The crest of the Barberini family, showing three busy bees, appears at the top of the frontispiece. Galileo’s supporter, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, had become Pope Urban VIII. The election of Barberini seemed to assure Galileo of support at the highest level in the Church. The book was dedicated to the new pope. This work, appreciated as a literary masterpiece, contains Galileo’s famous statement that mathematics is the language of nature. This copy is a rare first state of the work, perhaps the first copy printed. It was formerly owned by Stillman Drake, a Galileo scholar who edited Galileo’s scientific manuscripts.