Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia/Chapter 5

by Karl von Gebler

CHAPTER V.

HOPES AND FEARS.

Galileo's Fears.—Allayed by letters from Rome.—Foscarini's work.— Blindness of Galileo's Friends.—His Apology to the Grand Duchess Christine.—Effect produced by it.—Visit to Rome.—Erroneous opinion that he was cited to appear.—Caccini begs pardon.—Galileo defends the Copernican system at Rome.—His mistake in so doing.

 

Galileo knew no more than the rest of the world of the secret proceedings of the Inquisition against him and his system. He had only discovered that some Dominican monks wanted to make use of his letter to Castelli to effect the condemnation of the Copernican doctrines, and that they were spreading all sorts of calumnies against him based upon it. Fearing that the copy of it on which they relied might have been tampered with, he sent a correct copy on 16th February, 1615, to his sincere friend Mgr. Dini at Rome, with a request that he would forward it to the mathematician, Father Griemberger, and perhaps even to Cardinal Bellarmine. Galileo observed in the accompanying letter that he had written the one to Castelli "currente calamo," that since then he had made many researches into the subject therein discussed, and announced the speedy completion of a larger work, in which he should carry out his reasoning far more in detail; as soon as it was finished he would send it to Mgr. Dini. (This was his great Apology to the Grand Duchess Christine.) In conclusion, he bitterly complains that his enemies were daily increasing in number, and, in order to injure him the more, were spreading the strange report among the people that he was the founder of the system of the double motion of the earth, which gave rise to incidents like that with Bishop Gherardini.^[1]

The philosopher, who it is evident was a good deal discomfited, received in reply consolatory assurances from Mgr. Dini and others of his ecclesiastical friends. But they earnestly advised him to treat the subject of the Copernican system purely from the mathematical, physical point of view, and carefully to avoid religious discussion. This hint came rather late in the day, and could not now be of much use to Galileo, when his doctrines were already attacked as heretical, although secretly at that time, and the accusation was based on the purely scientific work on the solar spots. War had been declared with the Copernican system in the name of the Bible.

Galileo's letters to Mgr. Dini of 16th February and 28th March,^[2] plainly show how unwillingly he had been driven into the theological field by his opponents. After he had in the second letter decidedly rejected Dini's suggestion that he should treat the Copernican system merely as a hypothesis, he added that it had been his earnest desire to keep strictly to his part as a man of science, and not to be compelled to defend his astronomical system against religious scruples. He entirely agrees with those who say that the task of bringing natural science into agreement with Holy Scripture should be left to theologians, and shows that he has been compelled to defend himself on this dangerous ground. He says besides that his letter to Castelli was not originally intended to go any farther, and regrets that Castelli had had copies made of it without his knowledge.

It is a noteworthy circumstance that at the very time when the secret denunciation had been laid before the tribunal of the Inquisition at Rome, all the letters and reports which Galileo received from Rome, even from trustworthy friends, Mgrs. Dini, Ciampoli, and Prince Cesi, were calculated to allay his anxious fears. None of those persons, although in influential positions, and likely it would seem to have been better informed, knew, as appears from their correspondence with Galileo, anything of the proceedings which were being instituted at Rome against him and the Copernican system. The Inquisition knew well enough how to keep its secrets. On 28th February^[3] Mgr. Ciampoli writes confidently to Galileo that, notwithstanding all the inquiries he had made, he could learn nothing of any measures against him or the new doctrines; he sets down the whole rumour to the incautious talk of some hot-headed fellow.

