Stillman Drake

Who was Stillman Drake?

Stillman Drake was a Canadian historian of science best known for his work on Galileo Galilei. Drake published over 131 books, articles, and book chapters on Galileo. Drake received his first academic appointment in 1967 as full professor at the University of Toronto after a career as a financial consultant. During that time he had begun his studies of the works of Galileo and translated Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, parts of four of Galileo's works in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, and Galileo's The Assayer in The Controversy of Comets, co-authored with C. D. O'Malley.

Possibly his most significant contribution to the history of science was his defense of Galileo's experiments as documented in his published Two New Sciences and in his manuscript notes. Drake showed how the complex interaction of experimental measurement and mathematical analysis led Galileo to his law of falling bodies. This refuted Alexandre Koyré's claim that experiment played no significant part in Galileo's thought.

In 1984 Drake was awarded the Galileo Galilei Prize for the Italian History of Science by the Italian Rotary Clubs.