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From: bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: Re: Galileo's Anagram
Message-ID: <700@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Oct-84 20:44:54 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.700
Posted: Fri Oct 26 20:44:54 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 29-Oct-84 03:24:21 EST
References: <5464@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
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> Just out of curiosity -- where and how were such anagrams "published"?
> I didn't think that "newspapers" existed yet, and a one-paragraph anagram
> couldn't make a book or even a pamphlet. Were they posted somewhere,
> like Luther's theses on the church door? Or included in letters sent
> to other scholars? Or what?

Galileo's anagram concerning the phases of Venus was sent to Julian
de Medici in a private letter, as were others of his anagrams.  He
sent other anagrams to other individuals.  So private letters is
one route.  The content of the letters seems not to have been kept
secret, however.  One such anagram was sent to the Tuscan ambassador
in Prague, who showed it to Kepler.  Poor Kepler couldn't decipher it
and begged Galileo to provide the solution.
-- 
"When evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve"
	Bill Jefferys  8-%
	Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712   (USnail)
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