GALILEO. I3 1 



certificate of the seventeenth by Galileo's physicians pronounced him 

 unfit to travel. The certificate was not believed in Koine, and Nic- 

 colini reported on the thirtieth that it was intended to send a physi- 

 cian from Eome with a commissioner who would, if he were fit to 

 travel, bring him to Eome in chains. 



On January 11, 1633, the Grand Duke wrote to Galileo advising 

 him to set out, offering him one of the Court litters to travel in, and 

 the hospitality of the ambassador's palace in Eome. On the twentieth 

 of January Galileo left Florence on his last journey to Eome, arriving 

 there, after a tedious quarantine, on February 13. Galileo, though 

 technically a prisoner, was permitted to reside at the ambassador's 

 palace. He writes to the Tuscan secretary of state that his treatment 

 indicates ' mild and kindly treatment very different from the threaten- 

 ing words, chains and dungeons.' He was allowed to drive out, the 

 shades of the carriage being half-drawn. His letters show that he was 

 full of hope. It was now more than four months since he had been 

 cited to appear, and in this time he must have considered what form the 

 charges were to take and what defense he should make. Niccolini's 

 despatch of February 27, 1633, says: 



The main difficulty consists in this — that these gentlemen maintain that 

 in 1616 he [Galileo] was ordered neither to discuss the question [the Coper- 

 nican opinion] nor to converse about it. He says, on the contrary, that these 

 were not the terms of the injunction which were that that doctrine was not 

 to be held or defended. He considers that he has the means of justifying 

 himself, because it does not at all appear from his book that he does hold or 

 defend the doctrine nor that he regards it as a settled question, as he merely 

 adduces the reasons, hinc hinde. The other points appear to be of less im- 

 portance and easier to get over. 



From this despatch of Galileo's friend it appears that his defense 

 was settled upon. The certificate of Cardinal Bellarmine was to be 

 submitted to his judges; and it was to be proved from his book that 

 he had obeyed the orders of the cardinal. Nothing was left undone 

 by Niccolini, Castelli, or by the Grand Duke, to forward Galileo's 

 interests. The Duke wrote letters of recommendation to the ten 

 cardinals who made up the Holy Office, and some of the cardinals 

 read the Dialogues and discussed them with Castelli. On April 12 

 Galileo was cited to appear at the Palace of the Inquisition. He ac- 

 knowledged the Dialogues to be his own work. He was then asked 

 to recount the proceedings of 1616 and replied that Cardinal Bellar- 

 mine had then told him 'that the aforesaid opinion of Copernicus 

 might be held as a conjecture, as it had been held by Copernicus, and 

 his eminence was aware that, like Copernicus, I only held that 

 opinion as a conjecture,' which is evident from a letter (dated April 

 12, 1615) from the cardinal to Foscarini, in which he says: "It ap- 



