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But how long was Galileo’s braccio?

A few years later when he was in Rome, he sought out a shop which sold measuring sticks and acquired a Florentine braccio.

The Venetian braccio was longer than the Florentine, which would have made Galileo’s measurements much more nearly accurate.

Thus it is true to say that Galileo made measurements relating to falling bodies; but he did not manage to turn those measurements into facts, as far as Mersenne was concerned, because the measurements were language dependent, and behind the linguistic differences lay institutional decrees: the length of a Florentine braccio was determined by the Florentine state to ensure that merchants did not cheat their customers.

From this man’s training emerged, among others, Braccio and Sforza, who in their day were the arbiters of Italy.