Galileo's Fingers Go on Display in Florence

Two of Galileo's fingers, removed from his corpse by admirers in the 18th century, have gone on display in a Florence museum now named after the astronomer.

The Museum of the History of Science shut down for two years for renovations. It reopened on Tuesday, calling itself The Galileo Museum.

Last year, the museum director announced that the thumb and middle finger from Galileo's right hand had turned up at an auction and were recognized as being the fingers of the scientist who died in 1642.

The digits are now displayed in slender, glass cases.

Also on display is his tooth. A third finger was already in the museum.

Visitors can view what the museum says are the only surviving instruments designed and built by Galileo, including the lens of the telescope he used to discover Jupiter's moons.

In 1737, admirers of Galileo Galilei removed the three fingers, plus the tooth and a vertebra, from his body as it was being moved from a storage place to a monumental tomb - opposite that of Michelangelo, in Santa Croce Basilica in Florence.

The vertebra is kept at the University of Padua, where Galileo taught for many years.