He was also in the midst of controversy, for few believed him until his findings could be verified by others with what was still a very rare instrument (Galileo had made his own) and even then there were disputes as to what those finding really were. With the publication of Siderius Nuncius, or The Starry Messenger, in 1610in which he recorded the sights he had seen with the newly invented telescope, including the moons of Jupiter, and the mountains of our own moon-Galileo was instantly famous across Europe. But while continuing to work as a mathematician, Galileo’s interest in philosophy (i.e., physics) and then astronomy grew. Galileo was a professor of mathematics, first at the University of Pisa, where he had been born, and then at Padua, perhaps establishing a reputation for his willingness to offend Aristotelian philosophers perhaps, with the publication of De Motu ( On Motion), but for little more. The reality is not so starkly drawn, but no less interesting for that Galileo’s own arrogance created many enemies, and Rome’s anxiety over its authority in the schismatic era of the Protestant reformation made their collision inevitable. We have all been taught the story of his heroic fight in the name of science against the intractable ignorance of the tyrannical Catholic church. Any man who becomes pope becomes a kind of a noblility, at least spiritually speaking, in part because of the uniform he wears.Today Galileo is a famous and romantic name. That says a lot about the power of classic, timeless clothing and the power of Catholic traditions and the Catholic sensibility. But again, he puts that cassock on, and all of a sudden, this heavyset old fellow from a small village in northern Italy, becomes the pope. He was so overweight they didn’t even have a white soutane big enough for him when he was elected. He described himself as an Italian peasant, and he loved to eat. He puts on the white soutane, and he becomes Christ’s vicar on Earth. I mean, that’s part of the genius of Catholicism – that you can elect an austere, simple-living cardinal from behind the Iron Curtain, who becomes the first Polish pope.

So, is it true that the clothes make the man, even for the pope? But, if you were to wear them today, people would say, like they did with Benedict XVI, what the heck are you doing? Those 19th-century mitres and tiaras could have been worn a thousand years earlier, and fit right in. I mean, do you want to go sell the Vatican’s great works of art and have them sit in private collections where nobody will ever see them again? No, you want to keep them and you want to lend them out. It is our patrimony, and we’re sharing this with the wider world. But not just people who can afford to go to Rome, or afford to pay for the museum. By lending these items out and collaborating as the church does, and the Vatican museums do, it shows why it’s critical to keep this sort of thing together in a collection that’s accessible and open to people. It’s also a Christian and Western tradition. The Catholic Church has these treasures which celebrate a broader tradition rather than just Catholic tradition. I think that’s one of the weaker, even lazier arguments, that you often hear and this exhibit is a powerful refutation of that. Why does the church hold on to such valuable treasures? There will likely be a lot of commentary about the riches of the church on view here and whether the church should just sell it all off and give to the poor. Downstairs, in the Anna Wintour Costume Center, papal vestments and jewel encrusted crowns, on loan from the Vatican, are reverentially separated from the couture pieces.

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