Preface [a: Galileo and the problem of creation]

Malara's Galileo and the Problem of Creation, developed from a 2021 doctoral dissertation (Milan–Ghent), examines how Galileo understood the relationship between divine creation and the order of the natural world — a question long neglected since Galluzzi's 1979 essay. Rather than treating this as theological or metaphysical, Malara situates it within natural philosophy, arguing Galileo's real concern was cosmogony: first geocentric, later heliocentric. Tracing debates on elemental motion from Pisan Aristotelianism to Galileo's encounter with Copernicus, the book distinguishes three facets of the "problem of creation" and critically engages Koyré's Platonic reading, offering an original contribution to early modern intellectual history.