Abstract
Is Galileo the most influential individual of the last thousand years, on science and on society? However controversial, Manfred Weidhorn's supporting thesis dovetails with a fruitful trend of extending the controversy on science and religion, centered on Galileo, in a direction accounting for its impact on civilization, not just for Galileo's troubles with theologians and philosophers. The Person of the Millennium insightfully identifies a paradigm shift of history with the Galilean revolution.