Dialogo, the Honeyman copy - photo 1
Dialogo, the Honeyman copy - photo 2
Dialogo, the Honeyman copy - photo 3
Dialogo, the Honeyman copy - photo 4

Dialogo, the Honeyman copy

Lot 22
05.02.2026 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1540271
Lot 22 | Dialogo, the Honeyman copy
Estimate value
$ 80 000 – 120 000
GALILEI, Galileo (1564-1642). Dialogo ... sopre i due massimi sistemi del mondo Tolemaico, e Copernicano. Florence: Giovanni Battista Landini, 1632.

The fresh Honeyman copy of the first edition of Galilei's famous defense of Copernican heliocentrism, which resulted in his trial and imprisonment, issue with pasted and manuscript corrections. In 1624, eight years after being forbidden to promulgate heliocentrism by the previous pope, Galileo was granted permission to write on the subject by the new Pope Urban VIII, his friend and patron for more than a decade—on the condition that Aristotelian and Copernican theories were put forward equally and impartially. To this end, Galileo wrote his work as a dialogue between Salviati, a Copernican, and Simplicio ("Dummy"), an upholder of the geocentric Ptolemaic and Aristotelian orthodoxy. Far from impartial, the work "is a masterly polemic for the new science. It displays all the great discoveries in the heavens which the ancients had ignored" (PMM). For this, Galileo lost the support of Urban VIII and was called to Rome for trial by the Inquisition. His sentence of life imprisonment was immediately commuted to permanent house arrest and the Dialogo was placed on the Index, where it remained until 1832. Carli and Favaro, p. 28; Cinti 89; Norman 858; PMM 128. Exhibited: "The Heavens Revealed," Chapin Library, Williams College, 2003.

Quarto (215 x 158mm). With the errata leaf, printed correction slip on p. 92, and diagram on p. 192 corrected by hand. Engraved additional title by Stefano della Bella, woodcut Landini device on title, woodcut text diagrams and illustrations, woodcut ornamental initials, type-ornament head- and tailpieces and factotum initials (some scattered browning, a few spots, bifolium Ff3.4 sprung). Contemporary limp vellum wrapper (spine panel partially torn revealing printed waste reused as spine-liner within) Custom chemise and slipcase. Provenance: a few learned marginal annotations – Robert Honeyman (his sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 5 November 1979, lot 1406).
Artist:Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)
Place of origin:Italy
Auction house category:Medicine & science, Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
22.01.2026 – 05.02.2026
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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