Orazio Grassi (1583-1654).  - photo 1
Orazio Grassi (1583-1654).  - photo 2

Orazio Grassi (1583-1654). 

Lot 32
28.04.2021 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 3 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
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ID 519321
Lot 32 | Orazio Grassi (1583-1654). 
Estimate value
£ 3 000 – 5 000
Orazio Grassi (1583-1654). 
Ratio Ponderum Librae et Simbellae. Naples: Matthaeus Nuccius, 1627.
Rare first Italian edition of Grassi’s counter-polemic against Galileo’s Il saggiatore(1623). The first edition was published in Paris in 1626. This is the concluding work in the series of publications which document the ‘controversy of the comets’, one of the most infamous polemics in the history of science. Grassi previously published another work, Disputatio Astronomica, to which Galileo replied with Discorso delle Comete of Mario Guiducci; Grassi then wrote Libra Astronomica Ac Philosophica and Galilei answered with the Saggiatore. In the present work, Grassi replies once again, pointing out that Galileo is not capable of speaking Latin and doesn't know the buoni costumi; he even asks himself if it was really Galileo who invented the telescope. This Naples edition ‘took care of the numerous errors and omissions in the mangled Paris edition’ (Feingold) published the previous year. Very rare; only 4 copies recorded in Italian libraries, while ABPC/RBH record just one copy since 1902. Carli-Favaro, p. 24; Cinti 80; Feingold, ‘The grounds for conflict: Grienberger, Grassi, Galileo, and posterity’, The New Science and Jesuit Science, 2003.

Quarto (209 x 152mm). Engraved device on title and one engraved plate (faint stain to title, some light browning and spotting). Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine (a few stains). 
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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14.04.2021 – 28.04.2021
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