Galileo enrolled to study medicine at the University of Pisa in 1580.
His father, Vincenzo Galilei, hoped that a medical career would provide financial security and social standing. Galileo entered the university’s Faculty of Arts, where students preparing for medicine also studied philosophy and related subjects.
Galileo soon became more interested in mathematics, geometry, and the works of Archimedes than in medical training. Around 1583, he received mathematical instruction from Ostilio Ricci, a turning point that redirected his career toward mathematics and natural philosophy. He left Pisa without earning a medical degree.
A common mix-up is to describe him as having studied only medicine. More precisely, he enrolled in a medical course while working through the broader academic curriculum of the period. He later returned to the University of Pisa as a mathematics professor in 1589.