Galileo Goes Under the Hammer (In a Good Way This Time)

In 1638, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) published what would be his final work, Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche Intorno a Due Nuove Scienze, (Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences).

As most people already know, Galileo was a true polymath with extensive experience in astronomy, mathematics, physics, engineering, and philosophy. His role in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century is celebrated with good reason.

Credit: Pierre Bergé & Associés

Because of his championing of Copernicus and heliocentrism, he was something of a target for religious authorities. By the time …Two New Sciences was published in 1638, Galileo had been under house arrest for several years, having been investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615.

Their conclusion was that his support of heliocentrism was ‘foolish and absurd, and formally heretical.’

He made things worse for himself when he published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Worlds Systems (1632), in which he appeared to attack Pope Urban VIII. The trouble with this was that both Urban and the Jesuits had been supportive of Galileo up to this point. Their support, of course, ceased.

Credit: Pierre Bergé & Associés

Further, Galileo was suspected of heresy, and the book was placed on the church’s Index of Forbidden Books, where it remained until 1835. In fact, all of Galileo’s writings were essentially banned in many Catholic countries.

As for …Two New Sciences, it is widely considered the first physics textbook and is found on the list of the fifty most valuable scientific documents of all time.

Written while under house arrest, and dedicated to the French Ambassador to the Holy See, it was to be his last major published work and essentially recounted his work in physics over the last thirty years.

Its significance is found in the mathematical analysis experiment regarding problems in mechanics and dynamics.

Original copies are rare to find in the market, yet on April 26, 2017, a copy went under the auction hammer in Paris at the firm Pierre Bergé & Associés, with an estimated range of €700,000 and €900,000.

Credit: Pierre Bergé & Associés

This edition, published in Leiden (The Netherlands), was dedicated before being sent to François de Noailles, Comte d ' Ayen (1584-1645).

It is presumed to have been bound by Le Gascon, judging by the style of some of his other bindings of the era. It is with full Moroccan red leather boards, tooled with gold, with marbled endpapers.

It remains a stunning and obviously rare edition. It realized €727,919 inclusive of fees.

See the original auction listing here.

Comet Hunter David Levy's Observing Logs at the Linda Hall Library

After finishing an appraisal inspection in midtown Kansas City a last month, I stopped by the Linda Hall Library of Science and Engineering on the UMKC campus.

Opened in 1946, the library is privately funded and is "the world’s foremost independent research library devoted to science, engineering, and technology."

It had been a while since I last visited and was reminded of the fact when I found a story online about how Canadian comet hunter David Levy had donated his observing logs to the library last September. How I missed that, I don't know.

The library has seen several significant renovations since I ast visited, including the William M. Deramus III Cosmology Theater, and an expanded area for Special Collections and Rare Books.

I was chatting with the assistant librarian for the History of Science about our both having attended the University of Virginia's Rare Book School and endured the Principles of Descriptive Bibliography course, when Bill Ashworth, instructor for the university’s History of Astronomy course I took over 20 years ago, came by. I had not seen him since Dr. J.A. Stack's memorial service at the library in 1997, and it was good to catch up.

Anyway, apart from getting a new library card, I wanted to see David Levy's observing logs, which are now on display. I was very pleasantly surprised to see his observing log from when he was eleven looked very much like my own at that age. Of course he went on to become of the 20^th century’s most prolific comet hunters. 

Perhaps the most famous of his discoveries was Shoemaker-Levy 9, a comet that fragmented and crashed into Jupiter over the course of six days in July 1994.

Here are some pics from the exhibit:

David Levy and Clyde Tombaugh

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