To Galileo it seemed an encouraging sign of the times that it was considered desirable to seek a publisher for these accusations from a member of the Roman College away from the papal residence. Grassi’s effusions came out at Paris in 1626, and at Naples in 1627. The very unfavourable reception of the work at Rome, except among a few pettifogging enemies of Galileo, also tended to confirm him in his unfortunately mistaken opinion that Rome, under the pontificate of Urban VIII., would have little or nothing to object to in the rich harvest promised by the researches of Copernicus and Kepler, as well as by his own discoveries in the field of science. He thought he could reckon on papal tolerance, if only the defence of the new system were so circumspectly handled as not to clash with the oft-mentioned decree of the Congregation.
On this assumption he had resolved, immediately after his return from Rome, to carry out the great work which he had long projected, and which, from the vast scientific knowledge it displayed, combined with a brilliant style, was to meet with greater success and favour than had ever been attained by any scientific work. This was his “Dialogues on the Two Principal Systems of the World.”
_PUBLICATION OF THE “DIALOGUES ON THE TWO PRINCIPAL SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD,” AND TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF GALILEO._
Origin of the “Dialogues.”—Their Popular Style.—Significance of the name Simplicius.—Hypothetical treatment of the Copernican System.—Attitude of Rome towards Science.—Thomas Campanella.—Urban VIII.’s Duplicity.—Galileo takes his MS. to Rome.—Riccardi’s Corrections—He gives the _Imprimatur_ on certain Conditions.—Galileo returns to Florence to complete the Work.
It is a curious fact that the very work which was destined to be one of the most powerful levers in obtaining general recognition for the true order of the universe originated in what we now know to be an erroneous idea. The famous book, “Dialogues on the Two Principal Systems of the World, the Ptolemaic and Copernican,”[211] arose out of the treatise on the tides which Galileo wrote at Rome, in 1616, at the suggestion of Cardinal Orsini.[212] The important influence of these “Dialogues,” both on science and the subsequent fate of the author, obliges us to discuss them more particularly.