Page:The sidereal messenger of Galileo Galilei.pdf/129

 mani, e dal Signore Dio gli prego felicità. Di Firenze il primo di Gennaio 1610. Ab Incarnatione.

"Di Vostra Signoria Ilustrissima e Reverendissima Servidore obbligatissimo.

Such is Galileo's letter; but let me give you the substance of it:-—

"It is time for me to disclose the method of reading the letters which some weeks since I sent you as an anagram. It is time now, I mean, after I have become quite certain about the matter, so much so that I have no longer even a shadow of doubt. You must know then that about three months ago, when the star of Venus could be seen, I began to look at it through a telescope with great attention, so that I might grasp with my physical senses an idea which I was entertaining as certain. At first then you must know the planet Venus appeared of a perfectly circular form, accurately so, and bounded by a distinct edge, but very small; this figure Venus kept until it began to approach its greatest distance from the sun, and meanwhile the apparent size of its orb kept on increasing. From that time it began to lose its roundness on the eastern side, which was turned away from the sun, and in a few days it contracted its visible portion into an exact semicircle; that