Andrès wrote an essay entitled 'Saggio sulla Filosofia del Galileo,'
published at Mantua 1776; and Jagemann published his 'Geschichte des
Leben des Galileo' at Leipzig, in 1787;[177] neither of these the author
has been able to meet with. An analysis of the latter may be seen in
Kästner's 'Geschichte der Mathematik, Göttingen, 1800,' from which it
does not appear to contain any additional details. The 'Elogio del
Galileo' by Paolo Frisi, first published at Leghorn in 1775, is, as its
title expresses, rather in the nature of a panegyric than of a
continuous biographical account. It is written with very great elegance
and intimate knowledge of the subjects of which it treats. Nelli gave
several curious particulars with respect to Galileo in his 'Saggio di
Storia Letteraria Fiorentina, Lucca, 1759;' and in 1793 published his
large work entitled 'Vita e Commercio Letterario di Galileo Galilei.' So
uninteresting a book was probably never written from such excellent
materials. Two thick quarto volumes are filled with repetitions of the
accounts that were already in print, the bulky preparation of which
compelled the author to forego the publication of the vast collection of
original documents which his unwearied zeal and industry had collected.
This defect has been in great measure supplied by Venturi in 1818 and
1821, who has not only incorporated in his work many of Nelli's
manuscripts, but has brought together a number of scattered notices of
Galileo and his writings from a variety of outlying sources—a service
which the writer is able to appreciate from having gone through the
greatest part of the same labour before he was fortunate enough to meet
with Venturi's book. Still there are many letters cited by Nelli, which
do not appear either in his book or Venturi's. Carlo Dati, in 1663,
quotes "the registers of Galileo's correspondence arranged in
alphabetical order, in ten large volumes."[178] The writer has no means
of ascertaining what collection this may have been; it is difficult to
suppose that one so arranged should have been lost sight of. It is
understood that a life of Galileo is preparing at this moment in
Florence, by desire of the present Grand Duke, which will probably throw
much additional light on the character and merits of this great and
useful philosopher.
The first editions of his various treatises, as mentioned by Nelli, are
given below. Clement, in his 'Bibliothèque Curieuse,' has pointed out
such among them, and the many others which have been printed, as have
become rare.
The Florentine edition is the one used by the Academia della Crusca for
their references; for which reason its paging is marked in the margin of
the edition of Padua, which is much more complete, and is the one which
has been on the present occasion principally consulted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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