Sidereus Nuncius

Venice: Tommaso Baglioni, 1610 is the true first, and there is no UK-versus-US question: the original language is Latin and the Venice quarto is the only original. The trap is a second 1610 edition printed at Frankfurt by Zacharias Palthenius within months of the Venice sheets. It is distinguishable at a glance: a smaller octavo format, lunar and asterism images re-cut as woodcuts (rendered white-on-black rather than the Venice black-on-white), and it reproduces the uncorrected 'Cosmica Sydera' drop-title that the Venice copies correct by cancel slip. It has long been called a piracy, though Linda Hall Library notes recent evidence that Galileo knew of it and that it may reflect his manuscript intentions. Either way, a Frankfurt 1610 copy is a same-year reprint, not the first edition.