VITA e COMMERCIO LETTERARIO di GALILEO GALILEI Nobile e Patrizio Fiorentino Mattematico e Filosofo Sopraordinario de' Gran Duchi di Toscana COSIMO E FERDINANDO II. Scritta da GIO. BATISTA CLEMENTE DE NELLI...

TWO VOLUME SET - Complete in These Two Volumes (Four Parts, in Two Volumes). TEXT IN ITALIAN.

Losanna (LAUSANNE) : 1793. Publisher unstated.

FIRST EDITION. Contains the FIRST BIBLIOGRAPHY of the works of GALILEO.

I collated these two volumes page-by-page with copies from the Rare Book Rooms of Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and Cambridge University.

Two Hardcover Books, blue cloth covered boards, 7.5x10 inches.

Pagination:

VOLUME I: Frontispiece, xvi Introductory pages, 471 Text pages (actually 467 pages because pagination skips to page 429 after page 424 - as normal - text flows correctly - collates correctly with rare copies at Harvard and Cambridge), + one blank.

VOLUME II: [2], 471-961 pages.

The two volumes are ILLUSTRATED with TEN (of TWELVE) plates, namely: 2 engraved frontispiece portraits of Galileo (one in each Volume), 7 (of 9) engraved plates, and 1 large folding genealogical chart / plate. Four of the original nine plates were fold-open, but 2 of those 4 (plates IX and X) are now lacking (being the 2 of 12 plates that are missing).

Condition:

The covers are soiled and worn, the blue cloth covering is rubbed, splotchy, split at the spine folds, worn through at the corners, and chipped away at the spine ends, nonetheless the covers are present and still bound well to the inner pages; there is a splattering of dark blue spots to the bottom page edges of Volume I and to the top page edges of Volume II (page edges of the closed books).

Volume I has some old shorelining / water staining to the margins of various pages here and there throughout - nothing too significant except in the margins of a few pages where the margin soiling is heavy; overall the pages are in remarkably bright condition.

Volume II has shorelining / water staining to the upper margin area of the frontispiece and title page; is missing the leaf that would be pages v/vi - consisting of a "Part Three" title page and its blank verso (i.e. no text is missing); there is shorelining / light water staining and soiling to the top blank margin of a number of pages here and there throughout, not affecting text; leaf consisting of pages 521/522 has a stiff crease that appears to be a binder's error (text is complete); there are wormholes / small worm lines to the bottom blank margin of the latter pages, not affecting text; the upper corner area of pages 951-960 is soiled and foxed; page 961 (the last page - the verso is blank) has its upper portion torn away, including approximately 3 lines of 2 column.

The plates are all bright and clear, some with mild margin soiling and/or margin shorelining. The fold-open genealogical chart has some splitting at the folds and tearing near the gutter, but is overall solid, bright and clear.

A SOLID SET of these TWO VOLUMES with 10 of 12 plates and only the faults as described above. The covers are worn, but internally both volumes are still tight, bright and clear. A very presentable set.

RARE and IMPORTANT 1793 First Edition Books on GALILEO.

From an 1861 Sotheby auction catalog - the "Catalogue of the Mathematical, Historical and Miscellaneous Portion of the Celebrated Library of M. Guglielmo Libri":

******Nelli. VITA e COMMERCIO LETTERARIO di GALILEO GALILEI... Scritta da GIO. BATISTA CLEMENTE DE NELLI... Losanna, 1793.

A most valuable contribution to scientific biography, giving full particulars of Galileo's friends and opponents, and containing extracts of numerous unpublished letters of Galileo and his friends which Nelli was prevented by death from publishing in extenso, and which were only partially published in the last edition of Galileo's works.******