07-20-201807-21-2018
Skinner Auctions
Skinner AuctionsBoston MA
3117BBoston
July 20, 2018 12:00 PMCalender
72

Galileo, Galilei (1564-1642) trans. Thomas Salusbury (d. 1666) Mathematical Collections and Translations the First Tome.

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$30,750$25,000
Auction: Books & Manuscripts - 3117BLocation: BostonDate / Time: July 20, 2018 12:00PM

Description:

Galileo, Galilei (1564-1642) trans. Thomas Salusbury (d. 1666) Mathematical Collections and Translations the First Tome. London: Printed by William Leybourn, 1661. First edition of Galileo's works in English, folio, illustrated with four folding engravings; and many text diagrams; the text also contains works by Benedetto Castelli (1577-1643); Johannes Kepler (1571-1630); and a letter about the arrangement of the solar system by Paolo Antonio Foscarini (1565-1616); this copy was a prize book presented to Benjamin Mulock for mathematics by University College London in 1849 and bears a label to that effect; bound in half leather and buckram boards with the emblem of the College tooled in gilt on both boards, binding rubbed, water stain in bottom corner more than halfway through, contents otherwise good, 13 1/4 x 8 1/2 in.

In Galileo's Dialogo sopra i Due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo, two interlocutors discuss the merits of the Copernican versus the Ptolemaic system. Its publication put the author under the immediate scrutiny of the Vatican; the charge was heresy. The Dialogo remained banned by the Catholic church until 1835. The strength of Galileo's work and the truth of the carefully prepared mathematical and observational work behind it overwhelmed thousands of years of religious dogma. In this moment, when research, logic, and the scientific method began to replace superstition and blind acceptance, western thought entered a new era. The first appearance of Galileo's work in the English language, presented in a large folio format, represents the arrival of a new direction in critical thought that continues to structure our understanding of the world today.

[pi]1, *6 (two leaves unsigned, two signed *2, two signed *3),A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Rrr4, [Hhh]-[Iii]2, Vvv-Zzz2, Aaaa6+[para1], Bbbb-Qqqq4, Rrrr2 (without the half-title and errata leaf).
http://estc.bl.uk/R19153
Estimate $35,000-50,000


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Keywords

William Leybourn, Thomas Salusbury, Benjamin Mulock, London