The first collection and translation into English of the earliest biographical accounts of Galileo's lifeThis unique critical edition presents key early biographical accounts of the life and work of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), written by his close contemporaries. Collected and translated into English for the first time and supplemented by an i

"This book is a superb and lasting contribution to our knowledge of Galileo Galilei and a timely complement to the recent biographies of the greatest of early modern scientists. Gattei offers excellent translations of more than a dozen early biographical portraits of Galileo, explaining their philosophical, political, and religious constraints, their literary models, and their basis in fact and fiction. This is the afterlife Galileo deserves."—Eileen Reeves, author of Evening News: Optics, Astronomy, and Journalism in Early Modern Europe“On the Life of Galileo will be read with profit by scholars and anyone interested in perceptions of Galileo and his work by contemporaries who knew him. Gattei shows how Galileo’s immediate followers and students spread his views through a carefully constructed mythic persona.”—Jed Z. Buchwald, coauthor of Newton and the Origin of Civilization"The struggle over the meaning and memory of Galileo's life began even before his death. Stefano Gattei generously and eruditely supplies us with all the available early eulogies, caricatures, sketches, and condemnations, and allows us to see the fraught process by which Galileo became Galileo."—Nick Wilding, author of Galileo’s Idol: Gianfrancesco Sagredo and the Politics of Knowledge“Gattei brings together an important corpus of source material that is essential for understanding what people thought they knew about Galileo and how their perceptions began to shape early mythologies about his life, his work, and his trial and condemnation.”—Paula Findlen, editor of Early Modern Things: Objects and Their Histories, 1500–1800"This is a thoroughly researched and fully annotated collection, with English translation, of the earliest Galileo biographies, written in his own century. It represents a substantial contribution to Galilean historiography and our understanding of how the Galileo myth came to be."—Michael Segre, author of In the Wake of Galileo"This book is an original and important addition to the literature on Galileo and seventeenth-century science. It is also a concrete and instructive discussion of historiographical problems regarding scientific biographies. Gattei’s erudition is impressive and captivating."—Maurice A. Finocchiaro, editor and translator of The Essential Galileo