pointed out that they were trying to make his two inches cover up Aristotle's ninety-nine yards, the amount by which the heavy weight should have won the race to the ground on Aristotle's hypothesis.
It was at this period that Galileo produced one of his literary efforts in the form of a burlesque, "In Abuse of Gowns," ridiculing the University ordinance which compelled professors to wear their gowns on all outdoor occasions as well as when lecturing. Various sonnets and other effusions would also appear to have been written during his first professorship.
A combination of circumstances arose to cut short even the three years for which Galileo had received his appointment. The feeling of nearly all his colleagues was against him; he was mulcted of part of his miserable stipend for any accidental failure to lecture; moreover, he had undertaken to help in the support of his brother and sisters, the eldest of whom, Virginia, was married in 1591, Galileo pledging himself to provide her dowry. Perhaps most important of all was the animosity of Giovanni dei Medici, the Grand Duke's natural son, an engineer and architect who designed a big dredging machine to clear Leghorn harbour. Galileo reported to the Grand Duke, after examining the model at his request, that it was useless, as indeed proved to be the case. These causes combined proved sufficient to induce Galileo to resign his post and return to Florence, where he found himself, his father having died soon after Virginia's marriage, almost entirely responsible for the daily wants of his mother and the two younger sisters; his brother Michelangelo had been trained as a musician but did not yet contribute anything to the family exchequer. A more lucrative post was imperatively required, and the Padua professorship being still vacant, as it had been when Galileo applied for it in 1588, four years before, he
