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Stock# 85835
Description
"Now considered by most scientists as Galileo's greatest work." - PMM 130
First edition of the first modern treatment of physics and a foundational work on the science of mechanics. Discorsi was Galileo's last work, a culmination of thought published when he was 74, under house arrest after his 1633 trial Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo. In its break from Aristotelian tradition, Discorsi became a cornerstone of modern physics. Here, the concept of mass is implied, "by Galileo's conviction that in a vacuum all bodies would fall at the same acceleration." (Dibner). As Galileo states in Book 3, "My purpose is to set forth a very new science dealing with a very ancient subject."
Condition Description
Quarto. First edition. 18th-century stiff vellum, exposed cords at joints, spine with red morocco label (ruled in gilt with gilt-lettered title), edges stained red, light dampstains to a few margins. Loss to fore-edge of title page and lower outer corner of T4 repaired with laid paper. Title page supplied and repaired at edges. Elsevier woodcut device on title page. Signature of René-François de Sluse preserved from original flyleaf and pasted to front free endpaper. Errata leaf at end. Occasional Latin marginalia (in "Giornata terza de motu local") in an early hand.
Pagination: [8], [314, misnumbered as 306], [6].
Collation: *4, A-Rr4
Pagination: [8], [314, misnumbered as 306], [6].
Collation: *4, A-Rr4
Reference
Carli and Favaro 162. Cinti 102. Dibner Heralds of Science 141. Grolier/Horblit 36. Norman 859. PMM 130. Riccardi I, 516.12/1. Roberts & Trent Bibliotheca Mechanica, pages 129-30. Sparrow Milestones of Science 75. Wellcome 2648. Willems 2648. Fermi, Laura and Bernadini, Gilberto, "Galileo and the Scientific Revolution," New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1961.