• Illustrations of the moon from the second pirated edition of Galileo’s The Starry Messenger.
  • Frontispiece to Galileo’s Dialogue (1632)
  • Engraving of Galileo by Francesco Villamena (1564–24)
  • Portrait of Maffeo Barberini, Urban VIII
  • Titlepage of Galileo's On Sunspots (1613).
  • Illustration from Galileo’s Two New Sciences (1638).
  • Frontispiece of Niccolò Tartaglia’s New Science (1537).
  • The Ptolemaic universe from the Sphere of Sacrobosco, Mattei Mauro (1550).
  • Image from the title page of Galileo’s Assayer (1623).
  • Illustration from Galileo’s Two New Sciences (1638).
  • Title page of Melchior Inchofer’s Summary Treatise (1633).
  • Illustration from Galileo’s Two New Sciences (1638).

Reviews

Anthony Grafton in Bookforum:
http://www.watcheroftheskies.org/downloads/grafton.pdf

John Derbyshire in The New Criterion:
http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-starry-messenger-6770

Claudio Vita-Finzi in The Times Literary Supplement:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7170356.ece

Owen Gingerich in The New York Times:
http://www.watcheroftheskies.org/downloads/gingerich.pdf

Eileen Reeves in the Times Higher Education magazine:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=414591

Jeremy Craddock in The Church Times:
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=104528

John F. Haught in America Magazine:
https://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12593

James Wilsdon in The Financial Times:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/47d74a42-d7e1-11df-b044-00144feabdc0.html

Andrew Crumey in The Scotsman:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Book-Reviews-Galileo-Watcher-of.6583751.jp

Manjit Kumar in the Sunday Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8046404/Galileo-by-David-Wootton-review.html

Jerry Brotton in Literary Review:
http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/brotton_10_10.html

Brian Clegg in Popular Science:
http://www.popularscience.co.uk/reviews/rev572.htm

Jeffrey Beall in Library Journal:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/book/886706-421/science__technology_reviews_october.html.csp

James Hannam in Standpoint:
http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/3414/full

Book Cover Reviews

"In a quiverful of publications, David Wootton has made it his mission to help us view the Renaissance thought-world in new ways, and this elegant biography does not disappoint. The Galileo he portrays is no saint, either Catholic or secular, but is the more fascinating for revealing the great scientist's selfishness, anxiety and political ineptitude, together with all the intellectual blind alleys taken in struggles towards his eventual goal. Wootton vividly contrasts the religious and political claustrophobia of seventeenth-century Italy with the abstract beauty of the mathematics and geometry which so delighted his subject. This is an absorbing study worthy of the life-story it tells.” - Diarmaid MacCulloch

"WoottonÂ’s Galileo is many things: private unbeliever, reluctant empiricist and impetuous thinker. This brilliant book traces GalileoÂ’s difficult negotiations of academic jealousies, court politics and ecclesiastical scrutiny, allows us to imagine the excitement and danger of looking through a telescope in Venice, and gives fresh insights into the mind and the man as father and son. A remarkable achievement." - Justin Champion


Michelagnolo Galilei by Paul Beier