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.

The appearance of three comets in the autumn of 1618 touched off a controversy of such proportions that its effects are still inextricably associated with some of the most dramatic events marking the dawn of our modern era. This volume contains the principal works, in English translation, that were published during the extended controversy between Galileo and the Jesuits over the nature of comets, concluding with a commentary by Johann Kepler. The controversy of of both scientific and philosophical significance because it was in this connection that Galileo disclosed his conception of scientific method, which has been vastly influential on the course of modern thought. The principal work, Il Saggiatore (The Assayer), is also of extraordinary literary merit; it is considered the greatest polemic ever written in the domain of physical science.

For forty years, beginning with the publication of the first modern English translation of the "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems," Stillman Drake was the most original and productive scholar of Galileo's scientific work. During those years, Drake published sixteen books on Galileo, including translations of almost all the major writings, and Galileo at Work, the most comprehensive study of Galileo's life and works ever written. Drake also published about 130 papers, of which nearly 100 are on Galileo and the rest on related aspects of the history and philosophy of science. The three-volume collection "Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science" includes 80 of those papers.

In the papers included in Volume III, Drake explores some of the more technical and practical aspects of Galileo's work, focusing on his contributions to scientific instrumentation. The essays then turn to the history of science, demonstrating the breadth of Drake's interests both beyond and relating to the work of Galileo. These interests are again evident in the final papers in the collection, in which Drake writes on the philosophy of science and language.

This collection draws to conclusion Drake's writings on Galileo, capturing the influences and themes in Galileo's life and work.

For Forty Years, Beginning With The Publication Of The First Modern English translation of the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Stillman Drake was the most original and productive scholar of Galileo's scientific work of our age. During that time, he published sixteen books on Galileo, including translations of almost all the major writings, and Galileo at Work, the most comprehensive study of Galileo's life and works ever written. His collection Discoveries and Opinions on Galileo has remained in print since its appearance in 1957 and has become the most widely read of all books on Galileo. In addition to his books, Drake published about 130 papers, of which nearly 100 are on Galileo and the rest on related aspects of the history and philosophy of science. This three-volume collection includes eighty of those papers.

Drake's papers are an essential supplement to his translations and other books because it was in his papers that he wrote his most detailed technical studies of Galileo's scientific work. There is hardly a subject in Galileo's science that is not considered. Perhaps the most important are the series on mechanics and motion, in which Drake analysed Galileo's manuscript notes recording the experiments by which he discovered and confirmed the law of the acceleration of falling bodies. There are also papers on the notes in which Galileo recorded his discovery of Jupiter's satellites and on other aspects of Galileo's astronomy, including his defence of the Copernican theory.

Other papers consider Galileo's life and scientific work in general, exploring what Drake calls the 'scientific personality' of Galileo, and his scientific method and philosophy ofscience. In addition to the papers on Galileo, there are a number of papers on medieval and early modern science, principally on mechanics, and on the philosophers A.B. Johnson and J.B. Stallo, both of whom influenced Drake's own philosophy of science.

This collection is indeed a fitting tribute to the memory of one of Canada's most accomplished scholars.

For forty years, beginning with the publication of the first modern English translation of the "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Stillman Drake was the most original and productive scholar of Galileo's "scientific work of our age. During that time, he published sixteen books on Galileo, including translations of almost all the major writings, and Galileo at Work, the most comprehensive study of Galileo's life and works ever written. Drake also published about 130 papers, of which nearly 100 are on Galileo and the rest on related aspects of the history and philosophy of science. The three-volume collection "Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science" includes 80 of those papers.

Volume I contains a bibliography of the writings of Stillman Drake, biographical sketches of both Galileo and Drake, and various essays covering the broad range of Galileo's scientific endeavors, including outlines of the humanistic and religious background of his era. Other essays take up textual and bibliographical issues, analysing Galileo's mass of notes, treatises, and numerous fragments, previously collected in folios, manuscripts, and unreliable copies. Drake's wide-ranging essays cover Galileo's place in the philosophy of science, his relation to his forebears and impact on posterity, and his contribution to astronomy. In addition, the essays take up ongoing controversies, such as Galileo's stance on the affinity of science with the corpus of human knowledge.

Volume I of Stillman Drake's "Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science" serves as a comprehensive introduction to Galileo's life, science, and writings, and with its forthcoming companion volumes, will indeed be a fitting tribute to the memory of one of Canada's most accomplished scholars.

This 1967 edition of the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is a revision of a 1953 edition. It includes a foreword by Albert Einstein, which is presented in en face German and English versions.
The translation itself is based on the definitive National Edition prepared under the direction of Antonio Favaro and published at Florence in 1897. The material specifically added to the text by Galileo himself after publication of the first edition (1632) has been included as well. In addition, the margins of the book include translations of Galileo's own postils (running notes), placed as nearly as possible beside their textual references.

In a startling reinterpretation of the evidence, Stillman Drake advances the hypothesis that Galileo's trial and condemnation by the Inquisition was caused not by his defiance of the Church, but by the hostility of contemporary philosophers.