Behind the Scenes at Galileo's Trial: Including the First English Translation of Melchior Inchofer's Tractatus syllepticus

Blackwell (emeritus, philosophy, Saint Louis U.) justifies this addition to the vast literature on the 17th century trial of Galileo by noting that Inchofer's judgment against Galileo's Dialogue remained largely unknown in English because his Tractatus Syllepticus had not been translated until now. Translations of two other Latin works, one by a noted Jesuit astronomer, shed further light on the Church's case and why Galileo eventually confessed that his assertion that the Earth orbits the sun was heresy. The author's books include Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible (1991) and a translation of A Defense of Galileo, the Mathematician from Florence (1994) . Annotation 2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)