precise information as to how they wished the new doctrine handled at Rome, what limits had been set by ecclesiastical despotism to researches into nature. Galileo watched with great anxiety the labours of the papal censors, and tried to hasten them through his friend Prince Cesi.[1] This eager interest in the earliest possible publication of the corrections is another thing which does not accord with the assumed stringent prohibition of February 26th. What difference would it have made to Galileo whether any facilities were offered for the discussion of the Copernican theory or not, if absolute silence on the subject had been enjoined on him?
During this period, when he could not venture to have the results of his various researches published, he was careful to make them known to some friends of science by means of long letters, numerous copies of which were then circulated in Europe. Very few of them, unfortunately, have come down to us, but there is one of them that deserves special notice. It indicates precisely Galileo's position: on the one hand he feels constrained to make way for the recognition of the truth; but on the other, as a good Catholic, and from regard to his personal safety, he does not wish to clash with ecclesiastical authority. This letter, too, adds weight to the conclusion that there was no prohibition enjoining absolute silence on the Copernican theory on Galileo.
During his last stay at Rome, at the suggestion of Cardinal Orsini, he had written a treatise on the tides in the form of a letter to that dignitary, dated January 8th,[2] in which he expressed his firm conviction, erroneously as we now know, that this phenomenon could only be explained on the theory of the double motion of the earth. He represented it as an important confirmation of the truth of it. In May, 1618, he sent a copy of this treatise to the Archduke Leopold of Austria, who was friendly to him, and was a brother of the Grand Duchess. But as since it was written the decree
