CHAPTER IX.—TROUBLES ENSUING ON PUBLICATION OF THE "DIALOGUES".
The great work appeared in February, 1632, and specially bound copies were prepared for sending to Rome, but owing to the plague these were delayed, none being seen even by Castelli until May. By the summer several copies reached Rome, among the first possessors being the two Cardinals Barberini (the Pope's brother and nephew), the Tuscan Ambassador Niccolini, and the Censor Riccardi. The book circulated in all parts of Italy and was eagerly read and applauded among men of independent mind. From Venice, however, to which a manuscript copy had been sent, came a note of warning in March, too late to stop publication, recommending that for safety's sake it would be better not to print the book, but to distribute MS. copies to public libraries in the great towns of Europe, with permission for further copies to be made by those who desired them. In this way all who were unprejudiced would be able to obtain the work, while those who sought a weapon against Galileo would be deprived of that afforded by publication and dissemination among the ignorant.
But the success of the book on the one side was only a measure of the intensity of the opposition on the other, and Riccardi soon realised this, and remarked a few weeks after receiving the book, "The Jesuits will now persecute Galileo with the utmost bitterness". He had already heard that objection had been taken to the title
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