His son Vincenzo is soon afterwards spoken of as being at Rome; and it is not improbable that Galileo sent him thither on the appointment of his friend and pupil, the Abbé Castelli, to be mathematician to the pope. Vincenzo had been legitimated by an edict of Cosmo in 1619, and, according to Nelli, married, in 1624, Sestilia, the daughter of Carlo Bocchineri. There are no traces to be found of Vincenzo's mother after 1610, and perhaps she died about that time. Galileo's family by her consisted of Vincenzo and two daughters, Julia and Polissena, who both took the veil in the convent of Saint Matthew at Arcetri, under the names of Sister Arcangiola and Sister Maria Celeste. The latter is said to have possessed extraordinary talents. The date of Vincenzo's marriage, as given by Nelli, appears somewhat inconsistent with the correspondence between Galileo and Castelli, in which, so late as 1629, Galileo is apparently writing of his son as a student under Castelli's superintendence, and intimates the amount of pocket-money he can afford to allow him, which he fixes at three crowns a month; adding, that "he ought to be contented with as many crowns, as, at his age, I possessed groats." Castelli had given but an unfavourable account of Vincenzo's conduct, characterizing him as "dissolute, obstinate, and impudent;" in consequence of which behaviour, Galileo seems to have thought that the pension of sixty crowns, which had been granted by the pope, might be turned to better account than by employing it on his son's education; and accordingly in his reply he requested Castelli to dispose of it, observing that the proceeds would be useful in assisting him to discharge a great load of debt with which he found himself saddled on account of his brother's family. Besides this pension, another of one hundred crowns was in a few years granted by Urban to Galileo himself, but it appears to have been very irregularly paid, if at all.
About the same time Galileo found himself menaced either with the deprivation of his stipend as extraordinary professor at Pisa, or with the loss of that leisure which, on his removal to Florence, he had been so anxious to secure. In 1629, the question was agitated by the party opposed to him, whether it were in the power of the grand duke to assign a pension out of the funds of the University, arising out of ecclesiastical dues, to one who neither lectured nor resided there. This scruple had slept during nineteen years which had elapsed since Galileo's establishment in Florence, but probably those who now raised it reckoned upon finding in Ferdinand II., then scarcely of age, a less firm supporter of Galileo than his father Cosmo had been. But the matter did not proceed so far; for, after full deliberation, the prevalent opinion of the theologians and jurists who were consulted appeared to be in favour of this exercise of prerogative, and accordingly Galileo retained his stipend and privileges.
FOOTNOTES:
[77] In Firenze nella Stamperia di Pietro Cecconcelli alle stelle Medicee, 1619.
[78] Dell'Origine d'ogni Literatura: Parma, 1787.
Chapter XIII.
Publication of Galileo's 'System of the World'—His Condemnation and Abjuration.
In the year 1630, Galileo brought to its conclusion his great work, "The Dialogue on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems," and began to take the necessary steps for procuring permission to print it. This was to be obtained in the first instance from an officer at Rome, entitled the master of the sacred palace; and after a little negotiation Galileo found it would be necessary for him again to return thither, as his enemies were still busy in thwarting his views and wishes. Niccolo Riccardi, who at that time filled the office of master of the palace, had been a pupil of Galileo, and was well disposed to facilitate his plans; he pointed out, however, some expressions in the work which he thought it necessary to erase, and, with the understanding that this should be done, he returned the manuscript to Galileo with his subscribed approbation. The unhealthy season was drawing near, and Galileo, unwilling to face it, returned home, where he intended to complete the index and dedication, and then to send it back to Rome to be printed in that city, under the superintendence of Federigo Cesi. This plan was disconcerted by the premature death of that accomplished nobleman, in August 1630, in whom Galileo lost one of his steadiest and most effective friends and protectors. This unfortunate event determined Galileo to attempt to procure permission to print his book at Florence. A contagious disorder had broken out in Tuscany with such severity as almost to interrupt all communication between Florence and Rome, and this was urged by Galileo as an additional reason for granting his request. Riccardi at first seemed inclined to insist that the book should be sent to him a second time, but at last contented himself with inspecting the commencement and conclusion, and consented that (on its receiving also a license from the inquisitor-general at Florence, and from one or two others whose names appear on the title-page) it might be printed where Galileo wished.
These protracted negotiations prevented the publication of the work till late in 1632; it then appeared, with a dedication to Ferdinand, under the following title:—"A Dialogue, by Galileo Galilei, Extraordinary Mathematician of the University of Pisa, and Principal Philosopher and Mathematician of the Most Serene Grand Duke of Tuscany; in which, in a conversation of four days, are discussed the two principal Systems of the World, the Ptolemaic and Copernican, indeterminately proposing the Philosophical Arguments as well on one side as on the other." The beginning of the introduction, which is addressed "To the discreet Reader," is much too characteristic to be passed by without notice.—"Some years ago, a salutary edict was promulgated at Rome, which, in order to obviate the perilous scandals of the present age, enjoined an opportune silence on the Pythagorean opinion of the earth's motion. Some were not wanting, who rashly asserted that this decree originated, not in a judicious examination, but in ill informed passion; and complaints were heard that counsellors totally inexperienced in astronomical observations ought not by hasty prohibitions to clip the wings of speculative minds. My zeal could not keep silence when I heard these rash lamentations, and I thought it proper, as being fully informed with regard to that most prudent determination, to appear publicly on the theatre of the world as a witness of the actual truth. I happened at that time to be in Rome: I was admitted to the audiences, and enjoyed the approbation of the most eminent prelates of that court, nor did the publication of that decree occur without my receiving some prior intimation of it.[79] Wherefore it is my intention in this present work, to show to foreign nations that as much is known of this matter in Italy, and particularly in Rome, as ultramontane diligence can ever have formed any notion of, and collecting together all my own speculations on the Copernican system, to give them to understand that the knowledge of all these preceded the Roman censures, and that from this country proceed not only dogmas for the salvation of the soul, but also ingenious discoveries for the gratification of the understanding. With this object, I have taken up in the Dialogue the Copernican side of the question, treating it as a pure mathematical hypothesis; and endeavouring in every artificial manner to represent it as having the advantage, not over the opinion of the stability of the earth absolutely, but according to the manner in which that opinion is defended by some, who indeed profess to be Peripatetics, but retain only the name, and are contented without improvement to worship shadows, not philosophizing with their own reason, but only from the recollection of four principles imperfectly understood."—This very flimsy veil could scarcely blind any one as to Galileo's real views in composing this work, nor does it seem probable that he framed it with any expectation of appearing neutral in the discussion. It is more likely that he flattered himself that, under the new government at Rome, he was not likely to be molested on account of the personal prohibition which he had received in 1616, "not to believe or teach the motion of the earth in any manner," provided he kept himself within the letter of the limits of the more public and general order, that the Copernican system was not to be brought forward otherwise than as a mere mathematically convenient, but in fact unreal supposition. So long as this decree remained in force, a due regard to consistency would compel the Roman Inquisitors to notice an unequivocal violation of it; and this is probably what Urban had implied in the remark quoted by Hohenzoller to Galileo.[80] There were not wanting circumstances which might compensate for the loss of Cosmo and of Federigo Cesi; Cosmo had been succeeded by his son, who, though he had not yet attained his father's energy, showed himself as friendly as possible to Galileo. Cardinal Bellarmine, who had been mainly instrumental in procuring the decree of 1616, was dead; Urban on the contrary, who had been among the few Cardinals who then opposed it as uncalled for and ill-advised, was now possessed of supreme power, and his recent affability seemed to prove that the increased difference in their stations had not caused him to forget their early and long-continued intimacy. It is probable that Galileo would not have found himself mistaken in this estimate of his position, but for an unlucky circumstance, of which his enemies immediately saw the importance, and which they were not slow in making available against him. The dialogue of Galileo's work is conducted between three personages;—Salviati and Sagredo, who were two noblemen, friends of Galileo, and Simplicio, a name borrowed from a noted commentator upon Aristotle, who wrote in the sixth century. Salviati is the principal philosopher of the work; it is to him that the others apply for solutions of their doubts and difficulties, and on him the principal task falls of explaining the tenets of the Copernican theory. Sagredo is only a half convert, but an acute and ingenious one; to him are allotted the objections which seem to have some real difficulty in them, as well as lively illustrations and digressions, which might have been thought inconsistent with the gravity of Salviati's character. Simplicio, though candid and modest, is of course a confirmed Ptolemaist and Aristotelian, and is made to produce successively all the popular arguments of that school in support of his master's system. Placed between the wit and the philosopher, it may be guessed that his success is very indifferent, and in fact he is alternately ridiculed and confuted at every turn. As Galileo racked his memory and invention to leave unanswered no argument which was or could be advanced against Copernicus, it unfortunately happened, that he introduced some which Urban himself had urged upon him in their former controversies on this subject; and Galileo's opponents found means to make His Holiness believe that the character of Simplicio had been sketched in personal derision of him. We do not think it necessary to exonerate Galileo from this charge; the obvious folly of such an useless piece of ingratitude speaks sufficiently for itself. But self-love is easily irritated; and Urban, who aspired to a reputation for literature and science, was peculiarly sensitive on this point. His own expressions almost prove his belief that such had been Galileo's design, and it seems to explain the otherwise inexplicable change which took place in his conduct towards his old friend, on account of a book which he had himself undertaken to examine, and of which he had authorised the publication.