[336] Op. vii. pp. 20-22. [337] See Niccolini’s despatch to Cioli of 19th Feb. [338] Op. vii. p. 22. [339] Op. ix. 434. [340] In the account of this conversation we have followed Niccolini’s despatch to Cioli of 27th Feb. (Op. ix. pp. 434-436.) [341] Comp. pp. 171, 172. [342] Op. ix. pp. 434-436. [343] Ibid. pp. 330-332. [344] Op. vii. p. 27; and ix. p. 436; also Wolynski, “La Diplomazia,” etc., p. 57. [345] Op. ix. pp. 436-438. [346] Op. ix. p. 438; and vii. p. 228. [347] See Geri Bocchineri’s Letters to Galileo and Cioli, both of 26th March, 1633: the former, Wolynski, “Lettere inedite,” etc., p. 89; the latter, Op. ix. p. 336. [348] Op. ix. p. 441. [349] Op. ix. p. 338. [350] See Galileo’s letters to G. Bocchineri of 5th and 12th, and to Cioli of 12th and 19th March. (Op. vii. pp. 24-28.) [351] Op. ix. pp. 438, 439. [352] Vat. MS. fol. 413 vo. 419 ro. [353] We have before stated that Copernicus did not at all consider his doctrine a hypothesis, but was convinced of its actual truth. It was Osiander’s politic introduction which had given rise to the error which was then generally held. [354] Prof. Berti has first published this interesting letter in full in his “Copernico e le vicende Sistema Copernicano in Italia,” pp. 121-125. [355] Vat. MS. fol. 423 ro. [356] No explanation is to be found anywhere of this mysterious notification. The protocols of the trial show that none took place before the Inquisitor. These “particulars,” therefore, as they are not mentioned again in the course of the trial, and play no part in it, may have been chiefly of a private nature. [357] These are the precise words of this ominous passage in the annotation of 26th February, 1616, which appear to have been considered absolutely decisive by the Inquisitor. [358] Op. vii. p. 29. The rest of the letter is about family affairs. [359] Comp. Niccolini’s despatch to Cioli of 16th April. (Op. ix. pp. 440, 441.) During our stay in Rome in the spring of 1877, Leone Vincenzo Sallua, the Father Commissary-General of the Holy Office, was kind enough to show us the apartments occupied by Galileo in the Palace of the Inquisition. The rooms are all large, light, and cheerful, and on one side you enjoy the prospect of the majestic dome of St. Peter’s, and on the other of the beautiful gardens of the Vatican. It is worthy of note that all the rooms assigned to Galileo and his servant are entirely shut off by a single door, so that but one key was required to make the inmates of these handsome apartments prisoners. With all its consideration for Galileo’s person, the Inquisition never forgot a certain prudence which had perhaps become a second nature to it. We prefix a little ground plan of the rooms, made by ourselves on the spot. [360] See despatch of 23rd April. (Op. ix. p. 441.) [361] See Op. ix. pp. 334, 339, 345, 346, 354, 355. Pieralisi tries to palliate even this act, but without much success. (Comp. pp. 134, 135.)