Galilei, Galileo | Nov-antiqua sanctissimorum patrum, & probatorum theologorum doctrina …, Strassburg, 1636, first edition

Galilei, Galileo

Nov-antiqua sanctissimorum patrum, & probatorum theologorum doctrina, de sacrae scripturae testimoniis. Strassburg: Elzivir, 1636

First edition of "a superb manifesto of the freedom of thought" (Koestler), generally known as the Letter to Christina. A clean copy.

"In December 1613 it had happened that theological objections to Copernicanism were raised, in Galileo's absence, at a court dinner, where Galileo's part was upheld by Benedetto Castelli. Learning of this, Galileo wrote a long letter to Castelli concerning the inadmissibility of theological interference in purely scientific questions. … Galileo argued that neither the Bible nor nature could speak falsely and that the investigation of nature was the province of the scientist, while the reconciliation of scientific facts with the language of the Bible was that of the theologian" (Stillman Drake in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, V: 242). 

Galileo expanded the text in 1615, but it remained unpublished until 1636. By the time it was eventually published, possibly without Galileo's consent, the author was under permanent house arrest.

4to (188 x 151 mm). Roman and some italic type, printed in double columns with parallel Latin and Italian text, small woodcut printer's ornament to title-page, large elaborate woodcut printer's ornament to verso of final leaf. Modern vellum; endleaves renewed. Housed in modern dark blue half-morocco case.

REFERENCES

Carli-Favaro 155; Cinti 98; Riccardi I 515