Lot Details
Lot 209
[GALILEO] GALILEI, GALILEO AND SALUSBURY, THOMAS. [Mathematical collections and translations: the first tome. In two parts. The...
. London: William Leybourn, 1661. The first English edition of Galileo's Dialogo in any form, a vernacular translation and the first thus in any language. Bound into five volumes in modern half morocco. cloth sides, leather spine labels (red for the four parts of Galileo, blue for Castellus). 12 3/4 x 8 7/8 (32.5 x 22 cm); 5-88; 89-247 [1] pp.; 249-424 pp.; [425]-503, [1], [24] pp.; [14] 98 pp. [of 118]. In Galilaeus First Dialogue, the first two surviving leaves are preserved on tissue and are partly defective. Galilaeus 3rd and 4th Dialogues has one leaf with significant loss, and a second leaf with a tear into the text. The Philosophical Controversies has a few tears with minor loss to text. Castellus has a small tear with loss to the section title, a poorly repaired tear to a text leaf, and the final leaf mounted to Japanese tissue. All volumes have trimmed leaves, some staining and age toning and soiling where the leaves protruded from the former binding. The folding plates are not present. Sold not subject to return.
A very rare work in any condition. A Latin edition followed two years later, but this was the only vernacular translation for 200 years. Although incomplete and with various defects, the rarity and importance of this work cannot be overstated, and only two copies . Salusbury, the translator, had travelled to Italy and France and lived in both countries, before returning to England and a brief career in translation around 1655. Carli-Favaro 276; ESTC R19153; Wing S-517.
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