Baldassarre Capra

The son of count Marco Aurelio Capra and Ippolita Dalla Croce, Baldassarre came from a family of the ancient nobility but somewhat reduced circumstances.

On 10 October 1604, together Mayr, Capra observed a new star (now known as Kepler's supernova) which had been seen for the first time by the friar Ilario Altobelli, who had written to Galileo about his important discovery.

[4] Galileo did not respond to this provocation, but he scribbled marginal notes in his copy of it with terms such as "bue" ("ox") and "coglione" ("balls"), deriding him for his ignorance of both Italian and of Latin.

[5] Then, concealing his identity behind the pseudonym 'Cecco di Ronchitti', he responded to Antonio Lorenzini and his pamphlet Discorso intorno alla Nuova Stella (Padua, 1605) in a caustic pamphlet entitled Dialogo de Cecco di Ronchitti da Bruzene in perpuosito de la stella Nuova, written in the ancient dialect of Padua (called "dialetto pavano").

[7] Galileo had successfully defended himself against a previous charge of plagiarism fought against him in 1602 by a Flemish mathematician, so he could not afford to take Capra’s claims lightly.

His disgrace was apparently not forgotten however, as in 1620 he was refused admission into the city's College of Medicine due to the efforts of Ludovico Settala, who energetically opposed him because of his behavior toward Galileo.