385 - Galilei (Galileo) Istoria e Dimostrazioni intorno alle Macchie Solari e loro accidenti, comprese in tre lettere scritte all’illustrissimo signor Marco Velseri Linceo, first edition, woodcut device of the Accademia dei Lincei to title, engraved portrait plate, 38 full-page engravings of sunspots, 5 engraved plates of the satellites of Jupiter, one folding plate, 8 woodcut and typographic diagrams, woodcut initials, occasional light spotting, small marginal tear (H2), untrimmed, occasional contemporary underlining, later 'alla rustica' limp boards,, title in manuscript to spine, light spotting to backstrip and edges, housed in modern drop-back box, 4to, Rome, Giacomo Mascardi, 1613.

Galilei (Galileo) Istoria e Dimostrazioni intorno alle Macchie Solari e loro accidenti, comprese in tre lettere scritte all’illustrissimo signor Marco Velseri Linceo, first edition, woodcut device of the Accademia dei Lincei to title, engraved portrait plate, 38 full-page engravings of sunspots, 5 engraved plates of the satellites of Jupiter, one folding plate, 8 woodcut and typographic diagrams, woodcut initials, occasional light spotting, small marginal tear (H2), untrimmed, occasional contemporary underlining, later 'alla rustica' limp boards,, title in manuscript to spine, light spotting to backstrip and edges, housed in modern drop-back box, 4to, Rome, Giacomo Mascardi, 1613. *** A fine, wide-margined copy of the first edition, in the issue without Scheiner’s letters (no priority), of this work first announcing Galileo’s adherence to the Copernican system. Patronized by Federico Cesi (1585-1630) Galileo decided to publish his Istoria e Dimostrazione intorno alle Macchie Solari in reply to Christoph Scheiner’s three letters to Marcus Welser announcing his discovery of sunspots. Galilei both claimed the priority of his discovery and contrasted Scheiner’s interpretations. The Lincei Academy decided the book would be supplemented with illustrations and the skilled artist Mattheus Greuter (1564-1638) was entrusted to create thirty-eight separate copperplates depicting sunspots, with each etching measuring 12.5 cm in diameter and closely matching Galileo’s drawings, now held at the Vatican Library. The artist employed an elaborate technique, combining intaglio finissimo, geometric precision, and the use of special inks. Two different issues of Galileo’s Istoria e Dimostrazioni intorno alle Macchie Solari are known, published at the same time. In one issue, Scheiner’s De maculis solaribus tres epistolae Disquisitio ad Marcum Velserum is appended at the end, introduced by a half-title and featuring separate paging. The other issue, an example of which is presented here, does not contain Scheiner’s text. The issue supplemented with the letters was likely intended for the Italian market, while the other was probably destined for north of the Alps: in fact, the German Jesuit was then lecturing at Ingolstadt, and it is possible that a publication of his letters by a Roman printer might have led to a privilege conflict. Provenance: Ink initials to title, ‘FL’ or ‘FTL’, presumably referring to the first owner of the copy; ink-stamp of bookseller Angelo Delai from Brescia (1842-1911), to front free endpaper. Literature: STC 17th century Italian 373; Cinti 44; Carli-Favaro 60; Dawson 2587; Gingerich, Rara Astronomica 32; Riccardi i, 509; Sparrow, Milestones of Science 77; Stillman Drake, Galileo at Work, 198; A. van Helden, “Galileo and Scheiner on Sunspots: A Case Study in the Visual Language of Astronomy”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 140 (1996) pp. 358–396; R. S. Noyes, “Mattheus Greuter’s Sunspot Etchings for Galileo Galilei’s ‘Macchie Solari’ (1613)”, The Art Bulletin, 98, No. 4 (2016), pp. 466-487.