This essay offers a new reading of Galileo’s most celebrated anagram, incorporating both the prehistory of his late-1610 disclosure concerning the moon-like phases of Venus, and the awkward “leftover letters,” o and y, of the eventual cypher. It argues for a sustained analogy between components of the optical instrument, musical instruments, and particular anatomical structures described by Galen and elaborated by early modern anatomists in Padua. It proposes, finally, the cypher as a calculated response to the Neapolitan magus and playwright Giambattista della Porta’s challenge to Galileo’s claims about the telescope itself.

中文翻译：

---

伽利略字谜的剖析

本文提供了对伽利略最著名的字谜的新解读，结合了他在 1610 年末披露的有关金星月相的史前故事，以及尴尬的“剩余字母”，哦和y，最终的密码。它主张光学仪器、乐器的组成部分和盖伦描述的、帕多瓦早期现代解剖学家详细阐述的特定解剖结构之间存在持续的类比。最后，它提出了密码作为对那不勒斯魔术师和剧作家詹巴蒂斯塔·德拉·波塔（Giambattista della Porta）对伽利略关于望远镜本身的说法的挑战的精心设计的回应。