The Essential Galileo
Page 6
Tycho Brahe (1546–1601). Danish astronomer, best known as an excellent observer and collector of data and as the promoter of the so-called Tychonic system. In the Tychonic system, the earth is motionless at the center of the universe; the planets revolve around the sun; but the sun (together with all the planets) moves around the earth, daily in a westward direction and annually in an eastward direction. Kepler worked with him and inherited his data.
Venus. A planet that revolves in its orbit in such a way that it always appears close to the sun. In the Copernican system, Venus is the second planet from the sun and completes its orbit in seven and a half months. In the geostatic system, opinions differed about whether it was the second, third, or fourth planet from the earth; but it was most commonly regarded as the third (between Mercury and the sun). With the telescope, Galileo discovered the phases of Venus, which are changes in its apparent shape similar to those which the moon exhibits each month; this proved conclusively that Venus revolves around the sun. However, this confirmed the system of Tycho Brahe as well as that of Copernicus, and so the choice between these two systems required other evidence for a conclusive demonstration.
violent motion. In Aristotelian natural philosophy, violent motion is motion that occurs because of the influence of some external force; examples are the motion of a cart pulled by a horse, the motion of a rowboat pushed by rowing, and the lifting of a weight with a pulley. Violent motion was contrasted with natural motion. Galileo partly accepted and partly modified this doctrine of violent motion.
wandering star. Heavenly body that appears not only to revolve daily around the earth, but also to change its position relative to other heavenly bodies; that is, in contrast to a fixed star, each wandering star moves around in the heavens according to a period that characterizes it. A wandering star is hence equivalent to a planet, a Greek word whose literal meaning is wandering star.
zodiac. Narrow belt on the celestial sphere along which the planets, sun, and moon appear to move. The zodiac is subdivided into twelve equal parts of thirty degrees, each part being the location of a group of stars arranged into a distinct pattern. These twelve patterns are the constellations of the zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. The sun, moon, and planets are always seen somewhere in one of these constellations, moving from one constellation to the next in the order listed. This order corresponds to an eastward direction (from the viewpoint of terrestrial observation), and so the order of the signs of the zodiac is a direction of motion opposite to that of apparent diurnal rotation.
Zúñiga, Diego de (c. 1536–98). Augustinian friar from Salamanca (Spain) and author of a commentary on the book of Job that was published in the sixteenth century, favored the earth’s motion, and was banned by the Index’s Decree of 1616.
Annotated Bibliography and Cited Works
This bibliography lists only works cited in the notes or deserving annotation here. Annotated entries are meant to provide an elementary guide for further reading and are marked with an asterisk.
Battistini, Andrea, ed. 1993. Sidereus nuncius. [Same as Galilei 1993.]
Beltrán Marí, Antonio. 2006. Talento y poder: Historia de las relaciones entre Galileo y la Iglesia católica. Pamplona: Laetoli.
*Biagioli, Mario. 1993. Galileo Courtier. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Focuses on questions of social institutions, psychological motivation, and political power, especially patronage.]
———. 2006. Galileo’s Instruments of Credit. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Brahe, Tycho. 1596. Epistolae astronomicae. Uraniborg.
———. 1602. Astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata. Uraniborg. Camerota, Michele. 2004. Galileo Galilei e la cultura scientifica nell’età della Controriforma. Rome: Salerno Editrice.
*Clavelin, Maurice. 1974. The Natural Philosophy of Galileo. Trans. A. J. Pomerans. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [The most comprehensive available account of Galileo’s physics, astronomy, and methodology, focusing on published sources.]
Copernicus, Nicolaus. 1976. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Trans. A. M. Duncan. Newton Abbot: Davis & Charles.
———. 1992. On the Revolutions. Trans. and ed. Edward Rosen. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Crew, Henry, and Alfonso De Salvio, trans. and eds. 1914. Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences. New York: Macmillan. [Same as Galilei 1914.]
Drake, Stillman. 1957. Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company.
———, trans. and ed. 1967. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. [Same as Galilei 1967.]
———. 1970. Galileo Studies. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
———. 1973. “Galileo Gleanings XXII: Velocity and Eudoxian Proportion Theory.” Physis 15: 49–64.
*———, trans. and ed. 1974. Two New Sciences. [Same as Galilei 1974. An excellent translation of the entire text, including useful commentary and notes.]
*———. 1978. Galileo at Work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [The most reliable, detailed, and up-to-date scientific biography in English.]
*———. 1981. Cause, Experiment, and Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [A discussion of the topics mentioned in the title, written in dialogue form; interspersed in the discussion is a translation of the full text of Galileo’s Discourse on Bodies in Water.]
*———. 1983. Telescopes, Tides, and Tactics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [A discussion of the topics mentioned in the title, written in dialogue form; interspersed in the discussion is a translation of the full text of Galileo’s Sidereal Messenger.]
*Drake, Stillman, and C. D. O’Malley, trans. and eds. 1960. The Controversy on the Comets of 1618. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. [A translation of all the works relating to this controversy, including the full text of Galileo’s The Assayer.]
Einstein, Albert. 1954. Ideas and Opinions. Trans. Sonja Bargmann. New York: Crown Publishers.
*Fantoli, Annibale. 2003. Galileo: For Copernicanism and for the Church. 3rd edn. Trans. G. V. Coyne. Vatican City: Vatican Observatory Publications. [The most accurate, balanced, and comprehensive historical account of Galileo’s trial in English.]
Favaro, Antonio, ed. 1890–1909. Le Opere di Galileo Galilei. [Same as Galilei 1890–1909.]
Finocchiaro, Maurice A. 1972. “Vires Acquirit Eundo: The Passage Where Galileo Renounces Space-Acceleration and Causal Investigation.” Physis 14: 125–45.
———. 1973. “Galileo’s Space-Proportionality Argument: A Role for Logic in Historiography.” Physis 15: 65–72.
*———. 1980. Galileo and the Art of Reasoning. Boston: Reidel. [A detailed analysis of the scientific, methodological, logical, and rhetorical aspects of Galileo’s Dialogue.]
*———, trans. and ed. 1989. The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History. Berkeley: University of California Press. [A collection of the trial documents from 1613 to 1633, arranged, introduced, and annotated in such a way as to make them understandable to non-experts and useful to experts. It includes, in particular, the full text of the following essays by Galileo: “Letter to Castelli” (1613); “Considerations on the Copernican Opinion” (1615); Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615); “Discourse on the Tides” (1616); and “Reply to Ingoli” (1624).]
*———, trans. and ed. 1997. Galileo on the World Systems: A New Abridged Translation and Guide. Berkeley: University of California Press. [An abridged translation and guide to the critical reading of Galileo’s Dialogue, for specialists and nonspecialists alike.]
*———. 2005. Retrying Galileo, 1633–1992. Berkeley: University of California Press. [An introductory but comprehensive survey of the sources, facts, and issues of the controversy about the 1633 condemnation of Galileo.]
Flora, Ferdinando, ed. 1953. Opere. [Same as Galilei 1953.]
*Frova, Andrea, and Mariapiera Marenzana. 2006. Thus Spoke Galileo. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. [A good introduction to Galileo, primarily for practicing scientists and science students, and useful for all interested readers; about evenly divided between Galilean texts and interpretive commentary.]
*Galilei, Galileo. 1636. Nov-antiqua sanctissimorum Patrum, & probatorum theologorum doctrina de Sacrae Scripturae testimoniis, in conclusionibus mere naturalibus, quae sensata experientia et necessariis demonstrationibus evinci possunt …. Ed. Matthias Bernegger. Trans. Elia Diodati. Strasbourg. [First edition of the Italian text of the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, together with a Latin translation.]
———. 1880. The Sidereal Messenger of Galileo Galilei and a Part of the Preface to Kepler’s Dioptrics. Trans. and ed. Edward Stafford Carlos. London: Rivingtons. Rpt., London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1960.
*———. 1890–1909. Opere. 20 vols. National Edition by A. Favaro. Florence: Barbèra. Reprinted in 1929–39 and 1968. [The standard critical edition of Galileo’s collected works and correspondence, including directly related works and correspondence by others.]
———. 1891. Dialog über die beiden hauptsachlichsten Weltsysteme. Trans. and ed. Emil Strauss. Leipzig: Teubner.
———. 1914. Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences. Trans. Henry Crew and Alfonso De Salvio. New York: Macmillan. Rpt.
Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1939, 1946, 1950 and New York: Dover, 1951.
