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The Starry Messenger
A Library of Congress Rare Book Forum

Friday, November 5, 2010
9:30 am- 5:00 pm
The Mumford Room
Sixth floor, James Madison Building
The Library of Congress


On November 5th, 2010, the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress will sponsor a day-long conference to celebrate its recent acquisition of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius, first published 400 years ago.  The "Starry Messenger" contains the first telescopic images of the moon, diagrams showing the location and motion of the moons of Jupiter, and the first telescopic celestial maps of the Milky Way.  Revolutionary not only in its findings and observations, the book also influenced later scientific and cartographic representations of celestial objects.

The conference will approach the book from a variety of disciplinary standpoints and present new research on the book itself.  Galileo's lasting influence on scientific representation and the beginnings of modern astronomical representation will be addressed.  Speakers will cover a variety of themes found in the work, including the printing and construction of the book and early scientific celestial representation (Needham); the use of the telescope (Reeves); Galileo's logical methodologies and his debt to his classical and medieval predecessors (Hessler); his representations and maps of the Milky Way (Gingerich); and Galileo's lasting influence on scientific methodology and empiricism (Miller and Machamer). The speakers are:

Paul Needham (Scheide Librarian, Princeton University)

Eileen Reeves (Professor of Renaissance Literature, Princeton University)

David Miller (Visiting Professor in the Philosophy of Science, Duke University)

Owen Gingerich (Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and History of Science, Harvard University)

John Hessler (Senior Cartographic Librarian, Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress)

Peter Machamer (Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh)

The conference is free and is open to the public.  More details will be available in the coming weeks.