Piccolomini received him with the utmost kindness, controlled of course by the strict injunctions which were dispatched from Rome, not to suffer him on any account to quit the confines of the palace. Galileo continued at Sienna in this state of seclusion till December of the same year, when the contagion having ceased in Tuscany, he applied for permission to return to his villa at Arcetri. This was allowed, subject to the same restrictions under which he had been residing with the archbishop.
FOOTNOTES:
[79] Delambre quotes this sentence from a passage which is so obviously ironical throughout, as an instance of Galileo's mis-statement of facts!—Hist. de l'Astr. Mod., vol, i. p. 666.
[80] Page 54.
[81] Galuzzi. Storia di Toscana. Firenze, 1822.
[82] Alidosi was a Florentine nobleman, whose estate Urban wished to confiscate on a charge of heresy.—Galuzzi.
[83] S'irrito il Papa, e lo fece abjurare, comparendo il pover uomo con uno straccio di camicia indosso, che faceva compassione, MS. nella Bibl. Magliab. Venturi.
[84] The Index is a list of books, the reading of which is prohibited to Roman Catholics. This list, in the early periods of the Reformation, was often consulted by the curious, who were enlarging their libraries; and a story is current in England, that, to prevent this mischief, the Index itself was inserted in its own forbidden catalogue. The origin of this story is, that an Index was published in Spain, particularizing the objectionable passages in such books as were only partially condemned; and although compiled with the best intentions, this was found to be so racy, that it became necessary to forbid the circulation of this edition in subsequent lists.
[85] Giudicassimo esser necessario venir contro di te al rigoroso esame nel quale rispondesti cattolicamente.
[86] The fate of these documents is curious; after being long preserved at Rome, they were carried away in 1809, by order of Buonaparte, to Paris, where they remained till his first abdication. Just before the hundred days, the late king of France, wishing to inspect them, ordered that they should be brought to his own apartments for that purpose. In the hasty flight which soon afterwards followed, the manuscripts were forgotten, and it is not known what became of them. A French translation, begun by Napoleon's desire, was completed only down to the 30th of April, 1633, the date of Galileo's first return to Nicolini's palace.