Produced by David Edwards, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) +—————————————————————————————————————————————————————+ | Transcriber’s note: | | | | Words in _Italic_ are enclosed between underscores. | +—————————————————————————————————————————————————————+ THE SIDEREAL MESSENGER RIVINGTONS London _Waterloo Place_ Oxford _Magdalen Street_ Cambridge _Trinity Street_ [Illustration: GALILEO’S BROKEN LENS. EXHIBITED IN THE LOAN COLLECTION OF SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS AT THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM, 1876. _From a photograph of the Science and Art Department, South Kensington._] THE SIDEREAL MESSENGER OF GALILEO GALILEI _AND A PART OF THE PREFACE TO KEPLER’S DIOPTRICS_ CONTAINING THE ORIGINAL ACCOUNT OF GALILEO’S ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. A Translation with Introduction and Notes BY EDWARD STAFFORD CARLOS, M.A. HEAD MATHEMATICAL MASTER IN CHRIST’S HOSPITAL. RIVINGTONS _WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON_ Oxford and Cambridge MDCCCLXXX PREFATORY NOTE. About five years ago I was engaged in preparing a catalogue of the ancient books which belong to Christ’s Hospital. One portion of these books consisted of a collection of ancient mathematical works presented at various times for the use of that part of the school which is known as the Royal Mathematical Foundation of King Charles II. Amongst them were some well known by name to every mathematical student, but which few have ever seen. Perhaps the most interesting of them all was a little volume, printed in London in 1653, containing Gassendi’s _Explanation of the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems of Astronomy_, as well as that of Tycho Brahe, Galileo’s _Sidereus Nuncius_, and Kepler’s _Dioptrics_. I found Galileo’s account of his astronomical discoveries so interesting, both in matter and in style, that I translated it as a recreation from school-work. I venture to think that others also will be interested in following Galileo through the apprehension of his famous discoveries, and in reading the language in which he announced them. INTRODUCTION.