HISTORY, SCIENCE & PHILOSOPHY 54 HISTORY, SCIENCE & PHILOSOPHY “The Dialogo, Far More Than Any Other Work, Made The Heliocentric System A Commonplace”: 1632 First Edition Of Galileo’s Defense Of The Copernican System, A Milestone Of Science And Philosophy First edition of the work that led to Galileo’s persecution by the Inquisition, his famous and celebrated defense of the Copernican system, with 31 in-text woodcut illustrations and diagrams. An excellent copy in attractive vellum binding. Eight years after Pope Paul V had forbidden him to teach Copernican theory, Galileo received permission from a new Pope, Urban VIII, to discuss Copernican astronomy in a book, so long as the book provided equal and impartial discussions of the Church-approved Ptolemaic system. Galileo’s Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems held to the letter of this command: the device of the dialogue, between a spokesman for Copernicus, one for Ptolemy and Aristotle, and an educated layman, allowed Galileo to remain technically uncommitted. After the book’s publication, however, Urban took offense at what he felt to be its jibes against himself and ordered Galileo to be brought before the Inquisition in Rome” (Norman 858). The Dialogo was suppressed by the Church five months after its publication and formally condemned 62 GALILEI, Galileo. Dialogo di Galileo Galilei… sopra i due massimi Sistemi del mondo tolemaico, e copernicano. Florence, 1632. Large octavo, later full vellum. $125,000 “
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