The most famous and significant of Galileo’s astronomical works, published in August 1632 in Florence, and the result of more than thirty years of work and reflection by the great scholar. It was this book that served as the formal occasion for the persecution of the author by the Inquisition. The content of the work is mainly an exposition of various arguments in favor of both geocentric and heliocentric systems, as well as a criticism of the provisions of Aristotelian physics – which is why the author chose for it the form of discussion between the adherents of both theories. The book has contemporary notes and commentary.
The text of this version of the manuscript, in the National Central Library of Florence, is close to the final manuscript prepared for publication (the complete manuscript, with the author’s corrections, is in the library of the Seminary of Padua). Published in 1632, this work took Galileo six years to complete and is one of his most important works. It takes the form of a discussion among a spokesman for Copernicus, a spokesman for Ptolemy and Aristotle, and an educated layman who the two spokesmen attempt to win over. In 1616, an ecclesiastical decree was issued forbidding Galileo to disseminate Copernican views on the structure of the solar system. Galileo traveled to Rome in 1624 to meet with Pope Urban VIII, who refused to lift the edict but gave Galileo permission to discuss the Copernican system in a book, provided he also impartially presented the geocentric view of Ptolemy and Aristotle. The Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World reflects Galileo’s attempt to present and advance his scientific views without violating a decree issued by the church.
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