Stillman Drake (1910–1993)

Galileo really missed his era - he wanted to be a blogger. The genius had such a loquacious side that even the editors of this edition excise several days of Galileo's moon diary since the avalanche of words offers no additional insights. Much of Galileo's insights are powerful arguments as he poularized new discoveries seen in the heavens. It is possible his incredible amount of verbiage made him too tempting and too open for attack from his powerful, clerical detractors. Galileo certainly show more knew how to "flame" in the media of his time.

One bit of his sagacity really struck me: " "Long experience has taught me this about the status of mankind with regard to matters requiring thought: the less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them, while on the other hand to know and understand a multitude of things renders men cautious in passing judgement upon anything new." (from 'The Assayer')

Here is his attack on the popular opinion, though he is rather being a jerk in how he says it: "If reasoning were like hauling I should agree that several reasoners would be worth more than one, just as several horses can haul more sacks of grain than one can. But reasoning is like racing and not like hauling, and a single Barbary steed can outrun a hundred dray horses." show less

The author does a good job of setting Galileo in the context of his times. However, he freely admits that his take on some issues, particularly Galileo's own religious faith, goes against most scholarship on Galileo, so I'm not sure if this is really an "introduction"?

This is a fascinating collection of Gailileo's writings on his discovery of Jupiter's moons and his observation and speculations on the nature of sunspots, as well as his defense of the veracity of his observations in the face of heavy censure from the Church. Any amateur astronomer who remembers seeing Jupiter's moons for the first time through a telescope and witnessing the change in their configuration from night to night will get a thrill out of reading this first account and Galileo's show more extraordinary reasoning as to why they must be satellites of the planet Jupiter and why this confirms the heliocentric model. Galileo was an excellent rhetorician who also surprisingly had a sense of humor when dealing with the absurdity of his critics' claims. I thoroughly loved this book and recommend it to anyone even mildly interested in the history of astronomy. show less

Incredibly well-edited selection of writings, invaluable for understanding the history of science, rhetoric, theology, and cosmology.