Beschreibung:

FAMOUS BOOK ON MECHANICS. GALILEI, GALILEO. Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche, intorno à due nuoue scienze attenenti alla mecanica & i movimenti locali... Leiden (Elzevir) 1638. Small 4to. (190x150). (8), 306 pp. Title with printer's device in woodcut. Illustrated with serveral woodcuts. Contemporary half calf with marbled covers, spine in compartments and red title label, partly worn and rubbed, joints split, small modern label on upper cover. Some slight dampstaining, mostly to margins. Minor repair to upper right part of page 247-248, about 4x3 cms, affecting text. First edition. Photo. "'Mathematical Discourses and Demonstrations' is considered by most scientist as Galileo's greatest work../.../ Mathematicians and physicists of the later seventeenth century, Isaac Newton among them, rightly supposed that Galileo had begun a new era in the science of mechanics. /... / The work was printed in Leiden, as Galileo was unable to obtain an ecclesiastical licence to have it printed in Venice, as he had intented". (Printing and the Mind of Man 130). Probably a complete copy of the first edition and probably first state, issued before the two leaves of Index and the Errata-leaf were added at the end (Rr2-Rr4). These leaves are not present in this copy. The last blank leaf after Rr1 is blank and apparently conjugate. A similar copy was offered for sale by Charles Traylen in 1966 (Catalogue 66). The pagination should read: (8), 314 (misnumbered 306), 1 blank pp. Changes Minor repair to upper right part of page 247-248, about 4x3 cms, affecting text. Complete copy of the first edition and probably first state, issued before the two leaves of Index and the Errata-leaf were added at the end (Rr2-Rr4). The last blank leaf after Rr1 is blank and apparently conjugate. A similar copy was offered for sale by Charles Traylen in 1966 (Catalogue 66). The pagination should read: (8), 314 (misnumbered 306), 1 blank pp.