Books by Stillman Drake (trans.)
“For me, The Dialogue is like reading Shakespeare. An entire world is in it. It’s not a scientific work in any normal sense, by our standard, or even by the standards of his own time. It’s like reading Plato and Shakespeare together, learning a lot about astronomy, and being very entertained while it’s going on…Galileo has mustered all of his knowledge and understanding of the resources of his society, of every moment in his life about science, but also every cultural moment that’s been meaningful, and he’s brought them all to bear in this very theatrical style of writing.” Read more...
The best books on Galileo Galilei
Paula Findlen, Historian
Interviews where books by Stillman Drake (trans.) were recommended
-
1
Life of Galileo
by Bertolt Brecht -
2
Galileo’s Telescope: A European Story
by Franco Giudice, Massimo Bucciantini and Michele Camerota, translated by Catherine Bolton -
3
Letters to Father: Sister Maria Celeste to Galileo
by Suor Maria Celeste (Virginia Galilei) and Dava Sobel (editor and translator) -
4
On Trial for Reason: Science, Religion, and Culture in the Galileo Affair
by Maurice A. Finocchiaro -
5
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
by Galileo Galilei & Stillman Drake (trans.)
The best books on Galileo Galilei, recommended by Paula Findlen
The best books on Galileo Galilei, recommended by Paula Findlen
The trial of Galileo by the Roman Inquisition was one of the most public confrontations between the new science emerging in the 17th century and the Catholic Church but, nearly 400 years later, there’s still a lot of scope to argue what it was about. Here historian of science Paula Findlen, a professor at Stanford University, explains the endless fascination of Galileo Galilei, the Renaissance man who turned a telescope to the sky and took the world by storm, and recommends the best books to start learning more about him.
