S'ok Fyrespirit, the friend probably read Dan Brown's book, and misunderstood it. There's a myth that Galileo founded the 'early Illuminati', which Dan Brown has weaved a story around, but there's just no hard evidence for this. If there was an Italian secret society that Galileo was involved with, it likely had no connection to the Bavarian Illuminati, which was more political and rational, and not mystical in its character. The Illuminati had its roots in the disbanding of the Jesuits in Bavaria at that time around the American revolution. Weishaupt was educated by the Jesuits. Its not untypical for modern day crackpots calling themselves "Illuminati" or claiming some "Illuminati conspiracy" to claim or point at some great figure of history as their "founder" ... I mean lets face it, nobody knows who Adam Weishaupt is these days... lol.