The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History (California Studies in the History of Science)

Reader Reviews
When I browsed through Amazon.com, I was amazed that after all of these years there was not a single review on this book. I wanted to write a review to let people know what this book is about. Basically Finocchiaro has made an excellent compilation of all documents pertaining the famous "Galileo Affair", of what happened in the Inquisition's case against Galileo. But more than that, Finocchiaro in his "Introduction" to the book, deals with both sides of the affair, of those against Galileo, and of those in his favor. He then tries to make a very accurate interpretation about what really happened them, and pointing to both groups' flaws about their interpretation of history. Certainly the Galileo Affair was not just a case where the Inquisition was absolutely right, but also it is far beyond the statement that the Inquisition wanted him silenced to prevent the advance of science. The Galileo Affair is much more complex than that, and Finnochiaro takes into account the scientific, philosophical, theological and political realities of the time. The documents in the book include correspondence, Inquisition documents, fragments of Galileo's writings, among others. You MUST have this book if you want to understand more accurately the Galileo Affair.