Licence: In copyright
Credit: Galileo : his life and work / by J. J. Fahie. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![1589] YOUTHFUL ABILITIES ; solace in his later years—especially when blindness was added to his other afflictions. In the sister art his talent was equally striking, and as a lad he showed considerable skill in drawing and painting. In later life he used to tell his friends that, had circumstances permitted him to choose his own career, he would have elected to become a painter. So well known was his youthful talent as draughtsman and colourist that such acknowledged artists as Ludovico Cigoli, Bronzino, Passignano, and Jacopo da Empoli, often sought his criticism of their works. Cigoli, in particular, was wont to say that Galileo alone had been his teacher in the art of perspective, and that whatever credit he enjoyed as a painter was owing to his advice and encouragement. In his youthful days Galileo was also very fond of poetry, and later on in these pages we shall have occasion to notice his essays on Dante, Ariosto, and Tasso, as well as some verses and the fragment of a play, all of which bear witness to, at least, a cultivated taste. In view of these great and varied abilities thus early displayed (to which we must not forget to add a good knowledge of Greek and Latin), the father could not help concluding that his son was born to be something better than a seller of cloths, and he now resolved upon a scientific career. As, however, it was necessary that the branch selected should offer a prospect of profit, and as he had himself had experience of the unremunerativeness of mathe- matics and music, the profession of medicine was decided on. Accordingly, on 5th September 1581,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28034831_0035.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
