Beschreibung:

GALILEI, Galileo (1564-1642). Il saggiatore . Rome: Giacomo Mascardi, 1623.
GALILEI, Galileo (1564-1642). Il saggiatore . Rome: Giacomo Mascardi, 1623. 4° (219 x 158mm). Engraved title, portrait and diagrams, vignette on final page, 2 added leaves of errata. (Without preliminary leaves a1-a4 as often, title shorter in outer margin and possibly supplied, 2 extra leaves of errata added at end, some spotting, browning and light waterstaining, small wormtrack in margin of a few leaves, dark marginal stain to final leaf.) Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine (small hole to back cover, spine chipped, extremities rubbed, some soiling), modern box. Provenance : erased ownership inscription on title. FIRST EDITION , an unrecorded issue with sixteen lines of errata on 2F6v as in the first issue but with two added leaves of errata at end, not listed in standard bibliographies but matching the Italian Opac catalogue. 'One of the most celebrated polemics in science' (DSB). Il saggiatore was a response to Orazio Grassi's treatise on comets (1618). Galileo had been forbidden since 1616 to defend Copernican theory and he therefore avoided direct discussion on the earth's motion. Instead he chose to establish a general scientific approach to the investigation of celestial phenomena and he claimed that no theory of comets should be advanced unless it was proved that comets were concrete moving objects and not solar-generated optic effects. The title-page by Francesco Villamena shows the crest of the Barberini displaying the support of Pope Urban VIII, patron of the Accademia dei Lincei, which may have helped Galileo to publish the work. DSB V, p. 243; Carli and Favaro 95; Cinti 73; Norman I, 857 (without preliminary leaves); Riccardi I, 511.