On 7th March^[4] Dini tells Galileo that Cardinal Bellarmine had said "he did not think that the work of Copernicus would be prohibited, and the worst that would happen would be that some addition would be made to it, stating that this theory was only accepted to explain phenomena,^[5] or some such phrase, and with this reservation Galileo would be able to discuss the subject whenever he had occasion." Under the same date Prince Cesi tells Galileo that a work had just been published by a Dominican monk, which brilliantly defended the opinion of Copernicus and made it agree with Holy Scripture. He adds that the work could not have appeared more opportunely.^[6]

But what seems the most strange are the express and repeated assurances of the cardinals Barberini, Del Monte, and Bellarmine, to Galileo, through Dini and Ciampoli, that so long as he did not go beyond the province of physics and mathematics, nor enter into any theological interpretations of Scripture, he had nothing to fear.^[7] How could Cardinal Bellarmine, who had not long before expressly stated to Prince Cesi that the new system was not compatible with the doctrines of Holy Scripture, and who, as a member of the Inquisition, must have been aware of the transactions which had been going on about Galileo since 5th February, give these assurances so directly opposed to the truth? And yet these three prelates afterwards gave many proofs of good will towards Galileo. How then is their ambiguous conduct to be explained? It was simply that they were friendly to Galileo, but not to his doctrines. They certainly desired to shield his person, and afterwards honestly endeavoured to do so even under most difficult circumstances; but the system he defended, which endangered the faith of the Church, must be suppressed at all hazards. In order to this end it appeared advisable to keep it a secret from Galileo that the statement of Copernicus that the earth moved was assailed from the theological standpoint, until the Holy Office had issued the interdict against its circulation and defence. It was thus that they prudently rounded the rocks which the dreaded dialectics of the clever Tuscan had exposed to view.

And the nearer the period was drawing when the verdict of the Church was to be pronounced on the Copernican theory, and the more eagerly the secret inquiries about Galileo were being prosecuted, the more confident became the tone of the letters of his friends from the very city where this ominous web was being woven. It seems as if all Galileo's trusty adherents had been struck with blindness, for we should not be justified in doubting the sincerity of a Dini, a Ciampoli, and a Cesi, men who afterwards proved by their actions their true friendship for the great astronomer. On 20th March the evidence of Caccini was taken, and on the 21st Ciampoli communicates to Galileo the consoling observations of the cardinals Del Monte and Bellarmine mentioned above. Ciampoli also adds to these comforting assurances by telling him that Foscarini's work was no doubt in great danger of being prohibited by the Congregation of the Holy Office to take place next month, but only because it meddled with matters concerning Holy Scripture. He goes on to say with real satisfaction that he can only confirm his previous information, and that all this noise originated with four or five persons who are hostile to Galileo; he and Dini had taken all possible pains to find out this assumed agitation, but had discovered absolutely nothing. He repeats this most decidedly in a letter of a week later;^[8] and in another of 16th May^[9] he cannot at all understand what has so disconcerted Galileo, and adds that it was no longer doubtful that the Copernican doctrine would not be prohibited, and expresses his conviction that it would be a great satisfaction to every one if Galileo would come to Rome for a time, and the more so because he had heard that many of the Jesuits were secretly of Galileo's opinion, and were only keeping quiet for the present.

A private note enclosed in a letter from Prince Cesi to Galileo, of June 20th, is equally sanguine. He tells him that Foscarini's work, of which a new and enlarged edition is to appear immediately, has had great success at Rome, and that the opponents of Galileo and of the new system are much cast down about it; he adds that neither the author of that treatise nor the doctrines in question are in any danger, if only a little prudence is exercised. Cesi even thinks that the new edition, in which the author refutes all the objections to his work, will satisfy the ecclesiastical authorities, convince opponents, and put an end to the whole business. "Then," continues the prince confidently, "when every difficulty is removed and attack rendered impossible, the doctrine will be so fully permitted and recognised, that everybody who wishes to maintain it will be at liberty to do so, as in all other purely physical and mathematical questions."^[10]

This is the last letter we have from Galileo's friends of this period. From this date to the time of his stay in Rome, in 1616, there are no letters to him extant. This is the more to be regretted, as the gap occurs at a very interesting juncture. Perhaps after the Copernican doctrines were condemned Galileo may have destroyed this correspondence out of regard for his friends, for it may have contained allusions to very delicate matters.

