[56] Op. vi. pp. 116-118. Ponsard in his drama, “Galileo,” of which a third edition appeared at Paris in 1873, in which he mostly turns history upside down, in Act i. sc. iii. and iv. takes off capitally the proud and silly opposition of the Aristotelians.
[57] Comp. Op. xv. p. 397, note 11, also Venturi, vol. i. pp. 19, 20. Jagemann (p. 52) even believes “that Gustavus Adolphus, who created an entirely new science of warfare which set all Europe in consternation and terror, had derived his wonderful knowledge from Galileo”!
[58] Op. vi., 71-75. It is unfortunately unknown to whom this letter was addressed; but, as appears from the contents, it must have been to some one high in office at the court of Tuscany.
[59] It is not known that these last mentioned treatises ever appeared. As not the least trace of them is to be found, and yet numerous particulars have come down to us of other works afterwards lost, it may be concluded that these essays were never written.
[60] Op. viii. pp. 63, 64.
[61] Op. viii. pp. 73, 74.
[62] Op. vi. p. 112.
[63] Libri justly says, p. 38: “this mistake was the beginning of all his misfortunes.”
[64] In a letter from Galileo to his brother Michel Angelo, of May 11th, 1606, he describes the somewhat comical scene of the nocturnal deportation of the Jesuits from the city of Lagunes. (Op. vi. p. 32.)
[65] Op. viii. p. 146-150.