[traderrob6]

Relative to a “vehicle” of his time (or even a modern day space vehicle) it was (is) extraordinarily rapid.

When compared to the universe, not so much.

[FredZarguna]

This is a mistaken belief; there is nothing "relative" about it. Nor is it slow "compared to the universe."

The limitation on the speed of anything is a constraint imposed by the geometry of the universe, in which the space and time dimensions are not independent of each other, but are constrained to obey ds² = η_μνdx^μdx^ν.

With this restriction in mind, Galileo was entirely [although fortuitously] correct: light moves not only "extraordinarily rapidly," but it moves at the fastest speed that anything material can.