Galileo’s autograph
The mission of the History of Science Collections is to collect and preserve printed works in the history of science. Yet the Collections hold a fair number of interesting handwritten items as well. In contrast to printed works, a handwritten work is a manuscript (mss.). Two other terms are often used to designate special types of manuscripts: autograph and holograph (see John Carter, ABC for Book Collectors). First, a handwritten document, or an annotation in the hand of the author, is an autograph. Do you have autographs of any famous persons? So do the Collections. For example, the signature of Galileo on the title page of the Sidereus nuncius (Venice, 1610) is an autograph.
Handwritten items
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
