
and cry beside us in the sky.
Nothing put them together.
No desire. No plan.
No destiny.
Atoms are immortal but we die.”
This is a foreshadowing of how a culture, whose ideas are not dominated by a religious orthodoxy, can flourish in arts and sciences, going beyond the confinements of traditional thought.
The poems are interspersed with etchings and paintings by and about the subjects who are given word and thought. Poem IV describes the birth of Venus:
“Rather than walking on water you glide
Across a green jade sea, figurehead
Painted on the bow of history
that has finally come out of its shell.”
On the next page is Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. There is an interaction between philosophy, image, story, word and line. Each discipline informs the other. The result is an immersive sense of the unfolding of a crucial historical period whose influence is felt to this day. The images and thoughts emerge from each poem and you are carried into a world that is different in so many ways and yet many of its concepts have shaped our own world. It is as if the author is trying to let us in on a secret: the Renaissance is not a remote historical time but a perpetual rebirth and fount that modern culture can access.
From that foundation we are introduced, in the next section, to the Medici and how their wealth and power financed and enabled a significant part of the Renaissance. “Cosimo de’ Medici”:
“I, Cosimo de’ Medici, a kosmos, divine am I
inside and out, and I make holy whatever I
touch or am touched from”
He wants to be loved but knows he is reviled for his ruthless business practices: “...I sleep while heavily armed,/and switch bedchambers three times a night...”
And the arrogance of: “Never shall I give God enough gold/to log him in my book as a debtor.” De’ Medici’s funding of great works of art and architecture are not for the glory of God but for his own glory.
Fra Angelico was a renaissance painter commissioned by Cosimo to paint frescos in San Marcos. He painted individual frescos in each monks’ cells including a cell reserved for Cosimo where he would go to pray. These frescos, “Annunciation” and “Touch Me Not”, are pictured in the book. Gallagher has the angel of the Annunciation say: “Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee/don’t be shy or scared of my wings.”
Then there is Savonarola a Dominican friar and preacher who directs criticism of society toward de’Medici wealth and corruption. Savonarola says:
“How are we supposed to be ‘of the poor’
When the wealthiest family’s influence
Forms the foundation for all our prayers?”
Or
“The church must return to the peace of being poor.”
The complex relationships between these players is imagined:
“Savonarola was hanged
Botticelli limped the streets on a crutch
as the City of Florence was on its knees.
Michaelangelo was touched
with a mammoth block of Carrara marble.”
He has Galileo say:
“You say I see optical illusions
And that something is off with my lens
Because your instruments are blind...
Even Aristotle would change his mind
If he could look through this glass and wonder.”
The conception and execution of this work is challenging and inspiring and has a surprising relevance to our contemporary world. The etchings and paintings represented are reminiscent of an illuminated manuscript. It feels unearthed from a forgotten ancient library. It brings the awe of reawakening. “And Yet it Moves” allows you to step into Galileo’s footsteps, bear witness to a transition in culture, and bring back to our collective, a slice of rebirth, an insight of perspective.