What vast importance they at once thought fit to assign to this annotation without signature, we learn from a despatch of Niccolini’s to Cioli, of 11th September.[289] Niccolini refers in it to a recent interview with the Master of the Palace. He had again strongly advised that nothing be done in a hurry, and that time must be gained, for the Pope was firmly convinced that religion was really imperilled, for the work did not treat of mathematics, but of Holy Scripture, religion, and faith, and the orders respecting the printing of the work had not been complied with, for the opinion of the author was not merely indicated, but expressed in many places in the most decided and unsuitable manner. After Riccardi had assured the ambassador that all efforts to get Campanella and Castelli put on the preliminary commission had failed, but that he (Riccardi) would do his best to defend Galileo, both from friendship for him, and to serve his Highness, and because he had given the permission to print, he confided to Niccolini, under seal of profound secrecy, as of the highest importance, “that it had been discovered in the books of the Holy Office, that sixteen years ago, it having been heard that Galileo entertained that opinion, and disseminated it in Florence, he was summoned to Rome, and forbidden by Cardinal Bellarmine, in the name of the Pope and the Holy Office, to hold that opinion, and this alone is enough to ruin him entirely.”[290]
This communication of Riccardi’s contains an obvious mis-statement, namely, that any document had been found showing that Galileo had been summoned to Rome in 1616. As we have seen,[291] all the historical documents show that he was not summoned, but that his visit was entirely voluntary. This verbal statement of Riccardi’s, unsupported by any document, is of no value as evidence, compared with the letters of Galileo of that period, and his depositions afterwards before his judges, who were accurately informed of all the previous proceedings. The second part of his communication to Niccolini is also far from precise. He does indeed say that Galileo, in 1616, had in the name of the Pope and the Holy Congregation been forbidden (prohibito), “il poter tenere questo opinione,” but according to the father’s account this prohibition was communicated to him by Cardinal Bellarmine. Riccardi is evidently not precisely instructed, and does not know that, according to the notification of 26th February, 1616, Galileo received an absolute prohibition before notary and witnesses.
We shall see the part this “document” was destined to play in the proceedings against Galileo.
The preliminary commission had just then, after about a month’s session, completed its labours, and submitted to the Pope a long memorial on the Galileo affair. The document begins with a concise statement of the course of the negotiations about the publication of the “Dialogues,” and then the three following indictments were brought against the author:—
(1) Galileo has transgressed orders in deviating from the hypothetical treatment by decidedly maintaining that the earth moves and the sun is stationary. (2) He has erroneously ascribed the phenomena of the tides to the stability of the sun and the motion of the earth, which do not exist; (3) and he has further been deceitfully silent about the command laid upon him by the Holy Office, in the year 1616, which was as follows: “To relinquish altogether the said opinion that the sun is the centre of the world and immovable, and that the earth moves; nor henceforth to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatsoever, verbally or in writing, otherwise proceedings would be taken against him by the Holy Office, which injunction the said Galileo acquiesced in and promised to obey.”
Then follows the remark: “It must now be considered what proceedings are to be taken, both against the person of the author and against the printed book.” Yet the nature of these proceedings is not in any way discussed in the document, but it now refers more in detail in five counts to the historical events, from the time when the “Dialogues” were submitted in Rome in 1630, to the publication in Florence in 1632. A sixth count considers that the following points in the “Dialogues” themselves must be laid to the author’s account:—
“1. That without orders and without making any communication about it, he put the imprimatur of Rome on the title page.
“2. That he had printed the preface in different type, and rendered it useless by its separation from the rest of the work; further, that he had put the saving clause at the end in the mouth of a simpleton, and in a place where it is hard to find; that it is but coolly received by the other interlocutor, so that it is only cursorily touched upon, and not fully discussed.
“3. That he had very often in the work deviated from the hypothesis, either by absolutely asserting that the earth moves, and that the sun is stationary, or by representing the arguments upon which these views rest as convincing and necessarily true, or by making the contrary appear impossible.
“4. That he had treated the subject as undecided, and as if he were waiting for, though he does not expect, explanation.