Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

First published in 1632, this dialogue stages four days of talk among Salviati, who argues for the Copernican moving Earth; Sagredo, a curious Venetian host; and Simplicio, who defends the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic heavens. They discuss the ship's-cabin thought experiment, sunspots, the phases of Venus, comets, and whether the Earth can move without our feeling it. The book sets the new astronomy against scholastic physics in spoken Italian rather than in a treatise of proofs. It is a philosophical and scientific debate, not a life of Galileo and not a later textbook of Newtonian mechanics.

Bound in green buckram, cover printed and blocked with a black and gold design by Neil Gower. Black slipcase.