4° (224x160 mm). Printed on thick paper. Collation: [π] ² , A-Z ⁴ , Aa-Ee ⁴ , Ff ⁶ . [6], 236 pages. Roman and italic type. Title-page within a fine engraved architectural border by Francesco Villamena (ca. 1566-1626), the arms of Pope Urban VIII Barberini in the upper panel, Lincei device in the lower. Between fols. [π]2 and A1 Galileo’s full-page portrait, likewise engraved by Villamena. Numerous woodcut vignettes and diagrams of different sizes in the text. On fol. P4v diagram correctly pasted over the original misprinted one. Woodcut headpieces and decorated initials; tailpiece on the verso of the last leaf. Beautiful Roman contemporary vellum over pasteboards, probably executed in the Soresini bindery. Covers within gilt frames lavishly decorated with foliate tools; at the centre cornerpieces, and gilt coat of arms of the Barberini family, probably Antonio in particular (three bees surmounted by a Maltese cross). Smooth spine, richly gilt tooled. Covers slightly stained. A very fine copy, some leaves uniformly browned, a few minor spots. The first quire slightly weak.

Provenance: probably Antonio Barberini (1607-1671; armorial binding; see below); ‘Ad usum D. Aurelii Alberghi Faventini Monachi Camaldulens. 1773’ (ownership inscription on the title-page); ‘Di L. Gio. de Romani da Casalmaggiore’ (ownership inscription on the recto of the front flyleaf; in the same hand the shelfmark ‘C.II.96’).

First edition – in the first issue – of Galileo’s manifesto on the new science, presented here in an extraordinary copy bearing the Barberini coat of arms on its covers, and most likely offered as a gift to Antonio Barberini (see below). This copy represents one of only a few copies of the first issue that were printed on thick paper, without the preliminary verses by Faber and Stelluti (signed a ⁴ ), and with the correct diagram on fol. P4v pasted over the misprinted one.

Galileo wrote the Saggiatore (The Assayer) as a reply to the Libra astronomica et philosophica by Jesuit mathematician and astronomer Orazio Grassi (1583-1654), which was published in 1619 under the pseudonym Lotario Sarsi. “As Galileo had been forbidden since 1616 to espouse or defend Copernican theory, he avoided direct discussion of the earth’s motion, choosing instead the more subtle method of establishing a general scientific approach to the investigation of celestial phenomena” (Norman 857).

The printing of Galileo’s work began in May 1623. Maffeo Barberini (1568-1644) was elected Pope Urban VIII on 6 August, and the work was dedicated to him as it came off the press in October. Three different states of the 1623 edition are known.

The first issue is usually identified – as it is here – by the short errata containing only sixteen corrections printed on the verso of the last leaf (fol. F6v): during the printing Galileo was in Florence and could not supervise corrections; for the second issue he added an additional errata leaf, printed on an extra leaf bound at the end of the work. The list was further revised for a total of 137 errata included in the third and final issue. Further, the first issue is lacking four preliminary leaves (signed a ⁴ ) containing two poems in praise of Galileo composed by two of his Lincean friends, one in Latin by Johannes Faber (ca. 1570-1640), the other in Italian by Francesco Stelluti (1577-1653), which was printed subsequently on different paper.

On 28 October 1623, Francesco Stelluti wrote a letter to Galileo from Rome stating that he had sent fifty copies of the Saggiatore to Florence: “Con il presente procaccio ho inviato a V.S. questa mattina una balla, scrittovi sopra il suo nome [...] e vi son dentro cinquanta copie del Saggiatore di V.S. [...] e fra detti libri ve ne sono otto di carta più fina, che serviranno per dare a cotesti SS.ri suoi amici. Et perché vi è una figura male stampata a cart. 121 [i.e. 120], essendo posta al contrario, perciò ne ho fatte ristampare alcune poche, che se le potrò havere, le manderò con questa, acciò che possa far incollare sopra quella” (Edizione Nazionale delle Opere). According to this document, eight copies had been printed on carta più fina (i.e., thick paper) and intended for Galileo’s closest friends, along with a possible corrective mechanism – Stelluti writes “if I receive them in time” – a small number of loose leaves with the diagram printed on fol. P4v, which were to be correctly pasted over the misprinted ones. Stelluti’s letter further relays that the prince Federico Cesi – founder of the Accademia dei Lincei – delivered the Assayer to Urban VIII during a presentation ceremony in the Vatican Palace on 27 October. A certain number of the freshly printed copies were delivered to important cardinals; according to Stelluti, even the Pope received a copy of the work, undoubtedly bound with his coat of arms. Urban VIII’s copy is not preserved in the Vatican Library, but it is noteworthy that a copy in contemporary Roman morocco bearing the arms of Urban VIII on its covers was sold at Sotheby’s London in 1951. Two copies were also given to Francesco Barberini – the first copy for Francesco himself, and the second likely for another member of his family, possibly the brother Antonio – both bound with the famous Barberini bee device. The copy of the Assayer offered here is in a contemporary Roman binding with the Barberini coat of arms devoid of the cardinal’s wide-brimmed hat with fifteen tassels on each side, simply surmounted by a coronet, and bearing a Maltese cross on the bee device; it may well correspond to the copy offered to Antonio, who was only named cardinal on 7 February 1628, and by 1623 was already a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, ultimately becoming its Gran Priore.

This finely tooled armorial binding in vellum was possibly executed in the workshop led by Baldassare Soresini, heir of Francesco, the founder of one of the most celebrated Roman dynasties of binders, which was active throughout the sixteenth century and first three decades of the seventeenth, and patronized by noble Roman families, cardinals, and various popes.

STC 17th Century, 373; Bruni-Evans 2315; Carli-Favaro 95; Cinti 73; Norman 857; Riccardi I, p. 511; G. Galilei, Edizione Nazionale delle Opere, XIII, p. 142; M. Biagioli, Galileo, Courtier. The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism, Chicago 1993; O. Besomi - M. Helbing (eds.), Galileo Saggiatore, Roma-Padova 2005.