Meanwhile, after having been repeatedly urged to it by Mgr. Dini,^[11] he had completed his great apologetic treatise, in the form of a letter to the Grand Duchess Dowager, Christine. As it accurately defines the standpoint which Galileo desired to take as a natural philosopher and sincere Catholic, with respect to the Church of Rome, it seems necessary to give a sketch of its contents.

Galileo begins with the motive of his Apology. Several years ago he had made many discoveries in the heavens, the novelty of which, and the vast consequences they involve, which are opposed to many of the principles of the modern Aristotelian school, have incensed no small number of professors against him, as if he had placed these phenomena in the heavens with his own hands in order to overturn nature and science. Placing a greater value on their own opinions than on truth, these men had taken upon themselves to deny the existence of these discoveries, whereas if they had only consented to observe them, they would have been convinced. Instead of this, they assailed the new discoveries with empty arguments, and worst mistake of all, interwove them with passages of Scripture which they did not understand. But when the majority of the scientific world was convinced with its own eyes, so that it was impossible any longer to doubt the truth of these phenomena, their opponents tried to consign them to oblivion by obstinate silence; and when that did not avail they took another course. Galileo says that he should pay no more heed to these attacks than to former ones, at which, confident of the final result, he had always laughed, but they seek to cast an aspersion on him which he dreads more than death. His opponents, knowing that he favoured the opinion of the double motion of the earth, and thereby attacked the Ptolemaic and Aristotelian principles, and perceiving since the universal recognition of his observations that they could never combat him successfully on the field of natural philosophy, are trying now to make a shield for their false statements out of a fictitious piety and the authority of Holy Scripture. They have therefore first tried to spread the opinion that the views he defends are opposed to the Bible, and therefore heretical and worthy of condemnation. They then easily found some one to denounce them from the pulpit, and he hurled his anathemas not only at the Copernican doctrines, but against mathematicians in general. They also gave out that the modern views of the system of the universe would shortly be pronounced heretical by the highest authorities.

Galileo then points out that Copernicus, the originator of these doctrines, was not only a good Catholic, but a priest highly esteemed by the Roman curia, both for his learning and piety. He had dedicated his famous work: "De Revolutionibus Orbium Cœlestium," to Pope Paul III., and no one had felt any scruples about his doctrines, although some ill-disposed persons want to have the book pronounced heretical, without ever having read, to say nothing of studied it. As an adherent of the Copernican theory, Galileo now feels compelled, in order to justify himself, to discuss in detail these arguments from Scripture brought forward by his opponents, and he hopes to prove that he is animated by a greater zeal for true religion than his adversaries; for he by no means demands that the book should not be condemned, but that it should not be condemned without being understood or even looked at. Before proceeding to discuss these arguments, he protests that he will not only always be ready publicly to rectify the errors he may from ignorance have fallen into on religious matters in this treatise, but that it was not in the least his intention to enter into dispute with any one on such subjects; it is rather his desire, by these remarks, to incite others to deliberations useful to the Church. As to the decision about the Copernican system, we must bow to the opinions of the ecclesiastical authorities, and should it be adverse to him, let his work be torn up and burnt, for he had neither wish nor intention to promote results that were not catholic and pious.

After this long and cautious introduction, Galileo comes to the matter itself,—the discussion of the principles of exegesis of Scripture with respect to natural science. He employs the same arguments as in his letter to Castelli, only more in detail, and cites several passages from St. Augustine in support of his views, as to how far questions of natural philosophy should be left to the understanding and to science. He also quotes a saying of Cardinal Baronius: "The Holy Spirit intended to teach us how to go to heaven, and not how the heavens go." Galileo then illustrates by examples how derogatory it will be to the dignity of Holy Scripture if every unauthorised scribbler is permitted to adduce passages from it in support of his views, which he often does not interpret rightly; and experience shows the futility of this method of proof. He then turns to the claim of theologians to enforce upon others in scientific discussions opinions which they hold to agree with passages of Scripture, while maintaining that they are not bound to explain the scientific phenomena which are opposed to their decisions. In support of this they affirm that theology is the queen of all the sciences, and need not condescend to accommodate herself to the teachings of other sciences far beneath her: they must submit to her as their sovereign, and modify their conclusions accordingly. This leads Galileo to some considerations which he will here set forth, that he may learn the opinions of others more expert on such questions than he is, and to whose decisions he is always ready to bow.

