Esercitationi filosofiche - photo 1
Esercitationi filosofiche - photo 2
Esercitationi filosofiche - photo 3

Esercitationi filosofiche

Lot 78
27.01.2023 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 100
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 887851
Lot 78 | Esercitationi filosofiche
Estimate value
$ 6 000 – 8 000
ROCCO, Antonio (1578-1653). Esercitationi filosofiche. Venice: Francesco Baba, 1633.

Crisp, unpressed first edition of an important and rare critique of Galileo’s Dialogo, published within a year of the Dialogo. Much of Galileo’s Discorsi (1638) is a response to this work.

Rocco’s Esercitationi prompted Galileo to explain “how he detected and corrected the falsehood in Aristotle’s law of free fall” (Shea) and formulated his own law of falling bodies. Wallace, examining the reasons why the Aristotelians are accorded better treatment in the Discorsi, as compared to that in the Dialogo, remarks that ‘”a factor that is noteworthy was the publication of a book in late 1633 and dedicated to Pope Urban VIII that defended Aristotle’s teaching against the attacks made by Galileo in the Dialogo. The author of the work, entitled Esercitationi Filosofiche, was Antonio Rocco, and it is to Galileo’s credit that he read and annotated Rocco’s critique and even wrote out a series of replies to him, some of which later appeared in the ‘Two new sciences’ [Discorsi].” Also, “Micanzio suggested that Galileo consider Rocco’s book while writing his new treatise on motion. About the end of February Galileo sent to Micanzio seventy-five marginal notes on Rocco’s book, to which he later added some longer comments on separate sheets” (Drake). Stillman Drake and Wallace discuss at length, and Drake quotes from, these replies to Rocco, known as the postils to Rocco.

This work is especially interesting in the light of Pietro Redondi’s recent thesis that the condemnation of Galileo was motivated by his undermining of the tenets of peripatetic philosophy, and thus the philosophical edifice on which the Eucharistic mystery of transubstantiation was based. This was considered so threatening that the Jesuit scholars put on a “show trial,” with heliocentricity being Galileo’s alleged offence, in order to cover up the more serious Eucharistic crisis. Redondi describes Rocco as: “the most Peripatetic and least secular of these Aristotelian adversaries of Galileo - a libertine, a declared unbeliever despite his cloth, author of the most famous pornographic novel in seventeenth century Italy” (L'Alcibiade, fanciullo a scola).

Rocco’s text is arranged in eight sections. The first treats of general philosophical questions. The second is devoted to circular motion and velocity. The third is devoted to the composition of the heavens, the nature of matter, its form and substance, and the reality of substantial transmutation. The fourth is on the corruptibility of the heavens, comets, sunspots, novas, Galileo’s telescopic observations, etc. The fifth is on the moon and its relation to the earth. The sixth is on movement, and whether the earth moves or not. The seventh argues the immobility of the earth. The eighth is on various related topics, such as tides, etc. See Stillman Drake, Galileo at work, pp 359-67; Pietro Redondi, Galileo: Heretic; William Shea, Galileo’s Intellectual Revolution, pp 142-183; William Wallace, Galileo and his Sources, pp 312-4. Carli and Favaro 138; Riccardi I 386.

Quarto (195 x 141mm). Printer's device on title, 2 woodcut diagrams in text. Contemporary Italian vellum, title in manuscript on spine (chip to spine panel, a few stains).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
13.01.2023 – 27.01.2023
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.