Supplement to the National Edition of Galilei’s Works

The Updated Supplement to the National Edition edited by Antonio Favaro has been sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Culture. It has been published by Giunti Editore under the scientific supervision of Museo Galileo. This project has been aimed at integrating and expanding the historic Edizione Nazionale with the addition of illustrations, texts, letters and documents that were not included in the twenty volumes published between 1890 and 1909. The publication of the fourth and last volume represents the culmination of an endeavor that is intended to provide Galilean scholars with significant new material that should stimulate innovative research.

 

Vol 1: Iconografia galileiana, edited by F. Tognoni
Florence, Giunti, 2013, 608 pp. + 16 pp. of colour plates

The book features the most complete collection of images related to the Tuscan scientist ever published, including portraits, commemorative medallions, miniatures, and sculptures, which span across four centuries. The 335 entries outline the story of each work of art and offer information about materials and techniques as well as a detailed bibliography.

 

Vol 2: Carteggio, edited by M. Camerota and P. Ruffo, in collaboration with M. Bucciantini
Florence, Giunti, 2015, 664 pp.

This book features letters which were published after Favaro’s National Edition had been completed, over 100 years ago. It includes unpublished letters discovered through the systematic exploration of archives and libraries carried out as part of this project. The 588 letters collected in this volume—including 120 letters which have never been published before—supplement the correspondence edited by Favaro and make it possible to fill in significant gaps. The letters collected in this volume are important documents, disclosing unknown details of Galileo’s life or shedding some light on unexplored aspects of his scientific theories.

 

Vol 3: Testi, edited by A. Battistini, M. Camerota, G. Ernst, R. Gatto, M. Helbing, and P. Ruffo
Florence, Giunti, 2017, 280 pp.

Just a very few Galileo’s texts were not included in the National Edition edited by Antonio Favaro, who left them out since he thought them to be not very important. The Updated Supplement’s editors decided to voice all Galileo’s interests and publish also the works that have been excluded. This volume includes the following chapters:

Quaestiones de praecognitionibus et praecognitis. Tractatio de demonstratione, edited by M. Helbing
Astrologica nonnulla
, edited by G. Ernst
La “versione breve” delle Mecaniche di Galileo Galilei, edited by R. Gatto
Discorso del flusso e reflusso del mare, edited by M. Camerota and P. Ruffo
Le postille petrarchesche di Galileo, edited by A. Battistini

 

Vol 4: Documenti, edited by M. Camerota and P. Ruffo
Florence, Giunti, 2019, 352 pp.

The fourth volume includes a great number of documents which supplement the National Edition edited by Antonio Favaro. These documents are collected in two parts, respectively relevant to Galileo’s life and work and to his tormented relationship with the Inquisition. In both cases, fresh news and details let us go into Galileo’s vicissitudes thoroughly.