Galileo's works

[keannu]

Does this "Galileo's work"'s work mean a study or his literary books? Considering the singular verb "was", it seems like "a study or effort", but "the reader" makes it seem "literary books"? What do you think?
Also,by the same token, which do you think "the work of Freud" means. his books or study(effort)?

ex)A major obstacle to discovery is not ignorance but knowledge. Because Aristotle was so comprehensive, logical, and brilliant, his writings became the ultimate standard of truth for 2,000 years. A major portion of Galileo's works was devoted to disproving Aristotle so that the reader would be able to grasp his arguments. The difficulty was that a single authority(Aristotle) was held in such high regard that alternative views could not get a hearing. In more recent times the work of Freud has had a similar effect. Freud's system of anaylysis assumed certain mental constructs a priori, so it was difficult to revise or improve his theories....

st-22.5

 

[5jj]

Because Aristotle was so comprehensive, logical, and brilliant, his [Aristotle's] writings became the ultimate standard of truth for 2,000 years. A major portion (of Galileo's works [= writings]) was devoted to disproving Aristotle {and now comes the purpose of this writing so that the reader would be able to grasp his [Galileo's] arguments. The difficulty was that a single authority (Aristotle) was held in such high regard that alternative views [such as those of Leonardo] could not get a hearing. In more recent times the work of Freud [= study/effort] has had a similar effect.

5

 

[keannu]

Just last question, Why is the verb "was devoted" for "A major portion of Galileo's works" singular when "works" is plural? Is it because the subject is "a major portion" or just ungrammatical exception? As far as I learned, in "A of B", singular B makes singular verbs, plural B makes plural verbs. This might be an exception.

 

[5jj]

Just last question, Why is the verb "was devoted" for "A major portion of Galileo's works" singular when "works" is plural? Is it because the subject is "a major portion"Yes or just ungrammatical exception?
As far as I learned, in "A of B", singular B makes singular verbs, plural B makes plural verbs. This might be an exception.

It depends what 'A' is. 'The number of [plural noun]', for example always takes a singular verb; most singular expressions of this type (a number, a lot, a couple, etc), however, normally take a plural verb.

'Portion' is an unusual word to use with a plural noun in this way; more natural to me would have been 'a large part/much/most of his writing ...'.