[269] Scheiner had two years before published a work called “Rosa Ursina,” in which he again fiercely attacked Galileo, and stoutly maintained his unjustifiable claims to the first discovery of the solar spots. Galileo did not directly answer him in his “Dialogues,” but dealt him some side blows, and stood up for his own priority in the discovery with weighty arguments. Castelli, in a letter to Galileo of 19th June, 1632 (Op. ix. p. 274), gives an amusing description of Scheiner’s rage. When a priest from Siena praised the book in his presence at a bookseller’s, and called it the most important work that had ever appeared, Scheiner left the shop, pale as death, and trembling with excitement in every limb. But he did not always thus curb his rage. The natural philosopher, Torricelli, who afterwards became famous, a pupil of Castelli’s, reported to Galileo, in a letter of 11th September, 1632 (Op. ix. p. 287), a conversation he had had with Scheiner about the “Dialogues.” Although he shook his head about them, he had concurred in Torricelli’s praise, but could not help remarking that he found the frequent digressions tedious; and no wonder, for they often referred to himself, and he always got the worst of it. He broke off the conversation by saying that “Galileo had behaved very badly to him, but he did not wish to speak of it.” In a letter of 23rd February, 1633, to Gassendi (Op. ix. p. 275), Scheiner is less reserved. Rage and fury evidently guided his pen, and he complains bitterly that Galileo had dared in his work to “lay violent hands” on the “Rosa Ursina.” Scheiner was doubtless one of the most zealous in instituting the trial against Galileo, although Targioni (vol. i. p. 113, note a) overshoots the mark in making him his actual accuser.
[270] Op. ix. pp. 420-425.
[271] See Magalotti’s letter to Guiducci of 4th September, 1632 (Op. Suppl. p. 324); and Niccolini’s report to Cioli of 5th September (Op. ix. p. 422).
[272] Op. ix. p. 271, note 1.
[273] Comp. Niccolini’s report to Cioli of 13th March, 1633. (Op. ix. p. 437.)
[274] Op. i. “Dialogo di Galileo Galilei,” etc., p. 502.
[275] This point has been recently thoroughly discussed by Henri Martin. Comp. pp. 159-168.
[276] Pages 34-38, etc.
[277] ... “Che fu il primo motere di tutti i miei travagli.” (Op. vii. p. 71.)
[278] This erroneous idea is found among a large number of historians; for instance, Biot (Journal des Savans, July-Oct. 1858), pp. 464, 465; Philarète Chasles, pp. 129, 130, 208; Reumont, p. 336; and Parchappe, p. 206. Epinois (pp. 56, 57) and Martin (pp. 159-168) have merely given the importance to this circumstance which it deserves, for it really was of great moment in the course of the trial.