Further Argument Against the Motion of the Earth, Based on Telescopic Observations of the Stars: An English Rendition of Chapter 30, Book 9, Section 4, Pages 460-463 of the Almagestum Novum Volume II of G. B. Riccioli

Abstract

The Italian Jesuit astronomer Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Riccioli constructed a powerful, thoroughly scientific argument in favor of geocentrism - an argument based on telescopic observations of stars. This paper contains a rendition of a chapter from Riccioli's Almagestum Novum in which he lays out this argument. Riccioli opposed Galileo's heliocentrism, but like Galileo, relied on telescopic observations to make his case. Riccioli's observations and argument were both valid, lacking only in that the functioning of the telescope was not fully understood at the time.