He is in doubt whether some ambiguity has not crept in for want of more precision in defining why theology is entitled to be called a queen. It must either be because all that is taught by other sciences is comprised in and explained by theology, only in a higher sense; or because theology treats of a subject which far surpasses in importance all the subjects of which profane science treats. But even the theologians themselves will hardly maintain that the title belongs to theology in the first sense; for no one can say that geometry, astronomy, music, and medicine, are better treated of in Scripture than in the writings of Archimedes, Ptolemy, Boccius, and Galen. It appears then that the royal prerogative of theology must be derived from some other source. Galileo here remarks:—

 

"If then theology occupies herself solely with the highest problems, maintains her throne by reason of the supreme authority conferred on her, and does not condescend to the lower sciences as not affecting salvation, the professors of theology should not assume authority on subjects which they have not studied. For this is just as if an absolute ruler should demand, without being a physician or an architect, that people should treat themselves, or erect buildings, according to his directions, to the great peril of poor sick people and obvious ruin of the edifices."

 

Galileo then demonstrates the vast difference between doctrinal and exact sciences, and says that in the latter opinions cannot be changed to order. Supported by the authority of St. Augustine, he maintains that opinions on natural science which have been proved to coincide with actual facts cannot be set aside by passages of Scripture, but these must be explained so as not to contradict the indisputable results of observation. Those, therefore, who desire to condemn an opinion in physics must first show that it is incorrect. But it must be made the subject of close investigation, and then a different result will often be obtained from the one desired. Many learned men who intended to refute the Copernican theory have been changed, by examination, from opponents to enthusiastic defenders of it. In order to banish it from the world, as many desired, it would not be enough to shut the mouth of any one individual, it would be necessary to prohibit not only the writings of Copernicus and his followers, but astronomy altogether. But to suppress his work now, after it has been quietly submitted to for so many years, appears to Galileo like opposition to truth itself; and to permit the book and condemn the doctrine would be still more pernicious to the souls of men, for it would allow them the opportunity of convincing themselves of the truth of an opinion which it was a sin to believe. To forbid astronomy altogether would be like rejecting hundreds of passages of Scripture which teach us how the glory of God is revealed in all His works, which are best to be studied in the open book of nature.

Galileo then applies these general principles to the Copernican theory. According to many, it ought to be pronounced erroneous because it is opposed to the apparent meaning of many passages in the Bible, while the opposite opinion is to be believed de fide. He sharply defines two kinds of scientific questions: those on which all man's researches can only lead to probability and conjecture, as for instance, whether the stars are inhabited or not; and those on which, by experience, observation, and inevitable deduction, we either have attained certainty or may safely reckon on doing so,—as whether the earth or the heavens move. In the first case, Galileo is decidedly of opinion that it behoves us to be guided by the literal sense of Scripture; in the second, he repeats what he has said before, that two truths can never contradict each other. The Bible speaks of the sun as moving and of the earth as standing still to accommodate itself to the understanding of the people, and not to confuse them, otherwise they might refuse to believe the dogmas which are absolutely de fide. For the same reason the fathers have spoken about things not appertaining to salvation, more in accordance with usage than actual facts, and he confirms this by quotations from St. Jerome and St. Thomas.

Even the general agreement of the fathers in the interpretation of any passage of Scripture of scientific import should, in Galileo's opinion, only confer authority on it when the question has been discussed by many fathers with knowledge of both sides. But this is not the case with the question of the double motion of the earth, for it had not come up at all at that time, and it could not occur to the holy fathers to dispute it, for the current opinion was in entire agreement with the literal meaning of the Bible. It was not enough to say that the fathers had all believed that the earth stood still, and that therefore it was to be held de fide, for it was very possible that they never investigated it, and only held it as generally current. If they had done so and found it deserving of condemnation, they would have said so, but it had never been discovered that they had. The writings of Diego di Zuñiga show, on the contrary, that when some theologians began to consider the Copernican theory, they did not find it erroneous or contrary to Scripture. Moreover, no argument could be drawn from an unanimous opinion of the fathers, for some of them spoke of the sun as stationary, others of the primum mobile.

