Hard as it is to believe, what is possibly Galileo's most important
Latin manuscript was not transcribed for the National Edition of his
works and so has remained hidden from scholars for centuries. In this
volume William A. Wallace translates the logical treatises contained in
that manuscript and makes them intelligible to the modern reader. He
prefaces his translation with a lengthy introduction describing the
contents of the manuscript, the sources from which it derives, its
dating, and how it relates to Galileo's other Pisan writings. The
translation is accompanied by extensive notes and commentary; these
explain the text and tie it to the fuller exposition of Galileo's
logical methodology in the author's companion volume, Galileo's Logic
of Discovery and Proof.
The result is a research tool that is indispensable for anyone intent on
understanding Galileo's logic as described in that volume and the
documentary evidence on which it is based.