The last supernova and the first telescope: Galileo Galilei on SN1604

"The last supernova and the first telescope: Galileo Galilei on SN1604" SN1604 was a Type Ia supernova that occurred in the Milky Way, in the constellation Ophiuchus or Serpentarius. Allegedly, it was the last supernova in the Milky Way that was visible to the naked eye. Galileo Galilei observed and lectured on the "new star" or "stella nova", as it was called back then, while in Padua. The star vanished from sight eighteenth months after its visible outburst, in March 1606. As known, at that time Galileo did not have developed his cannochiale as he could start to work on the improvement of the Dutch telescope only in July 1609. But was there some correlation between those two events, which took place only three years apart? Has the experience of the new star something to do with the quick implementation of the first Galilean telescope? How acquainted was Galileo in optics by that time? The present contribution is aimed at suggesting some answers to these questions. For the purpose, the short pseudonymous treatise entitled Considerazioni d'Alimberto Mauri (1606), recently reattributed to Galileo, will be questioned and analyzed in the context of other coeval historical sources. Possibly, it was indeed the last supernova, and the consequent discussion about it, that prompted the development of the first telescope as redesigned in the domestic workshop of Via dei Vignali, known today as Galileo Galilei street, in Padua.