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New to Penguin Classics, the astonishing story of the Copernican
Revolution, told through the words of the ground-breaking
scientists who brought it about In the late fifteenth century, it
was believed that the earth stood motionless at the centre of a
small, ordered cosmos. Just over two centuries later, everything
had changed. Not only was the sun the centre of creation, but the
entire practice of science had been revolutionised. This is the
story of that astonishing transformation, told through the words of
the astronomers and mathematicians at its heart. Bringing together
excerpts from the works and letters of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler,
Descartes, Newton and others for the first time, The Dawn of Modern
Cosmology is the definitive record of one of the great turning
points in human history. Edited with Translations, Notes and an
Introduction by Aviva Rothman
Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in Florence in 1632, was the most proximate cause of his being brought to trial before the Inquisition. Using the dialogue form, a genre common in classical philosophical works, Galileo masterfully demonstrates the truth of the Copernican system over the Ptolemaic one, proving, for the first time, that the earth revolves around the sun. Its influence is incalculable. The Dialogue is not only one of the most important scientific treatises ever written, but a work of supreme clarity and accessibility, remaining as readable now as when it was first published. This edition uses the definitive text established by the University of California Press, in Stillman Drake’s translation, and includes a Foreword by Albert Einstein and a new Introduction by J. L. Heilbron.
Galileo's 1632 book, "Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems,
Ptolemaic and Copernican," comes alive for twentieth-century
readers thanks to Maurice Finocchiaro's brilliant new translation
and presentation. Condemned by the Inquisition for its heretical
proposition that the earth revolves around the sun, Galileo's
masterpiece takes the form of a debate, divided into four "days,"
among three highly articulate gentlemen.
Finocchiaro sets the stage with his introduction, which not only
provides the human and historical framework for the "Dialogue" but
also admits the reader gracefully into the basic non-Copernican
understanding of the universe that would have been shared by
Galileo's original audience. The translation of the "Dialogue" is
abridged in order to highlight its essential content, and
Finocchiaro gives titles to the various parts of the debate as a
guide to the principal topics. By explicating his own critical
reading of this text that is itself an exercise in critical
reasoning on a gripping real-life controversy, he illuminates those
universal, perennial activities of the human mind that make
Galileo's book a living document. This is a concrete, hands-on
introduction to critical thinking. The translation has been made
from the Italian text provided in volume 7 of the Critical National
Edition of Galileo's complete works edited by Antonio Favaro. The
translator has also consulted the 1632 edition, as well as the
other previous English translations, including California's 1967
version.
"Galileo on the World Systems" is a remarkably nuanced
interpretation of a classic work and will give readers the tools to
understand and evaluate for themselves one of the most influential
scientific books in Western civilization.
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