———. 1953. Opere. Ed. Ferdinando Flora. Milan: Riccardo Ricciardi.
*———. 1954. “Two Kinds of Properties.” Trans. Arthur Danto. In Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, ed. Columbia University, 1: 719–24. 2nd edn. New York: Columbia University Press. [A good and useful translation of the passage on primary and secondary qualities in The Assayer.]
*———. 1958. Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze. Ed. Adriano Carugo e Ludovico Geymonat. Turin: Boringhieri. [The most extensively annotated edition of Two New Sciences; also contains Italian translations of original Latin passages.]
*———. 1960. Discourse on Bodies in Water. Trans. Thomas Salusbury. With Introduction and Notes by Stillman Drake. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. [A translation of the complete text, first published in 1665, but left unrevised; thus the archaic English is hard to follow.]
———. 1964. Opere. 5 vols. Ed. Pietro Pagnini. Florence: Salani.
———. 1967. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. 2nd revised edn. Trans. and ed. Stillman Drake. Berkeley: University of California Press.
———. 1970. Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi. Ed. Libero Sosio. Turin: Einaudi.
———. 1974. Two New Sciences. Trans. and ed. Stillman Drake. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
———. 1989. Sidereus nuncius, or the Sidereal Messenger. Trans. and ed. Albert Van Helden. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 1992. Sidereus nuncius/Le messager céleste. Trans. and ed. Isabelle Pantin. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
———. 1993. Sidereus nuncius. Ed. Andrea Battistini. Trans. Maria Timpanaro Cardini. Venice: Marsilio.
*———. 1998. Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi. 2 vols. Critical edition with commentary by Ottavio Besomi and Mario Helbing. Padua: Antenore. [Extremely valuable for specialists.]
*———. 2001. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Trans. Stillman Drake. Ed. John L. Heilbron. New York: Modern Library. [A translation of the entire text, reprinted in a more userfriendly volume from the second (1967) edition published by the University of California Press.]
*———. 2002. Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences. Edited with commentary by Stephen Hawking. Philadelphia: Running Press. [A translation of the full text, reprinted without alterations from the Crew-De Salvio translation, with two introductory essays by the great physicist Hawking, as part of the series “On the Shoulders of Giants” that also includes works by Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein.]
Garin, Eugenio. 1971. “A proposito del Copernico.” Rivista critica di storia della filosofia 26: 83–87.
———. 1975. “Alle origini della polemica anticopernicana.” In Colloquia Copernicana, vol. 2 (Studia Copernicana, vol. 6), pp. 31–42. Wroclaw: Ossolineum.
Gingerich, Owen. 1982. “The Galileo Affair.” Scientific American, August, pp. 132–43.
Granada, Miguel A. 1997. “Giovanni Maria Tolosani e la prima reazione romana di fronte al ‘De revolutionibus.’” In La diffusione del copernicanesimo in Italia, 1543–1610, ed. Massimo Bucciantini and Maurizio Torrini, pp. 11–35. Florence: Olschki.
Hawking, Stephen W. 1988. A Brief History of Time. New York: Bantam Books.
———. 1992. “Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): His Life and Work.” In Galilei 2002, pp. xi–xvii.
Julian, John, ed. 1892. A Dictionary of Hymnology. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Koyré, Alexandre. 1943. “Traduttore-Traditore: A Propos de Copernic et Galilée.” Isis 34: 209–10.
*———. 1978. Galileo Studies. Trans. J. Mepham. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester Press, 1978. [A widely discussed and influential work by a leading Galilean scholar, first published in French in 1939.]
Langford, Jerome J. 1966. Galileo, Science and the Church. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Mayaud, Pierre-Noël. 1997. La condamnation des livres coperniciens et sa révocation à la lumière de documents inédits des Congrégations de l’Index et de l’Inquisition. Rome: Editrice Pontificia Università Gregoriana.
McMullin, Ernan, ed. 2005a. The Church and Galileo. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
———. 2005b. “Galileo’s Theological Venture.” In McMullin 2005a, pp. 88–116.
*Motta, Franco, ed. 2000. Lettera a Cristina di Lorena: Sull’uso della Bibbia nelle argomentazioni scientifiche. Genoa: Marietti. [Reprint of the Italian text of the original edition (Galilei 1636), with the addition of useful notes by the editor and a lengthy introduction by Mauro Pesce.]
