On a cloudy day in January, historian Ivan Malara sat in Italy’s National Central Library of Florence poring over seven 16th century printings of the ancient world’s most influential astronomy text.

The pages belonged to The #Almagest, in which second century polymath Claudius #Ptolemy described his vision of an Earth-centered cosmos.

As Malara flipped through the pages, he spotted something out of place.

Someone had transcribed Psalm 145 on an otherwise blank page—in handwriting reminiscent of a very, very famous Tuscan astronomer.

That book, Malara came to realize, had been extensively annotated by none other than Galileo #Galilei.

Malara’s discovery, described in a paper now under review at the Journal for the History of Astronomy, promises new insights into one of the most famous ideological transitions in the history of science: the moment when #Earth was thrust from the center of our #universe.

#science #astronomy #history
https://www.science.org/content/article/galileo-s-handwritten-notes-found-ancient-astronomy-text