[405] Vol. vii. of the “Historisch-politischen Blätter für das Catholische Deutschland.” Munich, 1841.
[406] Ibid. p. 578.
[407] The reproach which the apologists of the Inquisition are fond of bringing against Galileo, that he knew nothing about the specific gravity of the air, is incorrect, as appears from his letter to Baliani of 12th March, 1613 (published for the first time in 1864 by Signor Giuseppe Sacchi, director of the library at Brera, where the autograph letter is to be seen), in which Galileo describes a method he had invented for determining the specific gravity of the air.
[408] See the essay before mentioned, p. 583.
[409] Ibid. pp. 580, 581.
[410] Ibid. pp. 581, 582.
[411] It carefully refutes the assertion made by Father Olivieri, that the Holy Office had prohibited the Copernican doctrine from being demonstrated as true, and condemned its famous advocate, Galileo, because it could not then be satisfactorily proved scientifically, and Galileo had supported it with arguments scientifically incorrect. If we can believe the ex-general of the Dominicans, the Inquisition in 1616 and 1633 was only the careful guardian of science!
[412] Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, Beilage, No. 93, 2nd Aug, 1876.
[413] Gherardi’s Documents, Doc. xv.
[414] Compare p. 228, note 3.