I don't see why the author should have to explain that. Unless there is a reason not to, English speaker tend to be faithful foreign conventions when adopting n

I don't see why the author should have to explain that. Unless there is a reason not to, English speaker tend to be faithful foreign conventions when adopting non-English words and names. If the Italian's call him one way, the English speakers can pronounce it, and there is no confusion caused by the matter, then the Italian convention will become the English convention. Why other languages don't do the same thing is really matter best left to articles written in those languages. I think that it's telling that no matter what language he is refered to in, it's still only one word. I only ever seen Galileo refered to by his full name in textbooks and in books by him.