Is My Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Quarto (about 216 x 157 mm), imprint 'In Fiorenza, per Gio
• Batista Landini, 1632', with Landini's woodcut printer's device on the title, 31 woodcut diagrams and illustrations in the text, italic type with shoulder notes in roman, woodcut and factotum initials, and the errata leaf Ff6
• Two points recur in every careful description and are the practical tests
• First, a small printed cancel slip pasted into the margin of F6v (page 92), supplying a question of Simplicio dropped through a compositor's error; it is frequently missing, with only paste residue surviving, and its absence is common rather than disqualifying
• Second, the letter H added in manuscript ink to the diagram on M8v (page 192), which independent dealers and auction houses alike record 'as usual'
• The etched frontispiece by Stefano della Bella, showing Aristotle, Ptolemy and Copernicus in conversation, was added only after distribution had begun and several copies had already been sold, so it is often absent — its presence is not a first-edition test

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
4. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

Florence: Giovanni Battista Landini, 1632 is the true first — the Italian original, printed under a formal licence from the Inquisition, presented to Ferdinando II de' Medici on 22 February 1632, and suppressed within months, with the work placed on the Index in 1633. Two later editions must be named because both are collected in their own right. The first Latin is Systema cosmicum, translated by Matthias Bernegger at Galileo's wish and printed at Strasbourg by David Hautt in 1635 in an edition of about 600 copies, on sale by March of that year. The first English is in the first tome of Thomas Salusbury's Mathematical Collections and Translations (London, 1661) — the first rendering of the Dialogo into any vernacular and the only one for more than two centuries; Salusbury's second tome of 1665 was almost wholly destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, with only about seven copies of its first part recorded. Stillman Drake's 1953 translation is a modern 'first thus', not a first edition of anything.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition exists for a 1632 quarto. The reprint traps are the 1635 Strasbourg Latin Systema cosmicum, the later collected editions of Galileo's Opere, and modern facsimiles. Within the 1632 edition itself, the frequent absence of the della Bella frontispiece and of the page 92 cancel slip reflects how the book was distributed rather than a later printing — but for that same reason a frontispiece supplied from elsewhere is a known concern, and Whitmore's description of a copy records checking the frontispiece for the correct, thicker paper stock and dark-ink impression consistent with the initial run.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo a first edition?

A first edition of Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo by Galileo Galilei (Giovanni Battista Landini, Florence) is identified by: Quarto (about 216 x 157 mm), imprint 'In Fiorenza, per Gio.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. Florence: Giovanni Battista Landini, 1632 is the true first — the Italian original, printed under a formal licence from the Inquisition, presented to Ferdinando II de' Medici on 22 February 1632, and suppressed within months, with the work placed on the Index in 1633.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club edition exists for a 1632 quarto. The reprint traps are the 1635 Strasbourg Latin Systema cosmicum, the later collected editions of Galileo's Opere, and modern facsimiles. Within the 1632 edition itself, the frequent absence of the della Bella frontispiece and of the page 92 cancel slip reflects how the book was distributed rather than a later printing — but for that same reason a frontispiece supplied from elsewhere is a known concern, and Whitmore's description of a copy records c

I have a first edition of Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.