Galileo
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Few figures in the history of science have ignited as much controversy, wonder, and enduring fascination as Galileo Galilei, and Colin A. Ronan's Galileo presents a masterful portrait of the man who dared to challenge the intellectual foundations of his age. Set against the rich backdrop of Renaissance Italy, this biography chronicles the life of the Pisan polymath — astronomer, physicist, and mathematician — whose telescopic observations of the heavens and unwavering defence of the Copernican heliocentric model brought him into direct and dramatic conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. Ronan details with precision the arc of Galileo's genius, from his early experiments with motion and mechanics to his celebrated discoveries of Jupiter's moons, the phases of Venus, and the cratered surface of the Moon, painting a vivid picture of a mind perpetually at war with orthodoxy. Beyond the biographical narrative, this work stands as a compelling study of the tension between scientific inquiry and institutional authority — a tension that remains urgently relevant centuries after Galileo's death. Ronan writes with the clarity and authority of a seasoned historian of science, grounding complex astronomical and physical concepts in accessible, elegant prose that never sacrifices intellectual rigour for readability. The result is a biography that illuminates not just a singular life, but the very birth of the modern scientific method — leaving the reader to wonder just how different our world might look had Galileo's inquisitors chosen differently.
Author: Colin A. Ronan
Format: Hardback
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Few figures in the history of science have ignited as much controversy, wonder, and enduring fascination as Galileo Galilei, and Colin A. Ronan's Galileo presents a masterful portrait of the man who dared to challenge the intellectual foundations of his age. Set against the rich backdrop of Renaissance Italy, this biography chronicles the life of the Pisan polymath — astronomer, physicist, and mathematician — whose telescopic observations of the heavens and unwavering defence of the Copernican heliocentric model brought him into direct and dramatic conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. Ronan details with precision the arc of Galileo's genius, from his early experiments with motion and mechanics to his celebrated discoveries of Jupiter's moons, the phases of Venus, and the cratered surface of the Moon, painting a vivid picture of a mind perpetually at war with orthodoxy. Beyond the biographical narrative, this work stands as a compelling study of the tension between scientific inquiry and institutional authority — a tension that remains urgently relevant centuries after Galileo's death. Ronan writes with the clarity and authority of a seasoned historian of science, grounding complex astronomical and physical concepts in accessible, elegant prose that never sacrifices intellectual rigour for readability. The result is a biography that illuminates not just a singular life, but the very birth of the modern scientific method — leaving the reader to wonder just how different our world might look had Galileo's inquisitors chosen differently.