Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo. He was born in the city of Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence. Galileo has been called the "father" of observational astronomy,5] modern physics, the scientific method, and modern science.