48 GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 



which has been drawn by some writers, that the 

 preface to the Dialogue was written for Galileo by 

 Father Eiccardi or some other person, and was not 

 his own composition ; for the above is precisely what 

 was said in the preface as it afterwards appeared, 

 and it seems to me almost incredible that Galileo 

 should have spontaneously written any such words, 

 exposing him to the charge, which has really been 

 made against him, of transparent irony, thereby 

 giving offence in the very quarters where conciliation 

 was desirable. 



And it must be remarked that when Father 

 Kiccardi on the 19th July of this year sent the 

 preface to Florence, he allowed Galileo the liberty of 

 making verbal alterations only ; so that whether he 

 composed it or only revised it, it is Father Eiccardi 

 rather than the author of the Dialogue who must be 

 held responsible for the contents, and the same 

 remark applies at least partially to the conclusion 

 also, it having been specially revised by the same 

 hand. 



The preface is addressed to the discreet reader, 

 and the words to which I have just alluded are 

 as follows : " Some years ago, a wholesome edict was 

 promulgated in Eome which, in order to check the 

 dangerous scandals of the present age, imposed an 

 opportune silence upon the Pythagorean opinion of 

 the motion of the earth. There were not wanting 

 some who rashly asserted that that decree resulted, 

 not from judicious examination, but from ill-in- 



