Peripateticus creatus: Galileo contra Aristotle

The historians of science and philosophers widely believe that Galileo refuted the theory of free fall, as set out by Aristotle in his treatises “On the Heavens” and “Physics”. However, a comparative study of the texts of Galileo and Aristotle shows that they a) considered different physical situations and b) differently understood the term “heaviness”. Besides, one can argue that Galileo actually challenged not the real views and statements of Aristotle and his followers, but a simplistic interpretation of them, common from the Middle Ages to the 16th - the beginning of the 17th centuries.