The possibility of the development of comparative thought made the Renaissance an era particularly favorable to the awakening of the scientific understanding of social phenomena. Isolated elements of such an attitude had already appeared, but now their accumulation became of decisive importance.

Formulated in this title, the question is divided into two parts. The first one, rather historical and narrative, concerns the circumstances of the well-known discovery and its appreciations in the scientific community in the first half of the XVIIth century. Also the connections with Copernicus' heliocentrism and its cultural and scientific consequences and implications are examined. The work of the famous Italian scientist, showing the new direction of an intellectual penetration of the Cosmos is regarded from the point of view (...) of the Pope John I Vs Discourse concerning Einstein and Galileo Galilei made in Rome in 1979 during the opening session of the Papal Academy of Science.The main topic of the second part, more reflective and theoretical than the first one, is the importance of the research from the standpoint of the above mentioned Discourse, begining a debate about the perspective of different forms linking the consequence of both — faith and science seen in the light of tolerance and autonomy. Some alternatives are presented concerning the different interpretations of this important Discourse. (shrink)