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Title: Galileo, title page from Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), Venice, 1610
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1610
Description: In the Sidereus Nuncius, Galileo announced to the world the discoveries made with his new telescope or “perspicilli,” especially the “four planets” circling Jupiter--in fact, Jupiter’s moons--which he names the Medicean stars for his patron, Cosimo II de Medici.

Title: Galileo, Pleiades from the Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), Frankfurt, 1610
Format: photograph: print
Date: 1610

Title: Galileo, the moon from Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), Venice, 1610
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1610
Description: An engraved illustration of features of the moon’s surface, as seen by Galileo with his telescope. He was able to describe the roughness of the moon’s surface and the position of spots and prominences on the light and dark sides.

Title: Galileo, the Pleiades from Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), Venice, 1610
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1610
Description: The observation of the Pleiades and of the previously invisible stars nearby was made possible by Galileo’s new telescope, presented to the scholars of Venice during the summer of 1609. In his published illustration of 1610 he outlined the stars that were already known and represented the others by single lines. He also tried to preserve the distinction in size.

Title: Galileo, illustration from the Sidereus Nuncius (the Sidereal Messenger), Frankfurt, 1610
Format: photograph: print
Date: 1610
Description: Cincvll et Ensis Orionis Asterismvs.

Title: Galileo, two illustrations of the moon from Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), Venice, 1610
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1610
Description: Two illustrations of features of the moon’s surface, showing strong light and dark shadings on the light side. According to the prevailing Aristotelian cosmology, heavenly bodies were perfectly smooth and spherical. Galileo’s observations of the moon’s roughness tended to support the new Copernican system, which no longer upheld the distinction between terrestrial and heavenly bodies.