Add MS 22786

"DE Mundi Sphæra Tractatus," in thirty-four chapters; with diagrams at the end. It professes to treat "de primo mobili," and "de armillari sphera," but is quite elementary. The theories of Copernicus and Tycho Brahe are referred to, and that of the latter, which makes the earth immoveable and the centre of the solar system, is adopted. The hypotheses of Copernicus and of others of the author's time, as "Origanus in Pref. Tom. primi Heffemeridum (sic), Seuerinus Longomontanus in Astrologia Danica passim præsertim vero libro primo Theoricorum, cap. 1," that the earth revolves round the sun, is rejected as opposed to the Scriptures, f. 8. Galileo is referred to in the following terms: "Circa corpus [symbol] nostra tempestate omnium primus Galileus per tubum opticum obseruauit girare quatuor stellulas seu anbiguas planetas," f. 40; and again, "Nostra ætate obseruati sunt a Galileo circa [symbol] duo comites moueri," etc., f. 40 b. At f. 43 the observations of Fredericus Horumannus taken in the island of Sumatra are spoken of; the name being evidently miswritten for Houtmannus. Frederic Houtmann went with his brother Cornelis to the East Indies in the year 1598. The latest date referred to is the year 1618, as that of the last comet, f. 44 b. The spelling frequently shows ignorance of the Latin language. The treatise was stated to be the work of Galileo by M. Libri, and to be his autograph; and at the end of the volume is inserted a letter of Raimondo Giarre, "Perito Calligrafo Criminale," to M. Libri, dat. Florence, 7 June, 1859, and attested by various officials, in which an opinion is given that the MS. is in the handwriting of Galileo. This conclusion is by no means borne out by a comparison of the writing of the treatise with that of Galileo. The handwriting is rather that of a scribe, who is responsible for the numerous false spellings of the Latin words. Moreover, the internal evidence of the treatise is strongly opposed to the statement that it is the work of Galileo; who, in fact, as has been shown, is referred to in terms incompatible with such a presumption. Paper; XVIIth cent. Small Quarto.

Galileo Galilei: De Sphæra Mundi, attributed to: 17th cent.

Augustus De Morgan, mathematician: Letters to Sir A. Panizzi: 1859.

Cosmogony and Cosmography: De sphæra mundi, attributed to G. Galilei: 17th cent.