Galileo GalileiReviews

Incredibly well-edited selection of writings, invaluable for understanding the history of science, rhetoric, theology, and cosmology.

This volume, subtitled “From Doubt to Astonishment,” includes a facsimile copy of Galileo’s Sidereus nuncius from the Library of Congress’s Rare Books and Special Collections. Accompanying the discourse are the proceedings from the Library of Congress’s November 2010 symposium celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of Galileo’s treatise. Also included in this amazing volume is the Albert Van Helden translation of Galileo’s scientific text.

Highly recommended.

A good quality book, but not a fine or limited edition. It was published to accompany an exhibition in Washington featuring the manuscript at the Library of Congress.
It contains a brief introduction about Galileo, followed by a facsimile of the Astronomicus Nuncius (Starry Messenger) which is printed on modern matt finish paper and runs to about 60 pages. Then there is a translation, and then several rather dry academic papers about the minutae of the manuscipt from the nature of the telescope he used and the paper on which the manuscript was written, to the refutations made by contemporaries of Galileo's findings.
I would happily pay US$40 for such a book, but in Australia it cost me US$155 including postage, which I felt was very excessive.
I have purchased much better books for less.

Believe it or not, I found this to be one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Easily understood, it is a seminal work in the history of science. Excellent.

A very beautiful book, which displays Galileo's original observations and drawings made through his homemade telescope. Includes both the original Italian and translation, as well as extensive historical discussion about this unique event in history. Printed in rich high grade paper. One can only marvel at this man's intellect, to say nothing of his indomitable courage for upending the superstitions and fanaticism of his day.

Galileo's wit and sarcasm made this interesting book absolutely fun. Except for all the bits about prejudice and really stubborn people who wouldn't look at ideas in a clear light.

The best translation of this classic.

The classic work in which Galileo lays out his vision of the solar system, presenting evidence in support of the Copernican system, the views we now accept. For his troubles, Galileo was hauled before the Inquisition and placed on house arrest for the remainder of his life. The prose becomes a little dense at times, but with a bit of scientific knowledge, it's possible to grasp the basic concepts.½

One of the foundational works of modern science, the text speaks for itself in its lucidity and its grounding in method. I review it to address a criticism leveled at this book by reviewers, particularly at Amazon.

Some have concluded that the publisher has made an error, and that the original intent was to present Galileo's original paper on heliocentrism and Copernicus, "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican". As the texts herein are Galileo's works on accelerated motion, the conclusion is drawn that a major mistake was made.

I believe this perception is based on marketing that associates the series with Copernicus' discoveries in particular.

The fact is that this book is part of a series, the arc of which is to present the current model of the physical world from Copernicus' discovery of the heliocentric solar system to Einstein's revelation that space and time are warped or displaced by mass and energy. Reviewers mistakenly believed that this Galilean text was intended to stand in support of Copernicus' discovery. In fact, this text is meant to show the development of the laws of motion, and is merely part of the overall series. Hawking's introduction recognizes this correctly, in contradiction to the misunderstanding of Amazon reviewers.

Those interested in the origins of modern science, the history of science, physics, or intellectual history may well wish to read through this gem.

The classic that started modern science. Amazingly readable (unlike Newton's principia). The first popular science book!?

This is a fascinating collection of Gailileo's writings on his discovery of Jupiter's moons and his observation and speculations on the nature of sunspots, as well as his defense of the veracity of his observations in the face of heavy censure from the Church. Any amateur astronomer who remembers seeing Jupiter's moons for the first time through a telescope and witnessing the change in their configuration from night to night will get a thrill out of reading this first account and Galileo's extraordinary reasoning as to why they must be satellites of the planet Jupiter and why this confirms the heliocentric model. Galileo was an excellent rhetorician who also surprisingly had a sense of humor when dealing with the absurdity of his critics' claims. I thoroughly loved this book and recommend it to anyone even mildly interested in the history of astronomy.

This is the single best book on physics I have ever read. Its clarity of thought and breadth of subject are unmatched. If you have ever wanted to know why some materials float in water while others sink, why objects fall at a speed independent of their mass but why feathers fall slower than stones, or
how to convince a guy you met in a bar that air does have weight (and how to measure it), read this book.

A review of all of the learning of his youth, he writes this as a dialogue between three scientific explorers playing the role of teacher, experimenter, and student. He covers a lot of content in relatively few pages. More than anything else here, we see the process of the curious mind discovering physical truth incrementally through experimentation. Consider the humorous example of he and his friend convincing themselves that light probably is instantaneous as a result of their distant lantern echo from but a mile away. Nonetheless, there is truth here about acceleration (at least a third of the work dedicated to the path and time of the parabola of motion, geometry of mean proportionals to calculate time and distance), mechanics (especially discovering different tensile and hanging strengths, also about pressure of rope and friction), and geometry (the area of a circle relative to an infinitely-sided regular polygon; infinites and finites).

7/9/22

7/9/22

first bought, in pb, 7/8/83

Thomas Salusbury's translation; from Powell's?

First edition, 1953

blank pages for prints, like some originals; pound

Price for volumes 4 and 5; binding was $70 for each volume

Edition: // Descr: viii, 301 p. 20.5 cm. // Series: Call No. { } Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Stillman Drake Contains Appendices and Index. // //

Lots of proofs. Pretty tough reading.