Acknowledgements
This book is the result of a research project spread over several years and funded largely by the PhD. Program in History of Science of the University of Pisa with the support of the Museo Galileo in Florence. It would not have been possible without the museum staff’s constant assistance. I wish to thank the then Director, Paolo Galluzzi, and vice-director, Marco Beretta, for their enthusiasm in the project and the fruitful conversations they entertained with me about it; Alessandra Lenzi, head of the Museum Library, and the late Daniela Carrara, head of the Museum Archive, for the uncountable times they fulfilled my requests; all the museum staff and consultants: Andrea Bernardoni, Sara Bonechi, Stefano Casati, Giovanni Di Pasquale, Elisa Di Renzo, Francesca Fares, Gianna Gheri, Laura Manetti, Iolanda Rolfo, Camilla Rotoli, Giorgio Strano, to name just a few. To them and to all the others I did not mention by name goes out my gratitude. I also wish to thank Massimo Bucciantini, Michele Camerota, Franco Giudice, Patrizia Ruffo, and the editorial board of Galilaeana. The editorial staff at Brill has been wonderful in enduring my writing and rewriting, and so has been my lovely family: my wife Elisa and my twin daughters Adele and Anna. Thank you for bearing me all these years.