strations of Two New Sciences appertaining to Mechanics and Motion."[1] This work, known under the abridged title, "Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze," was dedicated to the Count de Noailles, in grateful remembrance of the warm interest which he had always shown in the author.[2] It is the most copious and best of all Galileo's writings, and he himself valued it more highly than any of the others.[3] In it he created the new sciences of the doctrine of cohesion in stationary bodies, and their resistance when torn asunder; also that of phoronomics, and thereby opened up new paths in a field of science that had been lying fallow. He must, indeed, be regarded as the real founder of mechanical physics. It is not our province to enter farther into the contents of this work, or its importance for science. It has, however, some significance in our historical review of Galileo's relations with the curia, for it excited immense attention in all learned circles, and increasingly attracted the notice of the scientific world to the prisoner of the Inquisition. This was by no means agreeable to the Romanists, who would have been glad to see him sink into oblivion. Galileo now again received communications from all countries, some of them expressing the highest admiration of his new work, and others asking more information on many of the theories expounded. And we now behold the shattered old man of seventy-four, only partially recovered from his severe illness, carrying on an extensive correspondence full of the most abstruse problems in physics and mathematics.[4]
In January, 1639, as his health had so far improved as to allow the hope to be indulged that he might be spared some
- ↑ "Discorsi e Dimostrazione Matematiche intorno a due Scienze attenenti alla Meccanica e ai Movimenti Locali. Con una Appendice del Centro di gravita di alcuni Solidi."
- ↑ See Galileo's letter to the Count de Noailles of 6th March, 1638, and his answer of 20th July. (Op. vii. pp. 209-211, and x. pp. 308-310.)
- ↑ Comp. Op. vii. pp. 44, 46, 57, 70.
- ↑ Op. vii. pp. 218-226; x. pp. 316, 317, 320, 321.
