Galileo › Reading room
The reading room
The original sources that are free online, and what each one is good for. Every link opens the source itself, not a summary of it.
Galileo’s own words
- The Starry Messenger (1610)The little book that made him famous: the moon’s mountains and the moons of Jupiter, night by night. Carlos’s English translation of 1880, free at Project Gutenberg.
- The first edition, page by pageThe Library of Congress copy of the 1610 Venice printing, with his own etchings of the moon. The pictures on our Starry Messenger page come from it.
- Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615)His argument for keeping Scripture and astronomy apart. Fordham University’s Internet History Sourcebooks.
- Two New Sciences (1638)His last and greatest book of physics, in Crew and de Salvio’s translation of 1914. Online Library of Liberty.
The trial
- Bellarmine’s letter to Foscarini (1615)The cardinal’s terms: a hypothesis is fine; a real demonstration would change everything. Fordham Sourcebooks.
- The sentence of 1633The full text of the condemnation, in English. Part of Douglas Linder’s Famous Trials project.
- The trial of Galileo: an accountA clear narrative, with key documents and figures. Famous Trials.
His family
- Sister Maria CelesteHis elder daughter, whose 124 letters to him survive. The Galileo Project at Rice University.
Collections and museums
- Museo Galileo, Florence: digital libraryThe museum that holds his surviving telescopes, with digitised books and manuscripts.
- Galileo’s works, searchableMuseo Galileo’s Galileoteca: the texts of his works, online.
- The middle finger of his right handRemoved when his body was moved to Santa Croce in 1737, and now in a glass case in Florence. Museo Galileo catalogue.
The proof, and the legend
- Bradley’s letter of 1729The first proof that the earth moves, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
- Draper, History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874)The book that gave the world Galileo in prison. Project Gutenberg.
- White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology (1896)The other half of the war story. Project Gutenberg.
Links checked October 2026. If one has moved, tell me.
More questions
- Was Galileo tortured?
- Did Galileo really say “and yet it moves”?
- Did the Church refuse to look through Galileo’s telescope?
- Did Galileo prove that the earth moves?
- Why was Galileo put on trial?
- Did Galileo drop weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
- Was Galileo thrown into prison?
- The timeline, 1564–1992
- The reading room: original sources online
Something to read first
The trial file
A short piece, free: what the documents in Galileo’s own trial file actually say, including the two pages that decided it. It isn’t sold anywhere, and it’s the fastest way to see how these books are built.
One email when there’s a new book. Nothing else, and you can leave any time.