Realised as part of the 4th centenary celebration of Galileo’s astronomical discoveries, the website (only in Italian) suggests a reconstruction of Galileo’s personal library – some 500 titles, according to Antonio Favaro’s studies, ranging from Euclid to Aristotle, to Copernicus, Kepler and Tartaglia. Galileo’s library housed many books by his contemporaries as well, both disciples (Giovanni Battista Baliani, Benedetto Castelli, and Bonaventura Cavalieri) and opponents (Baldassarre Capra and Orazio Grassi). Although a scientific library, it also included some literature, from great classics to the minor writers of his time.
The virtual exhibition is a fundamental companion to the actual show hosted in the Tribuna Dantesca of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence (5 December 2008 – 28 February 2009). The exhibition presented some 70 printed books and manuscripts coming from the Fondo Galileiano (Galilean Fund), which contains almost all of Galileo’s surviving autographic works, together with documents owned by the Accademia della Crusca.
