Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, Florence, 1632
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, B.R. 171, frontispiece
A scientific and literary masterpiece, the Dialogue was denounced to the Tribunal of the Inquisition shortly after it was published. Following its author's conviction for "vehement suspicion of heresy" and his subsequent abjuration, the work was banned. The frontispiece relates an imaginary dialogue between Aristotle, Ptolemy and Copernicus on world systems.
Naples: sine nomine, 1710.
2nd Edition. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Near Fine. Item #001990
4to (247x176 mm). Two parts in one volume. [12], 458, [30] pp.; [2], 83 (i.e. 81), [1] pp. Edited by Lorenzo Ciccarelli (under pseudonym 'Cellenio Zacclori'), and dedicated to Carlo Caraffa-Paceco, Duke of Maddaloni. Text in single column, mainly in Italic type, with printed marginalia in Roman type. The first title-page printed in red and black with a large fine engraved vignette, the second title-page with a woodcut vignette. Illustrated with numerous astronomical and geometrical diagrams in text. Several woodcut tail-pieces and initials.Contemporary (early 18th-century) full vellum over boards, sympathetically rebacked in vellum in 19th century. Boards slightly rubbed and somewhat bowed Flat spine ruled and lettered in gilt; edges mottled rather pleasingly in red and olive-green. Top fore-corner of the front board worn through and a bit defective (causing a short tear to pastedown). Interior very fresh, crisp and bright, with just a bit of browning to a few leaves, and a few leaves with very minor marginal soiling. Just a hint of very light dampstain to upper margin (near top edge) of a few leaves. Provenance: 18th-century armorial bookplate of William Murray of Touchadam (county Stirling, Scotland), a member of an old aristocratic Scottish family, which was seated for centuries in the county of Stirling, and is supposed to derive from the noble house of Bothwel. In all, an attractive, clean and wide-margined example of this scarce and important edition of one of the milestones of science. ----
Carli 413; Cinti 168; Gamba 476; Riccardi I, 512; Rocco di Torrepadula, Bibl. Galileiana,168; Waller, Bib. Walleriana, 12044; cf. Printing and the Mind of Man 128 (1st edition). The beautifully printed Second Edition of the original Italian text of
GALILEO'S CELEBRATED "DIALOGUE CONCERNING THE TWO CHIEF WORLD SYSTEMS." A LANDMARK OF SCIENCE: THE SUMMATION OF GALILEO'S IDEAS, AND HIS CELEBRATED DEFENSE OF THE COPERNICAN VIEW OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM! This is the book that, "more than any other work, made the heliocentric system a commonplace." (PMM). The first edition was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books immediately after publication in 1632. No subsequent Italian edition followed until this 1710 edition, published clandestinely in Naples.
The printing was unlicensed (hence the false imprint and anonymous printer). The banned Dialogo was omitted from both the first and the second collected editions of Galileo's works in Italian (Opere), which appeared in Bologna in 1655-6, and Florence in 1718, respectively. This 1710 edition of the Dialogo is particularly important as it contains a valuable collection of additional texts including the first Italian printing of Galileo's famous Letter to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Christina of
Lorraine (with a separate title page and separate pagination). It was written in 1615, but, due to the Inquisition's condemnation of Galileo, remained unpublished (circulating in manuscript only) until much later. Prior to this 1710 Naples printing it appeared only once: in Strasbourg in 1636 (with the Italian text parallel with a Latin translation). The letter contains Galileo's influential argument for the biblical orthodoxy of Copernicanism and his defense of the independence of science from
religion. Also included in this edition is Paolo Foscarini's Lettera sopra l'opinione de' Pittagorici, e del Copernico. Della mobilita de la terra, e stabilita del sole, e del nuovo Pittagorico sistema del mondo, first printed in Naples in 1615. This was the first Italian work to openly advocate the Copernican theory. The Foscarini's Lettera was condemned by the Inquisition, the printer imprisoned, and all known copies confiscated and burned, in 1616. The 1616 Inquisition edict was invoked when
Galileo published the Dialogo in 1632. The further texts included in this edition are an excerpt from Kepler's preface to his Astronomia nova (1609), as well as the Inquisition’s sentence against Galileo and his abjuration.
Galilei's epoch-making Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi "was designed both as an appeal to the great public and as an escape from silence. In the form of an open discussion between three friends - intellectually speaking, a radical, a conservative, and an agnostic - it
is a masterly polemic for the new science. It displays all the great discoveries in the heavens which the ancients had ignored; it inveighs against the sterility, willfulness, and ignorance of those who defend their systems; it revels in the simplicity of Copernican thought and, above all, it teaches that the movement of the earth makes sense in philosophy, that is, in physics. Astronomy and the science of motion, rightly understood, says Galileo, are hand in glove. There is no need to fear that
the earth's rotation will cause it to fly to pieces. So Galileo picked up one thread that led straight to Newton. The Dialogo, far more than any other work, made the heliocentric system a commonplace." (Printing and the Mind of Man, 128).
Galileo's formal use of the dialogue format allowed him to explore his Copernican theories fully within the rubric of the "equal and impartial discussion" required by Pope Urban VIII. The book is structured as a series of discussions, over a span of four
days, among two philosophers and a layman: Salviati argues for the Copernican position and presents some of Galileo's views directly. He is named after Galileo's friend Filippo Salviati. Simplicio, a dedicated follower of Ptolemy and Aristotle, presents the traditional views and the arguments against the Copernican position. He is named after Simplicius of Cilicia, a sixth-century commentator on Aristotle, but modeled on two contemporary conservative philosophers, Ludovico delle Colombe,
Galileo's fiercest detractor, and Cesare Cremonini, a Paduan colleague who had refused to look through the telescope. Sagredo is an intelligent layman who is initially neutral. He is named after Galileo's friend Giovanni Francesco Sagredo.
The first edition of the Dialogo was printed in 1632 in Florence with formal authorization from the Inquisition for a book which would present a "balanced" view of both Copernican's and church's theories. However, it was perceived that in the book, the
Copernican theory clearly receives better treatment. Pope Urban VIII had been under attack by Spanish cardinals for being too tolerant of heretics, and although he encouraged Galileo to publish the Dialogo, he felt that his position would have been severely compromised if his enemies among the Cardinal Inquisitors had found out that he had been guilty of supporting a publication containing heretical views. And so, in 1633 Galileo was ordered to Rome to stand trial by the Inquisition on suspicion
of heresy, "for holding as true the false doctrine taught by some that the sun is the center of the world." He was ordered imprisoned, although the sentence was later commuted to permanent house arrest, the Dialogo was banned and withdrawn from circulation, and the printing of any of his works was forbidden. In fact, the Dialogo remained on the Index of Forbidden Books until 1832.
The preliminaries include the editor's dedicatory preface (dated 17 October 1710), Galileo's original dedication
to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Galileo's original short preface "Al discreto lettore". The text of the Dialogo followed by an extensive index (of [30] unnumbered pages). The second part (with a separate title-page) contains: "Lettera del signor Galileo Galilei [...] scritta alla granduchessa di Toscana " (pp. 1-35); "Lettera del R.P.M. Paolo-Antonio Foscarini [...] sopra l'opinione de' Pittagorici, e del Copernico..." (pp. 36-68); "Perioche ex introductione in Martem Joannis Kepleri"
(pp.69-74); "Excerptum ex Didaci à Stunica [...] commentariis in Job..." (pp.74-76); "Sententia cardinalium in Galilaeum" (pp.76-80) and "Abjuratio Galilaei" (pp.80-81), the last two texts are in Latin.