Banned book on display at Mills
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/diologo.jpg” caption=”As part of Freedom to Read Week, McMaster University Library is displaying Dialogo in its Archives. Published in Florence in 1632 by Gian. Battista Landini, the Library acquired the book in 1966 from Aldo Caselli, along with over 100 books of the Italian Reniassance. Photo by Matt Terry. “]
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Reading this book could get you into trouble. At least, it could have in 1633.
That was the year that Galileo Galilei, best-known as the astronomer who held the once heretical, now proven theory that the earth was not the centre of the universe, had his book Dialogo placed on the Index of Prohibited Books, where it stayed for 200 years.
The book, which demonstrated the validity of the Copernican theory (that the sun is in fact that which the Earth rotates around), caused Galileo to be hauled before the Inquisition while Pope Urban VIII ordered all copies burned. He subsequently recanted his position but was nevertheless imprisoned.
As part of Freedom to Read Week, McMaster University Library is displaying the seminal European work of scientific literature in its Archives. Published in Florence in 1632 by Gian. Battista Landini, the Library acquired the book in 1966 from Aldo Caselli, along with over 100 books of the Italian Reniassance.
"Galileo was a scientist who changed the way we see our world. He battled fearlessly for truth," said Renu Barrett, archivist at the William Ready Division of Archives & Research Collections. "We don't know how many copies of this book still exist, but to be able to see one at the Library is a rare opportunity."
The McMaster copy is a first edition, unique in that it contains marginal notes and diagrams as well as editing of text in sepia ink, possibly made in the 17th century. The identity of the person who made the marks is unknown.
Dialogo can be viewed in the Archives, located in the lower level of Mills Library.
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