Introduction

Abstract

Ray’s introduction presents the letters exchanged between Margherita Sarrocchi (1560–1617), a Naples-born poet based in Rome, and Galileo (1564–1642). Their correspondence, which has gone virtually unstudied before now, opens a fascinating window onto the collaboration and cooperation between literary and scientific circles in this important transitional moment in the history of science. The letters are characterized by three major themes: Sarrocchi’s request that Galileo help her to revise her ambitious epic poem, the Scanderbeide; Sarrocchi’s efforts to defend Galileo’s celestial discoveries to the scientific community in Italy; and, finally, the shared interest of these two figures in judicial astrology and the casting of natal charts.