Category Archives: The Galileo Affair

Geneva Bible (1560) The Geneva Bible was the first lay study Bible, written in the vernacular, hand-sized, portable, affordable, and designed with cross-references and explanatory notes for self-study. It was the Bible of Shakespeare, of the Puritans, of settlers in … Continue reading →

Galileo, Dialogo sopra i Due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo (Florence, 1632) This is Galileo’s witty and entertaining dialogue in defense of Copernicus. In the frontispiece, Aristotle and Ptolemy hold an Earth-centered armillary sphere (left). Copernicus holds a Sun-centered model of … Continue reading →

Galileo, “The Ancient and Modern Doctrine of Holy Fathers,” in Mathematical Collections (London, 1661), ed. Thomas Salusbury This volume contains the first English translations of any of Galileo’s works, including Galileo’s Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World, … Continue reading →

Galileo, Lettera Madama Cristina di Lorena (Milan, 1967) Galileo’s Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina provides a modern example of the book arts. The outer case opens to show a smaller case, the size of a miniature version published a … Continue reading →

Galileo, Nov-antiqua sanctissimorum patrum (Strassburg, 1636) In response to gathering criticism, Galileo in 1615 wrote a reconciliation of Scripture and Copernicanism which circulated in manuscript as the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina. This is the first printed edition, which … Continue reading →

Isaac Newton, Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John (London, 1733) For Newton, science and the Bible were not opposed, provided that one understood each correctly. In this study of the apocalyptic book of Daniel, … Continue reading →

Thomas Burnet, Theory of the Earth (London, 1684) Thomas Burnet, a royal chaplain, classical scholar, and Cambridge Platonist, published Telluris theoria sacra in 1681. Its famous frontispiece first appeared in this English edition of 1684.  A circle of seven globes … Continue reading →