Galileo declares himself ready to sign an opinion of wise and well informed theologians on the Copernican theory. Since no investigation of it was instituted by the ancient fathers, it might be done now by theologians fitted for it, who, after they had carefully examined all the scientific arguments for and against, would establish on a firm footing what was dictated to them by Divine inspiration. He once more lays great stress on the need of first convincing one's self of the actual facts of nature under the guidance of science, and then proceeding to interpret texts of Scripture. He is indignant with those who, from malice or blinded by party interest, say that the Church should draw the sword without delay, since she possesses the power. As if it was always desirable to do whatever was in our power! He shows that the fathers were not of that opinion, but agreed with him, and exclaims to these wranglers: "Try first to refute the arguments of Copernicus and his followers, and leave the task of condemning them to those to whom it belongs; but do not hope to find among the fathers, who were as discreet as they were far-seeing, or in the wisdom of Him who cannot err, those hasty conclusions to which you are led by personal interests and passions. It is doubtless true that concerning these and similar statements which are not strictly de fide, his Holiness the Pope has absolute authority to approve or condemn; but it is not in the power of any human being to make them true or false, or other than they de facto are."

This lengthy treatise concludes with a disquisition on the passage in the book of Joshua, which he treats in the same way as in the letter to Castelli.

Notwithstanding all the care Galileo exercised in this apology^[12] not to give any handle to his enemies, it contained far too many liberal and merely human principles not to do the author more harm than good in the eyes of the orthodox party, both on religious and scientific questions. His opponents saw this plainly enough, and agitated against him all the more vehemently at Rome.

Ominous reports reached the astronomer, who was anxious enough before; but he could not any how learn anything definite about these attacks, only so much eked out, that something was brewing against him, and that it was intended to interdict the Copernican theory. Galileo thought he could best meet these intrigues by his personal appearance at Rome; he wanted to learn what the accusations against him were, and to show that there was nothing in them; he desired energetically to defend the new system, to aid truth in asserting her rights. So, early in December, 1615, provided with cordial letters of introduction from the Grand Duke, he set out for Rome.^[13]

Some older authors, and recently Henri Martin,^[14] have repeated as a fact the report circulated at the time by Galileo's enemies,^[15] that this visit to Rome was by no means so voluntary as he thought fit to give out. Martin appeals in support of this view to a letter of Mgr. Querenghi to Cardinal Alexander d'Este, of 1st January, 1616,^[16] in which he says that the philosopher had been cited to appear at Rome, that he might explain how he made his doctrines, which entirely contradict Holy Scripture, agree with it. Martin also states that the Tuscan ambassador at Rome, in a despatch of 11th September, 1632, announced that a document had been discovered in the books of the Holy Office, which showed that Galileo had been summoned to Rome in 1616; and finally, this otherwise excellent biographer of Galileo adds some grounds of probability which, however, are not conclusive. Besides, these arguments, in the face of other facts, are not valid. Even if Galileo's contemporary letters from Rome, in which he repeatedly expresses his satisfaction that he had come there,^[17] are not relied upon, and are regarded merely as a consistent carrying out of the fiction, his statement on his trial of 12th April, 1633, bears clear witness that Martin is in error. Being asked if he came at that time to Rome of his own accord, or in consequence of a summons, he answered: "In the year 1616 I came to Rome of my own accord, without being summoned."^[18] It was impossible that he should then have persisted in the assumed fiction, for he could not have denied before the Inquisition a summons issued by itself seventeen years before, since it would certainly have been entered in their registers.^[19] According to the statement of the Tuscan ambassador mentioned above, such a document had been discovered one year previously in the protocols of the Holy Office, But in the face of the question put at the examination this does not seem very credible. Moreover, in none of the documents now open to historical research relating to the transactions of 1616, is there any such record to be found, nor anything to indicate that this visit of Galileo's to Rome did not originate with himself.

Neither does the flattering reception he met with at all agree with the assumed secret summons. Nevertheless, his correspondence with Picchena, successor in office to Vinta, though very cautious, shows that notwithstanding the comforting assurances he had received from his friends at Rome, he found that a zealous agitation was going on, not only against the doctrines he advocated, but against himself.^[20] In another letter of 8th January, 1616, he says he sees every day what a good idea it was to come here, for he had found so many snares laid for him that it would have been quite impossible not to be caught by one or other of them, and he would not have been able to extricate himself for a long time, perhaps never, or only with the greatest difficulty. He is confident that he shall now very soon destroy the traps of his enemies, and be able to justify himself in a way that will bring all their unworthy calumnies to light. They have spread the false report that he was in disgrace at the grand ducal court in consequence of the enormity of his offence, and that the proceedings against him had the Grand Duke's entire approval. Now, as the cordial introductions given him by Cosmo II. proved precisely the contrary, the assertions of his enemies would lose all credit, and he would be believed all the more, so that he should be able to justify himself completely.^[21]

Judging, however, from a letter written fourteen days later to the Tuscan Secretary of State, Galileo had not found it so easy to defend himself as he anticipated. Indeed it seems to have been a very complicated business. A passage from the letter above mentioned will give an idea of it:—

 

"My business is far more difficult, and takes much longer owing to outward circumstances, than the nature of it would require; because I cannot communicate directly with those persons with whom I have to negotiate, partly to avoid doing injury to any of my friends, partly because they cannot communicate anything to me without running the risk of grave censure. And so I am compelled, with much pains and caution, to seek out third persons, who, without even knowing my object, may serve as mediators with the principals, so that I may have the opportunity of setting forth, incidentally as it were, and at their request, the particulars of my interests. I have also to set down some points in writing, and to cause that they should come privately into the hands of those whom I wish should see them; for I find in many quarters that people are more ready to yield to dead writing than to living speech, for the former permits them to agree or dissent without blushing, and then finally to yield to the arguments used—for in such discussions we have no witnesses but ourselves, whereas people do not so readily change their opinions if it has to be done publicly."^[22]

 

Galileo at length succeeded by his strenuous efforts in freeing himself from all false accusations and in refuting the slanders of Caccini. His affairs took so favourable a turn that the monk found it advisable to pay an obsequious visit of several hours to Galileo, humbly begged pardon for his previous conduct, offered any satisfaction in his power, and assured Galileo that the agitation going on was not in any way to be laid at his door.^[23] But he could not refrain from trying to prove that the Copernican doctrines were erroneous, in which however he had no more success than in convincing Galileo of his sincerity, for he wrote to Picchena that he had found in Caccini "great ignorance and a mind full of venom."^[24]

But Galileo had only performed half his task by the happy adjustment of the difficulties affecting himself; the more important and grander part of it, the preservation of the Copernican system from the interdict of the Church, had yet to be accomplished. His letter of 6th February to Picchena tells him of the favourable turn in his own affairs, as well as of the noble purposes by which he was animated. He writes:—

 

"My business, so far as it concerns myself, is completed; all the exalted personages who have been conducting it have told me so plainly, and in a most obliging manner, and have assured me that people are fully convinced of my uprightness and honour, and of the devilish malice and injustice of my persecutors. As far as this point is concerned, therefore, I might return home without delay, but there is a question concerning my own cause which does not concern myself alone, but all those who, during the last eighty years, have advocated in printed works or private letters, in public lectures or private conversations, a certain opinion, not unknown to your Grace, on which they are now proposing to pronounce judgment. In the conviction that my assistance may be of use in the investigation of the matter, as far as a knowledge of those truths is concerned which are proved by the science to which I have devoted myself, I neither can nor ought to neglect to render this assistance, while I shall thereby follow the dictates of my conscience and Christian zeal."^[25]

 

This was magnanimous, and Galileo was entitled, as few others were, to appear as the advocate of science. But unfortunately his warm and perhaps too solicitous efforts for the Copernican cause had a result precisely opposite to the one he intended. He was still under the great delusion that the Roman curia must above all things be convinced of the correctness of the Copernican doctrines. He therefore sought out scepticism on the subject everywhere in the eternal city, combated it eagerly and apparently with signal success. In many of the first houses in Rome, such as the Cesarini's, Ghislieri's, and others, he unfolded before numerous audiences his views about the construction of the universe. He always began these discourses by carefully enumerating all the arguments for the Ptolemaic system, and then proved that they were untenable by the telling arguments with which his own observations had so abundantly supplied him; and as he not seldom added the biting sarcasm of his wit to serious demonstration, thus bringing the laugh on his side, he prepared signal defeats for the orthodox views of nature.^[26]

But by this method he obviously took a false standpoint. He would not see that the Romanists cared far more for the authority of Scripture than for the recognition of the laws of nature; that his system, running counter to orthodox interpretation of the Bible, was opposed to the interests of the Church. And as his tactics were founded upon a purely human way of looking at things, and he erroneously imagined that the true system of the universe would be of greater importance, even to the servants of the Church, than her own mysteries, it was but a natural consequence of these false premises that, instead of attaining his end, he only widened his distance from it.

1. Op. ii. pp. 13-17.
2. Op. ii. pp. 17-26.
3. Op. viii. pp. 350-353.
4. Op. viii. pp. 354-356.
5. As we should say, "as a working hypothesis." [Tr.]
6. This was the work which was condemned and absolutely prohibited by the Congregation of the Index a year later: "Lettera del R. P. Maestro Paolo Antonio Foscarini, Carmelitano, sopra l'opinione de i Pittagorici e del Copernico della mobilita della Terra e stabilita del Sole, e il nuovo Sisteme del Mondo." (For Cesi's letter, Op. viii. pp. 356-358.)
7. See Dini's letter to Galileo, March 14th, 1615 (Op. viii. p. 360); and of August 18th, 1615 (Wolynski, "Lettere Inedite," p. 34); and Ciampoli's of March 21st (Op. viii. pp. 366, 367.)
8. Op. viii, p. 368.
9. Op. viii. pp. 376, 377.
10. Op. viii. pp. 378, 379.
11. See his letter to Galileo, May 16th, 1615. (Op. viii. pp. 376, 377.)
12. Op. ii. pp. 26-64. It did not appear in print until twenty-one years later, in Strasburg.
13. See the letters of Cosmo II., November 28th, to his ambassador Guicciardini, at Rome, to Cardinal del Monte, Paolo Giordano Orsini, and Abbot Orsini; also to Cardinal Orsini, of December 2nd. (Wolynski: "La Diplomazia Toscana e Gal. Galilei," pp. 18-20.)
14. Page 69.
15. Compare the letters of Sagredo from Venice of 11th March and 23rd. April, 1616, to Galileo at Rome. (Op. Suppl. pp. 107-113, Also Nelli, vol. i. p. 414.)
16. Op. viii, p. 383.
17. See his letters of 12th Dec., 1615, and 8th Jan., 1616, to the Tuscan Secretary of State, Curzio Picchena, at Florence. (Op. vi, pp. 211, 212, 214, 215.)
18. Vat. MS. fol. 414 vo.
19. Compare also Wohlwill, p. 86, note 1.
20. See his letters to Picchena of 26th Dec., 1615, and 1st Jan., 1616, (Op. vi. pp. 213, 234.)
21. Op. vi. pp. 215, 216.
22. 23rd Jan., 1616. (Op. vi. pp. 218, 219.)
23. Letter to Picchena, 6th Feb. (Op. vi. p. 222.)
24. Letter to Picchena. (Op. vi. pp. 225-227.)
25. Op. vi. pp. 221-223.
26. See the letter of Mgr. Queringhi, from Rome, of 20th January, 1616, to Cardinal Alessandro d'Este. (Op. viii. p. 383.)

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