A golden roast capon, rubbed with garlic and rosemary, basted throughout cooking with Trebbiano white wine and olive oil until it yields a fragrant jus. The gala roast of Medici Tuscany.

Why this dish? Roast capon was the grand occasion dish in Florence and at the Medici court, Galileo's patrons. One imagines it on his table on a feast day, basted with the Trebbiano he loved, perfumed with rosemary from the Tuscan garden.

When the Medici, my illustrious patrons, deigned to honor my table — or when I wished to celebrate a discovery snatched from the heavens — we would roast a fine capon. Rub it with garlic and that sprig of rosemary I picked myself, and baste it relentlessly with Florence's Trebbiano: for just as a body falls and accelerates according to a constant rule, so the skin browns evenly provided it is basted at regular intervals. Serve it surrounded by its golden juices, and raise your glass to the stars.

How it was made : In Galileo's time, roasting was done on a spit before the hearth, the spit sometimes turned by a weight or smoke mechanism — a domestic cousin of the machines that Renaissance engineers, including Galileo, studied. Wine was used both for basting and to flavor the juices.

The contemporary twist : Carve and serve on a board with roasted lemon wedges and confit garlic cloves: 'the Dialogo roast'.

Galileo · Charactorium