NA TURE 



261 



THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1879 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON GALILEO'S 



TRIAL BEFORE THE INQUISITION 



Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia, from Authentic 



Sources. By Karl von Gebler. Translated with the 



Sanction of the Author by Mrs. George Sturge. 



(London : C. Kegan Paul and Co., 1879.) 

 Der Process Galilei's unci die Jesuiten. Von Dr. F. H. 



Reusch, Professor an der Universitat in Bonn. (Bonn, 



1879.) 

 La Question de Galilee : les Fails et les Consequences. Par 



Henri de I'Epinois. (Paris et Bruxelles, 1878.) 

 Encore Galilee ! Polhniqiie—Histoire — PJiilosophie. Par 



le P. Eugfene Desjardins, de la Compagnie de Jdsus. 



Seconde i^dition. (Paris, 1877.) 



IN presenting us with an English translation of Karl v. 

 Gebler's " Gahleo," Mrs. Sturge has conferred an 

 unquestionable boon on those who, without caring to 

 pursue the subject in Continental publications, wish to 

 obtain a fairly complete view of the relations between the 

 Florentine astronomer and the authorities of the Roman 

 Church, as seen in the light of the most recent researches. 

 The original,' which appeared in 1876, was chiefly remark- 

 able for its happy selection of just so much documentary 

 and collaterally illustrative matter as sufficed to render 

 the whole drama of Galileo's conflict for the Copemican 

 theory, in its most authentic form, at once accessible to 

 every educated German reader. The English public are 

 now, thanks to Mrs. Sturge's labours, placed in an 

 equally, indeed an even more, favourable position. To 

 explain how this has come about, it is necessary to 

 refer for a moment to circumstances which preceded 

 the early and lamented death of the German author in 

 September 1878. 



One of the topics discussed in the greatest detail by v. 

 Gebler in 1876 was a particular order of the Inquisition 

 purporting to have been delivered to Galileo in 1616 by 

 the mouth of its Commissary-General. He then held 

 very decidedly — following the footsteps of Wohlwill in 

 Germany, and of Gherardi in Italy— that the order in 

 question never reached Galileo at all, and that a minute 

 in the Vatican manuscript^ purporting to report its 

 delivery, was a forgery effected for the most sinister 

 objects in 1633. A subsequent controversy with Prof. 

 Berti determined v. Gebler to apply for permission to 

 examine the original manuscript record of the trial pre- 

 served in the Vatican Archives, in order to satisfy himself 

 by personal inspection as to the disputed point. His 

 application, powerfully supported by the Austrian embassy 

 at Rome, was acceded to by the Papal authorities. As 

 the result of an investigation made in the summer of 

 1877, lie declared himself satisfied that the disputed entry 

 in the trial record was not, as he had till then maintained, 

 a forgery, but a genuine document of the year i6i6. In 

 spite, however, of this frankly avowed change of opinion, 

 he firmly adhered to his previously expressed convictions 

 that Galileo had not been served with the order of the 

 Inquisition, and that therefore the minute asserting the 

 contrary, though genuine, stated what was inherently 



* Reviewed in Nature, vol. xiv. p. 226, 



TcL. XX. — No. 507 



false. It is obvious that, had the author been called upon 

 to prepare a second edition of his " Galileo," his changed 

 attitude towards the forgery-question would have com- 

 pelled him to effect considerable alterations in many 

 passages of the work. This revision was, however, not 

 destined for his hands. A predisposition to lung-disease 

 had been fatally aggravated by ten weeks of the very 

 heaviest literary labour, undertaken in preparing his 

 admirably complete edition of the Vatican MS., and 

 passed in the dangerous atmosphere of a Roman summer. 

 He returned home greatly reduced, but had still strength 

 to make, a few months later, a short tour among the 

 principal cities and places historically connected with the 

 hfe and memory of Galileo. On September 7, 1878, he 

 succumbed to his incurable malady, at the early age of 

 twenty-eight. 



The reader will now be in a position to see that the 

 preparation of an English version of v. Gebler's work 

 presupposed a revision such as its author, had he lived 

 to effect it, must necessarily have carried out. This task 

 has been most judiciously performed by Mrs. Sturge, 

 though on her title-page she modestly abstains from 

 taking credit for it. In addition to making such altera- 

 tions as the author's change of view directly entailed, she 

 has brought the work abreast of the very latest research, 

 and supplied in an appendix a short series of documents 

 exactly co-extensive with the wants of the general reader 

 as distinguished from the specialist or professed historical 

 student. The work of translation is done with much 

 fidelity and in a way to show that Mrs. Sturge has gone 

 far beyond the tether of the mere translator and grasped 

 the inner significance of the events which she had to 

 clothe in an English dress. Her volume is not immode- 

 rately large, and its print and general appearance do 

 credit to its enterprising publishers. While, however, 

 this important contribution to Galileo-literature in Eng- 

 land is thus entitled to a very hearty welcome, it contains 

 a few minor blemishes which it may be well in conclusion 

 just to indicate. 



The translation is occasionally verbally inaccurate 

 Thus die Aden des Processes is systematically rendered 

 the "Acts" instead of the "Records " of the Trial. At 

 p. 8 we read of Galileo's "intellectual" (instead of 

 'clever' or 'ingenious' = geistreich) "treatment of 

 physics." On p. 46 "in seinem betreffenden Sclireiben" 

 is translated "in his striking letter," where the real 

 meaning is of course "in his letter referred to." At 

 p. 272 it is said that Galileo had better beware of the 

 Holy Office, whereas in the original the word Jene shows 

 that other persons were meant. '■'■Ex suppositione" is 

 translated "as a conjecture" (p. 203), where "assump- 

 tion" is obviously the proper equivalent. 



In the English version of a Latin document (p. 78) the 

 original of which is given in a note on the same page, the 

 corrupt reading "Rottz" displaces the right reading 

 "Rose." Further, " Augustino " and " Mongardo " ap- 

 pear as nominative cases, and " dioc. Politianen" is 

 rendered diocese of " Politianeti " instead of "' Monte- 

 puleiano." 



The title of Prof. Reusch's volume might easily lead 

 one to expect some further elucidation of the oft-mooted 

 question to what extent the measures taken against 

 Galileo were instigated by the Jesuits. It turns out, 



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