Finocchiaro''s new and revised translations have done what the Inquisition could not: they have captured an exceptional range of Galileo''s career while also letting him speak--in clear English. No other volume offers more convenient or more reliable access to Galileo''s own words, whether on the telescope, the Dialogue, the trial, or the mature theory of motion --Michael H. Shank, Professor of the History of Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison