Rare volume of Galileo and Sizzi books sells for Rs 2.07 crore
A collection containing Galileo Galilei's observations of Jupiter's moons and Francesco Sizzi's rebuttal was sold at auction in February 2026.
A rare volume containing the landmark publication of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei and the opposing views of Francesco Sizzi sold for approximately Rs 2.07 crore at Christie’s in February 2026. According to The Times of India, the book sold for US$217,600 as part of an auction of fine printed books, manuscripts and science.
The volume is a Sammelband, which is a book where separate publications are bound together. It contains Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius, published in Venice in March 1610, alongside Sizzi’s Dianoia astronomica, optica, physica, which was published in Venice in 1611.
In 1610, Galileo used a telescope to observe four bodies orbiting Jupiter, which challenged the Aristotelian view that Earth was the centre of the universe. Francesco Sizzi argued that these moons were optical illusions produced by the telescope.
Christie’s catalogue stated that Galileo declined to refute Sizzi to preserve their friendship. The volume also includes three other first editions from 1611 by Marcus Antonius de Dominis and Giovanni Antonio Magini, as well as a reused sheet from a 1474 Latin translation of Herodotus.
The four moons observed by Galileo are now known as Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. The works in the volume were bound in contemporary stiff vellum boards.