Mourant, John A., ed. 1964. Introduction to the Philosophy of Saint Augustine: Selected Readings and Commentary. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Newton, Isaac. 1999. The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Trans. and ed. I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman. Berkeley: University of California Press.
*Pagnini, Pietro, ed. 1964. Opere di Galileo Galilei. [Same as Galilei 1964. Contains extremely useful notes and commentary.]
*Pantin, Isabelle, trans. and ed. 1992. Sidereus nuncius/Le messager céleste. [Same as Galilei 1992. Critical edition in Latin and French translation, with extremely useful notes and commentary.]
Pesce, Mauro. 1992. “Le redazioni originali della Lettera ‘copernicana’ di G. Galilei a B. Castelli.” Filologia e critica 17: 394–417.
Redondi, Pietro. 1987. Galileo Heretic. Trans. R. Rosenthal. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
*Reeves, Eileen, and Albert Van Helden. Forthcoming. Galileo and Scheiner on Sunspots. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [A translation, with notes and commentary, of the writings by Galileo and Christoph Scheiner published in 1612–13, including the full text of Galileo’s History and Demonstrations Concerning Sunspots.]
Rosen, Edward. 1947. The Naming of the Telescope. New York: Schuman.
———. 1958. “Galileo’s Misstatements about Copernicus.” Isis 49: 319–30.
———. 1975. “Was Copernicus’s Revolutions Approved by the Pope?” Journal of the History of Ideas 36: 531–42.
Russo, François. 1968. “Lettre de Galilée à Christine de Lorraine, Grande-Duchesse de Toscane (1615).” In Galilée:Aspects de sa vie et de son oeuvre, pp. 324–59. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Salusbury, Thomas, trans. and ed. 1661–65. Mathematical Collections and Translations. 2 vols. London: Leybourne.
Santillana, Giorgio de, ed. 1953. Dialogue on the Great World Systems. Salusbury’s translation revised by G. de Santillana. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 1955. The Crime of Galileo. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schaff, Philip, and Henry Wace, eds. 1893. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. 2nd series, vol. 6: St. Jerome: Letters and Select Works. New York: The Christian Literature Company.
Sosio, Libero, ed. 1970. Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi. [Same as Galilei 1970.]
Stafford Carlos, Edward, trans. and ed. 1880. The Sidereal Messenger of Galileo Galilei and a Part of the Preface to Kepler’s Dioptrics. [Same as Galilei 1880.]
*Strauss, Emil, trans. and ed. 1891. Dialog über die beiden hauptsachlichsten Weltsysteme. [Same as Galilei 1891. Contains very useful notes.]
Tertullian, Quintus S. F. 1972. Adversus Marcionem. Trans. and ed. Ernest Evans. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
*Van Helden, Albert, trans. and ed. 1989. Sidereus nuncius, or the Sidereal Messenger. [Same as Galilei 1989. An excellent translation of the entire text, including very useful commentary and notes.]
*Wallace, William A. 1984. Galileo and His Sources. Princeton: Princeton University Press. [An excellent historical account of the connection between Galileo’s work and that of his immediate Aristotelian predecessors.]
Westman, Robert S. 1986. “The Copernicans and the Churches.” In God and Nature, ed. David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers, pp. 76–113. Berkeley: University of California Press.
CHAPTER 1
The Sidereal Messenger (1610)1
[55] To the Most Serene Cosimo II de’ Medici, Fourth Grand Duke of Tuscany
[§1.1] There is certainly something very noble and humane in the intention of those who have endeavored to protect from envy the noble achievements of distinguished men, and to rescue their names, worthy of immortality, from oblivion and decay. This desire has given us the images of famous men, sculptured in marble, or fashioned in bronze, as a memorial of them to future ages; to the same feeling we owe the erection of statues, both ordinary and equestrian; hence, as the poet2 says, has originated expenditure, mounting to the stars, upon columns and pyramids; with this desire, lastly, cities have been built, and distinguished by the names of those men, whom the gratitude of posterity thought worthy of being handed down to all ages. For the state of the human mind is such that, unless it be continually stirred by the likenesses of things obtruding themselves upon it from without, all recollection of them easily passes away from it.