Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican [Paperback]

It's not the most alluring of titles, I admit, and even though most people have heard of Galileo and many know enough of his achievements to admire him, I suspect few people would consider reading a book by him. However, I urge you very strongly to buy this book and at least give it a try. It's a wonderful work, full of fascinating and brilliant insights and Stillman Drake's superlative translation makes it extremely readable. It gives a fascinating insight into what Galileo *really* did to annoy the Inquisition and shows his often brilliantly witty and occasionally dangerously sarcastic style. Even to dip into, this book is a monumental pleasure.

Try this, the first few lines of the Introduction - To The Discerning Reader:
"Several years ago there was published in Rome a salutary edict which, in order to obviate the dangerous tendencies of our present age, imposed a seasonable silence upon the Pythagorean opinion that the Earth moves. There were those who impudently asserted that this decree had its origin not in judicious inquiry, but in passion none too well informed. Complaints were to be heard that advisers who were totally unskilled in astronomical observations ought not to clip the wings of reflective intellects by means of rash prohibitions. Upon hearing such carping insolence, my zeal could not be contained..."

I first read that while studying History of Science over thirty years ago, laughed out loud, and read the rest of the book with immense pleasure. It is written in the form of dialogues presided over by Sagredo ("wise man") and conducted between Salviati (really Galileo himself) and the person representing the Church's orthodoxy, whom Galileo christened Simplicio. Tactful, he wasn't, but he was a brilliant physicist and a brilliant author, filling the book with witty and amazingly ingenious arguments resulting in poor Simplicio being confounded at every turn.

I cannot say strongly enough what a pleasure this book is. It really isn't just a tome which will sit on your shelf looking impressive, or which you ought to plough through because it will Do You Good. It's wonderfully enjoyable and hugely rewarding, and I recommend it very highly indeed.

"The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" ("Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo"), a 1632 book by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), comparing the Copernican with the traditional Ptolemaic system, was translated from Italian to Latin as "Systema cosmicum" in 1635 by Bernegger. It was dedicated to Galileo's patron, Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

According to Stephen Hawking, "Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science". Praise does not come more fulsome than this or from more elevated people.

Under great pressure and extreme censure concerning his writing, it was published after lengthy discussions with the Inquisition which was trying to quash his views of the movement of the celestial bodies. It is a discussion between Sagredo, the wise man, Salviati (Galileo himself) and Simplicio, the religious traditionalist who has humorous rings run around him throughout the dialogues (obviously contingent on one's point of view).

Salviati is Galileo himself, Sagredo is named after Francesco Sagredo (1571-1620) a close friend and Venetian mathematician and Simplicio, the dedicated follower of old fashions, Ptolemy and Aristotle, promulgates the traditional church view.

This book shows not only that Galileo was genius and a brilliant scientist (although the word "scientist" did not exist), he was also good writer able to convey his astronomical ideas very effectively (and a wide range of other scientific issues), even if he was not always diplomatic, prudent or politically astute.

Galileo could not have been more obvious in his writings, little secret was made of the various interlocutors and he wrote much of it with great humour. This will surprise many readers but provide them with a very different view of one of the greatest scientist of all time - in his own words. It may not be easy in places, but it is worth the struggle.