Books by Galileo Galilei
Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (On The Shoulders of Giants)
by Stephen Hawking, Galileo Galilei
This latest installment in our On the Shoulders of Giants series presents the provocative essay by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) in its entirety. Famed for its unapologetic support of Copernicus's theory and subsequent proof that the earth did indeed revolve around the sun (and not vice versa), Galileo's essay engendered great controversy when it was published, as well as heated opposition from the Church. The first work to outwardly challenge the established authority of religion, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences set the standard for all future scientists faced with the conflict of science and religion. In this text, readers will also find an illuminating biography of the father of modern physics, and an introduction by modern-day physics superstar Stephen Hawking.
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Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems By Galilei Galileo Drake Stillman TRN Einstein Albert FRW Heilbron J L INT
Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in Florence in 1632, was the most proximate cause of his being brought to trial before the Inquisition. Using the dialogue form, a genre common in classical philosophical works, Galileo masterfully demonstrates the truth of the Copernican system over the Ptolemaic one, proving, for the first time, that the earth revolves around the sun. Its influence is incalculable. The Dialogue is not only one of the most important scientific treatises ever written, but a work of supreme clarity and accessibility, remaining as readable now as when it was first published. This edition uses the definitive text established by the University of California Press, in Stillman Drake’s translation, and includes a Foreword by Albert Einstein and a new Introduction by J. L. Heilbron.
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Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo
Directing his polemics against the pedantry of his time, Galileo, as his own popularizer, addressed his writings to contemporary laymen. His support of Copernican cosmology, against the Church's strong opposition, his development of a telescope, and his unorthodox opinions as a philosopher of science were the central concerns of his career and the subjects of four of his most important writings. Drake's introductory essay place them in their biographical and historical context.
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Galileo on the World Systems A New Abridged Translation and Guide
by Galileo Galilei, Maurice A. Finocchiaro
Galileo's 1632 book, Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican, comes alive for twentieth-century readers thanks to Maurice Finocchiaro's brilliant new translation and presentation. Condemned by the Inquisition for its heretical proposition that the earth revolves around the sun, Galileo's masterpiece takes the form of a debate, divided into four "days," among three highly articulate gentlemen.
Finocchiaro sets the stage with his introduction, which not only provides the human and historical framework for the Dialogue but also admits the reader gracefully into the basic non-Copernican understanding of the universe that would have been shared by Galileo's original audience. The translation of the Dialogue is abridged in order to highlight its essential content, and Finocchiaro gives titles to the various parts of the debate as a guide to the principal topics. By explicating his own critical reading of this text that is itself an exercise in critical reasoning on a gripping real-life controversy, he illuminates those universal, perennial activities of the human mind that make Galileo's book a living document. This is a concrete, hands-on introduction to critical thinking. The translation has been made from the Italian text provided in volume 7 of the Critical National Edition of Galileo's complete works edited by Antonio Favaro. The translator has also consulted the 1632 edition, as well as the other previous English translations, including California's 1967 version.
Galileo on the World Systems is a remarkably nuanced interpretation of a classic work and will give readers the tools to understand and evaluate for themselves one of the most influential scientific books in Western civilization.
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On Sunspots
by Galileo Galilei, Christoph Scheiner
Galileo’s telescopic discoveries, and especially his observation of sunspots, caused great debate in an age when the heavens were thought to be perfect and unchanging. Christoph Scheiner, a Jesuit mathematician, argued that sunspots were planets or moons crossing in front of the Sun. Galileo, on the other hand, countered that the spots were on or near the surface of the Sun itself, and he supported his position with a series of meticulous observations and mathematical demonstrations that eventually convinced even his rival.
On Sunspots collects the correspondence that constituted the public debate, including the first English translation of Scheiner’s two tracts as well as Galileo’s three letters, which have previously appeared only in abridged form. In addition, Albert Van Helden and Eileen Reeves have supplemented the correspondence with lengthy introductions, extensive notes, and a bibliography. The result will become the standard work on the subject, essential for students and historians of astronomy, the telescope, and early modern Catholicism.
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The Essential Galileo (Hackett Classics)
Finocchiaro's new and revised translations have done what the Inquisition could not: they have captured an exceptional range of Galileo's career while also letting him speak--in clear English. No other volume offers more convenient or more reliable access to Galileo's own words, whether on the telescope, the Dialogue, the trial, or the mature theory of motion. --Michael H. Shank, Professor of the History of Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison
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Two New Sciences/A History of Free Fall
by Galileo Galilei, Stillman Drake
This is the acclaimed translation by Stillman Drake of "Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciences Pertaining to Mechanics and Local Motions." It is the work written by Galileo in the last years of his life, while under house arrest by the Inquisition for suspected heresy. The two new sciences that comprise the subject of the book are the science of motion on earth and the study of the strength of materials. In presenting his findings, Galileo formulates a methodology for rigorous experimental study of natural phenomena that is the foundation for modern experimental science.
History of Free Fall, by Stillman Drake
Appended to Drake's translation and commentaries and bound in with them in the same volume is his monograph History of Free Fall: Aristotle to Galileo on the history of the discovery of the law of falling bodies, from its formulation by Aristotle to its clear statement by Galileo. Drake's painstaking research includes a close examination of Galileo's working papers which record his famous experiments with inclined planes and carefully controlled parabolic projectile paths.
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