Rare Books from the Collection of Rudy Ruggles Jr
Dialogo
Galileo Galilei, 1632
Details
Dialogo
Galileo Galilei, 1632
GALILEI, Galileo (1564-1642). Dialogo ... sopre i due massimi sistemi del mondo Tolemaico, e Copernicano. Florence: Giovanni Battista Landini, 1632.
The first edition of Galilei's famous defense of Copernican heliocentrism, which resulted in his trial and imprisonment. In 1624, eight years after being forbidden to promulgate heliocentrism by the previous pope, Galileo was granted permission to write on the subject by the new Pope Urban VIII, his friend and patron for more than a decade—on the condition that Aristotelian and Copernican theories were put forward equally and impartially. To this end, Galileo wrote his work as a dialogue between Salviati, a Copernican, and Simplicio ("Dummy"), an upholder of the geocentric Ptolemaic and Aristotelian orthodoxy. Far from impartial, the work "is a masterly polemic for the new science. It displays all the great discoveries in the heavens which the ancients had ignored" (PMM). For this, Galileo lost the support of Urban VIII and was called to Rome for trial by the Inquisition. His sentence of life imprisonment was immediately commuted to permanent house arrest and the Dialogo was placed on the Index, where it remained until 1832. Carli and Favaro, p. 28; Cinti 89; Norman 858; PMM 128.
Quarto (213 x 157mm). With the errata leaf, final blank, printed correction slip on p. 92, and diagram on p. 192 corrected by hand. Engraved additional title by Stefano della Bella, woodcut Landini device on title, woodcut text diagrams and illustrations, woodcut ornamental initials, type-ornament head- and tailpieces. (frontispiece and first gathering with 4 tiny wormholes, frontis. with inconspicuous dampstain, small repair in sky, and strengthening, title-page with a small repaired loss [stamp removal?] affecting the top edge of printer's device, B3 with corner paper flaw, Q7 with corner chip, a little marginal dampstain from 2F-2H, tiny hole to last two leaves with loss of two letters, final blank present but with large repair to top corner). Early vellum (neatly recased). Custom clamshell box.
Galileo Galilei, 1632
GALILEI, Galileo (1564-1642). Dialogo ... sopre i due massimi sistemi del mondo Tolemaico, e Copernicano. Florence: Giovanni Battista Landini, 1632.
The first edition of Galilei's famous defense of Copernican heliocentrism, which resulted in his trial and imprisonment. In 1624, eight years after being forbidden to promulgate heliocentrism by the previous pope, Galileo was granted permission to write on the subject by the new Pope Urban VIII, his friend and patron for more than a decade—on the condition that Aristotelian and Copernican theories were put forward equally and impartially. To this end, Galileo wrote his work as a dialogue between Salviati, a Copernican, and Simplicio ("Dummy"), an upholder of the geocentric Ptolemaic and Aristotelian orthodoxy. Far from impartial, the work "is a masterly polemic for the new science. It displays all the great discoveries in the heavens which the ancients had ignored" (PMM). For this, Galileo lost the support of Urban VIII and was called to Rome for trial by the Inquisition. His sentence of life imprisonment was immediately commuted to permanent house arrest and the Dialogo was placed on the Index, where it remained until 1832. Carli and Favaro, p. 28; Cinti 89; Norman 858; PMM 128.
Quarto (213 x 157mm). With the errata leaf, final blank, printed correction slip on p. 92, and diagram on p. 192 corrected by hand. Engraved additional title by Stefano della Bella, woodcut Landini device on title, woodcut text diagrams and illustrations, woodcut ornamental initials, type-ornament head- and tailpieces. (frontispiece and first gathering with 4 tiny wormholes, frontis. with inconspicuous dampstain, small repair in sky, and strengthening, title-page with a small repaired loss [stamp removal?] affecting the top edge of printer's device, B3 with corner paper flaw, Q7 with corner chip, a little marginal dampstain from 2F-2H, tiny hole to last two leaves with loss of two letters, final blank present but with large repair to top corner). Early vellum (neatly recased). Custom clamshell box.
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