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Author: Galileo Galilei
Title: Systema cosmicum, in quo dialogis IV. de duobus maximis mundi systematibus, Ptolemaico & Copernicano, rationibus utrinque propositis indefinite ac solide differitur....
Place Published: Leiden
Publisher:Fredericum Haaring et Davidem Severinum
Date Published: 1699
Description:

Bound with: Discursus et demonstrations mathematicae, circa duas novas scientias pertinentes ad mechanicam & motum localem... [12], 494, [26]; [6], 282, [4] pp. Engraved portrait of Galileo and added engraved title page, both by T. Mulder. (4to) 20.2x16 cm (8x6¼"), period hard vellum, rebacked with later vellum, leather spine labels.

Latin translation of Galileo's "Dialogo," followed by the first Latin translation of the Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche. The Systema Cosmicum, first published in 1635, is undoubtedly one of the most important books in the history of science - Galileo's great defense of Copernicus is contained in this book. Four leaves of old (19th century?) ink commentary in English inserted at front. These are headed "M.S. by S. Madden - Contents of the Volume," and offer a summary of the various treatises. They are of keen interest, and add to the provenance of the work. Armorial bookplate of John Rutland.

Printing and the Mind of Man comments that "The Dialogo 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 consevative, 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 it, 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."

Normal wear and discoloration to vellum; just a bit of foxing and aging within; very good.