Beschreibung:

GALILEI, Galileo (1564-1642). Manuscript copy of the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina ('Alla Serenissima Madama Gran Duchessa Madre'), n.d. [after 1636], in a neat contemporary hand, on pages numbered 25-54 of a manuscript compilation of 'Materie Varie', [second half, 17th Century], in a number of hands, contents and 185 leaves, 4to , contemporary foliation (some general browning, possibly from old damp damage), 20th-century vellum boards.
GALILEI, Galileo (1564-1642). Manuscript copy of the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina ('Alla Serenissima Madama Gran Duchessa Madre'), n.d. [after 1636], in a neat contemporary hand, on pages numbered 25-54 of a manuscript compilation of 'Materie Varie', [second half, 17th Century], in a number of hands, contents and 185 leaves, 4to , contemporary foliation (some general browning, possibly from old damp damage), 20th-century vellum boards. Galileo's letter is summarised in the contents page as 'Lettera di Galileo Galilei in giustificaz[ion]e della sua sentenza intorno al preteso moto della terra' [Letter of Galileo Galilei in justification of his opinion concerning the pretended motion of the earth]; the compiler also notes of this (and another text) 'These two writings although printed nevertheless may merit a place amongst the manuscripts for their rarity'. The Letter is a consideration of the relation between the Bible and the new scientific discoveries, with a forthright statement of his own view that 'the Sun is located at the centre of the revolutions of the heavenly orbs and does not change place, and that the Earth rotates on itself and moves around it'. The text of the letter circulated widely in manuscript after 1615, though it was not published until 1636 (in Strasbourg), when it was suppressed in Catholic jurisdictions. Its presence in this Italian compilation is an interesting witness to the contemporary circulation of Galileo's works in spite of this prohibition, particularly in view of the general pro-Papal stance of the remaining contents. The volume comprises: (1) Monsignor della Casa. Speech exhorting the Venetians to ally with the Pope and others against Charles V; (2) Galileo. Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina; (3) A dialogue in commemoration of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem in the year '15; (4) Oratio Rucellai. Sonnets in the Petrarchan style on the teachings of Plato, with others by the same author; (5) Monsignor Azzolini. A poem on the 5th anniversary of the consecration of Pope Urban VIII, [1628]; (6) Account of the sickness and death of Nicoló Cotoner and the consecration of Gregorio Carafa as Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, 1680; (7) Description of the courts and government of Rome; (8) An apologia for the ancient authority of the College of Cardinals; (9) Monsignor Bevilacqua, Patriarch of Alexandria. Account of the treaty of Nijmegen and of the state and princes of Germany, presented to Innocent XI, 1680.