GIORDANO BRUNO AND GALILEO GALILEI. 



121 



exhibited through his telescope the satellites of 

 Jupiter, and discoursed on the subject of his dis- 

 coveries. It seems that some of the fathers of the 

 Collegio Romano came also to these meetings ; and 

 by day Galileo, in these and other places, directed 

 observation to the spots in the sun. Federico Cesi, 

 the young president of the Academy of the Lincei 

 [lynx-eyed], lavished on him the most affectionate 

 tokens of esteem and friendship. Contemporary 

 writers relate with admiration the sumptuous din- 

 ner given by Cesi to Galileo at his villa of Malva- 

 sia, on the summit of the Janiculum, not far from 

 the gate of St. Pancrazio, and at which the most 

 distinguished persons in Rome were present. Tow- 

 ard the end of dinner, Galileo having pointed his 

 telescope in the direction of St. John Lateran, the 

 guests were enabled to read the inscription over 

 the portico, three [Italian] miles off, and then, 

 turning the telescope to heaven, they descried to 

 their full satisfaction the satellites of Jupiter, with 

 other celestial marvels. On that occasion, Galileo, 

 to satisfy the curiosity of the guests, took the tele- 

 scope to pieces, and allowed every one at discre- 

 tion to examine the construction, and to take the 

 measure of the lenses. 



" A number of eminent men in learning and 

 science used to assemble nightly at the Tuscan 

 embassador's, where Galileo at that time resided, 

 to look through his telescope at Venus, and the 

 ' tricorporal ' Saturn. One evening, when the 

 clouds interrupted their view of the stars, they 

 began disputing, as their nightly wont was, on 

 the subject of light. Galileo said to Lagalla that 

 he would let himself be immersed in ever so dark 

 a dungeon, and kept there ever so long a time on 

 bread and water, if only, on coming out, it were 

 granted him to understand the nature of light." 



This conversation, and others of the like de- 

 scription, are recorded in contemporary narratives 

 of the first sojourn of Galileo in the Eternal City 

 in 1611. He was to rewsit it on four later occa- 

 sions—in 1615, 1624, 1630, and 1633— the first 

 three of these latter visits being voluntary, the 

 last compulsory, on the peremptory and reiterat- 

 ed summons of Pope Urban VIII. to present him- 

 self in person for examination before the Holy 

 Inquisition. 



Among the figures which we find crossing 

 the stage during Galileo's first visit to Rome was 

 that of Cardinal Bellarmine, then full of years 

 and honors. On the 19th of April, 1611, Bellar- 

 mine wrote to the Reverend Fathers of the Col- 

 legio Romano, to ask if in any manner there had 

 been brought under their cognizance the celestial 

 observations which an able mathematician had 

 been making by means of an instrument called 

 cannone or occhiale, by which means he [Bellar- 

 mine] himself had seen some marvelous sights 



in the moon and Venus. Clavio, a recent and 

 zealous convert to Copernicanism, Griemberger, 

 Oddo Malcotio, and Paolo Lembio, replied official- 

 ly, on the 24 th of the same month, that they had 

 themselves verified all the celestial marvels to 

 which his letter referred. 



14 Although," says M. Berti, "we are ignorant 

 for what reason Bellarmine addressed that ques- 

 tion to the college, we shall probably not be far 

 from the truth in supposing that the reply request- 

 ed in such solemn form, and in writing, was not 

 asked of the college solely for his own informa- 

 tion, but for that of his colleagues of the Inquisi- 

 tion." 



What, we may ask on our part, had Galileo 

 come to Rome for, but to get the stamp of au- 

 thority put by the Collegio Romano on his vir- 

 tual adhesion to the Copernican system in his 

 " Nunzio Sidereo ? " The " able mathematician " 

 had been desirous of bringing his new and strange 

 views especially before that college, as con- 

 taining other able mathematicians, who could 

 speak from chairs of authority. And this end, 

 which Galileo had expressly aimed at, he fully 

 attained. The favorable answer returned by the 

 Collegio Romano to the demand thus made of them 

 was no sooner published, than Galileo's friends 

 at Rome hastened to make it known further, 

 exulting in the belief that the stamp of orthodoxy 

 had now been set authentically upon the master's 

 most startling astronomical innovations, and that 

 they might henceforth freely discuss his discov- 

 eries and the questions raised by them. Monsi- 

 gnor Dini confidentially intimated to Cosimo Sas- 

 setti that the Jesuits were great friends of Galileo. 

 The Tuscan " Orator " [embassador] at Rome 

 presented Galileo to the pope [Paul V.], who re- 

 ceived him most graciously, not suffering him to 

 say a word before him in a kneeling posture. 

 Encouraged by these favorable indications, and 

 taking occasion from the opposition to his dis- 

 coveries stirred up by some Perugian monks, 

 Galileo addressed a letter to Monsignor Dini, not 

 only exposing with all the force of logic, and all 

 the keenness of sarcasm, the fallacy of the argu- 

 mentations attempted by his monkish opponents, 

 but putting in the clearest light the principles of 

 criticism in their application to science. From 

 Galileo's highly-obnoxious proposition, that the 

 earth was a planet, his simple or subtle opponents 

 sought to fasten on him the gratuitous inference 

 that all the other planets must be inhabited by 

 beings of our own species. It was then asked 

 whether these had descended from Adam, and 

 whether they had embarked with Noah. 



