Abstract

This study reconstructs the lexicographical error that led to the inclusion in the Vocabolario della Crusca of a passage from Galileo Galilei’s Saggiatore that does not actually exist, and documents its persistence in various dictionaries between the 18th and 19th centuries. The passage is linked in particular to the documentation of the words apogeo and afelio. In the second case, it constitutes a false first attestation, since the term afelio was not recorded in Italian until 1727. It is also shown that even the term perielio, attributed to Galileo from Bergantini’s Voci, does not actually have any matches in his works.