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Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher known as the “Father of Modern Science.” This book contains some of his writings for a popular audience: The Starry Messenger (1610); his Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615); and excerpts from his Letters on Sunspots (1613) and The Assayer (1623).
He boldly states in The Starry Messenger, “We shall prove the earth to be a wandering body surpassing the moon in splendor, and not the sink of all dull refuse of the universe; this we shall support by an infinitude of arguments drawn from nature.” (Pg. 45)
He says in one of the letters on sunspots, “as to the title of my position, I desire that in addition to the title of ‘mathematician’ His Highness will annex that of ‘philosopher’; for I may claim to have studied more years in philosophy than months in pure mathematics.” (Pg. 64)
He says to the Duchess about Copernicus, “Yet while I follow the teachings of a book accepted by the church, there come out against me philosophers quite ignorant of such teachings who tell me that they contain propositions contrary to the faith. So far as possible, I should like to show them that they are mistaken, but my mouth is stopped and I am ordered not to go into the Scriptures. This amounts to saying that Copernicus’s book, accepted by the church, contains heresies and may be preached against by anyone who pleases, while it is forbidden for anyone to get into the controversy and show that it is not contrary to Scripture.Read more ›
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My interest in Galileo was recently piqued by a seminar on data presentation by Edward Tufte (strongly recommended, also his books.) I was looking for an overview of Galileo's work and some context. This book provides both, very well.
The book provides long quotations from "Siderius Nuncius" (Starry Messenger), Letters on Sunspots, The Assayer, and Letters to the Mother of the Grand Duke of Tuscany (whose name escapes me right now.) Preceding each of these exerpts, is an introduction which includes historical information, information about Galileo's personal life, and much quotation from other scientists and people with whom Galileo is arguing. These are written in excellent, clear prose. The stage is set without the stage manager intruding. The exerpts from Galileo have been edited to maintain the focus on why Galileo is important to history and science, without losing his flavor or his pugnacious style.
The point made by Galileo himself and the book are that Galileo pointed out that from then on, evidence would be the standard by which we would judge our knowledge of the world, not authority, word-play, logical proofs or arguments, etc. This is the dawn of the enlightenment.
For an introduction, I found this book perfect. It won't satisfy the scholar looking to read every word of Galileo's. But, as I noted above, this book does show us why we still know Galileo's name, unlike the vast majority of his peers. [edited for spelling]
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Shipped on time. Book in fair condition, as expected. A review of Galileo is almost unnecessary- his discoveries are magnificent, his theories are well thought out, and he communicates so clearly and conversationally you feel like a genius yourself when reading the book.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
The Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo consists of four works by Galileo Galilei: The Starry Messenger, Letters on Sunspots, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, and The Assayer. They are each wonderfully translated by Stillman Drake. He omits unnecessary parts of the texts, to prevent verbosity or boredom, while still giving the reader the full sense of each work. Drake is a professor of the History of Science at the University of Toronto. Before each of Galileo's works, Drake gives an introduction which details the circumstances and events prompting Galileo to take up the pen. Drake presents an excellent history of the times and atmosphere along with the political forces that permeated the setting of early seventeenth century Italian academia. One gets a real feel for what Galileo was up against in presenting his ideas in the face of ecclesiastical and philosophical opposition. The Starry Messenger is Galileo's account of his first uses of his homemade telescope. He details his observations of the four newly discovered moons of Jupiter and several stars that can now be seen with the telescope. His Letters on Sunspots are a retort to another astronomer's theories on the nature of the phenomenon. In the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, Galileo puts up a staunch defense to the church in his adopting the Copernican heliocentric model of the universe. After being banned from teaching this opinion, Galileo makes a suave effort to communicate his ideas in a defense on the nature of comets in The Assayer. This is the story of Galileo verses old dogma. One cannot help but sympathize with Galileo in his frustration in communicating what he believed to be true.Read more ›
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