The Essential Galileo

Spanning Galileo's career, this title presents an annotated translation of Galileo's important writings as judged by their historical impact from the 17th century to the present. It provides those writings that bear closely on key developments in physics, astronomy, epistemology, and scientific methodology, and those relevant to general culture.

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Finocchiaro's new and revised translations have done what the Inquisition could not: they have captured an exceptional range of Galileo's career while also letting him speak--in clear English. No other volume offers more convenient or more reliable access to Galileo's own words, whether on the telescope, the Dialogue, the trial, or the mature theory of motion. --Michael H. Shank, Professor of the History of Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison