in the Royal Library, the following were lent to us:—(1) "Di Copernico e di Galileo, scritto postumo del P. Maurizio-Benedetto Olivieri, Ex. generale dei domenicani e Commissario della S. Rom. ed Univ. Inquisizione ora per la prima volta messo in luce sull' autografo per cura d'un religioso dello stesso istituto. Bologna, 1872"; (2) "Il S. Officio, Copernico e Galileo a proposito di un opusculo postumo del P. Olivieri sullo stesso argomento apunti di Gilberto Govi. Torino, 1872." To our no small surprise we found, on reading the former, that it had by no means "seen the light" for the first time in 1872, but had appeared thirty-one years before in a literal German translation, as the article above mentioned in the "Historisch-politischen Blättern," with a few insignificant alterations, and a different title, the old one being given in a note. Neither the editor of the first Italian work of Olivieri, the Dominican monk, Fra. Tommaso Bonora, nor the author of the above rejoinder,[1] Gilberto Govi, had, as appears from what they say, the least idea of this singular fact. In Germany, Professor Clemens of Bonn, was universally believed to be the author of this article, which excited great attention; so firmly was it held, that Professor Moritz Cantor, in a notice of the present work, gave no credence to our discovery, but stated in his critique, "The anonymous writer was not Olivieri, but Professor Clemens of Bonn."[2] Upon this we sent Professor Cantor the essay from the "Historisch-politischen Blättern" and Bonora's work for examination, when he was constrained to be convinced by the sight of his own eyes.
The wretched attempt thus to clear the Inquisition, by
- ↑ It carefully refutes the assertion made by Father Olivieri, that the Holy Office had prohibited the Copernican doctrine from being demonstrated as true, and condemned its famous advocate, Galileo, because it could not then be satisfactorily proved scientifically, and Galileo had supported it with arguments scientifically incorrect. If we can believe the ex-general of the Dominicans, the Inquisition in 1616 and 1633 was only the careful guardian of science!
- ↑ Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, Beilage, No. 93, 2nd Aug., 1876.
