Galileo rehabilitated. The first collected edition of Galileo's (1564-1642) works to include his famous Dialogo defending Copernicus' heliocentric model of the universe against the traditional Ptolemaic system, here 'finally released to the public with the appropriate licences' (to the reader).

First printed in 1632, the Dialogo led to Galileo's arrest and trial for heresy the following year. Found guilty, he was placed under house-arrest for the remainder of his life, and the future publication of any of his works was banned. His rehabilitation began in 1737 when the Inquisition agreed to move his remains from an unmarked grave to a mausoleum opposite Michaelangelo's tomb in the Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence. Seven years later the present work was published with the Church's consent, although prefaced by Galileo's sentence and abjuration of 1633, and a theological introduction countering the heretical aspects of the work. The Dialogo itself remained on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum until 1835.

This edition 'much more complete and orderly than the previous two' (Riccardi), and includes Galileo's Trattato del modo di misurare, Ventitrè lettere, and Problemi vari in addition to the Dialogo, which all appear here for the first time in any of his collected works. Despite this new freedom to print some of Galileo's most controversial works, the editor, Abbot Giuseppe Toaldo (1719-1797), professor of mathematics and astronomy at Padua, still had to obey the instructions of an Inquisitor of the Congregation of the Holy Office.

With 28 leaves of additional manuscript notes in an early hand, including figures, mainly referring to two scientific Italian authors, Guido Grandi (1671-1742) and Giuseppe Venturoli (1768-1846).

First complete collected edition, third overall; 4 vols; 4to (25 x 18.5 cm); engraved portrait frontispiece by Zucchi, titles in red and black with Phoenix device, text in Italian, 1 folding engraved plate, numerous woodcuts in-text, woodcut initials and headpieces, MS annotations in pen to front free endpapers, scattered marginalia in pencil, table on inserted lead in vol. II quire XXX, 26ff on separate sheets of loose MS notes and geometric drawings in a contemporary hand, small internal tear to f.Y2 vol. IV with minor loss, otherwise internally bright and crisp with only occasional very minor browning; contemporary vellum, contrasting red morocco lettering-pieces to spine, sprinkled edges, labels slightly chipped, otherwise a fine set; [8], lxxxviii, [4], 601, [1]; [4], 564; [4], 486; [8], 342, [2]pp.

Brunet II, 1461; Carli and Favaro 478; Cinti 176; Gamba p.152; Houzeau and Lancaster 3386; Riccardi I, 522 'molto più completa ed ordinata delle due precedenti'.