Mark Davie has taught Italian at the Universities of Liverpool and Exeter, and has published studies on various aspects of Italian literature, mainly in the period from Dante to the Renaissance. He is particularly interested in the relations between learned and popular culture, and between Latin and the vernacular, in Italy in the Renaissance.

William Shea was a Fellow at Harvard University before becoming Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at McGill University in Montreal and the first incumbent of the Hydro-Quebec Chair. He later taught at the University of Strasbourg from 1996 until 2003 when he was appointed Galileo Professor of History of Science at the University of Padua. He served as Chairman of the Standing Committee for the Humanities of the European Science Foundation, which was an association of major research organizations from 27 countries in Europe. He belongs to several academies including the European Academy, the Royal Society of Canada, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobel prizes and where he is a member of the Committee on Physics and Chemistry. He is the author of 10 books, the co-author or editor of 25 other books, and he has published over 180 scholarly articles that have appeared in 10 languages.

• Introduction


• Note on the Text and Translation


• Select Bibliography


• A Chronology of Galileo


• Dialogue on the Two Greatest World Systems


• Explanatory Notes