“We find in Galileo not only literary distinction, but also the love of piety, and he is also strong in those qualities by which the pontifical good-will is easily obtained.  And now, when he has been brought to this city to congratulate us on our elevation, we have very lovingly embraced him; nor can we suffer him to return to the country whither your liberality calls him, without an ample provision of pontifical love.  And that you may know how dear he is to us, we have willed to give him this honourable testimonial of virtue and piety.  And we further signify that every benefit which you shall confer upon him, imitating or even surpassing your father’s liberality, will conduce to our gratification.”

The favourable reception which had been accorded to him by Pope Urban VIII. seems to have led Galileo to expect that there might be some corresponding change in the attitude of the Papal authorities on the great question of the stability of the earth.  He accordingly proceeded with the preparation of the chief work of his life, “The Dialogue of the two Systems.”  It was submitted for inspection by the constituted authorities.  The Pope himself thought that, if a few conditions which he laid down were duly complied with, there could be no objection to the publication of the work.  In the first place, the title of the book was to be so carefully worded as to show plainly that the Copernican doctrine was merely to be regarded as an hypothesis, and not as a scientific fact.  Galileo was also instructed to conclude the book with special arguments which had been supplied by the Pope himself, and which appeared to his Holiness to be quite conclusive against the new doctrine of Copernicus.

Formal leave for the publication of the Dialogue was then given to Galileo by the Inquisitor General, and it was accordingly sent to the press.  It might be thought that the anxieties of the astronomer about his book would then have terminated.  As a matter of fact, they had not yet seriously begun.  Riccardi, the Master of the Sacred Palace, having suddenly had some further misgivings, sent to Galileo for the manuscript while the work was at the printer’s, in order that the doctrine it implied might be once again examined.  Apparently, Riccardi had come to the conclusion that he had not given the matter sufficient attention, when the authority to go to press had been first and, perhaps, hastily given.  Considerable delay in the issue of the book was the result of these further deliberations.  At last, however, in June, 1632, Galileo’s great work, “The Dialogue of the two Systems,” was produced for the instruction of the world, though the occasion was fraught with ruin to the immortal author.

[Plate:  Facsimile sketch of lunar surface by Galileo.]