Two new sciences, including centers of gravity & force of percussion

This is the first new English translation since 1914 of Galileo's most important scientific work, the Two New Sciences, which laid the foundations of modern physics.

Stillman Drake has produced a complete and entirely new translation of the first edition (1638), including important original materials posthumously published in the later editions -- a dialogue on the force of percussion intended for the 1638 edition but not completed to Galileo's satisfaction and Galileo's work on centers of gravity, not included in the 1914 English edition now in common use.

Two New Sciences is Galileo's major work in physics, a field to which he made contributions considerably larder than those to astronomy for which he is commonly known. It was largely written between 1633 and 1635, years when he was forbidden by the Inquisition, because of his heretical astronomical views, to publish any books. The work was eventually published in Holland in 1638. English translations appeared in 1665, 1730, and 1914.

Drake's new translation, long awaited, will be welcomed by both scholars and students of the history of science. In addition to reinstating the original material missing from the 1914 edition, Drake has corrected crucial errors in the existing translation, some of which affect large areas in the history of medieval and modern physics.

Text: English, Italian (translation)