By this decisive information it is established that _now_, at any rate, _no other document is extant relating to the proceedings of 26th February, 1616, than the well-known annotation_. Was this also the case in 1632, when Galileo was arraigned for disobedience and signally punished? The history of the trial, the otherwise incomprehensible attitude of the Interrogator towards Galileo, are strongly in favour of an affirmative answer. From his first examination to his defence, Galileo persistently denies having received any other command than the warning of Cardinal Bellarmine, neither to hold nor defend the Copernican doctrine, while the Interrogator maintains that a command was issued to him before a notary and witnesses “not in any way to hold, teach, or defend that doctrine.” The contradiction is obvious. In confirmation of his deposition, Galileo brings an autograph certificate from Cardinal Bellarmine which fully agrees with it. One would then have expected to see the Interrogator spare no pains to convict Galileo on this turning-point of the trial. The production of a legal protocol about the proceeding of 26th February would have cleared up the whole affair and annihilated Galileo’s defence. But as it was not produced, and the Interrogator, singularly enough, omits all further inquiry into Galileo’s ignorance of the absolute prohibition, and simply takes it for granted, we may conclude that in 1633 no other document existed about the Act of 26th February than this note without signature. It must therefore be admitted by the historical critic that one of the heaviest charges against Galileo was raised on a paper of absolutely no legal value, and that sentence for “disobedience” was passed entirely on the evidence of this worthless document. IV. _GHERARDI’S COLLECTION OF DOCUMENTS._ In the course of this work we have always acknowledged the authenticity of the documents first published by Gherardi in his “Il Processo Galileo: Riveduto Sopra documenti di nuove fonte,” in the _Rivista Europea_, vol. iii., 1870, and our story has in many cases been based on them. It behoves us, therefore, to give the reasons which place their authenticity beyond question. These are to be found, first, in the origin of the collection; secondly, by comparing the documents with others universally acknowledged to be authentic.