John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune’s The Life of Galileo Galilei gives the full arc: the pendulum in the cathedral, the telescope and its worlds, the clash with Aristotle’s professors, the Dialogue, and the trial before the Inquisition — all set within a serious account of how experimental science itself advanced.
Written for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, it wears its scholarship lightly and its admiration openly. Download the free EPUB for the classic English life of the first modern scientist.