Item was unsold

Volume I only in 2 parts, folio (326 x 214mm).  Half-title, errata leaf at end of first part; 4 folding engraved plates (one in facsimile), 4 copper-engraved text-illustrations (one a repeat) to the Galileo dialogues, and other diagrams. (The third folding plate supplied in facsimile; Contents leaf *3 with upper margin torn away and repaired with loss of most of one line of heading; first 5 leaves of preliminaries with gutters reinforced; genuine folding plates with minor marginal fraying and soiling; upper corner of leaf Ii repaired; some lower gutter margins with small area of worming touching letters on a few occasions; occasional minor pale dampstaining; a few minor burnholes.) 18th-century mottled sheep (rebacked, some wear at edges, a few minor abrasions).  Provenance: Thomas Jones, Lonford (early inscription on half-title); John W. Keenan, Irish portrait painter (various ink signatures, inscriptions and two ink drawings, see note below). 

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF GALILEO'S DIALOGO, the major work to be included in volume I, and the first vernacular translation in any language. The Systeme of the World, followed by the short but important Epistle to the Grand Dutchesse Mother concerning the Authority of Holy Scripture in Philosophical Controversies (known today as the Letter to Christina), was only the second work of Galileo's to be published in England. It preceded the Latin edition, published in London by Thomas Dicas, by two years and remained the only vernacular translation for two centuries. Apart from the two works by Galileo, Salusbury included 7 other translations from Italian and Latin in volume I of his Collections. Some copies also include an errata leaf following 3Z2 (present here). The second volume, including an extensive life of Galileo in part two, was published in 1665 but almost totally destroyed in the Great Fire of London.

This copy is from the library of John Keenan (fl. 1780-1819), Irish portrait and miniature painter, who exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1791-1815 and was appointed portrait painter to Queen Charlotte in 1809. The volume contains various inscriptions (a few dated 1820s) and two signed ink drawings by him, including a detailed armorial drawing captioned “Barber’s, Arms” on the blank recto of the second folding plate,  and a detailed drawing of his invention identified as the “Harmonical Glasses,” with descriptive text below on the blank verso of the last leaf of the Table of Contents at the end of the first part (Zzz2v), signed “John Keenan, Inventor, Longford,” inscription dated 1821. Carli-Favaro 276; ESTC R19153; Wing S-517.